I admit that I am not all that familiar with Angelina Jolie's body of work. I know plenty about her body, her humanitarian work and her personal life, but I don't see many movies that aren't rated "G". I do know that Jolie gets a lot of positive press and that the only real criticism I've heard concerning her film work is that maybe she shouldn't be doing any with all those kids at home.
But someone has found something to complain about regarding Jolie in her new film, Wanted. Dr. Carole Lieberman, a psychiatrist in Los Angeles, thinks Jolie is too thin to be an action hero and worries that she presents an unrealistic image of what a strong woman looks like. "A super-thin, super-cool female action hero undoubtedly influences female moviegoers to emulate her," she said. "The underlying message is that being thin gives you power over men: physical and psychological."
Dr. George Pratt, another psychologist, prefers his action figures a little bulkier, like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 and Carrie-Ann Moss in the Matrix films. "There women were represented in a way that displays strength, balance and a healthier body," he says.
Jolie is thin and not exactly what we are used to seeing when it comes to tough chicks in the movies. But it seems to me that there is another way to look at it. Like maybe skinny girls can kick butt, too? Or, it's just a movie and we all know Angelina Jolie isn't really an assassin?
Hey, remember Molly Ringwald? Well, she's back, and in more ways than one. The former teen star, memorable for such culture- and era-designing movies such as Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, is now starring in a television drama about teens. This time, however, the forty-year-old is playing mom to one of them.
And that teen happens to be pregnant. You may recall Molly is no stranger to the teen pregnancy plot. She played a pregnant teen in the movie For Keeps. Perhaps she'll be drawing from that experience for her latest project. Another project Molly has going for her is motherhood, so this role should be an easy one (as if being a mother, even playing one, was EVER easy!).
According to Molly, the key between moms and teen daughters is really communication. Her hope is to spread that message and curtail as many unplanned pregnancies as possible. The movie is titled The Secret Life of the American Teenager as is set to debut July 1st.
According to Drug Free America, summer can mean more than swimming, sunning and shopping for some teenagers. June, July and August are also the months in which teens are more likely to try marijuana for the first time. And as much as parents might want their kids get a job and do something useful with themselves, working actually increases the chances that they will experiment with drugs. Not only does a summer job expose them to older - but not old enough to know better - coworkers, they also have all that extra cash to spread around.
Now, I would not take that bit of information and decide that my teen isn't leaving the house until September, but any parent of a teen should be aware of the warning signs of drug use. Some are easy to spot (red, glassy eyes), while others are hard to distinguish from regular teen behavior (mood swings). Parents, The Anti Drug has great information with detailed signs and symptoms of drug use.
Perhaps the best advice I ever got for raising a drug-free teen was this: don't take your eyes off of them until they are 21. Seriously, the teen years are not the time to relax and assume your work is done. As grown up as they seem and as ready as you may be for them to actually be grown up, they are still kids. Most teens are far from ready to face the challenges of peer pressure, curiosity and plain old rebellion on their own. Arm yourself with knowledge and stay close at hand.
This chilling incident luckily had a (mostly) happy ending. A fourteen-year-old girl was attacked by a bear during a bike race in Alaska but was saved by her 911 phone call. The teenager, who remains unnamed as of press-time, was participating in a 24-hour long mountain bike race in Anchorage when she was mauled.
The girl was able to make a call to 911, wherein all she was able to say was the word "bear." She later underwent surgery at a local hospital. Experts say the bear was probably a sow grizzly, and some speculate it was the same bear that went after two joggers earlier thew past week.
Dispatchers called the girl back as part of regular procedure, and another biker heard the ringing and went onto the darkened trail to investigate, discovering the teenager. Another biker remained with her until help arrived, despite the knowledge of the bear attack. Although little information has been released about the teen's condition, Police Lieutenant. Paul Honeman said the girl was in a fight for her life.
I have a friend with three daughters who has a simple plan for when his daughters come of age -- he'll bury the first boyfriend in the front yard to serve as a warning to others. I think I'm going to use the advice someone gave me -- When a boy comes to take my daughter out, I'll put my arm around his shoulders as I walk him into the living room and calmly explain that "I just wanted to let you know that I'm not afraid to go back to prison -- but I know you'll treat my daughter right."
All kidding aside, the rules you set for your kids do have an effect on their love lives, the Wall Street Journal reports. Not only that, they reflect your own satisfaction with your relationships. Rules that set parameters for dates, including curfews, minimum dating ages, and limits on where teens can go are most often set by parents in stable relationships. Those rules, however, often lead to closer, more positive relationships for the teens.
On the other hand, parents who dictate specifics about dating behaviour are often insecure in their own relationships. By telling their teens to "act like a gentleman" or not to let their dates "walk all over" them, parents may be trying to steer their kids into a happier situation than their own. This apparently doesn't work, though. Such kids weren't especially happy in their own relationships.
