One poll conducted on the use of texting between children and parents shows that the average typing speed of child “texter’s” is 78 words per minute, while the average parent is only able to text about 7 words per minute. The use of phone internet and computer internet sources are increasing daily and the majority of the users are children under the age of fourteen. It is said that most adults should attend a local computer course to prepare themselves and give them the knowledge they need to protect their family from harm’s way. Children are very curious in nature; the more they are told to beware, the more they begin to wonder why. This seems logical but it remains to be a scary fact. To protect your children you must learn to be one step ahead of their curiosity.

Local libraries offer free classes on computer and internet basic and safety classes can be found through community outreach programs offered by various local groups. Check online for local classes conducted by free agencies, local charities, and parent groups. You may be surprised by the amount of free information that is out there and available to you. You can learn how to set parental controls, view browsing history, set passwords, block inappropriate sites and text, and be the household monitor of the computer in your home.

Take control and be in the “Know”. One wrong move can land the right information into the wrong hands. Children can have their identities stolen, just as readily as adults, if the information is handed to the wrong people and sent to the wrong places. Children can easily open private internet email accounts and store private information in these “secret accounts”; even diary websites are open to public viewing at the push of a button. You have the power to take control, take the classes, and take the safety of your household internet connection back.

When dealing with children, teens, and young adults from Generation X (or 1982′ and up) there are a few hints that can keep things flowing smoothly in your home. Just because society is claiming the X-kids are confused and unappreciative does not make the issue untouchable. A few simple principles can be implemented to increase the level of communication and understand between you and your X-kid(s). When you begin to realize that your child is not that much different from you then you have begun your connection already.

Most parents have a personal epidemic looming of the correcting-fever. Have the words “I’ve told you this before” or “I’m not telling you again” passed your lips? If so, then you have probably been guilty of correcting your child a little less then frugally. Make the same step of being consciously sparing with corrections and try to be more deliberate with affirmations. It is only natural that when you give compliments, and focus on the good things your child is doing, that the bad things automatically lessen. Children sometimes do bad things just to get attention, and good attention is better any day.

Try actively listening. Most teens have a deaf ear on most issues, especially during times of reprimand. But test this out: next time an issue comes up try asking, genuinely, what the original purpose of the action was and then really listen. Stop trying to give all of the parental, all-wise advice for once and listen to them. You may find that the underlying reason for some of their actions were based on things that can easily be altered or compromised on. Just listen. When your child feels understood the difference in attitude is amazing. Communication is a two-way street, and the idea is to first try and understand before demanding to be understood.

The land of the ultimate chore list is a land of cleanliness and organization. By devising a single, master plan your life can become that of simplicity. Begin with the main chores of the household. Dishes (daily), bed making, vacuuming, mopping/sweeping, laundry, etc. Make a preliminary list and divide the ‘main’ chores from the ‘secondary’ chores. Then divide those chores into daily, weekly, and monthly categories. You may even want to add a section for yearly chores such as cleaning the gutters, or organizing the hallway closet.

Once you have the household chores divided into specific sections you will want to organize the chores into responsibility and capability sections. This is when you decide who in the house is old enough, responsible enough, and reliable enough to perform the different duties. Determine whether it is an adult chore, teenage chore, or a possible child’s chore. Make a list of what each person absolutely hates and work with compromise. The chore’s that will be set toward the individuals (such as making your own bed) will be divided into personal sections. When it comes to laundry you will make a personal decision as to who is responsible enough to wash their own laundry, or if you will rotate the duty all together.

The point is to make the duties easier on everyone. Especially Mom. The point of the chore list is to promote compromise and equality throughout the home. Make it a point to focus on the list for a few days. Take the time to talk about it. Don’t let one person assign all of the chores. You will want to spend a week or so developing the perfect plan and then as children begin growing or you begin feeling more confident in one person’s capabilities then you may add more to their list. If an older child is taking up more chores than younger children, then you may want to allow for an allowance for that child.

Sit down together, make some snacks, and enjoy the time together even if it is to develop a chore list. This will instill within the family a sense of togetherness.

Helpless parents do not permit the behavior, at all, they are just helpless to stop it. Symptoms are typical of certain child behavior. The child is disorderly and the parent clearly wishes they wouldn’t. The parent may say they have tried everything, or that they were too insistent, or any of a number of reason and helpless mediums to the child’s rival behavior.

There are a number of particular characteristics noted in the parents that may lead to the particular behavior instilled in their child. There are a number of unrealistic prophesies that create an attitude of power and disregard in the children, while developing ideals of helplessness on the part of the parents.

Whether the parent has very little insight about their own child, whether they see children as having specialized knowledge that they fear will be lost with age, or they just don’t have older mentor figures in the child’s life, it can be a result of a number of things. The issue now is not what caused it strictly, but how to move toward healing.

A general rule for over coming these unruly and terrorizing behaviors can be simple in sound, but difficult in implementation. Take your concerns to small group counselors, such as church oriented patrons. Contact peer counselors for mediation. Or even speak with an older relative that most certainly has more experience than you in parenting.

