Snack Generation

The beginning of March marks the start of National Nutrition Month, which is a nutrition education and information campaign created by the American Dietetic Association. As we try to focus our attentions on the importance of healthy eating and exercise, a glaring trend in the United States must be addressed. Children and adolescents today are facing dramatically higher rates of obesity compared to the recent past, and according to one recent study done by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, childhood obesity rates have more than tripled since 1980. Also, according to this study, obese or overweight children represent greater than or equal to 30% of all children in 30 different states, with Louisiana ranking 7th nationally having 35.9% of children considered overweight or obese (F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009). These statistics show just how important and widespread this issue is, and the need for healthy and active lifestyles seems more pertinent now than ever.
The causes of obesity and overweight children can be attributed to a number of different factors, from lack of exercise, staying indoors, lack of nutritional meals, etc. However one recent trend seems to show that snacking is one major factor in this epidemic. Snacking, for many children, has replaced the traditional three nutritional meals of the day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Instead of eating healthy foods at these times, children are filling up on calories from foods that provide little to no nutritional value, such as cookies, salty snacks, and fruit drinks. Children eat snacks on average about three times per day, accounting for about “27 percent of an average child’s total daily calories”. Children today are eating more frequently and consuming more calories, but are eating less nutritional foods and performing fewer physical activities. Dr. Popkin explains, “My underlying fear is that we’re moving away from being hungry and eating for satiation to just eating… Food is there, and we eat”.
As we celebrate National Nutrition Month, we should focus more energy on teaching and implementing healthy eating habits with our children and adolescents so that they may continue the healthy lifestyle into adulthood. Obesity in America is becoming an epidemic and is the foundation for several medical problems like diabetes and cardiovascular issues. If we can nip the unhealthy lifestyles in the bud, during childhood, the effects have great potential and could possibly decrease the astronomical medical and health care costs we face as adults.

This blog is based on an article from the New York Times titled “U.S. Children: Generation Snack” by Tara Parker-Pope. To read this article, visit http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/u-s-children-generation-snack

Land the Helicopter Parents!

At this point in time, it is fair to say that people know what it means to be a helicopter parent. These hovering parents are enmeshed in their child’s life to an unhealthy extent. These parents often manage their child’s time and ensure their kid’s success. This parenting style has been widely discussed in newspapers, magazines, and TV. There are some benefits seen in helicopter parenting. Obviously, it is better to have an over-involved parent than a parent that is not involved at all, but many problems are seen in children of helicopter parents. Logically, problems arise during the time when kids leave their parents. This time is college.

There are a gross number of students in higher education that have lower levels of functioning because they had helicopter parents. These students lack the ability to manage their time, manage their money, motivate themselves to do work, do their laundry, cook their own food, find their way around campus, and the list goes one. Additionally, helicopter parents are notorious for ensuring their child’s success. In high school if little Timmy made a bad grade, mom could call the teacher and lobby for a B+ instead of a C-. In college, students who are used to being the “most special” and made great grades (some of which were negotiated by their parents) receive a rude awakening when they find out they are not the smartest in their college biology class. These kids can’t believe that their professor won’t curve their grades or let them do extra credit. Naturally, when all else has failed, these children in college will do the only thing they know how. They will call mom and dad.

Thank goodness that college, for the most part, does not support helicopter parenting. The New York Times reported on different tactics that universities in the Northeast employ to cut the cord from parents to kids. Scott Chesney, from the University of New Hampshire, wrote in an online letter to parents: ''I hope you see that at one level we embrace the notion of partnering with you to make your son's or daughter's experience as productive as possible. Frankly, however, we worry sometimes that your interventions may well be impeding your son's or daughter's climb toward independence." At the University of Vermont, students are employs as ''parent bouncers" during orientation to stop parents from wandering into workshops specified for students. Parents leave campus with magnets saying that they ought to ask their child before calling a professor, such as ''What do you think you need to do to work this out?" and ''Who have you talked to on campus about this?" These examples are just a few ways colleges are attempting to limit helicopter parenting.

