Parenting Challenges in Today's Climate

"Third Eye Parenting" has been in the works for a long time. My friends have frequently told me that I should start a blog, but it never came to fruition. As a mom with a technology background, I've always had a passion for being aware of - if not ahead of - the social technology and other media that my children will encounter. As parents, we've tried to strike a balance with the healthy use of it as well.

Now that my kids are teens, these issues seem even more pressing. And though safe technology usage is still a huge concern, there is so much more to their little lives. I don't claim to be an expert in anything, but I'm hoping that this blog will be useful for me, as well as promoting awareness for anyone searching for just the right approach for their own families.

Please feel free to contact me with any ideas for topics. I won't be taking any stance except the stance of keeping my own family as free from harm as possible, and efforts will be made to cover topics that are affecting ALL of our kids. I can't take rudeness, so just keep everything civil, polite, and free of politics. Which reminds me of a topic on cyberbullying...

Lastly, "third eye" refers to the old wives' tale of parents having eyes in the backs of their heads, presumably to see everything that goes on. I'll freely admit that my "third eye" comes from researching, reading, and other parents that have eyes on my kids as well. It absolutely takes a village to be #AlwaysAware.

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The Adderall Epidemic

Like an episode of Friends, I'm calling this topic "the one that started it". Like I said in my intro, this blog has been in the back of my mind for a while, but nothing ever propelled it forward. There are so many things I hate about blogs - the irritating sense of entitlement by an author, endless ads, and so much detail about the author's life (thank you, "Jump to Recipe" creator!). You won't get that here. I'd love to stay anonymous, and frankly, I've been too long-winded already. Let's get to the reason I started this... My local moms group is ACTIVE. Almost to a fault. But a recent post by one of the members piqued my interest in the topic of Adderall use in teens and college students to enhance their concentration and performance while studying for finals. This doesn't seem to be the only time students are using this stuff, but the recent death of two college students at Ohio State brought to my attention to how easily these tee...

Why My Teens Have Phones

I couldn't help but write for just a minute about the horrific tragedy in Uvalde, TX . I'm a Texan at heart, mostly because I have a long family history there, dating to the mid 1800s. Some of my favorite places on earth are a quick drive from Uvalde. I'm sure most people have never heard of the place, which makes it both special and (so we thought) safe. I don't know about you, but given everything going on currently, it's starting to feel like my kids are never going to be truly safe... When I channel my objective side (which doesn't really come out much, because let's be honest - I'd rather panic and be pleasantly surprised when the worst doesn't happen), I know that my kids are probably safer in school than running around town. Uvalde, TX, population 15K, has 10 schools in its public school district. One was targeted. The U.S. has almost 100K public schools , and there have been a little over 2,000 school shootings in the last 10 years . Statisti...

Social Media Toxicity

Today's topic was brought to my attention during a recent happy hour dicussion with my girlfriends. I highly recommend creating a friend group that is a safe space to air everything, and that's exactly what we do. No one is competitive or jealous, just a lovely group of moms trying to raise healthy kids and spilling all of their insecurities over a glass of wine. On this particular night, we were discussing one friend's child who is going through several challenging circumstances. Her sweet baby was doing their best to get through life, and guess what? Social media did it's thing and piled on. She was telling us about how the kids in her child's class would take video of her child and post it on Snapchat, where it would spread like wildfire. Kids would then use the posts to harass and embarrass. This makes me so angry. How is this happening? A lot of kids have more access to social media than they need. And no judgement - I'm not in anyone else's shoes, a...

Third Eye Parenting

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