The better tactic is what Dr. Stephanie Madsen, the author of the study, calls "supervisory" rules. This involves keeping communication going -- having the teens let you know what their plans are, tell you when they change, and check in occasionally. Hmm... I guess I won't be getting that Mossberg shotgun with the pistol grip after all.
If you are reading this, chances are you are least somewhat Internet savvy. I would also venture to guess that you are familiar with common Internet acronyms like LOL, IMHO, BRB, and the ever-popular WTF. If not, perhaps you work for the Division of Motor Vehicles in North Carolina. Those guys may be first in flight, but they are apparently the last to know that when you put the letters W, T and F together, they convey a rather inappropriate message for a license plate.
A few months after they began making WTF plates, someone finally clued them in., That someone was a 60-year-old teacher from Fayetteville who complained about her plate after her teenage grandchildren told her what it meant. Not only are there about 10,000 WTF'ers driving around the state, that letter combination was also used on the DMV's own Website as a sample personalized plate (it has since been removed).
Now that they know about it, state officials are happy to replace the plates free of charge for anyone who would rather not drive around displaying that particular acronym on their vehicles. For those who choose their keep the plates: LOL!
A teen girl in Kansas has found herself in a waking nightmare, charged with rape of a thirteen-year-old boy. The girl, who wishes to remain anonymous, was fourteen at the time of the alleged crime and she claims she was the one violated, not the other way around.
She tells a local news channel that she and three friends were spending a Saturday night together, watching movies and just hanging out. When two of her friends left the room, she says the thirteen year old boy forced himself on her. About a month later, she visited her school counselor to talk about what happened. "I wanted help because it was my first time and I was scared," she says.
The counselor went to the police and here's where things get even more messed up: the cops charged the girl with rape and criminal sodomy. No, it wasn't a paperwork error. Under Kansas law, sex with anyone under the age of fourteen is considered rape, even if it is consensual. Obviously the boy consented to the sex, but because he was under fourteen and the girl was over fourteen, he was raped.
The girl is telling her story because she wants people to know what is happening to her. Her lawyer, Sean Shores, is so outraged that he is defending her free of charge. "She went to her counselor, she asked for help, reached out for help and the message they sent her was--she should have kept her mouth shut," says Shores.
The message I am getting here is that common sense is dead. And buried in a steel box in the center of the earth. Let's hope they can dig it up before this girl's trial begins next month.
How many text messages do you send in a month -- five? fifty? What about your teenaged kids? More like 500? And you think that's a lot? Well let me tell you some thing... that's nothing. In fact fifteen-year-old Paige Horne does that in a day. Yep, she averages 15,000 text messages a month which works out to around 500 a day, every day.
She only knows this because the technician suggested that her heavy usage might be the reason her phone died when she took it in to be fixed. Naturally, in order to keep up that kind of traffic, she's a touch-textist: "I just don't look," she explained. "I guess I had the phone a long time and I just know where the buttons are and I just hit them."
And to make this even more impressive, the phone is turned off by 9pm on school nights -- there's no late night, under-the-covers texting for her. And if that isn't enough, she plays on her school volleyball and basketball teams and maintains a 3+ GPA. Personally, I don't get the whole texting thing, but as long as she is able to keep up her grades and all, I don't see a problem. I'm sure glad I'm not her thumbs, though!
The study consisted of a random sample of 158,000 kids aged 12 to 20 who were questioned about their drinking behaviors. Researchers found that 40 percent of teens reported receiving alcohol for free from an adult in the past 30 days, and that one in 16 got the drinks from a parent or guardian, while one in four said the provider was an unrelated adult. One in 12 were being served by an adult family member who was not their parent.
And of course, some kids -- about four percent -- reported that they simply helped themselves to alcohol in their homes.
Surgeon General Steven K. Galson holds the grown ups responsible for all this underage drinking. "In far too many instances parents directly enable their children's underage drinking -- in essence encouraging them to risk their health and well-being," he says. "Proper parental guidance alone may not be the complete solution to this devastating public health problem -- but it is a critical part."
What makes a few kids swiping some beers from the garage fridge a "devastating public health problem?" How about this: one out of five kids surveyed said that they had taken part in binge drinking during the previous month. A binge is defined as consuming five or more drinks on one occasion. Half of kids participating in the survey reported drinking in someone else's home, while a third said they were drinking in their own houses; a smaller number, less than ten percent, were in a bar or club.
What can you do to keep your kids from becoming a statistic? Model good drinking behavior at home, for starters. Know your children's friends and their parents. And don't be afraid to say no and stick to it.
