Everyone is weighing in on the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin, and I am no exception. The myriad emotions I have felt regarding this tragedy are too numerous to mention, but they include outrage, sadness and mostly fear. I definitely want to dedicate a post to Trayvon Martin. Because Trayvon could be my son. And yours, too, regardless of what race you may be. The way I see it, you have a young man who was walking home from the store when he was approached by a grown man [who had been told not to follow or approach Trayvon.] From the sounds of it, he did what we all tell our …
Wars, battles, combat, conflicts, skirmishes, strikes. Whatever you want to call it, people have been fighting for years. Regardless of your stance on war (What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again!), they happen. They happen in far-flung places that some of us [me] can’t pronounce, find on a map or spell. And speaking of things I can’t spell, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, or is it Kadafi, or maybe Qaddafi, or possibly Gadhafi, was recently captured and killed by a group of rebels who filmed the whole thing. This video footage was made public and replayed multiple times on …
October marks the 25th year of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, and I would be remiss not to devote a Mom’s Talk column to this special subject. As a woman, daughter, mother and friend I am acutely aware of how important finding a cure is, and I don’t mind all of the unique pink items that are sold in the stores during October. Shopping for things you don’t need is acceptable when it’s for a good cause, right? I can think of five women whom I personally know who have battled this disease in the past year; two unfortunately lost that battle. My hope is that by the time my daughter is my…
He was adopted. He dropped out of college and lied to a co-worker. He fathered a child out of wedlock and denied paternity for some time. He has hinted at drug use. Does this sound like someone who ended up a billionaire and possibly the greatest inventor of our time? These are just a few facts about Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., who died last week after a battle with pancreatic cancer. His influence on the way we listen to music, send and receive information, make phone calls, read books and probably more things I can’t think of is a perfect example of the American dream. The day he …
My daughter constantly reminds me that her 16th birthday is in December, and that she wants to get her driver's license as soon as humanly possible. She is not unlike most teens across the country who have visions of driving on an open road with a car full of friends, the music blaring from the speakers, and the windows down, with the wind blowing through their hair. I always reply by saying, "Good luck with that. Talk to your dad." I am leaving any and all driving matters up to him, because I already have enough gray hairs and don’t want any part in teaching her how to drive. And if he is …
Beauty pageant contestants go through a lot. They have to practice with pageant coaches for hours a day. They have to buy gowns that cost hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars. They have to get teeth bleachings, manicures, pedicures and eyebrow waxings. One contestant I saw in a documentary went to a chiropractor for an alignment to improve her posture. The day of the pageant, the contestant must sit still for hours to get her hair and makeup just right. But the prizes make it all worth it, what with cash, cars, trips, and princess canopy beds. You read that right. The pageant contestants …
I love to shop. Going to the mall, the grocery store, shopping online, shopping at flea markets -- if there is merchandise for sale, I want in on it. I really like to find cute things for my children to wear, which gets more difficult as they get older because the styles get more and more mature. When I say mature, I mean anything larger than size 24 months. It seems like the clothes for children are little business-casual ensembles better suited for a teeny-tiny executive than a baby. Sure, there are a lot of “baby-ish” things out there, but why does a little boy need a dresser full of …
“Don’t look at me!” No, this wasn't an unruly toddler yelling. “You’re a hater and you’re unattractive on the inside.” Did that come from the mouth of a sassy teen? Nope.This was just part of the tirade tennis champ Serena Williams hurled at chair umpire Eva Asderaki on Sunday during the U.S. Open Finals. I had already watched the Ravens unceremoniously beat my beloved Steelers, and then Serena Williams, my friend in my imagination, suffered the same fate against Samantha Stosur.What set Williams off was what she deemed to be an unfair call as a result of the yelling she does when she serves…
School is in session! Clothes have been purchased, hair has been cut, supplies have been organized and parents have begun having nightmares about helping their children with homework. Is that just me? I have two school-age children, one of whom is in high school and taking honors-level classes. I’m ecstatic that she does so well in school, and her standardized test scores cause me to question exactly who she is and who her real parents are, because her dad and I don’t have the genius-level brainpower she does. But there’s a difference in filling in the right circles on a test and doing 374,…
I love awards shows. I like to see what the stars are wearing, I like to see who wins what award, and when it’s a music-award show, there are performances by some of the world’s most famous artists. There’s also the possibility of some craziness happening during an awards show, such as Kanye West interrupting an acceptance speech or an overly excited Melissa Leo swearing in her Academy Award acceptance speech. Sunday night, the Video Music Awards aired on MTV and there was no shortage of crazy. Lady Gaga opened the show as a man (loved it). Katy Perry spent much of the evening with a yellow …
I have a 15-year-old who is going to be a sophomore in high school this year. She is a very mysterious creature. She spends hours behind the closed door of her room, listening to music, being on the computer, texting and talking on the phone with friends. She could be talking about boys, or she could be looking up the details of a Sewickley-area flash mob, for all I know. A friend of mine said she has the passwords to any and all email and social networking accounts for her children. Another friend forbids her children to have Facebook accounts. I held out as long as possible for my daughter …
I follow an eclectic group of people on Twitter, and when we’re not talking about the antics of our favorite reality TV stars, we have meaningful conversations about serious topics. Parenting comes up often. The other day we were talking about the concept of timeout vs. spankings.It seemed that few of my ‘tweethearts’ believed that timeout really doesn't work. As a fan of timeout for small children, it seemed that my pleas to at least try it were falling on deaf ears. Don’t these people watch Supernanny? I wondered. They would see that, with patience, timeout can rein in the most unruly, …
I had heard of Catherine Cook before, but seeing her recently on "Inside Edition" reminded me that there are truly forward-thinking youngsters in the world. If you’re not familiar with her, she and her brother founded MyYearbook.com, a social-networking site that allows users to connect with and meet each other online. Its games and other features make it similar to Facebook, but its concept is modeled after the high school yearbook. Catherine came up with the idea when she was 15. She is now 22, a college graduate and a multimillionaire. She and her brothers sold the company for -- I'm …
One of my former co-workers lost a child this week. Out of respect for the family I won't go into details of what happened. But the death of this teenager seems to have been a tragic accident. This is the second co-worker at my job who has lost a child; another former colleague lost a grown son. Another co-worker at a previous position lost a very young child. His mother’s strength is evident in the way she has carried on, works with children and has a smile on her face every time I run into her. Losing a child seems to go against the natural order of things. Whether our children are young or…
