Teen Pregnancy: November 19th is National Adoption Day

Most people are well aware that being  a parent is not easy, however being a teenage parent can be twice as hard.  The ability to finish school decreases, finances are strained and your body is changing rapidly.

16 and Pregnant along with Teen Moms give you an inside look at how hard it is being a teen parent.  The reality of these reality shows is real!  Most teens are not ready to be a mother, they are not mature enough to understand the responsibility nor are many financially ready.

This doesn't mean that you can't have a child, there are options.  This is not a political article, nor is it judgmental, it is only to bring about the awareness of options for pregnant teens.

Adoption is not about giving your child away, it is about loving your child enough to know that you aren't able to give he/she the life another family could offer.  With today's latest adoption services, there are many choices.  Some include the teen being part of the child's life, as in an open adoption.

November 19th is National Adoption Day

National Adoption Day is a national day of celebration of adoptive families and an opportunity for courts to open their doors and finalize the adoptions of children from foster care. Since 2000, more than 35,000 children have had their adoptions finalized on National Adoption Day.

On November 19, 2011, families, adoption advocates, policymakers, judges and volunteers will come together and celebrate adoption in communities large and small all across the nation.

The One Day Project was created by the National Adoption Day Coalition to share with the thousands of waiting children what this one day is like, and what it means to find their forever family. Watch this video to see how this one day has changed actor Willie Garson’s life, and the lives of thousands of children waiting in foster care.

Learn more - click here.

Teen Drugs, the risks, the dangers and how you can help prevent teen drug abuse

Parents and teachers today need to know as much as they can about street drugs and substances that our kids are exposed to.  NIDA has an extensive and informative website that educates us - and will give you insights to keep our communities as drug-free as possible.  First we have to know what we are up against.

Anabolic Steroids—Hand out this "damage diagram" activity and help kids understand the big picture about steroids' side effects.
Brain & Addiction—Try this activity to get the brain going and the discussion flowing.
Ecstasy—Find out how much your students know or don't know about ecstasy. Have them try this quiz.
HIV, AIDS, and Drug Abuse—Teach your children/students the connection between drugs and HIV infection.
Inhalants—Students will learn how the chemicals in inhalants can change how the brain and body work by finding their match.
Marijuana—A friend on "weed" is a friend in need-of your kids' knowledge. Download and discuss this email-writing activity.
Prescription Drug Abuse—Have your students take this quiz to learn more about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.
Stimulants—Help your children/students better understand the symptoms and consequences of stimulant abuse by having them fill in the missing blanks of this diagnostic report.
Tobacco Addiction—Try this matching activity in class to help kids understand nicotine's causes and effects.
Mind Over Matter—This series is designed to encourage young people in grades five through nine to learn about the effects of drug abuse on the body and the brain.
Mind Over Matter Teacher's Guide—Use this Teacher's Guide in conjunction with the Mind Over Matter magazine series to promote an understanding of the physical reality of drug use, as well as curiosity about neuroscience.

Join me on Facebook  and follow me on Twitter for more information and educational articles on parenting today's teenagers.

Inhalants: Dangerous and deadly

What are Inhalants?

If you’ve ever come across a smelly marker, you’ve experienced an inhalant. They seem harmless, but they can actually be quite dangerous. Inhalants are chemical vapors that people inhale on purpose to get “high.” The vapors produce mind-altering, and sometimes disastrous, effects.

These vapors are in a variety of products common in almost any home or workplace. Examples are some paints, glues, gasoline, and cleaning fluids. Many people do not think of these products as drugs because they were never meant to be used to achieve an intoxicating effect. But when they are intentionally inhaled to produce a “high,” they can cause serious harm.

Although inhalants differ in their effects, they generally fall into the following categories:
Volatile Solvents, liquids that vaporize at room temperature, present in:

• Certain industrial or household products, such as paint thinner, nail polish remover, degreaser, dry-cleaning fluid, gasoline, and contact cement
• Some art or office supplies, such as correction fluid, felt-tip marker fluid, and electronic contact cleaner

Aerosols, sprays that contain propellants and solvents, include:

• Spray paint, hair spray, deodorant spray, vegetable oil sprays, and fabric protector spray

Gases, which may be in household or commercial products, or used as medical anesthetics, such as in:

• Butane lighters, propane tanks, whipped cream dispensers, and refrigerant gases
• Anesthesia, including ether, chloroform, halothane, and nitrous oxide

Nitrites are a class of inhalants used primarily as sexual enhancers. Organic nitrites include amyl, butyl, and cyclohexyl nitrites and other related compounds. Amyl nitrite was used in the past by doctors to alleviate chest pain and is sometimes used today for diagnostic purposes in heart examinations. When marketed for illicit use, these nitrites are often sold in small brown bottles and labeled as "video head cleaner," "room odorizer," "leather cleaner," or "liquid aroma."

