by Dr. Laura Markham
www.YourParentingSolutions.com

A UNICEF study earlier this year rated the U.S. as the second-worst country for raising children among 21 developed countries. The study measured everything from the number of books in the home to infant-mortality rates, drinking, drug use and the percentage of children who eat meals with their families.

Child well-being was highest in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, which invest heavily in children and families, offering paid family leave, health coverage, and quality day-care. In addition to flunking on these measures, the U.S. trailed all 20 developed nations except England on children’s diet, weight, physical activity level, exposure to violence, bullying and the number of 15-year-olds who smoke, drink and have sex.

Some reasons for America’s miserable showing became apparent in the data regarding relationships with family members and friends.

Most American children don’t eat the main meal of the day with their parents. Most American children say they don’t spend time “just talking” to their parents. And most American children don’t find their peers “kind and helpful”.

Small wonder that in the ten to fourteen age group alone, there’s been a four-fold increase in suicides over the past fifty years. A staggering 1 out of 5 high school students seriously considers or attempts suicide.

Half of all teenagers report that they’re “unhappy or depressed;” one in four says that they’ve been so sad or hopeless in the past two months that they stopped doing some of their usual activities.

Because of its high poverty rate, the U.S. scored in last place on infant-mortality rates, vaccinations, and the percentage of newborns with low birth weights. It also reported more deaths of children from accidental injuries than any developed country, apparently because the firearms-related death rate for children under 15 years old is nearly 12 times higher than that of the other industrialized countries combined.

What do you think? Is the U.S. a good place to raise kids?

by Dr Michele Borba
www.MicheleBorba.com

Helicopter Parent: “A mom or dad who hovers over his or her children.”

I’m sure you’ve heard term, “Helicopter Parents.” They are those types of parents who are always hovering—always helping—always rescuing—and always involved. In the past these were the parents who micromanaged their kids’ play dates, science fair projects, and soccer game tournaments. At high school they drove the teachers batty by hovering in at the first sign of a bad grade, making sure their kid’s schedule was stellar (with only the very best teachers), and writing those college entrance essays. At college they were first on the scene setting up their kid’s dorm room (and complaining if the roommate wasn’t the perfect fit), and even calling the university president to complain about an unfair grade.

Well, now the kiddies have graduated and they are entering the workforce in mass numbers. It seems these parent are still hovering, but from all indications, their presence is now up a level — think “Black Hawk” mode. According to major businesses from coast to coast these parents are actually (imagine this!), attending their kids job fairs and interviews, negotiating salaries and benefit packages for their children and even demanding that the business call to let them know if their offspring got the job. And businesses are scratching their heads. What do we do with these parents? Many are (to my chagrin) actually changing their long-standing practices to send notices of hiring intent to the parents as well as the kids.

If you haven’t figured out my take on this by now, let me clarify my position: I think is over-the-top parenting. This isn’t mentoring but meddlesome, and over the next few days I want to spell out why this is not only wrong, but how it can rob kids of self-reliance the exactly what they need at this point in their grown-up lives.

So what’s your position? Do you see this as helpful or hurtful? And (most important here), do you see yourself as a helicopter parent?

by Elizabeth Yarnell
www.GloriousOnePotMeals.com

Whenever I see labels that read “low-fat,” “sugar-free” or “diet,” I steer as far away as possible because I know that not only are these products unhealthy they’re also misleading.

Why?

Think about it: if the goal is to make the diet version of the product sugar-free yet still retain the expected sweet taste, that is achieved by substituting an artificial sweetener in place of the sugar in the original formula.

A recent University of Texas study tracking 9,000 people for more than 8 years found that those who drank diet sodas gained more weight than those who didn’t.

Two theories to explain this emerged: 1) the body reacts to the sweetness and secretes hormones that instruct the digestive system to store the molecules as fat, and 2) believing that they saved calories with the diet soda, dieters allow themselves to eat larger quantities than they would have otherwise.

Either way, you’re not doing yourself any favors when you see “diet” on the label.

Artificial sweeteners are just that: artificial. Synthetic. Man-made. Unnatural. Unhealthy.

Aspartame. Splenda. Saccharin. Sucrolose. High fructose corn syrup. The body doesn’t know how to efficiently digest, absorb, and eliminate these foreign substances from itself. They gum up the system. Then things start to go wrong.

In my early 30s I crossed my body’s “tolerance threshold,” or the amount of allergens, toxins, and irritants my body could handle comfortably. Everyone has a tolerance threshold – it’s the kind of thing you don’t think about until you accidentally cross the line and your body rebels.

For some, it appears as asthma. Others have eczema, still others black out. For me it was hives. Daily, for three years, covering my entire body. It was miserable.

The only thing that finally worked was to remove everything manmade, processed or artificial and clear the way for my body to cleanse itself to the point where my tolerance threshold could rise back up to normal levels.

I am guilty of a voracious sweet tooth, but now I assuage it with raw, unbleached sugar, real maple syrup, locally-collected honey, and of course, chocolate!

Removing artificial sweeteners from your diet will benefit your overall health over the long term. It’s just one small, daily choice you can make in favor of better health.