So I was helping Mr. Z with his math homework, this afternoon, and it mostly consisted of converting metric measurements from one size to another, like kilograms to grams or millimeters to centimeters and shit like that. At first I was like, "ah, no fucking problem," but as I was trying to explain it to him, my withered synapses fucking seized up on me and I found myself rapidly spinning down some bottomless numerical vortex, and I began second-guessing every answer and well, frankly, it got pretty ugly pretty quick.

We made it through to the other side with only a few tears (and he was pretty upset, too) and then we closed the book and I let him watch some Spongebob so that any trace amounts of understanding he may have gleaned from our little study session were instantly erased and replaced with "GAAAAHHHHHHH!"

A new study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse says the key to keeping your kids off of drugs is to be a “hands-on” parent. What does that mean?

Well, these parents monitor their kids’ TV-watching and Internet use, they put restrictions on what music their kids buy, they know where their kids are after school and on weekends, and they give regular chores to their children.

How about you?

Warmly,

Mark Brandenburg

Mark Brandenburg MA, CPCC
mark@eqnow.org
www.markbrandenburg.com
www.eqnow.org
Phone (+1) 651-766-9976
"Helping Men Succeed"

Acne is one of the most common problems in adolescent teens affecting nearly seventeen million people in the United States. Acne is nothing but a disorder involving sebaceous glands and hair follicles. Acne results from the clogging of sebaceous glands leading to the formation of pimples and cysts.
The condition usually begins with the onset of puberty. Going by the facts, as teens attain puberty the androgens also called male sex hormones are produced in high number leading to sebaceous glands becoming over active which results in sebum being produced in high proportions.

Sebum, which is nothing but oil is produced by sebaceous glands which travel to the skin surface through hair follicles. But, skin cells block the follicles which results in oil also being blocked. When these hair follicles are blocked it results in the development of skin bacteria known as Propionibacterium Acnes within the follicles which in turn results in swelling of the skin called Acne.

In today’s busy world, many parents have lost the art of telling their stories to their kids. Here are some reasons why these stories are so beneficial:

1. Use them to teach lessons about life.
Stories will stimulate conversations with your kids more effectively than lecturing or “trying to get them to talk. There are a lot of issues happening for your kids these days, and stories give them a chance to reflect on them.

2. Stories connect your kids with previous generations.
In a society that seems to have families spread out all over, it's vitally important to have ways to have your kids feel connected to their extended families.

3. Stories stimulate your kids’ imagination.
One of the best ways to prepare your kids for the world is to engage them in vivid stories that stir their imagination. Kids who are exposed to these kinds of stories will be the creative problem-solvers of the future.

My boss was telling me about a dentist friend of his, and how he handled a tear-away 10 year-old named Robbie.

Picture this ... and it really is a true story.

Robbie turns up at the dental office, ready for battle.

“Get in the chair, young man,” said the dentist.

“No chance!” Robbie shoots back.

“Son, I told you to climb into the chair...”

Robbie stared at his opponent and then replied, “If you make me get in that chair, I will take off all my clothes.”

The dentist calmly said, “Son, take ‘em off.”

So he removes his shirt, shoes and socks.

“All right, son, now get on the chair.”

“You didn’t hear me,“ blurts out Robbie. “I said if you make me get on that chair, I will take off all my clothes.”

“Son, take ‘em off.”

Off come the pants and undies, leaving Robbie standing totally naked before the dentist and his assistant.

“Now, son, get in the chair”

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” To many people 40 years ago, hardship was a badge of honor because it was the foundation of great accomplishment and a refiner of character.

Today, unfortunately, many of our young people seek only to do the easiest and most convenient thing. They bear some responsibility for their mindset, but so do many of us as parents with our basement-level expectations. So dads, let’s encourage our kids to do hard (not impossible) things because they are capable and because we refuse to indulge them with low aspirations.

Posted with permission from www.allprodad.com

Some have defined a big family as any family with more than the socially acceptable number of children. Others have defined it as four or more children.

What is the socially acceptable number of children??? I don’t know, so I looked up the Statistics for New Zealand and it reports a number of 2.6 as the average total number of family members per household. Does that mean that the socially acceptable number of children is 0.6??? Hey even if it is two children I still have more!

What if one of the measurements were "is your family too big for the average car"?

An obstacle I have come across is transport, before Ava (number four) was born we were five, so it was important that the car we drove had a bench seat for a back seat to make seating for three as comfortable as possible.

Seventy-nine percent of parents demonstrate they they want to learn more about how to be more involved in their childrens education. Seventy-seven percent of parents also think their children's teachers could learn more about involving parents in their children's learning.

Partner the above statistic with studies showing a correlation between parent participation in the classroom and successful students, and the complex problems of the nation's school system would seem to be solved.
However the obvious is not always that simple.

"Parents want to help but are often afraid to do anything," says Jane Anderson, a New York Public School teacher and parent of two school age children.

My mum says that that its natural justice ... that I don't just have one child who is an incessant talker (like I was, for her), but I have three! Actually, during some moment of sleep deprivation, we actually decided to have another.

And I never thought that I’d ever find myself saying this, but I get so desperate for some peace and quiet, that I have been known to occasionally stick the kids in front of a DVD and sneak off to the toilet, in a frantic bid for solace. You can probably squeeze out 15 minutes in there, without raising the wife’s suspicion.

I’m sure you’ve never done anything like that, but you just can’t imagine what its like - three little heads yabbering away ... all at the same time.

And don’t write to me about the dangers of TV on developing minds ... I have a mother, and a mother-in-law. I know, in their day, they never would’ve done that.

Hi, I’m Tim Sisarich and just recently I went in search for a couple of sets of cowboy guns for my four-year old boys.

You know, the kind with the wide belt and twin holsters.

I hadn’t gone out of my way not to buy them buy guns up to this point.

Nor do I really have any staunch view of the dangers of boys and guns ... it's just sort of the way it turned out.

So I popped into the local toyshop to discover that the only guns they sold were strange looking space lasers, with flashy buttons, lights and sounds.

They didn’t even look like guns!

To my surprise, they inform me that they don’t stock those sorts of guns ... Nor did any of the other 6 toy stores I went to.

Can you believe that?