Arctic Cat Inc. and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have announced the recall of about 6,000 ATV's due to a faulty speed controller. The controller can fail to return to the idle position when the throttle is released, or can sometimes fail to be at idle on start up. This could result in some major loss of vehicle control and in turn, serious injury or even death to the driver (not to mention those in the path of the out-of-control ATV).
The recall involves eighteen different models of the 2008 Arctic Cat 50cc and 90cc All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs). A complete list of the recalled models as well as additional pictures can be found here.
The ATV's were made in Taiwan and sold by Arctic Cat dealers nationwide from July 2007 through June 2008 for between $1,800 and $2,400.
If you have one, you should immediately stop using it and contact your local dealer to schedule a free repair. If you are a registered owner, you should have already been contacted by mail about the recall. For more information, contact Arctic Cat at (800) 279-6851 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT, Monday through Friday or visit their Web site.
What was supposed to be a fun day of golf for a group of young kids turned in to what one might charitably call a 'teaching opportunity" for parents. Due to a scheduling snafu, the Gold Crown Junior Golf Association tournament at Eagle Trace Golf Course in Broomfield, Colorado overlapped with Shotgun Willie's Charity Golf Tournament. Competing in the Gold Crown tournament: kids ages 7 to 12. Participants in Shotgun Willie's tournament: 70 strip club dancers and their patrons.
Eagle Trace instructor Dustin Moser admits that the girls may have gotten a little frisky out on the course, but insists that nothing untoward happened in the presence of the children. "There was nothing inappropriate going on around the clubhouse when the kids were around," he said.
At least one parent begs to differ. "When I walked into the clubhouse to look for my girls, I saw a woman straddling a male at a dining table," said a mother who picked up her two kids at the club. She says the questions on the way home went something like this: "Mom, why is she only wearing underwear?' 'Mom, why are the girls wearing white and why do the men have water guns?'
The manager of the golf club says Gold Crown officials were aware that Shotgun Willie's tournament was scheduled immediately after theirs. Gold Crown coordinator Jim Hunt insists that he was not informed of the half-naked, exotic nature of the participants. Either way, I think this is a golf tournament these kids won't soon forget.
Today, my seven year old and I spent the afternoon in the bookstore. While I was heartened to see many little kids enjoying books, I couldn't help but notice that there weren't many older kids browsing the aisles. After reading about this study, I think I know where those kids were: at home in front of some sort of digital entertainment.
The Tween & Teen Lifestyle Report is a bi-yearly look at what kids ages 8 to 17 are doing with their free time. No surprise, the trend away from reading and toward surfing the Internet, watching television and playing video games continues. The study, conducted by Youth Trends, a research and marketing firm, shows that only 65% of teens (ages 14 to 17) read a magazine for fun last month compared to 65% a year ago. Magazine reading among tweens (ages 8 to 13) showed a similar decline with 48% reporting reading a magazine in the last month compared to 52% percent a year ago.
Skipping magazine reading might not seem like such a bad thing (aren't they all beauty tips and celebrities anyway?), but the report shows that kids are using that time to watch more television and play around online. The report doesn't reveal just what the kids are watching on the tube, but you can be pretty sure it isn't educational. Online, they are spending the majority of their time sending and receiving emails, instant messaging and playing games.
I love to read and rarely does a day go by that I don't indulge that love. It's a habit I developed as a child (way before the Internet and cable television) and one that I still enjoy immensely. My seven year old, if left to her own devices, would rather watch an episode of Hannah Montana for the fourth time than read a book. But when I turn the television off and put a book in her hand, she quickly remembers that she loves to read. I give her books not just to get her away from the screen, but because I hope to make reading a habit that she will enjoy for the rest of her life, too.
When I think of the hottest trends in hip teen clothing, I usually think of that store in the mall that has the half naked mannequins lounging around out front. What I don't think of is JCPenney. But apparently, that's exactly the direction that the national chain is trying to head in. Just take a look at their latest teen-centric ad:
JCPenney's has jumped onto the "sex sells" bandwagon, trying to update their image to attract a younger crowd. But here's what I'm wondering: The commercial clearly pokes fun at the trusting mom who sits upstairs reading her magazine while the kids "go downstairs to watch TV." At the same time, it's sending a message to teen customers that today is the day to have sex with your boyfriend, right under your mom's nose.
The thing is, that mom in the commercial likely makes up the majority of JCPenney's customer base. How are moms who are loyal to this classic and formerly pretty wholesome brand going to feel about this commercial that encourages their teens to break parental rules and engage in risky behavior? Betrayed? Angry? Suddenly not so spendy?
It seems like a big risk to take to me. What do you think about JCPenney's new commercial?
Edited to add: As it turns out, everyone, JCPenney did not authorize this ad. (Let's let out a collective whew.) There's a lot of finger pointing going on right now; JCPenney is blaming its ad company Saatchi & Saatchi, who in turn is blaming the production company Epoch films.
