Decoder - Breaking down teen culture, substance abuse, and parenting
TTYL: How Generation Text Prefers to Talk
Earlier this week, the Partnership released a survey with MetLife Foundation showing that one in four teens would prefer to talk to their parents about drugs and alcohol by using email or their cell phones. Meantime, only three percent of parents want to discuss these subjects by cell or email. I don?t blame them [...]
One million kids view drug use videos on the Internet! Yours?
I’ve noticed a bit of a trend over the past several months. In talking with parents, and especially folks in the news media who are parents, they seem to be more and more attuned to issues like online predators and sexual content on the web that place their kids at risk. They also see all [...]
Tips for Dads on Talking to Your Teens
We?ve known for years that involved and connected fathers raise teenagers who do better in school, have healthier relationships, and stay out of trouble. Not bad for a job that we all want to do well. But sometimes things get in the way of becoming the father we want to be. Our work demands increase, [...]
Techno Perfection: Teens Need to Be Perma-Hot
Techno Perfection: n. An individual?s personal desire to look good and be in flattering poses and styles at all times based on the new ability to edit, crop, color and change the way that individual looks online. What are some aspects of techno perfection? 1) Constant Vanity Teens and tweens are growing up in a culture where they [...]
Why Not Prohibit Alcohol Use?
Tens of thousands of teens would argue that marijuana should be legal because it is no more harmful than alcohol ? some even insist it?s less harmful. It?s not an unreasonable position to take. With all the controversy about some college presidents wanting to lower the drinking age, the alcohol debate has been ignited once [...]
Prescription Drug Abuse: Is It Really a Problem?
While many people still don’t see the intentional abuse of prescription drugs as a serious problem, one mom I’ve come to know well, Misty Fetko, can tell you just how serious a problem it is. On the morning of July 16, 2003, two days before her son Carl was supposed to leave for college she found him unconscious and not [...]