The thought of getting a driver’s license is thrilling to teens. To most parents, it’s terrifying. Attached to the little paper that brings wheels and freedom to your child is an expanded list of worries for you. Not only are all the other drivers on the road a colossal safety hazard, but, in addition to merely operating a car, your distractible teen has to learn how to manage driving. Today’s technologically advanced vehicles come equipped with every distraction imaginable. Did you know that … [Read more...] about Your Kids are Watching You…Drive
Adolescents
At What Age Should My Child Have a Cell Phone?
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a clear answer to this question? There isn’t. As with every decision you will make regarding your child, this one is about your particular child and you. The only thing I know for sure is that “all my friends have one” is not a good enough reason for allowing your child to have a cell phone (or anything, for that matter!). I am also quite sure that somewhere around the age of 9 years your child will claim that she really needs a cell phone. (How … [Read more...] about At What Age Should My Child Have a Cell Phone?
To Bring or Not to Bring
A friend who is an event planner and I recently shared the dilemma of what to do when guests, often family, want to bring their (young) children to formal events. Having planned three weddings in the last 22 months, it is a question that is not unfamiliar to me. For one of our weddings a family member flat out refused to come if she could not bring her infant child. And many years ago at my children’s B’Nai mitzvah the spiritual atmosphere of the sanctuary was shattered by the wailings of my … [Read more...] about To Bring or Not to Bring
Bffs Rock!
I just hung up the phone from my very own bff who was rushing to her mother’s hospital bedside in San Diego. Her world is falling apart. Loaded with her own issues of life and work and now her very ill mother, she needed to complain and unload…and unload and unload. She ended the conversation with, “I just don’t know what I would do without you. You are my bestest friend in the whole world.” Last week in her article in the New York Times, A Best Friend, You Must Be Kidding, author Hilary … [Read more...] about Bffs Rock!
When Should I Have “the Talk” With My Child?
One woman remained after the rest of the participants in my “Birds and Bees” seminar had left. Sheepishly she said, “My daughter is 9 years old. I have not [her emphasis] told her about the birds and the bees and I am not going to,” as if in defiance. Here’s her answer to my query of “Why not?” “Because I don’t want her to have sex before she is married.” This mom is enrolled in the ostrich school of sex education; her head is buried in the ground. Children begin to learn about sex from … [Read more...] about When Should I Have “the Talk” With My Child?
The “Right” Age for Video Games
With your first born child, it’s pretty easy to control his diet of everything—sugar, television, war toys, choice of friends—for the first few years anyway. But then he hits school age, somewhere after five years old, kindergarten age, and the once controlling parent begins to question some of her controls. My child is the only one who doesn't...and now you fill in the blank. Most parents know that they are fighting a losing battle if they are too orthodox about their restrictions. Never … [Read more...] about The “Right” Age for Video Games