Teens and Volunteering

Especially at the holidays, it is a great time to encourage your teens to get involved with volunteerism. 

Community service hours are usually required for high school graduation, but more important than that is the giving back to others and the self-esteem it can bring to your teenager.

Here are some ideas to give to your teen:

• Informal volunteering. Your teen watches a neighbor’s kids or joins a group of students who are cleaning up a park.

These activities are the easiest to find. They don’t require a long-term commitment. They may whet your teen’s interest to get more involved.

•  Formal volunteering. Many teens have a regular volunteer job. They help at a food bank. They tutor a younger student.

These activities teach responsibility—teens have to show up when they say they will. They often help teens decide whether they want a career in this field.

• In-school clubs. From foreign language clubs to yearbook, sports to music, there are clubs for every interest.

Many schools have clubs that are organized to provide service. Groups like Key Club and student government can help students help others.

• Community organizations. Many out-of-school clubs offer teens a chance to learn and grow. Most religious organizations offer activities for youth. Teens might also think about Girl and Boy Scouts, 4-H, DeMolay and community sports organizations.

Source © 2013 Parent Institute

Words Wound: Delete Cyberbullying and Make Kindness Go Viral

Order today!

"Everyone is looking for an answer to the bullying and cyberbullying problem. We know where it can be found: in teens themselves. We’ve met so many who are coming up with creative ideas, and running with them. They are spearheading movements and making a real, measurable difference. And here are some of their stories. Join them, and join us. Words wound, but words can also heal and help. We know it, and you know it - and so let's stop standing on the sidelines. Let's get in there and do something about it."

Justin and Sameer, creators of Words Wound 

Cyberbullying happens every day. Harsh words and damaging photos exchanged through texts, email, or social media can result in humiliation, broken friendships, punishment at school, and even legal prosecution.

In some cases, online harassment has contributed to teen suicide. Faced with this frightening problem, parents, educators, and teens are looking for information and advice. Many books have been written for adults about what cyberbullying is and what to do about it, but nothing has been written specifically for teens to help them to protect themselves and their peers.

Written by the foremost experts in cyberbullying prevention and reviewed by teens, this book provides practical strategies for those who are being cyberbullied, seeing cyberbullying, or who just want to do something to help make their schools a safer and more respectful place. The book includes dozens of real-life stories from those who have experienced cyberbullying, including many who have risen above it to make a positive difference in their schools.

In short, "Words Wound" helps students to be the primary agents of change to "delete cyberbullying and make kindness go viral." Are you ready to join the movement?

Order on Amazon today!

Dazed and Confused: Trends in Mental Disability

Nearly 2 million teens, or 8 percent of the adolescent population, experienced a major depressive episode in the past year.
Source: BestMastersinCounseling.com

Helping Your Teen Avoid Drug Use

Statistics have proven parents do make a difference in their child's decision to use drugs.

Here’s a quiz to see whether you’re doing all you can.

Give yourself five points for something you usually do, zero points for something you never do—or any score in between.

___1. I have talked with my teen about drug and alcohol use. She knows our family’s values.
___2. I know where my teen is and who she is with.
___3. I keep my children involved in positive activities like volunteering and sports.
___4. I know the signs of alcohol and drug abuse.
___5. I am aware of the example I provide.

How did you score?

Above 20 means you’re doing all you can to help your teen avoid drugs and alcohol. A score of 15 to 19 is average. Below 15 means you may need to talk more directly about drugs and alcohol.

Copyright © 2013 Parent Institute

Teen Text Talk

When it comes to teens it can be more difficult and even more important to be a parent in the know.

Let’s start with 50 Acronyms Parents Should Know: 

(Courtesy of Enough is Enough and NetLingo)

