Posts tagged Parenting
How And When Do I Talk With My Kids About Alcohol And Drugs

The Child Mind Institute has created this exceptional video addressing how and when to talk to your kids about drugs and alcohol.  Parents are generally pretty clear that the conversation must be had, but we can easily push it off out of fear, or because we really don’t have a clear script in mind and don’t know what to expect.  Oftentimes, our parents did not have this conversation with us, and we have no role models in how to proceed.  This video not only gives terrific talking points, but acknowledges how difficult it can be, and provides strategies for keeping the lines of communication open.
Some highlights from the (7 minute) video are:

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Parents Talk With Alysson Pereira: Sexting and Cyberbullying Awareness Advocate

Allyson Pereira was a “good girl” who got involved with a very popular boy, who then broke up with her. He asked her for a nude photo with a promise to get back together. She made a terrible choice, but one many adults can understand, and she sent the photo. Her life was forever changed. She came to discuss her experiences with current 7th and 8th grade students during the school day, and the Pelham parent community in the evening.

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Teenage Drinking is More Complicated Than It Seems

By Melissa Ronan, LMSW, Pelham Together Executive Board Member, and Chair of the Pelham Together Mental Health Committee

It’s not just that your teen is drinking. The bigger issue with teenage drinking is that many kids drink to cope instead of learning to cope. And teens with mental health problems often drink to self-medicate, camouflaging the symptoms of underlying issues that are developing. Studies show that the later kids start drinking, the less likely they are to ever develop a substance abuse problem. So delaying or minimizing teen drinking has significant long-term benefits to their physical and emotional well-being.

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Bullying Prevention and Intervention: What Works and What Doesn't

On March 8, 2023, Make Caring Common of Harvard University hosted a webinar with bullying expert, Dr. Dorothy Espelage, to discuss bullying prevention and intervention. It was EXCELLENT. Check out a write up of key takeaways—including a discussion of what is bullying? What does and doesn’t work to prevent it?—and a recording of the full webinar is at the end.

This event was chocked full of resources, recommendations, and fabulous information for parents, schools, and communities.

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Rosalind Wiseman Talks Bullying With Middle School Parents

On March 1st middle school parents gathered in the MS Library to hear Rosalind Wiseman, noted author and bullying prevention expert, talk about bullying and our kids’ peer-to-peer relationships. Some key points she made were the difference between treating people with dignity vs respect, and what motivates young people to make healthy and considerate choices (hint: feeling proud and avoidance of being ‘called out’ negatively are big). The Q&A was robust, and we all left wanting more.

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Pelham in the News, along with Pelham Together!

If you’re looking for fun things to do with your kids in Westchester County, all roads lead to the village of Pelham. “They’ve done a great job of engaging families and young people in sports and recreation and the arts,” says John Ravitz, EVP/COO of the Business Council of Westchester (BCW). “It’s giving people a well-rounded opportunity to access so many different things.”

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Parenting in the Digital Age: Fostering Well-being and Resilience

WEBINAR RECORDING AVAILABLE….click through….

Families are spending more time on screens than ever – from using social media and news sites to gaming and streaming. How does this behavioral shift impact family dynamics and well-being? How are parents and caregivers adapting strategies for the digital age? And how does their internet usage ultimately affect their children’s consumption?

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Embrace the Struggle

Pelham Together’s Melissa Ronan shares some hard-earned wisdom as the mother of three….embrace the struggle! Kids will inevitably struggle -- socially, academically, athletically, emotionally. How should we,

as parents, deal with our children’s struggles? We need to expect them, to accept them, and to

adapt them into valuable lessons.

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Teenagers Are Struggling, and It's Not Just Lockdown

The achievement culture in which our young people grow up was lifted slightly during the pandemic, and some studies show that improved their mental health. But it was short lived, and the pressure is back on. Parents play a mitigating role here. This article, as supported in studies by Dr. Suniya Luthar and Dr. Denise Pope, suggests that parents adjust the benchmarks they use to measure their child’s success in support of their mental health.

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