Saga-Louts are a fairly new and surprising phenomenon. They consist of individuals over the age of 55 who drink too much, engage in risky behaviors, become reckless and abusive. In short, they are acting a lot like their younger counter-parts.

This behavior is shocking to psychologists and others. Generally, individuals grow out of these behaviors, not into them. Studies have shown that 20 % of people in this age group engage in behaviors abroad that they would never get involved in at home. Ten percent of them don’t adhere to the safety advice that they dole out to their own children.

There has been an alarming increase in drinking amongst people between the ages of 60-65. This is not just a beer or a glass of wine, but drinking at unsafe levels. Professionals are wondering what to do about it. There are no laws against drinking for this group. However, it could be increasingly unsafe, especially amongst older people. The likelihood of falling down and breaking bones goes up as individuals age. This could be extremely dangerous.

While there are many campaigns to discourage young people not to drink, there are none for older persons. Perhaps related agencies should make an effort to discourage heavy drinking and reckless behaviors amongst older adults and the elderly

Posted: July 31st, 2008 under Teenager, Understanding Teenagers.
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Most parents absolutely abhor the idea of having to talk to their children about sex. It can be really uncomfortable for both the parent and the child. However, it is a conversation that must be had. Actually, it will be more then one conversation but instead, an ongoing dialogue. Parents will have to continually speak on the subject even when it is difficult. Some common questions that parents have concerning speaking to their children about sex are:

When should I first broach the subject?: This is a difficult question. Children are having sex and discussing it with other kids earlier then ever. In fact, some kids are reporting their first experiences with sex as early as 10 years old. This means that you should be prepared to at least cover the basics in adolescence even before they become teenagers. Make sure that the conversation is age appropriate and that it matches your child’s maturity level.

How do I bring up the topic?: This will differ for everyone. You may want to announce to your child that you want to talk about boys and girls and their relationships with each other. Alternatively, you may want to take the opportunity to talk about sex while you and your child are watching a movie that broaches the subject.

Shouldn’t they be learning this stuff in school?: Some schools have sex-ed programs, but children and teens should learn about sex at home. They shouldn’t have to wait until it is taught in school. It is your responsibility as a parent to get them ready for life and to infuse your values into their lives, including those that have to do with sex.
What if my child doesn’t want to talk about sex?: Kids are not going to want to talk to their parents about sex. However, it is your responsibility as the adult to talk about uncomfortable topics that need to be discussed even if neither or you want to do it.

Should I tell them about my sexual experiences?: If it makes sense to do so, you may want to share some of your own sexual experiences. Of course not in a way that boasts of sexual conquests but in a way that might teach them a lesson. For example, you may want to encourage waiting to have sex until the right time, by telling them about how you wished you would have put off sex until a more appropriate time.

Posted: July 29th, 2008 under Communication, Parents, Teenager.
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It is very easy for teenagers to become self-absorbed. The culture encourages people to look out for numero uno. This is unfortunate. When teens get too self-involved, small things can suddenly become big deals and teens can easily get depressed when things don’t go their way. To help avoid this, it is important to get teens involved in helping others in their community. Find out what issues concern them and then have them call up an organization and offer to volunteer. If they can not think of anything, some good places that often need volunteers include local hospitals, soup kitchens, elderly homes and many non-profit organizations.

Start early if you can. If volunteering, considering and helping others becomes familiar early on, the behavior will likely continue as the child gets older. Let your child become aware of the plight of others so that they learn to appreciate the things and opportunities that they do have. This will also increase the chances that they will continue to give back even as adults.

Volunteering also gives children and teenagers a sense of power. When they see that their helpful actions can actually make a difference, make someone feel better or make another person’s life more comfortable, they will gain a sense of their own personal power. They will understand that their actions can used to uplift and encourage others.

Posted: July 27th, 2008 under Parents, Teenager.
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With military recruiters desperate for new recruits, they are turning to our high schools to try to convince children below the legal age limit to enlist. The deferred enlisting program is aimed to have high schoolers to join the military before they turn 18. This program allows them to go to basic training between their junior and senior years of high school. They then will go straight into the military after graduation. Some people have a problem with this.