1. 8 - Oral sex
2. 1337 - Elite -or- leet -or- L337
3. 143 - I love you
4. 182 - I hate you
5. 1174 - Nude club
6. 420 - Marijuana
7. 459 - I love you
8. ADR - Address
9. AEAP - As Early As Possible
10. ALAP - As Late As Possible
11. ASL - Age/Sex/Location
12. CD9 - Code 9 – it means parents are around
13. C-P - Sleepy
14. F2F - Face-to-Face
15. GNOC - Get Naked On Cam
16. GYPO - Get Your Pants Off
17. HAK - Hugs And Kisses
18. ILU - I Love You
19. IWSN - I Want Sex Now
20. J/O - Jerking Off
21. KOTL - Kiss On The Lips
22. KFY -or- K4Y - Kiss For You
23. KPC - Keeping Parents Clueless
24. LMIRL - Let’s Meet In Real Life
25. MOOS - Member Of The Opposite Sex
26. MOSS - Member(s) Of The Same Sex
27. MorF - Male or Female
28. MOS - Mom Over Shoulder
29. MPFB - My Personal F*** Buddy
30. NALOPKT - Not A Lot Of People Know That
31. NIFOC - Nude In Front Of The computer
32. NMU - Not Much, You?
33. P911 - Parent Alert
34. PAL - Parents Are Listening
35. PAW - Parents Are Watching
36. PIR - Parent In Room
37. POS - Parent Over Shoulder -or- Piece Of Sh**
38. pron - porn
39. Q2C - Quick To Cum
40. RU/18 - Are You Over 18?
41. RUMORF - Are You Male OR Female?
42. RUH - Are You Horny?
43. S2R - Send To Receive
44. SorG - Straight or Gay
45. TDTM - Talk Dirty To Me
46. WTF - What The F***
47. WUF - Where You From
48. WYCM - Will You Call Me?
49. WYRN - What’s Your Real Name?
50. zerg - To gang up on someone

Be an educated parent – you will have safer teens!

Follow Enough is Enough on Twitter and Facebook.

Phone vs Text vs Email

What type of person are you?


Source: Accredited Online Colleges

Phone:
Yes:”The only way to do business aside from in person.”
Sort-of:”It is easier to understand nuances, humor, and intonation.”
No:”Ugh, it’s so stressful having to actually talk to someone. A phone call is an invasion of privacy.”
Text:
Yes:”Easiest and most convenient by far.”
Sort-of:”That’s a lot of typing on a small keyboard.”
No: “What’s texting? So unprofessional.”

E-mail:
Yes:”Very clear, easy, and always have a record of the convo.”
Sort-of: “Well you can respond when it’s convenient.”
No: “What’s email? It’s hard to tell what people really mean.”

It probably depends on your generation

The Young Ones
43% of 18-24 y.o.’s think texting is just as meaningful as a face to face conversation.
42% of teenagers say texting is the main reason they own a phone.

Millennials prefer emails and texts to other forms of communication.

29% of Millennials think in person meetings are effective vs. 45% of Boomers
[% of generations that use cell to text]
Millennial: 88%
Gen X: 77%
Boomer: 51%
Silent: 9%
Median # of texts in the last 24 hours of
Millennial: 20
Gen X: 12
Boomer: 5
Silent:0

And at the extreme: Teenagers: 50
It’s part of an ‘always connected’ youth culture.

[% of generations that sleep with their phone]
Millennial:83%
Gen X: 68%

Facebook and Kids: What Habits Are They Picking Up?

The Facebook generation – that is the trend of our kids and teens today, but what new habits (good and bad) are they learning from social networking?  Since Facebook is the largest and most used social networking site, let’s see what the top seven bad habits kids are learning from Facebook.

You had to have seen this one coming: kids are picking up bad habits from their extensive use of social media giant Facebook. This can’t come as too big of a surprise though, because it stands to reason that something so popular and fun would be bound to have some ill effects. Not that we’re condemning Facebook, mind you, but there are a few potential pitfalls to watch out for regarding your child’s usage.

The following are seven bad habits that kids pick up from Facebook:

1. TMI – To be honest, many of us are already guilty of grossly over-sharing our personal lives on Facebook. When you have a place to update your status 24/7, though, it shouldn’t come as any real surprise that eventually one’s entire personal life is right there for anyone and everyone to read on their profile.
2. Inappropriate Friending – It tends to be an automatic reaction for some to “friend” someone after they’ve added you, accompanied by the friend confirmation request, whether this person is someone you know well or not. While they may not like the idea of saying ‘no’, safety should have a higher priority than popularity.
3. Posting Inappropriate Photos – Inappropriate photographs always seem to find their way onto people’s Facebook pages. For that matter, taking such photos in the first place is ill-advised, to say the least. Coupled with the prospect of being friended by stalkers and strangers, not to mention being available for any potential employers or school officials, this makes for a very dangerous mix.
4. Poor Time Management – It’s very easy to lose track of one’s time while socializing on Facebook, and hours at a time can be lost without even realizing it, often at the expense of more important things like homework, chores, etc. It may be wise to install a filter software that can monitor use and block certain sites during specified time periods to ensure that your kids don’t spend too much time on the website.
5. Indiscriminate Downloading – Facebook is notorious for third party apps that seek to gain access to personal data and the friend lists of members who use them. There’s a large risk associated with accepting gifts via some of these app, unfortunately, that could end up compromising your personal information.
6. Poor Grammar – As with chat rooms, IM’s, and text messaging, all of which came prior to social media, Facebook posts can tend toward cyber shorthand, whether it’s in the interest of brevity or simply born out of sheer laziness. Although it’s acceptable – even necessary in some cases – to limit character usage, it’s very easy for this habit to leak over to your child’s more formal writing and correspondence.
7. Not Safeguarding Personal Info – Facebook provides varying levels of privacy settings for its users. Members can share everything with anyone, or limit access to their profile to just friends and/or family. Kids today have become ok and even lax with the safeguarding of their personal information, and identity theft, stalking or harassment can end up being one of the penalties for your child being too open with his or her personal information.