What Are the Common Street Names?

Common slang for inhalants includes "laughing gas" (nitrous oxide), "snappers" (amyl nitrite), "poppers" (amyl nitrite and butyl nitrite), "whippets" (fluorinated hydrocarbons, found in whipped cream dispensers), "bold" (nitrites), and "rush" (nitrites).

Who Abuses Inhalants?

Inhalants are often among the first drugs that young adolescents abuse. In fact, they are one of the few classes of substances that are abused more by younger adolescents than older ones. Inhalant abuse can become chronic and continue into adulthood.

Data from national and state surveys suggest that inhalant abuse is most common among 7th through 9th graders. For example, in the Monitoring the Future study, an annual NIDA-supported survey of the Nation’s secondary school students, 8th graders regularly report the highest rate of current, past-year, and lifetime inhalant abuse compared to 10th and 12th graders. In 2010, 8 percent of 8th graders, 5.7 percent of 10th graders, and 3.6 percent of 12th graders reported abusing inhalants in the year prior to the survey. One of the problems is that, according to the 2010 survey, 39 percent of 8th graders don’t consider the regular use of inhalants to be harmful, and 64 percent don’t think trying inhalants once or twice is risky. Young teens may not understand the risks of inhalant use as well as they should.

How Are They Abused?

People who abuse inhalants breathe in the vapors through their nose or mouth, usually in one of these ways:

• "Sniffing" or "snorting" fumes from containers
• Spraying aerosols directly into the nose or mouth
• Sniffing or inhaling fumes from substances sprayed or placed into a plastic or paper bag ("bagging")
• "Huffing" from an inhalant-soaked rag stuffed in the mouth
• Inhaling from balloons filled with nitrous oxide

Because the intoxication, or “high,” lasts only a few minutes, people who abuse inhalants often try to make the feeling last longer by inhaling repeatedly over several hours.

Need help?  Visit www.HelpYourTeens.com.

Source:  NIDA

Smoke a joint, pop a pill, what is next? Teen drug use

Do you suspect your teen is using drugs?  It's only pot?  Really?

IT’S NOT JUST POT ANYMORE!

When parents share with me that their teen is “only smoking pot” I am dumbfounded that they don’t realize the risk of this statement.  Although many don’t like the term, “gateway drug”, it can be absolutely true.
Marijuana is not what it was in the sixty’s.  The chances of it being laced with higher levels of PCP or other ingredients that can cause addiction are very good.  Don’t be a parent in denial!

What Is It?


Marijuana is a mixture of the dried and shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the cannabis sativa plant. The mixture can be green, brown, or gray.
A bunch of leaves seem harmless, right? But think again. Marijuana has a chemical in it called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, better known as THC. A lot of other chemicals are found in marijuana, too—about 400 of them, many of which could affect your health. But THC is the main psychoactive (i.e., mind altering) ingredient. In fact, marijuana’s strength or potency is related to the amount of THC it contains. The THC content of marijuana has been increasing since the 1970s. For the year 2007, estimates from confiscated marijuana indicated that it contains almost 10 percent THC, on average.

What Are the Common Street Names?

There are many slang terms for marijuana that vary from city to city and from neighborhood to neighborhood. Some common names are: “pot,” “grass,” “herb,” “weed,” “Mary Jane,” “reefer,” “skunk,” “boom,” “gangster,” “kif,” “chronic,” and “ganja.”

How Is It Used?

Marijuana is used in many ways. The most common method is smoking loose marijuana rolled into a cigarette called a “joint” or “nail.” Sometimes marijuana is smoked through a water pipe called a “bong.” Others smoke “blunts”—cigars hollowed out and filled with the drug. And some users brew it as tea or mix it with food.

How Many Teens Use Marijuana?

Some people mistakenly believe that “everybody’s doing it” and use that as an excuse to start using marijuana themselves. Well, they need to check the facts, because that’s just not true. According to NIDA’s 2010 Monitoring the Future study, about 8 percent of 8th graders, 17 percent of 10th graders, and 21 percent of 12th graders had used marijuana in the month before the survey. In fact, marijuana use declined from the late 1990s through 2007, with a decrease in past-year use of more than 20 percent in all three grades combined from 2000 to 2007. Unfortunately, this trend appears to be slowing, and use may even be increasing.

