By Ginger, from the Mom’s Network

Last night my son and I gathered all the coins that have been accumulating all year long in our Tzedakah box (Tzedakah is a Hebrew word that loosely translated means “charity”) as well as all the change all over our house, put it into two Ziplock bags, and carried it to the Salvation Army bell-ringer at the strip mall near our house. This is the 10th year in a row that we have reserved one night of Hanukkah to give a gift of charity. Our tradition includes feeding all of our coins into the red tin bucket – which takes a full five minutes — during which time we talk to the Salvation Army volunteer about his job, his life, his Christmas, and he talks to us about our lives, our coins, our Hanukah, and I longingly look at my Tahiti fund disappearing into the coin slot. There’s a lot of laughter and warmth and a few surprised looks from passers-by.

Last night was particularly funny because we were just feeding the last few handfuls of coins when a second Salvation Army volunteer came out of the store and saw what we were doing. “Hey, wait a minute!” he yelled, holding up a second red tin bucket and clanging his bell. “I got a bucket, too! And mine’s empty!”

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By Ginger, from the Connect with Kids Moms Network

A friend of mine died this summer. She had barely passed 40. Blonde, bright, freckled, filled with love and perky to the extreme, it seemed impossible that some exceptionally rare disease could take her life in the span of one season. But as her husband and best friend said, ‘I always thought she was one in million. I was wrong; I guess more like one in 10 million.”

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By Ginger S., from the Moms Network

If you had to guess, how many moms in the U.S. do you think go online more than once a day? (Skip down to the end of this blog for your answer, and I’d love to know how many of you were close! Comment me!)

I go online about a half-dozen times a day (or night) myself. Most of it is for my work, but about 30 percent of the time I’m reading news stories and visiting my favorite online communities to see who’s discussing, dishing and dissing.

Last week I happened upon a group of brand-spanking-new moms who were chatting as fast as their fingers could fly. Man! I wish there were online websites when my son was a baby. I can remember being the only one awake in my house either because I couldn’t fall asleep after a 2 a.m. feeding or because I was worrying about some strange new-baby symptom.  It would have been great to have someone to talk to other than the nurse at the Scottish Rite hotline who I think knew my voice by heart. Today, moms just go to their favorite online community and they can pretty much bet there is a bleary-eyed mom (or millions of ’em) on the other end already engaged in dozens of conversations about bottles vs. breast; rice milk vs. soy, feeding or treating a fever – all kinds of forums, chat rooms and message boards for moms to talk to each other, get advice and simply connect with a kindred spirit who also happens to be up in the middle of the night.

So fast-forward 12 years and here I am, thrilled that there are dozens of online sites for parents of adolescents and teens. On my favorite sites I’ve asked other moms dozens of questions about the roller coaster ride of hormones, the survival techniques for homework blues, and the “is this normal” questions that come up all the time. Soon I imagine myself once again awake in the middle of the night, worried about my son who is out past his curfew and isn’t answering his cell phone. Who am I going to call at that hour? Why, I’ll go online to Parents & Company or theantidrug.com or Teendriving.com and find some other moms in some other states also up at 1 a.m. worrying over their kids. And I bet we’d all rather be worried about a diaper rash, don’t you think? 

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By Ginger S., from the Moms Network

While this was Spirit Week for many schools, my week seemed to have a more sobering theme: risky teen behavior. It began on Tuesday, when I heard Jeff Inman, coordinator of Cobb County’s Prevention Intervention program, speak to a group of parents, teachers and youth leaders. One of the topics we discussed was the latest research showing that the younger a person begins drinking, the greater likelihood that he/she will become dependent on alcohol. This is due in part to the way the teenage brain develops, as well as the social behavior of teens who drink. In addition, if you check out our news story’s tip sheet this week, Preteens Get Alcohol at Home, you’ll read that two-thirds of teens admit they have stolen liquor from their parents’ liquor cabinet or refrigerator. Experts clearly recommend that parents lock up their liquor, not just for your own kids’ sake, but because their friends might try to steal it, too. 

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By Stacey Dewitt

Recent research shows that more kids today than ever before are seeing therapists, are depressed, and are on medications for anxiety. What are we as parents doing to contribute to this startling trend? We want so badly for our kids to succeed, but anyone who has ever succeeded at anything knows what failure feels like, and has had to accept it, learn from it, move beyond it. We must let our children experience all of life, the good and the bad. Truths like: life isn’t always fair; it is hard work; you will have to work with people you don’t like; you will lose sometimes; you will not be the best at everything; you will have your heart broken and … you will ultimately grow and learn have what you need inside of you to get by or to thrive (it is, after all, their choice).
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Guest Blog from Linda Bachmann,
Connect with Kids Mom’s Network

Yes, it’s just the beginning of August, the sun is shining brightly and today’s heat index and high humidity are frizzing my hair. But despite my yearnings for the smell of Coppertone sunscreen and lazy hours at the pool, in the Southern “neck of the woods,” the back-to-school mindset has already set in.

