Skip Bottled Iced Tea
Did you know that every year, 135 billion beverage containers end up in United States landfills or incinerators, or as litter? Did you also know that brewed tea contains 95 percent higher levels of the antioxidant EGCG than bottled tea? Put it all together, and the benefits of drinking home-brewed iced tea from tea bags is better for your your body, the Earth and your wallet.
For more info – go to www.unbottleyourtea.com. Spread the word about brewed tea and get a free eco-friendly, BPA-free water bottle!
Greek Yogurt vs Plain Yogurt
I’ve always wondered about this . . .
Greek yogurt is strained to remove most of the whey or liquid, making it thicker. Per 8 ounce serving, it has more protein (20 grams vs 13 grams) and less sodium (83 mg vs 175 mg). However, plain yogurt has just about 3 times the calcium as Greek yogurt (450 mg vs 151mg). When choosing regular yogurt, choose plain vs flavored – you would be surprised at how much sugar is put into an 8 ounce container!
Fish = Healthy Brains
According to Cooking Light . . .
A recent study of 3.660 people 65 and older found that those who ate fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids (like tuna, salmon, mackerel and anchovies) three or more times each week had a 26% lower chance of experiencing small lesions in the brain associated with strokes and dementia.
Easy Go Green Tip
Ditch the stainless steel cleaners for olive oil. Dab some olive oil onto a soft cloth, rub it in, rub it off with a clean, soft cloth and you will have shiny stainless steel appliances while saving the earth from harsh chemicals.
Quote of the Day
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. – Albert Einstein
Raising an Empathetic Child
From www.babycenter.com
What to expect at this age
Kids don’t have the cognitive skills to truly understand the concept of empathy until they’re 8 or 9. But 5-year-olds, usually highly preoccupied with fairness, are concerned about being treated well, and they want others — friends, strangers, even characters in books — to be treated well too. Here’s how to nurture these budding displays of empathy.
What you can do
Label the feeling. Your kindergartner will be able to understand and manage her emotions much better if she can recognize her feelings. So put a name to her behavior as often as you can. Say, for instance, “It was very kind of you to talk to that boy who was all alone on the swing. He might have been feeling lonely.” By hearing that you noticed her behavior, she’ll learn that you recognize and value her responsiveness. She needs to understand negative emotions, too, so don’t be afraid to calmly point out when your 5-year-old’s being less than caring. Try saying, “It made your baby brother really sad when you grabbed his rattle. What could you do to help him feel better?”
Another way to teach your kindergartner to understand and define her emotions is to have a “feeling of the week.” Each week, put up on the refrigerator or bulletin board a picture of someone experiencing a basic emotion — sadness, happiness, surprise, anger. Work your way up to more complicated emotions, such as frustration, nervousness, and jealousy (clip magazine photos or illustrations that capture these feelings). Talk with your child about times when she felt the same way.
Praise empathetic behavior. When your kindergartner performs an act of kindness, tell her what she did right, and be as specific as possible: “You were very generous to share your special stickers with Tommy. I saw him smiling, and I know he was happy.”
Encourage your kindergartner to talk about her feelings — and yours. Let her know that you care about how she feels by listening intently. If she has a story about someone else (“Tommy got in trouble for shoving Therese, and I don’t think that was fair”), listen to her views before offering your own. And when she says she’s mad, paraphrase what she says — “Oh, you’re feeling grumpy today?” — so she knows you’re listening and feels encouraged to elaborate.
Similarly, share your own feelings with her: “It makes me feel bad when you yell at me. Let’s think of another way for you to tell me you’re angry.” This is also a fine time to share some of your feelings that don’t relate to your child’s actions. You can say, “I’m frustrated that I didn’t meet my deadline at work today” or “I got annoyed with Aunt Mary today, just like you get mad at your sister. But we’re still friends.” Your 5-year-old will learn that adults have feelings and emotions too, that they’re a normal part of life, and that learning to cope with them is an important part of growing up.
Point out other people’s behavior. Teach your kindergartner to notice when someone else has behaved kindly. You might say, for example, “Remember how friendly your new teacher was on the first day of school? She helped you feel less scared.” By doing this, you reinforce her understanding of how people’s actions can affect her emotionally. Books also provide wonderful opportunities to explore emotions. Ask your 5-year-old how she thinks the children in a fairy tale are feeling, and whether she thinks she’d be scared or brave in the same situation. Tell her how you might feel too.
Teach nonverbal cues. At the playground or park, find a quiet place where you and your 5-year-old can sit and observe others without being rude. Play a game of guessing what other people are feeling, and explain the specific reasons for your own guesses: “See that man? He’s walking really quickly and his shoulders are hunched, and he’s making a mean face. I think he’s angry about something.”
