Kids and food: advice for parents

    It is important for parents to know how to help their kids eat healthy. Here are a few easy ways.

    Parents control the supply lines.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Though kids may keep asking for less nutritious foods, parents should decide which foods are regularly provided in the house. Kids won't go hungry. They'll eat what's available in the fridge at home.

    Say goodbye to “clean-plate club”.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Lots of parents grew up under the clean-plate rule, but that way doesn't help kids listen to their own bodies when they are full. When kids feel full, they're likely to overeat.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Food preferences are developed early in life, so try to offer different kinds of food. Likes and dislikes begin forming even when kids are babies. Parents may need to serve a new food on several different occasions(时机) for a child to accept it.

    Food is not love.

    Find better ways to say “I love you.” When foods are used to reward kids and show love, they may start to turn to food when feeling worried or unhappy. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Kids do as you do.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} When trying to teach good eating habits, try to set the best example. Choose nutritious food, eat at the table, and don't forget breakfast.

A. Start them young.

B. Rewrite the kids' menu.

C. Be a role model and eat healthy yourself.

D. Offer praise and attention instead of food treats.

E. Let kids stop eating when they feel they've had enough.

F. You decide which foods to buy and when to serve them.

G. Let kids choose what to eat and how much of it they want.

    For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?

    Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents' point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents' complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.

In this article, I'll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen's hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child's failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn't matter what the topic is —politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they'll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.

    Every morning, Claire Buckley was rushing to catch the bus. She left for Barrington High School in Illinois at 6 a.m.. She would come home very tired. Kids like Clair Buckley are suffering from lack of sleep. Less sleep causes stress. Stress is when someone is under a lot of pressure. Not sleeping is just one reason experts say more students feel nervous at school. Local schools in Illinois are trying new way to fix it, wishing kids to feel healthy and happy.

    Some schools are changing their calendar(日历). They are giving tests before school breaks. This way students do not have to worry about studying when they are away from school. Some places changed their after-school activities. Coaches can only organize one practice a day. Teachers now cannot give homework during certain holiday breaks. But some kids want very much to do well on tests. They think it will get them into good colleges, which causes them stress.

    A study showed different things stress different students out. Students were not able to see their grades online. This stress some students. Other students said seeing their grades made them more stressed. Some say parents are causing stress. They try to make their kids do not fail. They want their kids to not be disappointed. Children need to fail, says Dr. Carol Weitzman, a doctor for children. When kids learn to fail, they learn to get back on their feet. This is an important skills for life, she says.

    Various ways are adopted to reduce stress. Students at John Hersey High School drop by Dr. Brigette Muck's office looking for stress relief. She has aromatherapy (芳香疗法) products. The smells make you fell relaxed. She also has stress balls and coloring books to help work out nervous feelings. Other schools use mentorship(导师制) program, sports and yoga classes to help students feel better.

Teen Climbing Camp

    This 5-day climbing camp is suitable for teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 who have an interest in rock climbing. The climbing days are designed for beginners and those who have some basic experience in a gym or outdoors. Participants will find themselves challenged physically and mentally.

    Rock Dimensions camps are designed to be a positive and memorable experience by providing healthy communication between participants, individual goal setting, and challenges that lead to personal growth.

    Dates

    Monday, June 29-Friday, July 3

    Monday, July 27-Friday, July 31

    Locations

    Climbing Tower at Footsloggers

    Linville Gorge and Table Rock area

    Local climbing areas near Boone

    Responsibilities

    Participants will meet Rock Dimensions guides at our location each morning and at the end of each day. Rock Dimensions will provide all climbing items, including a safety rope, a helmet and climbing shoes for each participant. Participants are responsible for bringing their own lunch, water, small backpack, appropriate clothing, and personal items like sun cream, etc.

    Pre-camp planning

    Participants will receive the following information in their registration(注册) packet Medical Form, Responsibility Agreement, Clothing/Equipment List, and Directions.

    Cost

    $575/person for the 5-day camp

    $325/person for the first 3 days

    Anyone interested in participating in just the last two days of the camp should call to discuss pricing and necessary skills/experience.

    Boomerang children who return to live with their parents after university can be good for families, leading to closer, more supportive relationships and increased contact between the generations, a study has found.

    The findings contradict research published earlier this year showing that returning adult children trigger a significant decline in their parents' quality of life and wellbeing.

    The young adults taking part in the study were "more positive than might have been expected about moving back home—the shame is reduced as so many of their peers are in the same position, and they acknowledged the benefits of their parents' financial and emotional support. Daughters were happier than sons, often slipping back easily into teenage patterns of behaviour, the study found.

    Parents on the whole were more uncertain, expressing concern about the likely duration of the arrangement and how to manage it. But they acknowledged that things were different for graduates today, who leave university with huge debts and fewer job opportunities.

    The families featured in the study were middle-class and tended to view the achievement of adult independence for their children as a "family project". Parents accepted that their children required support as university students and then as graduates returning home, as they tried to find jobs paying enough to enable them to move out and get on the housing ladder.

    "However", the study says, "day-to-day tensions about the prospects of achieving different dimensions of independence, which in a few extreme cases came close to conflict, characterised the experience of a majority of parents and a little over half the graduates".

    Areas of disagreement included chores, money and social life. While parents were keen to help, they also wanted different relationships from those they had with their own parents, and continuing to support their adult children allowed them to remain close.

    Anyone who is afraid of failure and afraid to face challenges will never taste success, so said our professor in marketing. I laughed it off at that time, but got frightened when it actually happened in my life.

    I landed in a small city in the Middle East to set up a firm, a world－class car rental firm. Having decided on the project, I earnestly settled in preparation. With a positive mind, I told myself nothing should stop me now, and was more than keen to make it a success.

    However, the least expected thing happened. Iraq invaded Kuwait. Tension ran high in the region. Eventually the war broke out, and many people fled the country, leaving my firm in deep trouble.

    As usual, "things become difficult, and every effort seems to bring disappointment, it can be tempting to lower your expectations or even water down your goals and ambitions." I was no exception. I thought of running away. I remembered the words of Thomas Edison, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to succeed when they gave up."

    I decided to hang on, telling myself, "I am not afraid of challenges and obstacles." I stayed on through months of uncertainty and insecurity. Finances ran low, and banks could not wait to get their dues. To add to all this, the banks even threatened to take all my vehicles. I felt I made a wrong decision to move there. I was now ready to face failure.

    I was living against all hopes, believing that something good would happen. After 2 months the war ended. My persistence paid off: people started flooding back and the car bookings picked up, five times over.

    Success comes to the one who dares, even after failure, to think positively and look forward confidently. After all, it is only the experience that makes a man tough. Failure does not mean you will never make it. It means that it will take a little longer. It provides us with a learning experience.