Preventing Childhood Abductions

Childhood abductions are being reported more and more on the evening news, and the terrifying prospect of abduction fills the minds of parents across the country. But it’s important to remember that the majority of children will pass through childhood safely. One of the challenges of being a parent is to teach your children to be cautious without filling them with too much fear or anxiety. Although... 

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Gratitude is an Attitude

Gratitude is an attitude…each and every day! You are a parent.  And no matter how tough it gets, or how hard it may be to raise your kids, at the end of the day you are still a parent.  Would you trade that for the world?  Sometimes it takes a day like Thanksgiving to compel us to stop, give thanks for what we have and remind ourselves that gratitude is an attitude.  This is not a day to... 

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How to Stop School Bullying

How to Stop School Bullying was the focus of a recent blog post on the parentalwisdom.com site. The author and founder of the site, my dear friend, Tina Nocera, has raised two kids and knows a thing or two about how to stop school bullying.   Here are her 3 simple tips: How to stop School Bullying 1.   Help kids feel so good about themselves that teasing won’t faze them!  Tina... 

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Smartphone Pictures Pose Privacy Risks

Smartphone pictures you’ve e-mailed or uploaded could be leaking location information, and placing your children in potential danger! This is the scary information that this NBC news video about smartphone pictures reveals. UMKC computer science Professor Deep Medhi explained that when you send smartphone pictures, they leave a high-tech invisible trail using the same geo-tracking technology... 

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Help! My son’s becoming an Internet Kid!

Internet kid is the term I give to any child who is turning to the Internet more and more for social interaction, information and entertainment.  That sums up many of the kids of today.  But what to do when this reliance on the Internet becomes a substitution for parenting?  Here’s one mom’s dilemma and my advice about her Internet kid: Dear Dr. Vicki:  I am a single mom of 2 boys... 

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Problems of Children with Working Parents: Oprah’s Solution

Children with working parents have a big problem, according to Oprah. They have parents who “are so fixated on their 9-5 jobs that they’ve lost focus of their 5 pm-9 am jobs—their families.” Oprah’s solution is to create another TV program, this time called, “Kidnapped by the Kids.” This show is about, “Kids confronting their parents,” and letting... 

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Sibling Rivalries–One Mother’s Solution

Sibling rivalries are driving many parents stark raving mad!  Can’t they ever get along?  Well, I would like to share this wonderful article by Tina Nocera,  my dear friend and the brains behind parentalwisdom.com, for which I am an advisor.  Tina is a mother who is known for her outside-the-box thinking.  Here’s her solution to the age-old problem of sibling rivalries:   A Solution... 

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Teenage Sexting: A Language All Its Own

Following my May 16 blog on Teenage Sexting, I have had numerous requests from parents for acronyms to BOLO—Be On the Lookout for. Your teens and tweens have a new language all their own, in the form of symbols and abbreviations that they are constantly texting to one another. As a parent, it’s important for you to become savvy to the kinds of messages that may be a cause for concern.  For... 

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Teenage Sexting

What is Teenage Sexting? Teenage Sexting occurs when a teen takes a flirtatious, nude, semi-nude or otherwise sexually revealing picture of him or herself and sends it to others via cell phone or other means of texting device.  Commonsense.org has created a handout about this important topic.  This blog shares excerpts from that handout, “Common Sense on Talking About ‘Sexting.’” While... 

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Etiquette for Children—Top 5 Tips

I recently read a blog about teaching Etiquette for Children that I would like to share. I feel that etiquette, or manners, has dwindled over the last many years by adults and kids, alike. However, I think that being polite, greeting people appropriately and making a good first impression are all still very important to not only teach our kids, but continue to model ourselves. “5 Simple Etiquette... 

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