Though these strategies are well intentioned and many times effective, technology and the nature of habitual behavior makes these parenting changes hard to enforce. Email, texting, and instant messaging keep parents as close as they want to be with their children. So what can be done? A start can be to begin these college interventions in high school. High school is when kids are trying to find autonomy and are skill building through trial and error. If you are a helicopter parent when your kid is seven or eight, you are being a good parent but if a parent is still micromanaging their 17 year old, something is wrong. High school professionals such as staff and educators can develop policy such as not negotiating grades with parents, facilitating helicopter parent support groups, and teaching parents the dangers of helicopter parenting. If these parents were to stop these behaviors, their children could become more independent and more prepared for their life as an adult in college and after. Thus, retention rates would increase on campuses all over the country. It is time we got back to supporting our kids and guiding them into adult hood instead of dragging them behind us.

Blog based on the New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/business/yourmoney/11wcol.html

Recession Effects Kids the Most

It would be hard to ignore that children are on the wrong end of the receiving line during this recession. Where there is job loss, a child suffers. Where there are home foreclosures, children suffer. When money runs out for the electric bill, a child suffers and the where there is (fill in the blank) statements can go on and on. It is simple, when a child’s parent or parents suffer, the child suffers. The article, America’s children: Protecting the weakest, printed within the Economist magazine is a true demonstration about what struggles the country is experiencing.

The article begins with what could be considered, good news, stating that children placed in the foster care system was reportedly down 11% since 2002. However, this news is not expected to remain “good” for very long. According to the article, experts are predicting this decrease is going to go back up, finding more children again placed within the system. As a soon to be social work graduate, hoping to work within the child welfare system, I am concerned about the tasks ahead. No one ever said working in child welfare was easy, that’s not the concern; the concern exists because a system that is often lacking appropriate funds already is going to absorb even more cuts. This is what I believe the writer of the article means by stating, hurting America’s “most vulnerable children.”

The question here is, how can children whose parents, no longer able to support them, be supported by a system that may not be able to best support them either? Where is the best place for a child? We know of course, with their family, but when that is not an option, the child welfare system takes over. I think the article touches on a sensitive point, suggesting during times of hardship parents are more likely to harm their children. Is the system going to be able to sustain itself, in order to best serve these harmed children? Only time will tell. Another question exists, as a result of these projected cuts in money and ultimately services, how will we know if the reports and statistics are accurate? There may be a small bright side.

As a budding social worker I fear and have hope, that those who advocate on behalf of children and families will do so in full force. If social workers and child advocates are working hard to serve children, I believe their reports will be accurate giving us a better idea of how to best serve children in the future. The true test of people’s character and willingness to help is evident in times of hardship and while families and children are suffering, some are coming to their rescue. An organization and concept new to me, is that of Safe Families. Safe families as described in the article allows parents to leave their children with volunteer families, similar to foster families, only the children remain in their parent’s custody. As the article alludes, the recession has caused more people to come forward and help children and families out. This concept could possibly be developed into a new branch of the foster care system, where families can seek a safe alternative to providing for their children during the recession. While this may sound like idealist speech, I think during such times it is imperative to search outside of how we have always done things.

Consequently, the concern goes back to overloading an already overloaded system. If it is projected the number of families seeking help from this organization, Safe Families, is going to “double,” considering what this doubling could also mean for the foster care system is a must. For now, let’s hope organizations similar to Safe Families, are contributing throughout the United States; it seems many children would go underserved without them.

Sudanese Ceasefire Saves Lives of Children

On Tuesday February 23, 2010 the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s is scheduled to formally sign an immediate cease-fire agreement with the Darfur rebel leaders. The chairman of the Justice and Equality Movement’s (JEM) legislative assembly (one of the rebel groups that is known for it’s violence against the people of Darfur), Dr. Tahir al-Fati, told CNN “a preliminary document for the framework agreement was signed Saturday in Chad between representatives of the two sides” (CNN, 2010).

The Sudanese government has been under pressure to promote peace and end the violence in Darfur, especially since the Sudanese President Al-Bashir was “charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court last year for the government’s campagn of violence in Darfur (CNN, 2010). They then began taking small steps towards peace last year by signing a “confidence-building agreement in Qatar” with the JEM (CNN, 2010).

According to the United Nations, over “300,000 people have been killed during over the past seven years from direct combat, disease or malnutrition… [and] an additional 2.7 million people fled their homes because of fighting among rebels, government forces and allied militias” (CNN, 2010). Many of these people have been children, either forced to fight or brainwashed into warfare.