Teach basic rules of politeness. Good manners are a great way for your kindergartner to show caring and respect for others. “Please” and “thank you” are phrases 5-year-olds should use automatically. Explain that you’re more inclined to hand over her sandwich when she asks for it politely and that you don’t like it when she orders you around. Even if these phrases sound rote at times, they teach kids how important it is to treat others with respect. Of course, being polite to her is worth a thousand rules and explanations. Say “please” and “thank you” regularly to your kindergartner and to others, and she’ll learn that these phrases are part of normal communication, both at home and out in public.
Don’t use anger to control your child. Though it’s easy to get upset when she sneaks the candy you told her not to eat before dinner, try not to use anger as a tool to manage her behavior. “When you say, ‘I’m really mad at you,’ children shut down and withdraw,” says Jerry L. Wyckoff, a psychologist and coauthor of Twenty Teachable Virtues. Teaching by instruction and example is much more effective, although it’s important to let your child know you’re disappointed. Instead of getting angry, take a moment to calm yourself down. Then say firmly, “I know you wanted that candy, but it upsets me that you ignored what I told you. Now you won’t be allowed to have dessert tonight.”
Give your kindergartner jobs. Research suggests that children who learn responsibility also learn altruism and caring. Five-year-olds can take over simple jobs, such as feeding the dog or clearing the dinner table. Don’t forget to pile on the praise for a job well done and point out that your child’s actions benefit everyone: “Thanks for remembering to set the table. We’re all really hungry, and you’ve helped us sit down to dinner a lot faster.”
Ask her to think of others. Each day is full of opportunities to remind your 5-year-old to think about how someone else might feel. “It’s simple — say you’re in the grocery store and your child asks for some licorice. Say, ‘Sure. Now, do you think your little sister would like us to bring home a treat for her?’” suggests Wayne Dosick, a rabbi and the author of Golden Rules: The Ten Ethnical Values Parents Need to Teach Their Children.
Involve your kindergartner in charitable activities. Acts of kindness and charity are an excellent way to teach her empathy. When you take a meal to a sick neighbor or a friend with a new baby, let her help plan the menu. She can pack a bag of clothes to donate to a local charity and choose some of the toys she’s outgrown to give as well. Help her write a thank-you letter to Grandma for a birthday present. Explain that sometimes people need extra help, don’t have the basics that they need, or would just feel happy to receive a sign of appreciation.
Expect the same behavior from boys and girls. Our society commonly considers men to be less empathetic than women. So sometimes, even without realizing it, we demand and praise empathetic behavior less often in boys than in girls. As Wyckoff says, “We set up this ‘boy code’ that goes on and on throughout their lives — ‘I gotta be tough.’ But if we’re careful to teach them, boys can learn empathy just like girls.”
Appropriate Material for Children and Teens
This article was specifically about teen reactions to shows – but I can’t help but think it would have the same effect on children. It seems like it is so hard today to keep the kids watching age-appropriate material . . . but when you consider the results . . . the extra parental effort seems worth it.
Teens Who Watch Lots of Sexually Explicit Shows Have Twice the Risk of Becoming Pregnant
It’s reasonable to wonder if teens who see lots of sexually suggestive TV are more likely to initiate intercourse or engage in other sexual activities earlier than their peers who don’t tune in to such programs.
Researchers are now reporting, for the first time, that teens who see lots of lewd TV are actually twice as likely to become (or get someone) pregnant before age 20 than those who view very little sexually explicit content on the tube.
Looking at a national phone survey and follow-ups of more than 2,000 12- to 17-year-olds over a 3-year period, researchers were able to pinpoint that the teens who’d viewed “high levels of televised sexual content” were far more likely to become pregnant.
The survey focused on all kinds of popular teen programs, from sitcoms to reality shows, and on everything from passionate kissing to discussions about sexual desires, from implied intercourse to actual depictions of sex.
What This Means to You
Although the results of this study don’t prove cause and effect, putting limits on teens’ exposure to sex in the media might help to reduce the risk of teen pregnancy. But it’s also helpful, the study’s authors say, to give kids information about the potential downsides of sexual activity when they do view sexual scenarios on TV.
Here’s some of the facts that many popular programs don’t bring up to their teen viewers:
- Nearly 1 million teenage girls in the United States have babies every year. That’s an astonishing 20% of the young girls who are sexually active and more than any other industrialized nation in the world. In 2006, the number of births to teen moms (ages 15 to 19) rose for the first time in nearly 15 years. And having a baby can change everything for a teen — as the study points out, “Young mothers are more likely than others to drop out of school, to require public assistance, and to live in poverty.”