Individuals at NotSafeForKids.com believe that the military is targeting children too young to make informed decisions about their futures. They believe that kids which are too young to marry, drink or vote, do not have the capacity to yet determine if they want to spend their immediate lives after high school, defending our country in dangerous parts of the world. To protect children, NotSafeForKids.com suggests that parents get involved and teach their kids how to avoid signing their lives away. The advice they give is to not sign anything no matter the pressure from military recruiters.

Whether a parent agrees to let their child sign up for deferred enlisting is up to that individual parent. It is important to remember that teenagers frequently change their minds. While one year they may want to be a doctor, the next year they may want to be a professional athlete. The beauty of being a kid is that they can change their minds. However, if you allow them to enlist in the army, there is absolutely no opportunity for them to change their mind. They are bound by duty. It is best not to allow them to put themselves in this situation. Instead, insist that they wait until they graduate and have a better idea of what they want to do with lives. After this point, they can sign up for whatever they want. There is really no need to sign up when they are 16 or 17. The military recruits will still be there waiting long after they come of age.

http://NotSafeForKids.com

Posted: July 25th, 2008 under Communication, Parents, Teenager.
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A recent study has found that young people do not read traditional newspapers. Instead, they only scan the headlines. Instead, they are more likely to and turn to online news outlets. Traditional, offline newspapers have been struggling every since the internet has grown in popularity. Advertising revenue has been on the decline every since.

With younger people not finding much use for hard copy newspapers, the future seems bleak. Newspapers will have to find ways to engage the youth if they want to survive. Many newspapers have already gone online to try to stay relevant. However, national news carriers such as CNN and various social networking sites are getting the bulk of online news traffic.

Online news outlets are able to update the news as soon as it happens. This gives them a huge advantage over offline papers that send out information only one time a day. However, there is some real merit to local, offline newspapers. They have a lot of good information and a lot can be learned from them especially about what is going on in one’s particular city. Parents who want to encourage their teens to read the regular newspaper more, may want to assign their children a weekly newspaper report. This forces kids to read and learn about what is going on in their city or state. Many papers often have a money section. This is a great place for kids to pick up money management skills, skills that will come in handy for them as they get older.
http://Comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2109

Posted: July 23rd, 2008 under Communication, Parents, Teenager.
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Children and teenagers have different personalities and strengths. Some children are math and science whizzes while other ones are very artistic and creative. It is important to place your child in activities that allow them to build on those strengths. For creative young people there are many things that you can do to stroke that creativity. Here are some ideas:

a. Get them involved in youth theatre: Youth theatre is great way to help young people be creative. They can immerse themselves in different characters. It also allows them to also be around other kids that share their interests.
b. Enroll them in some local art courses: Many cities or local YMCA’s will have some sort of art courses for children in the community at affordable prices. Check your city’s website and see what they have to offer.
c. Enroll them in creative writing courses: Creative writing courses really allow children to explore their creative side. It places them in a situation where they are encouraged to be creative.
d. Purchase art tools and journals: You can pick up art supplies, tools and journals pretty cheaply at places like Wal-Mart. Having art supplies on hand allows them to create pictures and to journal any time that they want.

Posted: July 21st, 2008 under Parents, Teenager.
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Suicide is one of the leading killers in the teenage community. It is a devastating occurrence that not only snuffs out a young life but also leaves the parents and the teen’s friends emotionally crushed and looking for answers. The reasons that teenagers commit suicide are numerous.
A long bout with depression that they has seemingly gone on forever, peer rejection, being overweight, losing a girlfriend or boyfriend or a parent’s divorced can be causes of suicide.

No group of people are immune to teen suicide. It occurs in all types of families, white, black, brown and in all socioeconomic groups. How can it be prevented? Well the sobering answer is that it can not, it will likely always occur but families can make serious and substantive efforts so that the chances that it happens in their own family, is decreased. Here are some tips.

a. Be involved and stay involved: When a teen is depressed they will often want to be left alone. They are probably feeling like no one cares. So instead of giving them more room to be alone and stew, get more involved. Plan family outings, have a movie night, take them to places that they once enjoyed. It doesn’t matter if they don’t engage, just make sure that they are still involved.
b. Monitor their activities: I know that today we live in a culture that discourages parents from getting too involved in their teen’s life. There has been a tremendous push for teen privacy. While teens should have a certain level of privacy, their rooms and their activities should not be completely off limits for parents. They still live in your home and you have a right to know what is going on in your own house. You have probably heard about teenagers who have committed egregious crimes and the authorities find guns and other weapons right in their rooms, unbeknownst to their parents. You also may want to place some sort of software on the computer that tracks what websites are visited. This isn’t to be nosey but to help your teen protect them self from themselves.
c. Maintain Boundaries: Don’t get soft on the boundaries just because your teen is going through a hard time. Maintain curfews and other house rules.