This immediate ceasefire is momentous and highlights the effectiveness of peace talks and negotiations governments can have with opposing groups. This ceasefire will save hundreds of children's lives. However, it is important to note that the JEM is only one rebel force out of many (although it is perhaps the most powerful rebel army in the region), and there is still a long road ahead before Darfur can have any actual peace from this 7 year conflict. That being said, any chance that any of the 2.7 million displaced Sudanese currently living in refugee and aid camps finally have a chance to return home to peace rather than the killings, torturings, and rapings must provide a small glimmer of hope for these disenfranchised people.

The thought of the Sudanese government and the JEM coming together to discuss, negotiate and compromise also serves as an example for the U.S. and the world of how to handle foreign conflicts. The country and the people of Sudan can finally move on from the military conflicts that have been raging over the past 7 years and finally look toward the future and focus more on the challenges that are plaguing the people, such as rehabilitation, reconciliation, and the return of refugees to their villages and homes.

This blog was written based on an article on CNN.com titled “Sudanese government to sin formal peace deal with Darfur rebels” by Jennifer Z. Deaton. To see the full article go to:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/02/20/sudan.bashir.darfur/index.html

Same-Sex Marriage Legislation Affects our Kids.

“It doesn’t bother me to tell kids my parents are gay. It does bother me to say my parents aren’t married.” These statements were made by ten year old Kasey Nicholson-McFadden at a hearing in the State House of Trenton, NJ. Tons of supporters and protestors came out on a cold December day last year when Karen and Marcye Nicholson-McFadden appeared before the New Jersey State Senate pleading for legislators to vote for same sex marriage. They are both the parents of Kasey and have been a family all his life. A month later on January 7, 2010, the New Jersey State Senate voted against same sex marriages, leaving Kasey, Marcye, and Karen devastated.

In 2008 about 116,000 same-sex couples all over the United States were raising a total of about 250,000 children under age 18, according to a study of Census data by Gary J. Gates, a demographer of the gay and lesbian population at the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, law school (New York Times, 2010). In a country that makes many poor choices in legislation, our children are an area where law makers usually get things right. However, it is hard to believe that legislators on the State or Federal level are considering the wishes of children when continuously voting against same sex marriages. Kasey verbalized that when he could not say his parents were married, it made him feel like his family was less than his friends whose mom and dad are “married.” Legislators need to think of the implications voting against same-sex marriages have on the children who are being raised by same sex couples.

Kasey’s comments stir up a sense of pride because there is a very deep and bold message in his words. When he described not minding to tell his peers that his parents are gay meant that he has a level of comfort with his peer’s perception of his parents. One cannot assume that kids don’t make fun of Kasey for having a “different” family compared to the majority but logic would tell us that there are probably a good number of his peers who see same sex partnerships just as “normal” as traditional man/woman partnerships. If this is true, then our country’s citizens (some being children) have come a long way with open-mindedness and tolerance. Kids in our country can see that love is love, and parents are parents, but so many legislators fail to see this connection.

Is it right that a person can spend their whole life loving their partner, caring for their partner, and building a life with their partner not to have the legal benefits of marriage? Marcye and Karen file separate taxes, have non-marital life insurance, and cannot have a family health insurance plan which amasses to having to spend more money than traditional married couples would on similar things. All of these inconveniences trickle down to Kasey whose life is affected by these regulations. Any family that can save approximately $500 per month can positively impact their kid’s life in some way. Zach Wahls, a freshman at the University of Iowa whose mothers married this last summer in Iowa, one of the few states where same-sex marriage is legal, said, “At the end of the day, it’s really about separate but equal. This isn’t just about lesbian and gay; it’s about tolerance and acceptance.” Zach is right.

Who knows when or if same sex-marriages will be legal in every state but it is high time legislators consider the wishes of 250,000 children who desire to see their family as legitimate. If same-sex legislation is passed in all states then perhaps more children would become adopted by same sex partners, which is one step closer to eliminating children without families. If children can get put first on same-sex legislation, it might help open the mind of legislators and help millions of people legally legitimize their commitment to each other.

This blog was written based a story in the NY Times titled, “Children Speak on Same Sex Marriage.” To check out this article go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/fashion/21kids.html?scp=10&sq=Children&st=cse