- A staggering 1 in 4 (or an estimated 3.2 million) teenage girls in the United States has a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
- You can’t get pregnant if you have oral sex, but you can get an STD like gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, warts, herpes, or HIV.
- Some STDs (like genital warts and herpes) also can spread through intimate skin-to-skin contact without actual vaginal or anal penetration.
- Each year about 6.2 million people contract the human papillomavirus (HPV). The leading cause of cervical cancer and genital warts, HPV affects more than half of sexually active people at some point in their lives.
- An estimated 42 million people worldwide are living with AIDS or HIV (human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS). And more than 3 million die from AIDS-related illnesses every year.
- A latex condom is an absolute must for anyone who decides to have vaginal, anal, or oral sex. Still, only complete and consistent abstinence can totally prevent pregnancy and protect against all STDs.
To help open your teens’ eyes to what having sex really means, and to help keep TV viewing in your household in the most positive context possible:
- Preview programs before your kids watch them. Look for reruns of shows or check out the programs’ promotions online to find out if your kids should be viewing them.
- Watch programs with your kids — at least the first few minutes to assess the tone and appropriateness, then check in throughout the show. Offer perspective and guidance about what they’re seeing and start a dialogue about the consequences (like pregnancy and STDs) that could come with being sexually active. Give the facts, but also give them a sense of where you stand, without preaching. Explain what your values are and why.
- Lay down some ground rules about what kinds of programs you approve of and which ones you don’t.
- Try a weekday ban (especially since some of the racier shows air on weeknights). Record shows or save TV and videos for weekends so you’ll have more family time for meals, games, physical activity, reading, and just spending quality time together.
- Keep TVs out of kids’ bedrooms. Having a TV in their rooms can affect kids academically, socially, and physically.
- Turn off the TV during meals.
- Set a good example — limit your own screen time.
Granted, as kids get older and crave more and more independence, it becomes much harder to have a say in what they do or don’t see (on TV and online, where they can also view a lot of their favorite shows as well as plenty of other unsavory content). But, as a parent, you still retain the right to have some control over (and offer insights about) what your kids are viewing — even if “everyone else is watching it.”
Still, try to have faith in your kids’ abilities to make good decisions and be there to help them think through the tough ones. Rather than telling teens what they should do, offer suggestions and help them consider the outcomes and consequences — what will happen, how they might feel, how others might feel or react, and how it could change their lives now and in the future.
Reviewed by: Steven Dowshen, MD
Date reviewed: November 2008
Source: “Does Watching Sex on Television Predict Teen Pregnancy? Findings from a National Longitudinal Survey of Youth,” Pediatrics, November 2008.
You Need to Try This . . .
Want to save money this holiday season and have fun doing it? Log onto www.restaurant.com. This was just featured on one of our local news stations, and it does work – oh, and it is all over the country. Thanks, Dad.
Type in your zip code to find participating restaurants in your area, and then you will see a bunch of restaurants that are offering gift certificates for less than half of their paper value ($10 certificate for $3, or a $25 certificate for $10). And it only gets better! Put SURPRISE in the discount code at the top of the page and the web site discounts these certificates 80% more. It is crazy.
Could be a good idea for lunch after a day of Christmas shopping or as gifts for bus drivers, mail carriers, etc! Try it!
Get Rid of Phone Books Forever!
www.thebite.com . . .
Don’t cheat yourself or the forest. Sign up and you’ll never receive another paper phonebook. Taking notes?
The Benefits
- More paper for textbooks. About 540 million unsolicited phonebooks arrive at American doors annually – takes a lotta trees to make those.
- Majoring in waste reduction. Phonebooks make for about 660,000 tons of trash every year.
Wanna Try?
- YellowPagesGoesGreen – enter your info here to get your name off the mailing list.
- Earth 911 – recycle your old phonebooks (if you have curbside recycling, just toss them in there).
You’ve Been Poked!
WOW! I am certain that I am so far behind the times in social networking, and although this confession may make me seem ancient . . . I just have to . . .
I just discovered Facebook. Dispite years of my husband asking me to sign-up and months of my college friends asking me to join, I never did – I thought it would be silly – just a bunch of college kids posting their drinking pictures. I finally joined last week and oh my goodness . . . I am addicted! And since I joined, I found out that our thirty-something age group was the fasting growing demographic on Facebook. Friends are posting pictures of their trips, their families and themselves – so fun!
It has been unreal to reconnect with high school buddies, college friends, old work collegues and even a sixth grade pen-pal (honest)! I am loving it! Go ahead, if you haven’t joined already, I dare you . . . you’ll love it! And if you are on Facebook . . . find me!
