There’s a new movement afoot in the Snake Oil business built on the tenuous and slippery stepping stones of childhood: The Indigo Child is on the rise and sitting on your front porch! You join the Indigo Child movement by purchasing a book or a DVD or access to a website and then buying into the ridiculous and immoral frame that is set against those children to falsely make them special in their parents’ eyes.
Only Children unite! We are special! We are misunderstood! We are good in ways Ordinary Children can never achieve! If you are one of the unlucky Ordinary who had to share with brothers and/or sisters while growing up, we pity you, and please allow us some sharp elbow room as we take a moment to celebrate the goodness of Only Children. We understand only Only Children will understand most of this post.
A good friend of mine and I had an interesting discussion years ago that still rings within me today. We were talking about the best way to raise and educate children and my friend, a strong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told me he believes in the “indoctrination of children” into a religion.
We need to have a blunt conversation. I realize this may not be a popular article if you have children and you celebrate them online by posting their photos for public viewing.
There has been a lot of talk about protecting children when they are interactively online but I suggest parents take an even larger step backward and realize even one-way interaction where your children are being viewed by people you do not know is just as dangerous to the welfare of your child as an unmonitored online chat session.
A disturbing new Los Angeles survey of 73 middle schools and their 28,000 students suggests up to 90% of the children in those schools have been exposed to community violence.
The March 3, 2005 meeting of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) revealed the results during their annual meeting in Alexandria, Virginia.
The report goes on to explain that children who have been exposed to city violence before they reach the 6th grade have much higher rates of suspensions, absenteeism and expulsions. When those children are actually in class they do not perform well academically.
Here is more information from the report:
One-in-four American children have a significant traumatic experience by age 16. Many children suffer multiple and repeated traumas. A child exposed to a traumatic event is at risk of developing traumatic stress. Traumatic stress can seriously delay development of their brains and bodies. It can lead to depression, substance abuse, other mental health problems, acting out, educational impairment, as well as future health and employment problems.
Children who are not safe in their forming environments become adults who wound the world in the way they were wounded: If you control the child’s mind you own the adult body.
We must work to find safe passage for these children and we must discover ways to protect them from violent episodes that mark them, and us, forever to the grave.
by Tammy Tillotson
“We’re the Chipmunks,
C-H-I-P-M-U-N-K,
We’re the Chipmunks,
Guaranteed to brighten your day!”
–Alvin & The Chipmunks
It was pretty simple how quickly Alvin, Simon, and Theodore became after-school icons for my two sisters and me. The three of us just assumed that we had been the inspiration behind these adorable characters. Though my older sister was short, round, and pudgy like Theodore, my younger sister and I fought a somewhat constant battle over which of us would be Alvin each afternoon. Fun and comical Alvin always got more attention than the somewhat geeky and brainy Simon. Yet collectively, the personalities of each balanced out the trio, and they learned to depend on each other and get along despite their differences, as did my sisters and I.
by Peggy Kumke
Grandparents play a unique role when their grandchildren are in their care. I enjoy all the time their parents allow me to have with them. The most wonderful blessings of being the grandparent is to be able to give the grandchildren back to their parents whenever you want to. It makes no difference how much we spoil them; the parents have to raise them, not us!
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