The basis for success is to develop strength in leadership. You must be willing to say “No”, show discipline, and stand strong and firm in your actions toward your child. Feeling a compassion for your child can grow too overwhelming, and can eventually overwhelm you. You must show love and gentle leadership in order to effectively lead your child onto a new behavioral path. You must show them you are the parent, not a friend, and that you love them and your actions are to protect, safely lead, and teach them the best paths to follow in life. Do not be afraid to ask for help, it may be the best decision you make.

 Around 5% of adults are stricken with generalized anxiety. At point in time 2.4 million Americans are affected by panic and anxiety disorders.

 Anxiety is such a wide spread phenomena that some Americans actually accept it as just a part of life. Under certain circumstances it very well can be, but in a general sense of health, it is in no way normal for us to be anxious on a regular basis.

 There are many types of helpful and beneficial practices than can be implemented into your daily routine in order to control and even eliminate anxiety. We should all seek to achieve a state of minimal stress in life. It is detrimental not only to our health, but it is something that can affects our jobs, relationships, emotional state, and every circumstance and event in our lives. It can cause a person to contract sleep disorders, a jittery complex, restlessness, a feeling of constant tension, dizziness, or excessive sweating.

 Strong and persistent anxiety can lead to depression and surges of emotion, such as anger. There are many variations of stress such as phobias, generalized anxiety, panic disorders, and even obsessive-compulsive disorder. Controlling stress and anxiety is a Must and we all have the power to do it.

 There are several types, and levels, of treatments for anxiety disorders. Depending on the severity and length of the disorder the treatments can range from visits with a counselor to prescribed medication. Many patients respond well to behavioral and cognitive therapy. These types of therapies delve into the mind of the patient to resolve well being from the inside out. This happens by identifying the distorted thoughts, fears and misconceptions that contribute to the anxiety.

 Other options, such as traditional psychotherapy and meditation, take a less invasive path and heal by empowering the patient. In psychotherapy it is decided that the patient can ‘talk it out’ with a therapist and find healing in revealing. Meditation is a relaxation and control technique that has helped millions of people. By relaxing your mind, thoughts, and body a person can begin to control the way they think and therefore control the anxiety without drastic measures.

 If you believe that you or someone you love may have an anxiety disorder make the decision to get help. Do the research and weigh the benefits. Life without stress and anxiety can give a whole new perspective.

Mammals, including humans, are considered a “dead end” for the virus.  When the virus enters a human or any other mammal, the virus can’t grow enough to be picked up by another mosquito and transmitted to another living being.  This isn’t the case, however, with birds, in which the virus continues to multiply to such a level that it can be transmitted to others.

More insidiously, when the West Nile Virus infects humans, there are three different manifestations of the disease.  The first manifestation is an asymptomatic infection – in short, you have the disease, but it causes you no problems.  The second manifestation is much like having a cold or a very mild case of the flu.  In other words, you might have a low grade fever for a few days, but it passes so quickly that most people confuse it with the seasonal flu.  You can also develop a mild rash, but all symptoms usually resolve within one week.

The third manifestation is the most dangerous development, marked by neuro-invasive meningitis or encephalitis, and by the development of a near coma state.  Fortunately, for every 110 people who will never even know they were infected, there are only 30 people who have the flu-like cold symptom manifestation, and only one person who will experience the life threatening coma manifestation.

In 2007, there were more than 3,600 confirmed cases of West Nile Virus in the United States and 124 people died from the disease.  To put this in perspective, there are many more people killed in automobile accidents in only one week than die from the West Nile Virus over the course of one year.  The media has considerably stirred the public’s fear of West Nile Virus, even though there are many more diseases that you are likely to be exposed to.

While the mosquito is necessary to transmit the virus, two North American hosts help to amplify the virus.  These are the North American Robin and the American Crow, which are the most common carriers of the virus and that serve as reservoirs of the disease.  In addition, there are mosquitoes that preferentially bite birds, while others will bite both birds and mammals.  No additional mosquito control methods are needed to help prevent West Nile Virus – any method that effectively controls or eliminates mosquitoes will help prevent the transmission of the virus to people.

Fortunately, the West Nile Virus can’t be easily transmitted from human to human – it takes exposure to body fluids to transmit the disease. 

So while the West Nile Virus is a disease that’s worth learning about – and though it offers one more reason why mosquito control is important – it certainly isn’t worth the panic the recent media coverage has seemed to incite.

If you aren’t sure where to start, consider visiting a registered dietitian to get recommendations for your child’s specific nutritional needs.  This is especially true for children that have specific medical conditions that restrict the types of foods they can eat, like food allergies or digestive problems like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).  A professional will be able to give you all the information you need to build a healthy and easy diet plan.

However, even if you aren’t able to visit a nutritionist, you can still help encourage healthy eating habits with your child.  One thing that all parents should be focusing on when it comes to improving their child’s diet is fat intake.  By increasing the amount of low-fat foods and decreasing the foods that are high in saturated fat, you can easily improve the overall benefits of your child’s diet.

