As our culture changes, not only are our children exposed to things at younger ages, many parents, frequently less comfortable with technology, may also have found themselves without a "community" of people to talk over decisions and dilemmas presented to us as parents in the 21^st century.

• Introduction
• Favorite Blogs
• Online Resources

Introduction

One place parents are finding "community," as well as news and information impacting our parenting decisions, is through blogs. The term "blog" comes from "Web log" and is a form of "social media" (i.e. MySpace and Wikipedia). The word "blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Blogs are user-generated Web sites where entries are made, in a style similar to a formal journal or diary entry, and are displayed in reverse chronological order. Many blogs also include links to other blogs and Internet-based resources that you might find interesting.

Some blogs provide commentary on news about a particular subject, such as adolescent health, politics, education, dieting, medical technology, sports, while others function more like personal online diaries. You can subscribe to most blogs so that updates come via email, which makes it very easy to stay in touch with a topic or group of people with whom you share an interest.

A typical blog post includes text, a picture and links to other related information about the topic. People reading the blog can leave comments about the content with links to other web-based information about the topic, frequently generating lively conversation.
Back to top

Favorite Blogs

Below is a list of some of my favorite blogs that I think parents might enjoy—and I’ve added a little description about each.

• Commonsense Media
  Dedicated to improving the media and entertainment lives of kids and families. They believe in sanity, not censorship. Their homepage includes reviews of the latest movies, tools for parents about hot topics, links to their blog www.commonsenseblog.org, as well as resources and news for parents. Accessed March 2008.


• Teen Health 411
  A medical blog hosted by Healthline and written by a parent about news and issues relating to teen health. Accessed March 2008.


• Ypulse
  An independent blog for teen/youth media and marketing professionals, but parents find it very informative as a link to the reality of tweens, teens, Generation X and Generation Y. Accessed March 2008.

Interested in finding other blogs? Go to www.google.com and type in "blogs for parents." It will respond with a long list of blogs that might interest you.
Back to top

Online Resources

Not blogs, but also good online resources for health information include:

• Go Ask Alice!
  The health question and answer Internet service produced by Columbia University’s Health Promotion Program. It publishes recently asked questions, lets you search for health information by subject and gives you a chance to ask a question.


• TeensHealth
  Created by The Nemours Foundation for Children’s Health Media to provide families with accurate, up-to-date and jargon-free health information.


• We’re Talking Too! Preteen Health and We’re Talking Teen Health
  Sponsored by the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) to provide reliable health information and resources to families.

The good news for us parents is there is support and information out there—don’t be afraid to access it.

Good luck!
Back to top