Good stuff to keep in mind for parents of teenagers. Heidi (one of our blog followers) being one, what do you think?
by Katie Hinderer
Last week’s post about attire and the male versus female mind has drawn a lot of comments. (I love hearing what you have to say, so keep the thoughts coming.) All the discussion got me thinking about where the solution can be found. I was toying with the role parents’ play when Carlos hit the nail on the head; saying girls “need strong fathers to say NO and strong mothers to explain why!!” Read more…
Wow. Powerful title.
by Michael Cook
Is it high-tech child abuse to rob children of their biological heritage?
A 51-year-old Michigan man may have fathered as many as 400 children by donating sperm to an IVF clinic between 1980 and 1994. At the time Kirk Maxey saw this as a way to pay his way through medical school and to help infertile women. “You would get a personal phone call from a nurse saying, ‘The situation is urgent! We have a woman ovulating this morning. Can you be here in a half hour?’,” he told Newsweek last year. Read more…
By ROSS DOUTHAT, New York Times
If you want to adopt a child in the United States, you’ll face an array of bureaucratic roadblocks and invasive interrogations. Adoption agencies will assess your finances, your relationships, and your fitness as a potential guardian. The interests of the child, not the desires of the would-be parent, will be treated as paramount throughout. Read more…
by Michael Cook
In the US alone an estimated 30,000-60,000 children are born each year through sperm donation, yet no entity is required to report on these vital statistics. Until now, no reliable evidence has been available on the experiences of young adults who were conceived in this way. A report released this week by the Institute for American Values, My Daddy’s Name is Donor, is the first-ever representative, comparative attempt to learn about the identity, kinship, well-being, and social justice experiences of these adults. Read more…
Something a little light-hearted; plus, it makes sense!
Click here to watch this video featuring famous big family members. It cracks me up that many of these “big families” contain only three members, and that they show Mother Teresa a few frames before Madonna as though they were on equal footing, but I get their point. And I dig the song that comes with the video.
by Kamilah Thorpe
Don’t you love this video? It really puts some perspective to big families and the greatness that can come from them. Being from a large family myself, I was excited to get this post submission from a fellow oldest child. Kamilah has taken the lessons she learned in her family and has transferred those to the college scene, finding more than one similarity. Here’s what she has to day on the matter… Read more…
In my last post, I discussed the difficulties of raising children. Nevertheless, the enterprise is essential. Here’s an article about what the Jewish sources have to say about the issue:
The Bible depicts procreation as both a blessing and a commandment (Genesis 1:28, 9:1-7). Some medieval scholars count it as the first mitzva, both in order and importance, since it facilitates the settlement of the world and the ability for mitzvot to be performed (Hinuch). Procreation is further deemed as a central purpose of marriage, albeit not its exclusive goal (Tur EH 1), and one may even sell a Torah scroll to support a marriage (Megila 27a). Conversely, the Talmud declares, “He who has not engaged in procreation, it is as if he committed murder,” or alternatively, “has diminished the divine image (Yevamot 63b). Read more…
The thought of kids having kids is really disturbing to me. I had my first child when I was 25, and I can say, it’s serious business. I can’t imagine doing it while trying to go to high school or even college. And who is really going to be raising these children anyhow? My guess is, the grandmothers. Let’s do a survey of how mothers of pregnant teens feel about teen pregnancy.
The picture a 13-year-old boy sitting next to his baby, which accompanied an article on this topic a while back, still burns in my memory. It was such a heart-wrenching sight. The thirteen-year-old looked so tiny. Plus his face spoke volumes of “What have I gotten myself into?” This dad is still asking to have his pb and j cut into triangles and for rides to the library. I wouldn’t let a 13-year-old boy babysit my toddlers. Babies deserve more. Read more…
Categories: Babies, Birth Control, Chastity, Condomism, Hook-up, Pregnancy, Sex Education, Single Parents, Teenagers, abstinence Tags: abstinence, babies, birth control, condoms, contraception, sex, teen pregnancy, Teenagers
Basically the gist of this article is that parents don’t spend enough time with their kids, and kids would like to spend more time with their parents. I suspect that many social ills would lose popularity if families spent more time together.
Here are my two favorite paragraphs, followed by the rest of the article:
There was a significant and rather sad gap between UK parents and children over the importance of family integrity. Only 51 per cent of parents agreed that, to have the best opportunities in life, a child needs a father and mother under the same roof, but three quarters of children did. Slightly more children (55 per cent) thought it was important that their parents were married than parents in general did (52 per cent). Read more…
From One News Now comes this article about a high school student who dared to wear a T-shirt to school that promoted….(gasp)…..abstinence!
