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October 12, 2012

Complicated Trend: ADHD Meds to Boost Poor Kids' Grades

by The Chatterbox

There are parents whose hearts broke on the day their child was diagnosed with ADHD, and who painfully weighed the treatment options for ADHD, taking great pains to avoid putting their child on medication before finally resorting to it.

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October 12, 2012

Complicated Trend: ADHD Meds to Boost Poor Kids' Grades

by The Chatterbox

There are parents whose hearts broke on the day their child was diagnosed with ADHD, and who painfully weighed the treatment options for ADHD, taking great pains to avoid putting their child on medication before finally resorting to it.

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October 5, 2012

There's a New Class at School-- How to Be a Beauty Queen

by The Chatterbox

How would you feel if your child's elementary school held a beauty pageant and encouraged him/her to participate? Would you compare it to a sporting event? That's what one school in South Carolina is doing. And parents aren't happy about it. At all. According to a flier sent home, each contestant would be judged based on his/her facial beauty, personality, and overall appeal.

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October 2, 2012

Do Smartphones Make Dumb Parents?

by The Chatterbox

For the first time since at least the 1970s, injury rates for little kids are on the rise. Could it have something to do with the boom in smartphone sales, and the resulting wave of parental distraction? Hold on... need to check my Facebook feed.

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September 28, 2012

Is Potter Mania Coming Back?

by The Chatterbox

I'll admit it-- I loved the Harry Potter books. I was a little late to the game starting them, so the first 6 were out by the time I started reading. I finished them all in about 2 months. (Side note: How fast did you all read the books? I heard stories about some people finishing the new ones in a day, as soon as they came out. I read fast, but not that fast!)

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September 25, 2012

Team Whitney! A Michigan Town's Cure for the Cruelties of High School

by The Chatterbox

Grab the tissues, Mom. You know those all-too-rare stories that restore your faith in humanity? This is one of those. It's the story of Whitney Kropp, a small-town Michigan teen whose peers nominated her to homecoming court (making her a finalist for homecoming queen) -- as a mean joke. Whitney is described as "a free spirit with few friends. Her black outfits and strange hair colors don't mesh well with other kids in the rural community."

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September 19, 2012

Are Boys and Men Failing at School and Life?

by The Chatterbox

...Harsh headline, I know. But let me explain...

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September 17, 2012

Bullies Target Kids with Food Allergies

by The Chatterbox

When I think of bullying, I think of the big brutes on the playground giving kids wedgies and playing keep away with their lunch box. Or, in a more modern sense, I think of cyberbullying. (This form of bullying in particular makes me shudder, since content on the Internet can have far-reaching and devastating consequences, especially for kids who haven't yet realized the meanings of privacy and over-sharing.) Call me naive, but I never thought of food allergies as a basis for bullying.

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September 13, 2012

This Just In: Sleep Training Won’t Ruin My Kid for Life (Yay!)

by The Chatterbox

Baby #2 was a born sleeper. When he was a mere 4 or 5 weeks old, he was pulling seven-hour, through-the-night stints, and by 2 months old he was giving us eight or nine hours of blissful uninterrupted sleep. It was a miracle, especially considering that our first has never been a great sleeper. (Don't hate me, just keep reading.)

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