Source:  Become a Nanny

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National Cyber Safety Awarness Month and Your Emails

Have you ever hit that SEND button then realized it went to the wrong person? After all, especially if you work with an address book, you could have more than one "Sue" in there, and another "Sue" just received my email. Unfortunately, this other "Sue" is not exactly one you wanted to know about the information that was intended for the other "Sue".

Yes, email does have have pet peeves we need to be aware of.

Whether you use email a little or a lot, there are certain things that annoy you about this communication tool. Sometimes the annoyance comes from the way others use it. Sometimes it is just your own frustration in dealing with the software and computers in general that is the issue.

1. Forwards. It isn't that we don't ever want anyone to forward us a great email message, we just hate it when that is ALL we receive from some people and that we receive them in multiples each day. It doesn't take long for those warm fuzzy messages and all those funny jokes to become very impersonal when that is all a person ever sends. All it takes is two or three email friends that are “Forward Junkies” to keep your email box filled with new time wasting mail every day.
2. Guilt and Greed messages. You know the ones I'm talking about. A lot of them have really great content in them but when you get to the end they hit you either with greed (send this to at least 10 people in the next 5 minutes and you're wishes will all come true) or with guilt (send this on to everyone on your mailing list if you're not ashamed of Jesus).
3. Not using bcc. Incase you are one of those who still doesn't know what bcc stands for, it's blind carbon copy. When you send those forwards on to people, don't use the To: or the CC: fields. There is another option, it is the BCC field. This keeps all the email addresses you are sending to hidden from the other recipients. Do your part to help prevent the spread of viruses and spam, use the bcc field when sending to multiple recipients.
4. Pictures and videos sent to dialup accounts. If you know that one of your email contacts has to access the internet via a dialup connection, have compassion on them. Think before you send them that Youtube video or the ten cute pictures of puppies. It will take forever for them to download at dialup speed and they can't get any of their other email until yours finishes loading.
5. Receiving files you can't open. Sometimes this issue could have been avoided with a little thought on the senders part, other times it is just a matter of the recipient not having an up to date computer or having an incorrect setting that doesn't allow them to open certain files that others can. If you have the newest version of MS Office, don't assume that everyone else does. Use your 'Save As' function to save the file in a different format that is compatible with a wider range of programs.
6. Reply All. Although this is a great feature, sometimes it gets used unintentionally and everyone on a list receives a reply meant for only one of you. This can be annoying, and potentially, embarassing.
7. Fear and hate messages. These are those messages that are intended to stir up fear, anxiety or even hatred. Often times the messages are political, racial or religious in nature. Usually they also mix truth with falsehoods or exaggerations to add to the confusion.
8. Use of text slang with non-texters. LOL – Does that mean 'Lots of Love'? Btw – Does that mean 'Before the War'? idk, ttyl Translation: I don't know. Talk to you later.
9. Assumptions that everyone checks their email daily. With so many having continual access to their email via their computers and cellphones, it is easy to assume that an email message will be received and read the same day it was sent. There are those who choose not to open their email inbox daily, either because they don't want to take the time or they don't expect to receive important communication via email on a regular basis. It can be frustrating to persons on both ends when an email regarding important news is not read until several days after it was sent.
10. Spam. This is the equivalent of electronic junk mail. Emails sent out to email addresses in mass mailings in the attempt to lure you to a website or infect you with a virus. They waste your time and endanger the security of your data. Good virus and anti-spam filtering software can help alleviate this annoying issue.

Electronic mail, we love it and we loathe it at times, but it has become a part of almost everyones life. We might as well learn how to use it in the most beneficial ways possible.

Source: My ISP Finder

I have personally received several emails from people that have "Sue" in their address books. Many were business related messages regarding meetings they were to attend and updates on conferences. I have politely emailed the people back saying they have emailed the wrong "Sue".

The Internet, it is a wonderful tool, you just need to use it responsibly.