A middle-school student in Minnesota has regained his right to wear at school a T-shirt bearing an abstinence message.
Officials at Hastings Middle School had initially prohibited seventh-grader Johnathon Kinney from wearing the T-shirt with the message “Virginity Rocks!” On April 26, two school teachers confronted Kinney about the shirt, informing him that it was offensive and should be covered up. School officials also warned Kinney against wearing the shirt again.
After contacting the principal about the incident — and finding he supported the teachers’ decision — Kinney’s parents contacted The Rutherford Institute. John Whitehead, Read more…
Michelle Obama has lectured the nation on childhood obesity. It probably won’t shock you that her proposed solutions involve government action.
However, I would suggest a different solution– marriage and active child rearing by biological parents. This article discusses some of the causes of childhood obesity. The causes it discusses are less politically correct than blaming McDonalds and the Coca Cola Corporation.
Today, large numbers of elementary school kids are getting themselves ready for school without a parent. When my wife substituted at our son’s elementary school in California, kids were showing up at school with donuts for breakfast—because both parents had left the house hours earlier, expecting their kids to make their own way. After school, too many elementary school kids are returning to empty homes, and eating for comfort. I recall when my wife and I were out looking at houses Read more…
Psychiatrists are making comparative studies of empathy across generations. The Me Generation lives up to its name: less empathetic than previous generations.
Sara Konrath, a researcher at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, said in a news release. “College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait.”
A total of 72 studies conducted between 1979 and 2009 were included in the current review.
The analysis indicated that relative to their late-1970s’ counterparts, today’s college students are less likely to make an effort to understand their friends’ perspectives or to feel tenderness or concern for the less fortunate.
What accounts for this remarkable finding? According to the Business Week account of the research: TV, Read more…
I agree. And Ray Guarendi is a real top notch guy who knows his stuff. This makes sense.
by Carolyn Moynihan
Most kids are dating way too early
That’s the opinion of family psychologist Ray Guarendi, and judging from the schoolkids I see smooching on the street and at the mall he is right. Read more…
Our critics allege that we here at the Ruth Institute want to turn women into “baby factories.”
Okay. So let’s consider that position for a second.
But before we do so, I think we should note this. We can quibble about the number of babies the world needs, but what cannot be disputed is that at some time and in some number, human society is going to need to make babies for its continued existence.
Who should make those babies?
We believe that this responsibility should fall upon women. There are two reasons we believe this. First of all, we’re EEEEEEEEEVIL right wingers. Read more…
by Maggie Gallagher
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Townhall.com
I walked in late for the Susan B. Anthony List breakfast last Friday and, right away, Sarah Palin blew me away.
Trig. Read more…
This part cracks me up: The woman in charge of the sex ed program was upset saying that they had to “kow-tow to parents.” Oh, please forgive parents for caring what their children learn on the topic! She acts as though parents are idiots and know nothing. Well, they ARE parents.
by Brian Lilley
A government plan for explicit sex-ed gets shut down by parents.
Parents are the primary educators of their children. While this may seem to be a rather mundane statement, it is becoming radical in many parts of the world. Yet last week parents rose up to tell the politicians, experts and bureaucrats that run Ontario’s education system that they had had enough and a strange thing happened; the parents won the day. Read more…
By Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse
This article was first published May 12, 2010, at the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
Well, we have survived another Mother’s Day. But what is the holiday really all about, besides an excuse to sell chocolates, flowers, greeting cards and a bit of guilt? Why should we “celebrate” motherhood, when motherhood itself is under attack, or at least, undergoing some kind of cultural renovation? Read more…
I’m glad to hear there poll results. I fully agree. I’m a stay-at-home mother of three, and I work part-time. Win-win-win. (I win, my children win, and my boss wins.) 
by Bill Muehlenberg
A brand new survey of what women really want concerning paid maternity leave is most revealing. Contrary to the usual line that basically all women want a paid career, with perhaps family thrown in on the side, this new Australian poll finds overwhelming support for the importance of stay-at-home mothering. Read more…
As a mom I’d say it’s because we’re thinking more of homicide. Oh, just kidding!
by Carolyn Moynihan
One of the topics that came up at the Barcelona conference on low fertility was the question of whether parenthood brings happiness to adults; the evidence so far seems uncertain. This week, however, there is solid evidence reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in favour of motherhood, if not fatherhood. Read more…
Judith Stacey and Timothy Biblarz’s new study, “Two Mommies Are as Good as Mom and Dad,” actually goes further than this: midway through the piece, the viewpoint becomes that women (or gay men) are better than heterosexual men. Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse has already responded in print; now she unpacks this study in this podcast.
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