Between 2009 and 2010 daily marijuana use increased among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders. In 2010, 6 percent of 12th graders reported using marijuana daily, compared to 5.2 percent in 2009.

What Are the Short-Term Effects of Marijuana Use?

For some people, smoking marijuana makes them feel good. Within minutes of inhaling, a user begins to feel “high,” or filled with pleasant sensations. THC triggers brain cells to release the chemical dopamine. Dopamine creates good feelings—for a short time. But that’s just one effect…
Imagine this: You’re in a ball game, playing out in left field. An easy fly ball comes your way, and you’re psyched. When that ball lands in your glove your team will win, and you’ll be a hero. But, you’re a little off. The ball grazes your glove and hits the dirt. So much for your dreams of glory.

Such loss of coordination can be caused by smoking marijuana. And that’s just one of its many negative effects. Marijuana affects memory, judgment, and perception. Under the influence of marijuana, you could fail to remember things you just learned, watch your grade point average drop, or crash a car.

Also, since marijuana can affect judgment and decision making, using it can cause you to do things you might not do when you are thinking straight—such as engaging in risky sexual behavior, which can result in exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, like HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, or getting in a car with someone who’s been drinking or is high on marijuana.

It’s also difficult to know how marijuana will affect a specific person at any given time, because its effects vary based on individual factors: a person’s genetics, whether they’ve used marijuana or any other drugs before, how much marijuana is taken, and its potency. Effects can also be unpredictable when marijuana is used in combination with other drugs.

THC Affects Brain Functioning

THC is up to no good in the brain. THC finds brain cells, or neurons, with specific kinds of receptors called cannabinoid receptors and binds to them.

Certain parts of the brain have high concentrations of cannabinoid receptors. These areas are the hippocampus, the cerebellum, the basal ganglia, and the cerebral cortex. The functions that these brain areas control are the ones most affected by marijuana.

For example, THC interferes with learning and memory—that is because the hippocampus—a part of the brain with a funny name and a big job—plays a critical role in certain types of learning. Disrupting its normal functioning can lead to problems studying, learning new things, and recalling recent events. The difficulty can be a lot more serious than forgetting if you took out the trash this morning, which happens to everyone once in a while.

Do these effects persist? We don’t know for sure, but as adolescents your brains are still developing. So is it really worth the risk?

Smoking Marijuana Can Make Driving Dangerous

The cerebellum is the section of our brain that controls balance and coordination. When THC affects the cerebellum’s function, it makes scoring a goal in soccer or hitting a home run pretty tough. THC also affects the basal ganglia, another part of the brain that’s involved in movement control.

These THC effects can cause disaster on the road. Research shows that drivers on marijuana have slower reaction times, impaired judgment, and problems responding to signals and sounds. Studies conducted in a number of localities have found that approximately 4 to 14 percent of drivers who sustained injury or death in traffic accidents tested positive for THC.

Marijuana Use Increases Heart Rate

Within a few minutes after inhaling marijuana smoke, an individual’s heart begins beating more rapidly, the bronchial passages relax and become enlarged, and blood vessels in the eyes expand, making the eyes look red. The heart rate, normally 70 to 80 beats per minute, may increase by 20 to 50 beats per minute or, in some cases, even double. This effect can be greater if other drugs are taken with marijuana.

For more information on the long term effects – click here.

Join me on Facebook  and follow me on Twitter for more information and educational articles on parenting today’s teenagers.

Teen Drinking Prevention

If you manage the health and well-being of 9- to 18-year-olds, this Guide is for you.
 
“Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide” is designed to help health care professionals quickly identify youth at risk for alcohol-related problems. NIAAA developed the Guide and Pocket Guide in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, a team of underage drinking researchers and clinical specialists, and practicing health care professionals.

Why use this tool?

• It can detect risk early: In contrast to other screens that focus on established alcohol problems, this early detection tool aims to help you prevent alcohol-related problems in your patients before they start or address them at an early stage.
• It’s empirically based: The screening questions and risk scale, developed through primary survey research, are powerful predictors of current and future negative consequences of alcohol use.
• It’s fast and versatile: The screen consists of just two questions, which can be incorporated easily into patient interviews or pre-visit screening tools across the care spectrum, from annual exams to urgent care.
• It’s the first tool to include friends’ drinking: The “friends” question will help you identify patients at earlier stages of alcohol involvement and target advice to include the important risk of friends’ drinking.