A friend who teaches kindergarten has already been back to her classroom, hanging the welcoming bulletin boards and colorful backgrounds that await art projects and drawings crafted by tiny hands. Television and newspaper advertising tout school supplies, outfits and sturdy (yet totally fashionable) shoes. And school registration schedules and parents’ night reminders have already arrived – in both mailboxes and e-mail inboxes.

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From the Moms Network
Got a camper? Free “letter-to-go” with fill-in-the-blanks makes it easy for your camper to stay in touch.

My middle school son can’t decide which toothpaste to use each morning (mint or cinnamon?) so what makes me think that he can decide in January that he wants to go to sleep away camp in July? But that’s what he said. And because he is 12 going on 20, I took him at his word.

What was I thinking?

All during the school year he was excited, thinking about which activities he’d choose, whether or not there would be a “camp dance,” and figuring out exactly how far north Maine is from Georgia (yes, Maine — why I couldn’t choose from the 120 camps within a two-mile radius of our home I have no idea). So, July comes, we label every garment and pack the duffle bag until it can barely zip – a task that by itself could swear me off of summer camps forever – and head for the airport. We meet some of his friends and their parents, and his dad and I say goodbye at the security check-in, leaving him in the very capable hands of the permanently cheerful camp chaperone.
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By Stacey DeWitt

There’s a lot of information out there about “teenagers behaving badly” — kids engaging in high-risk activities such as drugs, drinking, sex.  I guess I should know; our company covers children’s and teen issues and the challenges they face on a daily basis. In fact, we talk to kids and teens every day – all our programs feature their true stories and real feelings. But I have to tell you, there are a lot of great kids and teenagers out there, too. Children who care about their families, their goals, their grades, Read the rest of this entry »

By Stacey DeWitt

We’ve all seen them … some of us have been them. Parents who push their children to be the best – whether it’s Little League, the neighborhood swim team or the school play. Parents who create Mensa-worthy Science Fair projects. Parents who hire tutors so their children can excel far beyond their grade level. I naturally thought this overzealousness would fade as the children grew and gradually took back their lives. But recently I’ve seen an alarming trend — parents who write their children’s college entrance essays. Parents who call the college career resource center to get the inside scoop on internships and jobs. And most recently, Read the rest of this entry »

Blog about it and you could win a free family DVD!
By CWK Mom

I don’t generally go for “Hallmark Holidays,” but Mother’s Day is one that I love, if for nothing else than for its irony. There we were, three generations of capable, strong-willed women, crowded in the kitchen – cooking! Our husbands/partners/boyfriends were purportedly making us dinner (on the grill, of course) but that only takes care of the main dish. What about the salad, sides and dessert? It naturally fell to the women. How can this be? It’s Mother’s Day! Doesn’t that stand for “Mother’s Day Off?” It occurred to me that this would be the perfect time to ask for a raise, but who would we ask? I turned to www.salary.com, a polling bureau that calculates wages for all sorts of jobs, and discovered that they recently estimated the wages that a stay-at-home mom would earn today. Ready? $138,095 a year. They based this salary on 10 jobs that moms do each day, such as housekeeper, teacher, cook, laundress, van driver, psychologist, and so on. The company further calculated that moms who have a job outside of the home would earn an additional $86,000 a year (yes, that’s in addition to their existing salary, whatever it may be.)

Well, that’s certainly a great salary, and I know dozens of people who would gladly accept that compensation. But I have to be honest … I don’t think it’s nearly enough. My mom’s value to me growing up, as well as now that I’m a mom myself, is — to quote a popular ad campaign — priceless. I only wish more moms took their self-worth to heart. At Connect with Kids, we value moms simply for being moms – we know their enormous responsibilities, challenges and accomplishments, not to mention their intelligence and clout in the marketplace. It’s one of the reasons our Moms Network is so important to our company – it’s a way for us to grow through these moms’ skills, as well as a way for moms to reconnect to the workforce, to each other and to themselves. (Read more about our take on the value of moms at http://www.connectwithkids.com/blogs/stacey/?p=93#more-93).

This Mother’s Day, post a blog about your mom’s worth to you. Post it by 5/22/07 and if we pick your blog to highlight on our community front page, you’ll win one family DVD of your choice! (For a list of topics visit
http://www.connectwithkids.com/products/parentvideo.shtml).

We look forward to hearing about your Mom!