Parenting Thoughts

*Reflections from Pam Henderson a few years ago.

The 4th of July and Summer Festival parades bring back many fond childhood memories for me.

We lived a block off the parade route in Michigan City and my Grandma lived on Lincolnway on La Porte’s route, so we would save our spots – the same ones every year – at the crack of dawn. In those days, the parades didn’t start until 1:00 pm, so we whittled the hours away along the curb watching people and playing backgammon. Our parades attracted Grand Marshalls like Peggy Lennon from the “Lawrence Welk Show” and Doug Plank from the Chicago Bears. I can’t help but laugh thinking about how my cousins and I hid behind our Grandma when the Sword Man approached. As soon as we could see the Shriners down the road, that was my sister’s cue to go to the bathroom. She was terrified of him. There was always a brave soul with a watermelon for him to slice to prove that his sword was real.

A new school year is upon us. As much as it’s a time for students to turn over a new leaf and start the year off right, it’s a time for parents to start the year off right…with the teacher.

Consider this – if you were looking at yourself through the eyes of your child’s teacher, what would you see?

Would you see the parent who volunteers for the holiday party and shows up on time, ready with snacks and decorations? Or, would you see the parent who shows up 15 minutes late without the promised juice boxes?

Would you see the parent who vows to proofread the next history paper in an effort to help the student raise the grade from a C- to an A because you know that your child has the potential? Or, would you see the parent who demands that the teacher raise the grade because the paper is “A quality” as written?

These hot summer days welcome beach goers for a cool dip in Lake Michigan. You can almost see the heat radiating off of the pavement these days.

It’s hard to believe that just a few short months ago, my doctor advised me to increase my Vitamin D. “The dark, gloomy winter…”, he said. He had been seeing a lot of patients with low Vitamin D. The vast majority of our Vitamin D comes from the sun. Our bodies rely on it to boost our immunities, strengthen our bones and support our heart’s health, among others.

As with so many things in life, too much of a good thing is bad for you, and sunshine is no exception. “It only takes one severe sunburn to potentially double your child’s chances of getting melanoma later in life,” says Andrea Cambio, MD, FAAD, a board-certified pediatric dermatologist who was interviewed by WebMD.

I never would have guessed that these words could come out of my mouth, but there is a thing as “too much ice cream”. Back in my younger days when I worked at Dairy Queen, my co-workers and I would tire of eating ice cream. While there was no official protocol as to how much ice cream we could eat, we pretty much ate ourselves into a coma every time our boss left for Mr. Steak.

In those moments when chocolate chip milk shakes, root beer floats and chili dogs lost their allure, we would drink soda water with lime slices. (In those days, Dairy Queen offered old-fashioned ice cream floats; the soda water is what made the “fizz”.) Especially on a hot, sultry day, soda water and lime was a crisp and refreshing alternative to dairy.

Nothing can replicate the fresh taste of soda water made from its source – a fresh blast of carbon dioxide when combined with Lake Michigan water makes the best cocktail of water and air. Many flavored waters today contain added sugars and other ingredients, so they are not a true replacement for water.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention  (CDC) published a chilling fact from a 2014 report by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services: “If smoking continues at the current rate among youth in this country, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 will die early from a smoking-related illness. That’s about 1 of every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger alive today.” The CDC also reported that teens who smoke are also more likely to use alcohol and illegal drugs. (https://medlineplus.gov/smokingandyouth)

With that message in mind, it was good to hear this week that the teen smoking rate has dropped to a new low. A newly released survey from the CDC and FDA (U. S. Food and Drug Administration for Tobacco Products) shows that smoking amongst teens has dropped to 9%.