Feeding our Future, One School at a Time

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Are school lunch programs an expendable option for budget cuts or are they an essential element for educating the next generation? In 2001, I remarried and moved to Atlanta from Chicago, leaving my job behind. When I married Steve, our joint family included my three sons, ages 20, 18 and 12 and his four sons, ages 14, 12, and 6-year-old twins. I spent the first couple of years in Georgia in a college classroom as I finished up a long-delayed bachelor’s degree. Holding only my freshly-minted diploma in the summer of 2004, I hunkered down to the critical task of finding a job.

Seven Steps to a Compassionate Child

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Most children operate in a Me-First world. Yet, as we seek to raise fully functioning citizens of the world, we must help them mature beyond their Me-First mentality. Some seem to have the emotional IQ of a kumquat, while others seem to intuitively know that harsh words will hurt someone’s feelings. Ideally, instilling compassion starts at home, teaching each of our seven sons how words or actions make other family members feel. A terrific book on this topic is Raising Compassionate, Courageous Children in a Violent World written by Dr. Janice Cohn.

Kids and the Very Dangerous Choking Game

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Teens are drawn to risky behaviors like moths to a flame. Ask a teen to drag race and he thinks it’s a good idea. Have some friends jump off a cliff into the lake, and she jumps. But there’s another highly dangerous game that may put your son or daughter’s life at risk, one that has claimed the lives of hundreds of teenagers. One of my best friends, Sandra,* was the widowed parent of an awesome boy.

Running Away From Home is Risky Business

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The police were knocking on our door one night last week. They were looking for a neighbor’s 12-year-old son. It wasn’t the first time. A few weeks ago, after an argument with his father’s girlfriend, he ran away for eight hours.  My teenage son found him wandering on the other side of the neighborhood. He said he’d spent the day under a highway bridge.

The Big Dangerous, Boys Playing With Fire

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The first sign that there was trouble in the neighborhood was when we heard the fire trucks come screaming around the corner. Since we live on wooded acres surrounding Lake Allatoona north of Atlanta, we’re often on “fire-watch” during dry season. One spectacular summer night a few years ago the neighbors watched trees exploded like firecrackers after lightning struck one of the pine trees. That time the firemen were helpless to stop the ravaging fire as they bulldozed a fire break to keep it from consuming our homes. This time, however, it wasn’t natural causes that started the fire licking at the pines.

Silence is the Ally of Suicide, Send it Packing

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Three years ago my brother took his own life. For him it became the only option he could imagine that would end his depression. He left behind many grief-stricken friends, family and relatives who still struggle to understand. We’re far from alone in our grief. Tonight somewhere in America a mother buries her head in her pillow as she sobs out her grief to the heavens.

What to do with a Homeless Teenager

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One week back in February, I noticed something amiss at the Miller ranch when I came home from work. Our kid’s friend, Travis* was sitting on our couch enjoying Comedy Central. That wasn’t unusual, but after two weeks I came to the sneaking suspicion that Travis was actually living with us. After some investigation, we found he was spending his nights on a futon in our son’s room. When asked, our son said he felt sorry for him because he’d been kicked out of the Army, and then lost his job, which caused him to lose his car, which made him homeless because it was where he’d been living.

Raising Kids in a Different Kind of World

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You know it’s an unusual day when your middle schoolers come home early and build a cardboard bomb shelter on your front lawn. That’s what happened at my house when Mark and Benji arrived home on that awful September day, 10 years ago. Like many children, they saw the disaster at school. Like every other American, my husband and I watched in horror as we experienced the full hatred of terrorists for our country. On that morning, we’d sent our kids off to school in one world and welcomed them home to an entirely different one.

The Day Big Tobacco Stole My Son

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The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry finally figured out what the problem is with teens and smoking: a region of the brain called the amygdala