Is your teen obsessed with One Direction?
OMG! One Direction is going to be on Saturday Night Live this weekend! Hold everything!
My 13-year-old talks about nothing but this group. She saw them perform live on "The Today Show" a few weeks ago and plans to go to their shows this summer when they come to Florida.
TBH, as the kids would say, or to be honest, I don't see what the big deal is about this British boy band manufactured by Simon Cowell of "American Idol" fame. They competed on "The X Factor" in England and placed third. Their songs are OK, their dancing is mediocre and they don't have much charisma.
I do remember obsessing over pop stars in my early teens, namely David Cassidy and Bobby Sherman. I can relate to the thrill. But take some dancing lessons, guys!
Zumba: Do dancers know what they're dancing to?
During a recent zumba class, the instructor told us the song we were dancing to is "Rated XX." I was immediately intrigued and had to find out what it was about.
I asked the instructor and he didn't seem comfortable talking about it, so I was on my own. Since I don't know the names of any of the songs, this was a complicated task.
I finally found the song, "Ai Si Eu Te Pego," "Oh, If I Could Get My Hands On You," which is in Portuguese. I got a colleague to translate, and it wasn't too offensive. But I started researching other lyrics and found some that were much more risque, especially "Allez Ola Ole," which is in French.
So every time we dance to these songs now, I smile, knowing that most exercisers have no clue what they're dancing to. Or maybe they do know and are living out a secret fantasy.
FPG photo/Janeris Marte
"Carly's Voice": Autism, from a parent's perspective
When we see a parent with a disabled child, we sympathize. But after reading "Carly's Voice," a new book by Arthur Fleischmann and his autistic daughter, Carly, I realized I had no clue about the struggles and agonizing decisions that go on when the rest of us are not looking.
I went to college with Arthur and his wife, Tammy, who was my good friend. But we lost touch over the years and until Facebook came along I didn't know their teenage daughter, Carly, had severe autism and is unable to talk. The book describes her frequent crying, constant rocking, sensitivity to noise and inability to sleep through the night as her parents search desperately for help.
Their savior, besides excellent caregivers, ends up being computers that allow Carly to "speak." They learn she has extraordinary intelligence and has been absorbing everything she has been hearing when her parents thought she wasn't listening. Carly has since become something of a celebrity, appearing on several news and talk shows. The book shows how persistent parents who don't give up can allow their kids to achieve their potential and find some satisfaction despite the constant roadblocks.
Photo courtesy Arthur Fleischmann
The Big Ask: The new way to get a prom date
Remember the olden days when a boy asked a girl to the prom by calling her on the phone? Well that is so 1970s.
The new way to ask your date, at least at my kids' high school, is to do an elaborate set-up that the whole school observes. Lots of showmanship goes into it, and the asker needs to be pretty sure his date will say yes so there is no embarrassment after all he has gone through.
Among the asks I have heard about: The boy bakes brownies and when the group of friends gets to the bottom of the pan, the question is waiting for her. In another, a girl who is a swimmer swam to the end of her lane, and the boy was waiting with a towel painted with the words "Prom?"
Another creative boy placed tennis balls that said PROM? in the fence of the school's court. As for my daughter, her date sent her on a scavenger hunt around the school, with different teachers giving her different letters of the word PROM.
You gotta love the creativity, but there also must be pressure for the next kid to come up with an even better presentation that the whole school is going to see.
Photo: Marvin Joseph/Washington Post
The savings are priceless for telecommuting parents
Do you have a whole workday before you get to your actual job? I know I do. It’s not easy getting everyone ready and where they need to be in the morning. It’s no picnic making arrangements for how everyone is going to get home at the end of the day either.
I just discovered a relatively new campaign to help stretched-thin working parents trying to juggle the responsibilities of work and home life. This week is the second annual National Telework Week, which was designed by Telework Exchange to show businesses and employees the financial and environmental benefits of working from home. And if you’re a parent, there are benefits for the well-being of you and your family, as well.
Sara Sutton Fell, CEO and founder of FlexJobs.com, writes on WorkingMother.com, “According to Telework Exchange, 2011’s participants “saved $2,730,229 on commuting costs, gained back 148,692 hours into their day, and removed 1,818 tons of pollutants from the air, while refraining from driving 3,764,001 miles.” All that from just one week spent telecommuting!”
While the environmental and financial aspects are great, telecommuters are often healthier and less stressed, leading to a more productive workday — a good selling point for the boss.
Fell said telecommuters are 11 percent to 15 percent more productive than office-bound employees and get an extra hour of sleep every night.
Did someone say an extra hour of sleep??
If that’s not a reason to campaign for either a part-time or full-time telecommuting schedule, I don’t know what is.
For more:
www.workingmother.com/blogs/workmom-news/work-home-national-telework-week-march-5-9
www.teleworkexchange.com/teleworkweek
See what your telecommuting savings could be:
Teens' wisdom teeth: Must they be removed?
It's become almost standard for my friends to have their kids' wisdom teeth removed before they go to college. The talk is that the teeth are inevitably going to cause problems and it's too hard to schedule the removal after they are away at school.
So I wasn't surprised when my dentist recommended the same thing at our most recent visit for my 17-year-old. But I was not so quick to schedule an appointment.
Why should they be removed now if they are not causing any problems? Although extraction has become routine, there is little evidence to support removal to prevent potential future problems. One study found that only 12 percent of people who kept their impacted wisdom teeth into their 40s developed gum or bone damage.
I am definitely biased: I still have my wisdom teeth. My teeth are very close together and food gets stuck in unflattering places. But why have risky surgery when all you might need to do in the long term is take better care of your teeth?
Photo: Mark Randall/Sun Sentinel
UF Honors College needs to welcome kids, not discourage them
We were thrilled when my daughter got invited to apply to the University of Florida's Honors College. Until I read the college's list of "tips" on how to write the application essays.
To get in, the kids have to list their awards and accomplishments and write two essays (Among the choices: "Are we alone?" and "Who was the better tree-climber: Napoleon or Attila the Hun?")
So we went to the on-line "tips" sheet to see how to approach these super-obscure topics. I found the advice quite off-putting, almost discouraging: "In the past many excellent students were not admitted to the Honors Program simply because they did not take the time to craft good essays. A lot of thought and time goes into choosing the essay prompts, and each applicant's essays are read by two people; we therefore want our effort to be worth it."
Also: "Please do not tell us that you are an AP Scholar with Distinction--at least 2/3 of our applicants can say that."
And "Please keep in mind that we receive approximately 2,000 applications each year for a class of 750, and so we would prefer to consider applicants who are truly interested in the Honors philosophy of engagement."
Sounds like they have gotten lots of applications from kids who qualified because of their test scores but were tired of writing college application essays and just threw something together. Still, a playful invitation might be more effective in getting quality kids than a so-called tips sheet with an uninviting and dispiriting tone.
Photo: Patti Parker Nielsen/Sun Sentinel
Gretchen Day-Bryant has a son in high school and a daughter in middle school. She’s lived to tell about the struggles of juggling little kids and work.
Joy Oglesby has a preschooler...
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Lois Solomon lives in Boca Raton with her husband and three daughters.
Georgia East is the parent of a five-year-old girl, who came into the world weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces.
Brittany Wallman is the mother of Creed, 15, and Lily, 7, and is married to a journalist, Bob Norman. She covers Broward County government, which is filled with almost as much drama as the Norman household. Almost.
Chris Tiedje is the Social Media Coordinator and the father of a 7-year-old girl, and two boys ages 4 and 3.
Kyara Lomer Camarena has a 2-year-old son, Copelan, and a brand new baby. 
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