Parenting Daily

If I haven’t mentioned it before now, I’m kind of a pop culture/celeb news/gossip site hound. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of at my age, but I’m also not anxious to banish it from my life. It’s a fun vice and so, for the moment, I’m okay with my addiction. At any rate, the younger sister of pop star/occasional train wreck Britney Spears, Jamie Lynn Spears is apparently starting to plan her wedding. The 17-year-old was previously star of the hit Nickelodeon tween/teen sitcom, Zoey 101. She announced her pregnancy by her also teenaged boyfriend, Casey Aldridge, earlier this year. In June, she gave birth to baby girl Maddie Briann Aldridge. Several months ago, while still pregnant, she and Casey had gotten engaged, Ms. Spears obtained her GED, and purchased a new home in Mississippi. In my parents’ generation, Ms. Spears either would have immediately married her beau upon finding out she was pregnant, or she would have been hidden away until the baby issue was resolved, one way or another. But in this day and age, it’s not as scandalous. Which leads me to wonder: are they even doing the right thing by getting married? They’re so young! I’m really divided on this. I hope they are truly in love and that they can make the marriage work and raise their daughter with all the love and support and security she deserves. But I know how much I, personally, changed from 17 to just 22, let alone to 27, to 32, etc. You get my point. Now tell me your opinions.  

A bizarre twist on the phenomenon of adult women interacting inappropriately with teens comes out of the Seattle, Washington area. A 30 year old woman, Lorelei Corpuz, posed for over a year as a 17-year-old orphaned teen boy! While in her 17-year-old disguise, she met a 15-year-old girl at a local mall and eventually moved in with the girl and her family. Without getting into details, which you can see here if you so choose, the girl and Ms. Corpuz had a relationship, including physical abuse of the 15-year-old girl. The girl believed Lorelei to be a male and admitted to police she had feelings for “him” until she found out he was actually a woman. Ms. Corpuz later pled guilty to a single count of third-degree child molestation, served time in jail, and was released. As of Monday, however, Corpuz, now 31, is back behind bars for violating her parole by being in contact with minors again. I’d like to say obvious things like: Don’t let strangers move into your home, don’t leave teens of the opposite sex alone, etc…. but this is just so bizarre, I’m not sure anyone could have seen this one coming. Just be careful, parents.

Continuing the sickening trend of female authority figures having inappropriate relations with those they’re supposed to be taking care of… out of Ohio comes the case of 25-year-old Carolyn Hatcher. She was working as a House Mother in a foster care facility and seduced a 16-year-old boy. She is now approximately 10 weeks pregnant. She’s also married and also a teacher. Seriously, I can’t understand this. Unless you’ve lived without a television set since the days of Mary Kay Letourneau, circa 1996, how can you possibly think you’re going to get away with such behavior? It’s like those “Dateline: Predator” specials where dozens of guys drive hours to see an alleged minor, with the intention of having sex, drinking, watching porn, etc. and then they’re surprised when they’re arrested. HOW?? There have to be some safeguards enacted. Anyone have any ideas?

Well, if we haven’t heard enough about these cases yet, there’s another one: female teacher charged with having sex with a minor student, possibly two. Every time I hear these stories, my (figurative) jaw drops. As my parents can attest, I was never attracted to high school boys even when I was in high school. I’ve always been more interested in men older than me, though the age difference has gone from 5 and 6 years older down to months now that I’m in my 30s. At any rate, the idea of being 60 years old, like Adrienne Laflamme, and having sex with a 17 year old and possibly a 14 year old is just beyond comprehension to me. But, perhaps, that is why I am not a pedophile. What makes this particular story even more nauseating, if that’s possible, is that this woman was a teacher at a juvenile detention facility. So you’re teaching kids who, for the most part, are already very distrustful of authority and then this woman abuses that further by raping these kids. There are also allegations of drug use during the trysts. I don’t know what to say. Having worked for so long with staff in facilities of this type, I explained over and over to parents that the staff can be trusted, their kids will be safe, etc. But it’s one story like this that will erase all of that from everyone’s minds. It’s a crap deal for these kids, especially. Who are they ever going to trust? Sad sad and sadder.

