Deadly Summer Games

A deadly game has been growing in popularity across the country. Known as The Choking Game, kids get a quick high by stopping the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain. Yup! You read it right…

How do they play this so-called game? Sometimes they choke each other until one passes out. Or they may use a ligature. The latter method is extremely dangerous because more and more kids are “playing the game” alone. And the effects of the high are addictive.

The Choking Game can cause the permanent death of brain cells. Physicians say, too, that the variation in blood pressure “may also cause strokes, seizures, and retinal damage.”

Others do it because it’s “cool” and risky. Most of the kids who have died from this were not children in trouble. Most were well liked, active, intelligent, stable children who wanted nothing to do with drugs or alcohol. This was an activity they felt was safe. Children have no clue about the physiological principles involved and need to be told by the adults in their lives how dangerous this is.

Why kids are taking such risks with their lives? Think back to your adolescent and teen years. We all wanted to be cool. And, I dare say, most of us engaged in risky behavior. Most of us luckily survived, and without our parents even knowing the crazy things we did. Kids have no sense of their own mortality coupled with a strong sense of invincibility.

So what’s a parent to do? Talk with your kids…talk with your school officials, and talk with other parents. Open communication and education are always the best means.

Oh, and don’t fall into the “not my kid” trap. Ask yourself this question first: What stupid, idiotic activity did I do when I was their age? I bet most of us can up with at least one dumb thing we did. I know I can.

(Written for KidsTerrain)

Get Back In The Hangar!

Are you obsessed with your children? Do you hover about them, tending to their every (and often misperceived) need? Have you planned your child’s life from Day One almost to the point where you need a Day Planner or Blackberry dedicated to all his or her activities–soccer practice, dance lessons, violin lessons, play dates, and on and on ad nauseam?

Well, then you’ve graduated to a new class designation. That’s right, you’re no longer just a Baby Boomer, you’re a Helicopter Parent.

Mel Levine, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School in Chapel Hill and author of Ready or Not, Here Comes Life (Simon and Schuster, 2005) says today’s children “may well shatter.” He believes children are being coddled and protected to a degree that threatens their later ability to stand on their own.

Now a recent Wall Street Journal article thinks the blame belongs on Mr. Rogers (Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled July 5, 2007; Page B5). Now isn’t that typical of us Baby Boomers! Let's look beyond our own actions and place the blame elsewhere, like on that gentle, sweater-wearing, soft-spoken cultural icon.

The WSJ article quotes Don Chance, a finance professor at Louisiana State University, as saying he wishes more parents would offer kids this perspective: “The world owes you nothing. You have to work and compete. If you want to be special, you’ll have to prove it.”

Beverly Low, a dean at Colgate University, in an article in the Albany Times Union (January 27, 2005) says that where before parents would drop their kids off to college and get out of the way, parents now constantly call her office intervening in a roommate dispute or questioning a professor’s grading system.

So next time the urge to hover (meddle) strikes you, stay grounded. Do what a parent should do. Help your children make good choices. Show them that self-reliance ain’t just a Ralph Waldo Emerson essay in English Lit. It’s the way to survive and thrive in the grown-up world.

(Originally written for KidsTerrain.)

Topics In The News

Many of you folks probably don't know that I write a blog for a great company called KidsTerrain, Inc. Over the next few weeks I'm going to share some of those entries with you. I encourage you, too, to explore KidsTerrain...and excellent resource company for issues involving the family, school, and work.

Four years to write...and only months to get "shelved'

Recently, my novel Painting The Invisible Man was "turned down" for a review because it was "old"...meaning it came out in the fall of 2007.

This attitude is such a conundrum in publishing. A writer spends years creating a book; then the copyright date and the market determines its shelf life....It’s a crazy system, and one that works for the six major publishing houses only.

The fact of the matter, particular for small presses that do not have $50,000-$100,000 to spend on a national ad campaign, is that our back list is our lifeline. We can find new, untapped markets for our books years after the copyright date.

Intolerant of Tolerance

Okay...I have a bone to pick with Tolerance. My snit with the word began a few years back when I received several Teach Tolerance stickers. I've never quite understood why anyone wants to be tolerated? Why teach tolerance? Why not Teach Understanding?

New Feature

I've added a blog list feature to this web site. You'll find my soon to be growing list of bloggers to check out on the right navigation of this page. Today's entries include Tom Barnes' Rock The Tower and Joan Reeves' Sling Words
Many more to come!

have a favorite blog? Let me know! Post it in the comments section below!

New Book From Reed Edwards Company

I am pleased to announce that my publishing company, The Reed Edwards Company, has just release its latest book, Far East Of The Sun by Janina Chung.

New Release Celebration! All Reed Edwards Books are 15% off now through June 30, 2008!



Here's a little bit about the book.

While most Americans know of the atrocities of World War II through films such as Holocaust, Sophie's Choice, and Schindler's List, Janina Stankiewicz Chung simply knows. Her family endured life under Communist oppression in Russia, forced relocation to Hitler's hellish concentration camps, and the sorrow of losing their homeland.

And that's just part of her story.

Far East Of The Sun is a remarkable love story inspired by the deep and enduring love of her parents, their passionate belief in the dignity of all people, and their remarkable courage that sustained them throughout their tumultuous lives.

Chung has written a novel rich in character and action-packed drama. is both a powerful moral saga, as well as living proof of the power of unconditional love.