Archive for March, 2013

People.com reported this week that the Duggars are considering adoption after visiting an orphanage in China. They said they were moved by the experience.

From People.com:

“They have 19 children, two grandchildren and one more on the way, but Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar say that doesn’t necessarily mean their family is complete.

” ‘We are open to the idea of adoption,” Michelle, 45, tells PEOPLE. “We are praying about it, and we will see what God has in store. Love for children has been placed on our hearts…’ ”

“The kids are definitely pushing towards wanting us to open our home up to another child or more,” says Michelle. “They see how much we have been blessed with and how little so many children have and they want to share. We tell our children that would have to be something that is God’s will for our family, and we will see if it is. Our children love children, and we all do.”

What do you think: Should the Duggars adopt? Do you think that would be an easy environment for …

Continue reading Should the Duggars consider adoption? »

When I was growing up in Gwinnett you knew all the neighbors were keeping an eye on you. Your mother would get a phone call if you were seen or heard doing something unacceptable around the neighborhood.

In our discussion yesterday about kids being on Skype and Face Time, FCM brought up a great point about telling your neighbors/friends if you’re seeing questionable photos or content online from their kids.  She thought talking to your neighbors was a good thing, but I wondered how that would be received.

I had a situation here recently where Walsh had shown me one of his friends had made a You Tube channel. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the content other than it had a video of the child who created it. I didn’t think the parents would want that out there just because the child is young. The child is also an entrepreneur and was selling merchandise on the channel. Again I didn’t think the parents knew. I finally mentioned it kind of in a joking manner saying we were …

Continue reading Is it tattling to let other parents know what you’re seeing online? »

Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Sheila Poole is working on a story about healthy Easter baskets and she wants to know what you are including this year. You can email her your ideas at spoole@ajc.com.

I haven’t started this year on my baskets but usually try to give little gifts along with chocolates. I usually put in art supplies, DVDs, Legos and little dolls they wanted. One of my favorite Easter gifts when they were little was the bubble blowing fake lawnmower. It was so cute. Maybe this year I will include some lip glosses and nail polishes for Rose and hair accessories for Lilina.

What do you like to include in Easter baskets? Is it all candy or do you include little gifts as well?

Continue reading What do you include in a ‘healthy’ Easter basket for kids? »

I woke up Sunday morning to voices in my living room. It was about 8:30 a.m. so I wasn’t quite sure who was up and visiting at that hour so I went to investigate.

And what I found was my 9-year-old son talking through the iPad to a tired-looking dad and his son instructing the dad how to install “Portal 2” on their computer.

The child is in my son’s class and last week they started Skyping together after school. They proceeded to stay on Skye to play Portal 2 together after his dad got it installed.

My 9-year-old routinely Skypes with a friend up the street. They play Mincefraft on the PC while they talk via Skype on the iPad.  There is a lot of working together on goals in Minecraft.

(They use Skype instead of Face Time but I’m not sure why.)

The Skype seems much more invasive than just a phone call or text. It’s weird seeing people early in the morning. So far he’s only Skyped with people we know. I asked him about calling the little guy so early in the morning and my son …

Continue reading Do your kids Skype or Face Time with friends? »

The American Academy of Pediatrics dove headfirst into the same-sex marriage debate issuing a policy statement last week that “allowing gay and lesbian parent to marry if they choose to do is in the best interest of their children,” according to The New York Times.

From The New York Times:

“The academy’s new policy statement says same-sex marriage helps guarantee rights, benefits and long-term security for children, while acknowledging that it does not now ensure access to federal benefits. When marriage is not an option, the academy said, children should not be deprived of foster care or adoption by single parents or couples, whatever their sexual orientation….”

“The academy cited research finding that a child’s well-being is much more affected by the strength of relationships among family members and a family’s social and economic resources than by the sexual orientation of the parents. “There is an emerging consensus, based on extensive review of the scientific …

Continue reading American Academy of Pediatrics: Same-sex marriage good for kids »

Our everyday dishes are scratched, nicked and several from the set are MIA — assumed broken an trashed before confirmation. We’ve had the dishes since our wedding 19 years ago.