Posted: July 19th, 2008 under Communication, Parents.
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Sex and sexual images on television, movies, in magazines and music have become more and more commonplace. It is becoming increasingly hard for a parent to prevent their children form viewing or taking in these images because it seems like they are everywhere, even in commercials and on billboards. Sitcoms, even those aimed at young teens, are laced with sexual suggestions and heavy petting. Even if a parent forbade all television watching, young persons will likely just watch them at their friends’ homes. So what is a parent to do?

It is a good idea to filter out as much as possible. Encourage teens and young people to watch wholesome television congruent with their values. Also sit down and watch television with them and discuss some of the conversations and images. Take experiences from your own life and explain why certain situations like dressing in a sexually provocative manner and premature sex should be avoided. This is a time to be open with your kids (within reason). They will be able to learn with you.

However, in order for this to have an impact, you must have a relationship with your kids. Engage with them, do activities with them, get to know their friends, ask about their day and get them involved in activities where their strengths can shine. Feeling good about themselves and having confidence will enable them to stand strong and make their own decisions when it comes to sex. They will also be less influenced by the sexual images that they see portrayed on t.v., movies and in music.

Posted: July 17th, 2008 under Communication, Parents, Teenager.
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Some proponents of Christianity believe that young converts are not getting the information that they need to grow in the faith and subsequently are not fully accepting of what it teaches. As a result, they are not living out their faith in their personal life or out in the world. While they may come to believe, they are not growing in the faith and are not living by its’ tenants. FutureMajority.com believes that this is partly due to the approach of the individuals bringing youths to Christ. Evangelists are more focused on the number of converts that they can get and not so much the quality of the approach. There is also a lack of follow up.
Many young Christians see their conversion as some type of transaction, much like signing up for a credit card, instead of a new relationship with their heavenly father. Rather then making conversions a numbers game, authors at FutureMajority.com believes that evangelists should change their approach so that they are more concerned about the experience and life of the new believer.

Parents probably play the biggest role in their children’s faith. It is important that they take that responsibility seriously. It can not be left to the church or church leaders. This means that they should be available to answer any questions that their children may have. Asking questions to facilitate discussion and having family Bible studies is another way to achieve this.

http://futuremajority.com/node/1057

Posted: July 15th, 2008 under Parents.
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One web author at CommonAction.blogspot.com is purporting that America is ignoring its’ youth and to the detriment of both young people and the country. He believes that the power structure of the United States gives most of the decision making power and credence to the middle aged. However, he points out that young people have participated in many social movements in the United States and continue to do so online and offline. He mentions several young people and groups that are making a difference in our country. They include Joseph P. Lash, American Army of Two and Barbara Rose Johns.

The author at CommonAction.blogspot.com talks briefly about national youth organizations in other countries including the National Youth Council of Singapore, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Sanggunuang Kabataan.

These are several really good points. Often times, our culture has a mentality that excludes young people in the decision making process. If they are not eligible to vote, politicians really do not care what they have to say. This is too bad, who better to talk about issues important to them, then the teens and youth themselves. Also, because they will be one day running the country it is best to get them used to the process and used to being engaged.

Many older people complain about young people being apathetic. This may be in part because they don’t have really any training or interest in political matters while growing up. Once they become voting age, a flip doesn’t typically switch and these same people who have never thought about politics will not suddenly begin to. One way to change this is to engage kids at home. Ask them about their beliefs and feelings on the issues facing our country. Ask them what they would do differently and then encourage them to get involved. This might include something as simple as starting a blog about something that is important to them or volunteering for a political campaign.

http://commonaction.blogspot.com/2008/03/no-country-for-young-people.html

Posted: July 13th, 2008 under Parents, Understanding Teenagers.
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