According to Gawker, the commercial won an award at the Cannes Lions Awards this past weekend. Penney's chief marketing officer has been quoted as saying, "It's obviously inappropriate and nothing we would ever condone."
When I was a teenager, I would have done just about anything to get one of these -- a footbag for playing hackysack that you soak in paraffin oil and light on fire. I suck at hackysack, but that wouldn't have made a difference -- this thing is actually made to be set on fire. How cool is that? Apparently a little too cool -- or maybe not cool enough -- for South Australia.
"The Fire Footbag essentially becomes a flaming missile which presents extreme safety risks for people who could quite easily be burned by the footbag once it's been set alight," says South Australian Consumer Affairs Minister Jennifer Rankine. "Making such a dangerous item available to children or anyone else is absurd and unacceptable," she added. And so it has been banned down under.
It seems to me that sometimes governments have a tendency to overprotect their citizenry. The manufacturer's website clearly says that playing with a lighted firebag is "a dangerous activity. This product should only be used cautiously and only by competent footbaggers. Keep safety in mind and always have water and a fireblanket nearby." On the other hand, you know there are parents out there who would buy this and a big supply of flammable material for their kids, so maybe it is best not to make it available.
Gee, I hope my kids don't read this story -- I don't need to show up in court every time I send them to sit on the stairs. You see, a twelve-year-old girl in Quebec, Canada didn't like being grounded -- and missing a graduation trip with her elementary school mates -- so she filed a lawsuit. Just over a week ago, Quebec Superior Court Judge Suzanne Tessier ruled that the father's punishment was out-of-line.
At first, the punishment was simply that the daughter was not allowed to go online because she had posted pictures of herself on an internet dating site, but then, when she got into a fight with her stepmother, the dad brought the hammer down -- "OK, it's final. You're not going," he told her, referring to the school trip. The girl took off and went to stay with her mother. She filed a motion asking the court to overturn the punishment.
The Judge's reasoning was that the girl had already been sufficiently punished and that, since she was currently living with her mother, the punishment wasn't really applicable. The father does have custody, but in Quebec, parents do have "joint parental authority," according to Miriam Grassby, a Quebec family lawyer, regardless of who has custody.
I don't know all the details of the situation, and it does seem that everyone considers this to be an anomaly, but I'd hate to see the already over-worked courts dealing with disgruntled teens on a regular basis. What do you think?
I admit that I am not all that familiar with Angelina Jolie's body of work. I know plenty about her body, her humanitarian work and her personal life, but I don't see many movies that aren't rated "G". I do know that Jolie gets a lot of positive press and that the only real criticism I've heard concerning her film work is that maybe she shouldn't be doing any with all those kids at home.
According to Drug Free America, summer can mean more than swimming, sunning and shopping for some teenagers. June, July and August are also the months in which teens are 
I have a friend with three daughters who has a simple plan for when his daughters come of age -- he'll bury the first boyfriend in the front yard to serve as a warning to others. I think I'm going to use the advice someone gave me -- When a boy comes to take my daughter out, I'll put my arm around his shoulders as I walk him into the living room and calmly explain that "I just wanted to let you know that I'm not afraid to go back to prison -- but I know you'll treat my daughter right."
If you are reading this, chances are you are least somewhat Internet savvy. I would also venture to guess that you are familiar with common 
A teen girl in Kansas has found herself in a waking nightmare, charged with 
How many text messages do you send in a month -- five? fifty? What about your teenaged kids? More like 500? And you think that's a lot? Well let me tell you some thing... that's nothing. In fact fifteen-year-old Paige Horne does that in a day. Yep, she 
A study released Thursday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has news that shouldn't surprise any of us: 
What was supposed to be a fun day of golf for a group of young kids turned in to what one might charitably call a 'teaching opportunity" for parents. Due to a scheduling snafu, the Gold Crown Junior Golf Association tournament at Eagle Trace Golf Course in Broomfield, Colorado overlapped with Shotgun Willie's Charity Golf Tournament. Competing in the Gold Crown tournament: kids ages 7 to 12. Participants in Shotgun Willie's tournament: 
Today, my seven year old and I spent the afternoon in the bookstore. While I was heartened to see many little kids enjoying books, I couldn't help but notice that there weren't many older kids browsing the aisles. After reading about 
Gee, I hope my kids don't read this story -- I don't need to show up in court every time I send them to sit on the stairs. You see, a twelve-year-old girl in Quebec, Canada didn't like being grounded -- and missing a graduation trip with her elementary school mates -- so she filed a lawsuit. Just over a week ago, Quebec Superior Court Judge Suzanne Tessier ruled that 