The blue couch this sits in our family room has spill stains on both sides of the cushions.  It is thread-bare and my crafty mother helped me staple the cushioning and the liner back in on the lounge part of it. It is 16 years old.

The tables in our family room are also 16 years old. They are scratched and water marked and the “wood” is peeling up in places.

It would be lovely to replace all these things and look at pretty china at dinner and sit on a couch that’s not stained, but are my kids old enough to make that investment now?

Michael says no. He says not until the last one leaves for college.

What do you think? When did you replace the toddler-stained furniture? When can you have adult dishes and not worry about them being dropped when kids set the table?

Did you replace furniture in your house …

Continue reading How old do kids need to be to buy nice things for the house? »

I was talking with my college class about the University of Central Florida former student who had guns in his dorm room and was allegedly planning a mass attack before his roommate called the police.  (The student with the guns ended up killing himself.)

The students offered up that some of them had guns in their apartments at school. (I don’t think you’re allowed to have guns in the dorms but an apartment would be off campus so I guess allowed.)

I mentioned this to my brother later and he said he knew lots of people in college that had guns – several who kept the guns at their fraternity house.

My husband said the same thing. He said he dated a girl who kept a gun in her glove compartment and knew many people at University of Georgia with guns in their apartments or houses.

This is really surprising to me. I just had no idea. Did my friends have guns, and I was just oblivious?

No matter how you feel about gun ownership, the idea of young men and women having guns in an …

Continue reading Should college students have guns at college? »

A friend sent me this story about some new school rules from the St. Mary’s public school district in Maryland. The new rules have been created in response to the Sandy Hook shootings but they had a pretty intense parent volunteer policy before the shootings. My friend thought these new rules were pretty extreme  but I actually think our school is already doing a lot of them. (The friend also sent another blog in reaction to the story where the commenters definitely felt these rules were extreme — especially the no hugging.) Tell me if you think these are commonplace now or extreme

But first a little background, a few years before the school district passed a rule that parent volunteers had to be background checked, photographed and fingerprinted. They also had to have ID badges to be on school grounds.

From SoMdNews.Com:

“Mike Wyant, director of safety and security, said that with almost 16,000 registered volunteers, the system was overwhelmed and stopped issuing the actual …

Continue reading Do these new school rules from Maryland seem extreme or commonplace? »

A family in New Jersey says that child welfare workers and police showed up at their house and asked see the family’s guns. They parent’s say they believe it was because the dad posted a photo on Facebook of his son posing with his 11-year-old birthday present — a .22-caliber rifle that loos like a military-style assault rifle. Here’s the story.

From The Associated Press:

“The ruddy-cheeked, camouflage-clad boy in the photo smiles out from behind a pair of glasses, proudly holding a gun his father gave him as a present for his upcoming 11th birthday. (Click the link to see the photo of the boy.)

“The weapon in the photo, posted by his dad on Facebook, resembles a military-style assault rifle but, his father says, is actually just a .22-caliber copy. And that, the family believes, is why child welfare case workers and police officers visited the home in Carneys Point last Friday and asked to see his guns.

“New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families declined to comment …

Continue reading N.J. child welfare workers ask to see family’s guns; Dad says it’s because he posted a photo on Facebook »

The first human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was licensed in 2006 and despite tens of millions of doses being safely administered according to experts, parents don’t seem to be any more comfortable with the vaccine today.

From USA Today:

“Concerns about safety and side effects for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine — one of the newest shots recommended for adolescents — has increased among parents: 16% cited these fears as the main reason they did not have their daughters vaccinated in 2010, up from 5% in 2008, a new study finds.

“And the percentage of parents who said they did not intend to vaccinate their daughters against HPV in the next 12 months also grew, from 40% in 2008 to 41% in 2009 to 44% in 2010, even as parents reported increasing physician recommendations to get the shot, says the study in April’s Pediatrics, released online Monday.

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HPV vaccines offer the best protection to girls and boys who …

Continue reading Why are parents so leery of the HPV vaccine? »