Search Results for: blog whos teaching your child how to drive

Renowned Child Psychiatrist Talks About Teens (and Parents) Texting

I recently received an invitation to interview renowned child psychiatrist Dr. Charles Sophy who is the Medical Director for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. Dr. Sophy has also made feature appearances on television’s “Celebrity Rehab.” After submitting my questions about teens and texting I received a video response. It enlightened me to a few things about teens and texting that I had not really thought about before. The first thing that really hit me was how statistics show that half of parents are texting while driving. My first thought was, “How could parents do that?” … Continue reading →

Does Your Teen Drive to School?

My parents allowed my brothers and I to share a single vehicle while we were in high school. Three teens (and one tween, who insisted on tagging along) sharing one car–definitely not a pretty situation. Still, that one car provided my parents with freedom some moms and dads only dream of. Not only did we use the car to get to and from school (thus, giving my parents a break from taxi duty), but it also transported us to all of our extra-curricular activities. Unfortunately, the car did not escape our teen years without sustaining serious damage (all my older … Continue reading →

Are Your Kids Enrolled in Risky Activities

One could argue that it’s risky for a child to cross a busy street on his way to school each day, but I’m sure you wouldn’t keep your kid home from class just because you were afraid that he might get run over in the process. Likewise, when it comes to kids and extra-curricular activities, most parents examine the risks of each prior to allowing their child to sign-up. That said there are safer classes to enroll your young child in than say, alligator wrestling. Or riding angry bulls. Just ask Richard Wayde Hamar’s parents. Sadly, the 12-year-old’s mom and … Continue reading →

Easter Children

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“Am I really not supposed to be here?” Adopted adults have written about struggling with identity issues. I’m not sure, but I wonder if that question was ever at the heart of those issues. I remember teaching Sunday School and having several children of divorced or single parents in the class. The curriculum went on and on about how children were to be created in a loving, selfless and endless union of a married man and woman. I totally agree with that ideal. But I remember worrying that children whose parents were not together, or who were conceived out of … Continue reading →

Teen Driving Disaster

My 67-year-old grandmother taught me how to drive. True story. The woman had the patience of a saint. My parents didn’t step foot in a car that I was navigating until I was fully licensed. They didn’t teach any of my brothers how to drive either. We were all sent to Driver’s Ed, and logged our permit hours with our teacher or other family members in various public parking lots and on empty rural roads. Needless to say, my mom won’t be teaching my daughter how to drive when that dreadful day comes. Rather, the job will likely fall to … Continue reading →

Screaming Baby Makes Headlines

No parent enjoys listening to her child wail at the top of his lungs. This is exponentially true if said child is wailing at the top of his lungs in public. So, imagine being the Oregon mom whose baby would not stop screaming during a recent bus ride. According to reports, the infant was so inconsolable that both mom and baby got booted from the moving vehicle by an irate bus driver. ABC News reports that the bus driver simply got fed up listening to the bawling baby and ordered the mother and her sobbing child off the bus and … Continue reading →

Driving to the Brink

Despite her growing pains, I try to embrace every second of my soon-to-be seven-year-old’s daily existence, for soon she will no longer be my little girl genius regularly sharing such shards of wisdom like: “Mommy, you know why Velcro shoes are so great? Because you can hear when they untie.” Soon she will be a big girl genius in her own mind, actively bucking any parental guidance I subconsciously (or blatantly) try to influence her with. Soon she’ll be a teenage, not unlike my friend’s son, who decided to flex his growing independence this past weekend by getting on a … Continue reading →

Parents To Blame For Kids’ Bad Driving

Is your kid a crazy driver? Is he to blame for sending your car insurance premium through the roof? Before you hold a grudge and withhold the car keys, you may want to take a good look in the mirror. According to a new study, your child’s maniacal driving habits could actually be your fault. Sure… blame the mother. The recently published study claims that bad driving may be genetic. According to researchers, there may be a particular gene that contributes to poor driving. Interestingly, if the research results hold up, it would mean that 30 percent of American drivers … Continue reading →

The Importance of Dad’s in Raising Teen Girls

Some recent comments on a few teen based blog posts here at families.com has called out Dad’s and their absence in the life of teen girls. As the mother of both a male and female teen, I have to admit that my husband and I tend to team off according to sex. My daughter and I have our girl things, and my husband and son have their boy and tech stuff. There are few people alive who would poo-poo the importance of the value of the father in a boy’s life, especially the life of a male teen. However, few … Continue reading →

Playing Inside A Parked Car

I am a big fan of teaching kids MORE than they need to know. I believe you can never really provide a child with too much information, assuming the details are safe for their eyes and ears. While they may not understand what you are showing them or talking to them about right then and there, the lessons, words, topics and maybe most importantly, the time shared together communicating and exploring new themes and ideas will benefit you and them over time. For example, with the car on but not running and parked in our driveway, I will let my … Continue reading →