Download or order the Guide and pocket guide.

You may also be interested in related resources to support you, your patients, and their families

Join me on Facebook  and follow me on Twitter for more information and educational articles on parenting today’s teenagers.

Prescription Drug Use and Teens: Lock Your Meds

'I got my hair from my mom.'
'I got my eyes from my dad.'
'And my drugs from my grandma's medicine cabinet.'


More than 3.1 million teens ages 12 to 17 report abusing prescription drugs. Click here for guidelines for prescription drug abuse prevention and discuss them with your family and friends.

The target audience for Lock Your Meds™ is 20-80-year-old adults, with the primary focus on keeping prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals away from drug abusers.  Many adults may be unwitting suppliers and by making adults aware of the problem we can curb the abuse by others.

YOU HOLD THE KEY TO YOUR CHILD'S DRUG-FREE FUTURE

Review the following guidelines for prescription drug abuse prevention and discuss them with family & friends

LOCK YOUR MEDS
Prevent your children from abusing your own medication by securing your meds in places your child cannot access.
TAKE INVENTORY
Download your Home Medicine Inventory Card, write down the name and amount of medications you currently have and regularly check to see that nothing is missing.  
EDUCATE YOURSELF & YOUR CHILDLearn about the most commonly abused types of prescription medications (pain relievers, sedatives, stimulants and tranquilizers). Then, communicate the dangers to your child regularly; once is not enough.
SET CLEAR RULES & MONITOR BEHAVIOR
Express your disapproval of using prescription drugs without a prescription. Monitor your child's behavior to ensure that the rules are being followed.
PASS IT ON
Share your knowledge, experience and support with the parents of your child's friends. Together, you can create a tipping point for change and raise safe, healthy and drug-free children.

Source: Informed Families of South Florida

Be an educated parent, you will have safer teens.

Do you have a teen that you suspect is using drugs? Have you exhausted all your local resources? Take the time to learn about residential therapy, visit www.HelpYourTeens.com. Each teen and family are unique, there are many teen help programs, knowing how to locate the one best for you can be a challenge, however Parents’ Universal Resource Experts in Broward County, can help, starting with a free consultation.

Join me on Facebook  and follow me on Twitter for more information and educational articles on parenting today's teenagers.

Teens Online: Do you know what they are doing or where they are surfing to?

Where is your teen visiting - virtually?

October is National Cyber Safety Awareness Month (NCSAM).


Does your teen know more about technology than you do?


It is time to catch up and be proactive in keeping your kids safe both online and off.

When safety trumps privacy - be a parent in the know!


Teens have access to unprecedented amounts of technology, and the problem is, they usually know how to use it better than their parents. With sexting, cyberstalking, cyberbullying and internet predators in abundance, parents need to closely monitor what their teens are doing on the internet and beyond. The best way to do this is to use the newest technology available to spy on their teens. Kids may not appreciate it, but it’s important for parents to know what their teens are up to at this impressionable age when they don’t always make good decisions.

Here are 10 ways to use technology to spy on your teen.

1. Nanny cam – Originally used to monitor in-home caregivers, nanny cams can be used to spy on your teens as well. These hidden cameras can be installed in common household objects and placed strategically throughout your home. Parents of teens may consider putting one in their teen’s bedroom to make sure their child is not engaging in inappropriate behavior when they’re not home.
2. Facebook – Friend your teens on facebook to monitor what they’re posting on their facebook page. If you suspect they are blocking you from some of their postings, you could get sneaky and pose as someone else, such as another teen, to find out what they’re really up to.
3. Twitter – It’s also a good idea to follow your kids on Twitter to see what they’re tweeting about. Your teen will be more likely to be careful about what they tweet if they know you’re watching. This can help prevent inappropriate pictures being sent into cyberspace where they will live on forever.
4. Internet search history – Periodically check your teen’s internet search history on their computer to see what they looking at when they surf the web. Are they doing research for homework or just watching You Tube? Make sure you block any porn sights and check to see if the blocks are still in place. Teens will find ways to get around your parental controls, so hold them accountable if they do.
5. Email – While you’re at it, check on their email history too. Teens won’t like the fact that you’re doing this and will accuse you of invading their privacy. This is a legitimate concern, but so is your concern for their safety. Unless you know that they’re using the computer responsibly, they shouldn’t be allowed to use it unsupervised.
6. Computer monitor – If you want to know what your teen is doing on their computer and are concerned they will delete any information they don’t want you to see, you can install a monitor to keep track of their computer activity. These monitors can record every keystroke, websites visited, take screen snapshots and give you detailed reports. This is the best way to monitor chat rooms, email and any social networking your teen is engaging in.
7. Remote monitoring – The technology is also available to have these monitoring reports sent to your email so you can stay informed of your teen’s activities while you’re away from home. This is a great feature if you travel a lot for business. It’s also a good way for your child to let you know instantly if they’re in trouble.
8. Cell phone monitor – You can get a similar monitoring system to track your child’s cell phone activity. These devices will send you reports on their calls, texting, location, web history and any pictures taken. Teens with mobile phone technology are more likely to use it than their home computers. This is also a great way to deter teen abductions and know instantly if anything goes wrong.
9. Car monitor – Teens don’t always use good judgment when they get behind the wheel, so a car monitor is another way to use technology to spy on them. These GPS devices not only track where your kids are going, but what speed they’re driving and if they’re out past their curfew. They can even be set to give your teen an audible warning if they’re driving recklessly and emit an ear piercing sound if they’re driving too fast or staying out too late.
10. Home security – Many people have security systems installed in their homes that can be used to spy on their teens. Security cameras can be reviewed plus checking the alarm history can let you know the exact time your child enters and leaves the house.