Tips for Getting Your Children to Eat Healthy

One thing you can do to encourage your children to start eating healthy is to make sure that there’s an abundance of healthy food choices available in your house.  It’s also important to teach your children to eat slowly.  Research has shown that it takes at least 20 minutes for the stomach to begin to send signals that it’s full, so eating more slowly is an effective way to discourage overeating.

Another thing that can help parents who are trying to get their children to eat healthy foods is to make sure they have set meal times.  This can be extremely helpful when trying to ensure that your children aren’t eating unhealthy snacks and other foods outside of set meal times.  This will also allow you to better keep track of the foods your children are eating.

Allowing your children to be involved in the grocery shopping process has also proven to be quite effective.  Letting your children choose the foods they want from a selection of healthy choices will make it much easier to get them to buy into the new diet than just trying to get them to eat foods you’ve chosen without their approval.  You can also take this time to teach them to read food labels, so that they’ll know what to look for later in life.

All parents that have had difficulty trying to make the shift to healthier foods will definitely be able to benefit from these techniques.  However, the most important thing you can do is to start the process of encouraging healthy eating early so that it becomes a routine your children can carry on into adulthood.

You would think that getting up to pee in the middle of the night, every night, for the last two weeks would have caused red flags. It did not, mostly because you were half asleep and just going with the flow. Feeling extremely hungry didn’t get too much of your attention either, it seems. That one was easy to explain to yourself. It was the weather. Everybody knows appetites can be affected by changes in the temperature outside. So what if you were too tired to even think about doing anything outside for the last couple of weeks. Your body knew. What did, kind of, get you thinking was how freakishly sensitive your breasts were feeling day after day. How many hours did you spend wondering about that one? You lost track because you have just been so darn forgetful lately. Any of these events happening independently would mean, pretty much, nothing. These events taking place two weeks before you look at your calendar and realize you are three days late on your period, has you frozen. Everything seems to be happening in slow motion.  The strange phenomenon of days, just past, starts flashing before your eyes. You think you may faint, but you can’t. You don’t even know if you can. But you really feel like it.

As you sit on the cold tile floor of the bathroom waiting for the results of the pregnancy test you are not sure if you should be happy or scared. You are both. You time the test with the precision of a countdown to a missile launch. When you see both lines telling you, that yes you are definitely pregnant, no doubt about it, you run out and go buy a few more tests, just in case these were somehow tampered with. One large coffee and three tests later, you decide that the pregnancy test was accurate, and not lying to you. Now all the craziness of the last month starts to paint a picture. Too bad you have no idea what to do now. All the things you have been feeling lately are all perfectly normal for someone who is newly pregnant. All the normal feelings are well covered in books and movies. What about the not so normal feelings that seem to be happening now that you know?

Where is the beautiful glow? All you feel is bloated. How can your jeans feel tight when the baby is supposed to be the size of half of a half of a pea? The truth is, your body is, and has been, changing since conception. Some women know on a subconscious level, the exact moment they become pregnant. The first few months of pregnancy can be a very confusing time. There is everything to be hopeful about, and scared of at the same time. It is a state of being that is very similar to that of an animal because of the heightened state of instinct and awareness. It is definitely a good time for a woman to forget about what she has always expected to happen and to get ready for the unexpected.

Happily the human race evolved. There was the sexual revolution, and suddenly sex was no longer a shameful dirty act. It took a little longer for pregnancy to be liberated, and when it was, it was not as glamorous, but it was okay, as long as we remembered we were mothers now, nothing sexy about that. Women seemed to go through a time where being pregnant meant being fat, unattractive, and off limits. To all but the closet prego lovers, it was just a given that pregnant women were not attractive. And to reinforce this, we had  maternity clothes. You know the baggy over-alls, shirts and blouses much longer in the front to make sure and completely cover the belly, and long flowing dresses. The men of this era all seemed to have an unspoken pact to just tolerate us at our most unattractive. Hope was huge that we would not just let ourselves go, but it was expected we would end up being more huge than that hope. 

Fast forward a couple of decades. Movie stars got bored and decided that they were going to keep making money even while they were pregnant. They were going to not only, not hide their bellies, but they were going to put the spot light right on them. Naked  pregnant bellies on magazine covers, photo shoots, starlets out and about with shorts and half tops, and most shockingly, bikini wearing jezebels splashing at the beach, for all to see. At first most  women reacted with disgust as they promised they would never be caught dead doing those things. But it was too late. Women started noticing, men noticing, the new pregnancy confidence, and liking it. Men have always been attracted to confidence in a woman, and this was no different. Suddenly there was nothing more beautiful than a woman who was ripe with a new life growing inside of her. Boundaries were broken, and taboos where cast out, like the women they had cast out years before.

Currently there are dating sites, modeling jobs, and even a market for porn dedicated to the pregnant woman. It seems the more a woman embraces her body and what it is doing, the more we can not get enough of her. It is now a time in a woman’s life when she is considered to be at her most attractive. There is no shortage of men ready, willing, and able to date and marry a pregnant woman. This is an amazing time to be an amazing woman with child.