Funny or not? Regardless, a Minnesota teen (age 19) was charged with a felony on Thursday for attempting to sell his vote on eBay, for a minimum of $10. Perhaps this college student didn’t pay attention in his high school government class. Back in the 1920s, some people would “sell” their votes for alcohol, which is why (I believe) no one is allowed to sell alcohol while the polls are open. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on that. Selling your vote for money is a no-no.

When contacted by authorities, the teen claimed it had been a joke and had removed the listing. I’m torn. I can see how a teen might find this funny. One of those, “well, it’s funny to me, so it’s good enough!” type of deals. Plus some interest in seeing if anyone would react to it. Sometimes people (not just teens!) do things just for attention and to see how others react. This could have been one of those times. I don’t know.

Considering this kid is now facing up to $10,000 in fines and 5 years imprisonment, perhaps he’ll think through his “jokes” next time?

While watching the “Today Show” this morning, I learned of a beach danger I’ve never heard of before: sand holes. You know how it’s fun to dig a hole in the sand when you’re little? Well, apparently all that sand on the beach acts like a very large sugar bowl. If you dip your finger in a sugar bowl and then remove it, all the sugar falls back in the hole. Though it may not happen immediately with sand, it does happen.

More kids have died from collapsing sand holes than from shark attacks. But until today, I’ve never heard of this ever.

Now why am I posting this on a blog that’s aimed to parents of teens? Because they also talked about a college student who dug a hole to lay his/her chase lounge in (don’t ask me why) and it collapsed around him and he died.

Just another thing that won’t hurt to talk about.

I really enjoyed collecting news involving teens and teen issues yesterday, so I’m going to do that again today.

Today we’re starting with a topic brought about by the alleged pregnancy pact in Massachusetts (17 girls pregnant at the same time in one particular high school). This site has a list of good talking points for your kids on the issue of teen pregnancy. Check it out whether you’ve got sons or daughters!

Remember how we talked teens who exercise smoke less? Well, in keeping with our nation’s obesity problems, fewer teens must be getting physically active. This article in the Washington Post talks about how the many-years trend of decreasing smoking behaviors among teens has hit a plateau.

More sad summer news. It seems a lot of attention is given to drowning when it involves toddlers and elementary age children. We tend to think that teens know better, unless they’re in an ocean and a shark attacks. In this case, this 16 year old and friends were trying to swim in a river and ended up drowning. Also worth talking to your teen about.

It’s always thoroughly refreshing, for me, when I hear about teen males who read! I’ve really had very little success inspiring teen boys to read for pleasure. Anyway, check out this teen’s reading interests and maybe you’ll come up with some insight into your own teen’s reading habits.

Aha! An upside to the gas crunch! Although, this would have been highly depressing for me when I was a teen! Cruising around with my friends once I had my license was such sweet freedom!

Enjoy your reading and let me know if you have any tips on news involving teens or their parents!

I’m starting a new feature for the blog-a teen news roundup. All the best news featuring regular teens, celebrity teens, and issues involving teens. I’ll still do my daily posts on specific topics but there’s so much out there, I don’t want you to miss it all! I’ve been trying to highlight different news items each day but they’re just piling up too quickly. I’m not sure yet how often I’ll do a News Round-up. Maybe every few days, maybe once a week. At any rate, I’m excited about this new feature and I hope you enjoy it, as well!

First up, if you’ve turned on the news today, you’ve probably heard about the tragic freak accident involving a teen at an amusement park. He apparently lost his ball cap and hopped a fence to enter a restricted and dangerous area, in the hopes of retrieving his hat. He was decapitated in the process. Full story is available here.

Last week, NBC launched its controversial reality television show “The Baby Borrowers.” Did you watch it? I remember hearing about the concept of this show a year or so ago and being appalled by it. Knowing how scared I was just to leave my daughter in daycare, I couldn’t imagine there were really parents who would allow their precious babies to be taken care of by teens they know nothing about. The reality of the show seems far less frightening than I had originally anticipated. The parents were able to observe all interactions and intervene if they felt necessary. At any rate, here’s more on the show, as well as a slideshow of other entertainment “talking points” your teen may be commenting on this week.

Unfortunately, this is another sad story involving a couple of teens who were doing something good for their community: cleaning up the highways. Read more by clicking here.  

Finally, on a lighter note, remember how we’ve talked about texting? Well, this teen takes it to a whole new (not sexually explicit!) level. It’s impressive, if only due to sheer numbers. Check out the story here and then enjoy the rest of your weekend!