Of course your teen is not going to like all this spying, especially if you are doing it on the sly, so be sure to let them know what you’re doing and why. Be careful not to overreact over every little piece of information you get or your teen will find ways to get around your monitoring. There’s a delicate balance between ensuring your child’s safety and just plain being snoopy. Give them as much privacy as you can, but be ready to broach their boundaries if you think they’re in real danger.

Source:  My ISP Finder

Join me on Facebook  and follow me on Twitter for more information and educational articles on parenting today's teenagers.

Is your teen addicted to their Blackberry? Have they became Crackberry?

Your teen demands a Blackberry.
You become a Crackberry!
Now what?


The nickname ‘Crackberry’ was applied to Blackberry cell phones early on in its use, and it stuck. There is even a website called crackberry.com that claims to be the number one site for Blackberry users and abusers. Obviously, there is a reason behind the name and the comparison of the phone to the addictive substance, crack cocaine.

1. Geek disease  - Every geek had to have one as soon as they came on the market. The large screen, lots of little buttons and multi-functioning capabilities had them foaming at the mouth.
2. Addictive – Of course, the main reason for the name was related to its apparent addictive qualities. Once a person owned a Blackberry, you never saw them without it. They not only carried it with them everywhere, but they seldom put it down or took their eyes off it.
3. Compulsive – The instant communication capabilities of the Blackberry when it first arrived on the scene were novel to the cell phone user. The ability to receive and respond to your emails on your phone was quite an amazing feature, but it also meant that you were being bombarded with the sense that you needed to respond immediately to each new email that came in.
4. Expensive – As with cocaine, the ‘crackberries’ were also a very expensive habit to maintain. They cost hundreds of dollars for the unit itself and then there were the monthly data plans to carry all the functionality to the phone, besides.
5. Peer pressure - “You have to get one!” with the Blackberry seemed to be as affective with the geek crowd as the “You have to try this!” with the crowd that was into drugs. Peer pressure isn’t the least bit limited to one social group or the other.
6. Zoning – You’ve seen ‘the zone’, haven’t you? Their eyes are fixed, and they seem to be oblivious to everything and everyone else around them? The only difference with the Blackberry addict is that his eyes are fixed on an electronic device.
7. Withdrawal – A Crackberry user will suffer withdrawal if he is forced to do without his phone for more than a few hours at a time. Symptoms of the with include nervousness, irritability and a lack of focus.
8. Euphoria – If you watched a new Blackberry user immediately after receiving their first Blackberry, you would witness an obvious sense of euphoria flooding their face.
9. Behavior modification – The possession of the Blackberry created a definite change in behavioral patterns of the owner. They became much less verbal in their communication and began to prefer to use their thumbs for sending short email messages via their phones.
10. Cracked screens – There is one additional reason for the ‘crackberry’ nickname that came from a very different direction, that being the frequency of cracked LCD screens on Blackberries. Blackberries have not fared well when dropped on concrete or sent flying off the top of a car after being left their by their owner. Cracked screens, of course, often lead to the symptoms of withdrawal, listed above.

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons the Blackberries gained their nickname of Crackberries. It appears to be quite fitting.

Source:  Home Phone Service

Join me on Facebook  and follow me on Twitter for more information and educational articles on parenting today's teenagers.