Silicon Valley Moms Blog

Worried About Your Teens Sexting? You Should Be.

If you have teens at home then you know that they now come with an attachment on one hand called a cell phone. With that cell phone, they can perform feats unimaginable to you and me like texting 100 words per minute using only their thumbs. Often, teens don’t actually talk on these cell phones but you can be sure that they take and send pictures, video and occasionally even an email or two although I now hear from my own teen that email is incredibly outdated. Go figure.

One of the newest trends to worry parents and authorities is a blend of sex and texting called “sexting”. According to Wikipedia, sexting “is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily between cell phones”. This new Gen Y mating call, which 20% of teens admit participating in, would be problematic enough sent between two consenting parties, but in most cases, these photos are shared among groups of friends and sometimes even entire schools and beyond. Usually, the sexually explicit pictures also end up on the internet where they become a permanent record of an unfortunate choice.

Many kids involved in the practice of sexting aren’t aware of the severity of the consequences. In some states, both the teens that sent sexual pictures as well as those who received them have been charged with child pornography and are now required to register as sex offenders. But sexting has ruined lives beyond felony criminal charges. In one recent case, a teen girl committed suicide after being harassed and bullied over sexting images she sent to her then boyfriend.

This news was enough for me to ask my fourteen year old what she knew about sexting. Her reaction fell in line with one of the definitions provided by Urban Dictionary :

CLICK HERE to continue reading on our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.....

The candidate's health care plans hit home

....cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

I watched the presidential debate last night, eager for information and ideas, and I came away with one stark realization.

Only one candidate proposes a plan that would ensure that I'm not dropped from my employer's health plan due to a pre-existing condition. 

Only one candidate would ensure that all children are adequately covered for the checkups, vaccinations, and (God forbid) treatment they need.

Only one candidate offers a plan whereby my husband and I will EVER be able to change jobs.

CLICK HERE to continue reading on DC Metro Moms Blog.....
 

Governor Palin? Knock, Knock. Who's There? MomsRising.

....cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

Yesterday, I joined MomsRising's co-founder and Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner and 13 other moms to hand deliver a letter to Governor Sarah Palin's state office in The DC.  The letter had been signed by over 21,000 mothers and others.  None of this was supposed to take much time, I mean how complicated could it be go into an office building, take the elevator up to the third floor and drop off a box on someone's desk?  Quick In n Out then off to grab a bite to eat. Yes?

NO! Here's how it actually went down.  I arrived at the appointed time just as the local ABC News , Channel 7,was wrapping up an interview with Kristin. More moms arrived. We posed for a group photo  Kristin asked us to walk into the building where, she had been instructed, we would all be required to sign in at the lobby desk.  Again, nothing unexpected.  With the exception of the security guard who was less than thrilled to have 15 women in her lobby. Yes, she actually referred to it as her own lobby. Lobby ownership aside, we were told to wait for the news crew to return from upstairs.  Which we did.

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The Business Plan of Happiness

... cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

I've never been one for timing.

I graduated from college in the tech boom of the late '90s and immediately started to work my tail off in the San Francisco Bay Area...for peanuts as a federal government employee. I watched my fellow sorority sisters and classmates secure jobs at Cisco and Intel and startups. As they became worth millions "on paper" and rose to Internet stardom and power, I plugged away writing press advisories and attending town hall meetings and helping constiuents, with a second job in the evenings at a store. I was happy and fulfilled...and poor.

Click HERE to continue reading at DC Metro Moms Blog.

Welcome to the World, Baby Blackberry!

... cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

I'm now officially a mother of four. I know, I know, I've totally overpopulated this world. Blame it on my innate sense of American consumerism and need for consumption. But I had to have a fourth.

But I didn't realize how much I wanted her until she came into my life just a little over twenty-seven hours ago, and one day ahead of schedule. I'm already madly in love with her. She's so tiny, weighing just shy of four ounces. Her little digits are a scrumptious sight. How did I survive all of these years without her? Why didn't anyone tell me how much I'd come to need her. Well, I guess maybe a few of you mentioned it.

Click HERE to continue reading at DC Metro Moms Blog.

Road Trips Down Memory Lane

... cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.
In the spirit of road trips....

I just completed the second leg of a road trip with my three children. Me, Myself, and I and the three babies in the minivan traveling "back home" to visit family sprinkled around various New England points. I didn't plan the solo excursion, it just happened. The night before I was scheduled to return to DC, I decided it would be fun to "surprise" extended family with unannounced arrivals. I was in need of some spontaneous adventure. Maybe even reassurance that SAHM doesn't stand for Stuck at Home Mom. Good thing my family doesn't take issue with drop-ins.

Our surprise visits were well received. Grandparents were over the moon to see the grandchildren. They didn't seem to take it personally that my youngest wanted absolutely nothing to do with them--a.k.a separation anxiety. They also didn't seem to mind that my little guy nearly ate them out of their homes or that my oldest child didn't hold back when she was bored--I'm so bored, Mom, can we go now?

But the biggest surprise was on me and would come at the end of our visits.
Click HERE to continue reading at DC Metro Moms Blog.

Birth Day, Adoption Day, First Day of the Rest of Our Lives

The most important day of my life.  The day my life changed forever.  The day I grew up.  The day someone else became more important than me.  The day I touched a miracle.  The day I met my daughter.  The day my step-son first called me "mom."  The day I first held that tiny little bundle.

The day my oldest son was born.

All of these phrases can describe the day a child enters your life, but none of them fully explain it, do they?  We all know that having a baby (or a child, or a toddler) really does change everything.  But it isn't something we can fully explain to the uninitiated.  Parenting is a members only club, but we have a fantastic PR machine.  Parents love to talk about their kids!

To this day, nothing can choke me up more than thinking about or describing the moment I first held each of my boys.  (Gah!  In fact, I'm getting all teary right now.)  Most parents feel exactly the same way.  So today, the moms and dads of the Silicon Valley, Chicago, DC Metro, New York, New Jersey, Fifty Something, Deep South, and LA Moms Blogs are all writing about those magical days.

Get out your box of tissues and read along with us.

This is an original D.C. Metro Moms Blog post. 

Stephanie also writes about her children, and gets all sappy and sentimental, at Lawyer Mama and writes, with almost no weeping, about politics at MOMocrats.

Read at Your Own Risk

... cross posted from sister site, DC Moms Blog.

Many bloggers are introspective. We tend to write about our inner lives, as well as our corporeal lives. One day we'll share a funny poo anecdote, the next day our favorite shoes, a blurb about infertility, and wrap up the week with something about our childhood or a relationship with an old boyfriend. There are those who prefer to forget the past, to pretend it never happened. While I live far more in the moment than in my past, I subscribe to the belief that an unexamined life isn't much worth living.

What happens when the examination of your own life intersects with the privacy of another?

Admit it, most of us have written about people from our past in a way that makes us fervently hope they will never locate our blogs. Some of us blog anonymously to prevent that from happening. Some of us don't care and just let it all hang out. Some of us straddle the line in between, only letting friends or those we think are friendly, know where our innermost thoughts can be found on the Internet.

Click HERE to continue reading at DC Moms Blog.

Day One - I feel like a statistic

....cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

The front door opened. Startled I looked up to find my husband coming home from work early yesterday.  I was about to take a work related phone call so I just briefly asked him what was up. He perched himself on the edge of the kitchen counter and said, "It's done.  Over.  I got laid off."

Immediately, I had to grip the counter myself and keep from feeling as if my brain was doing a fade to black sort of thing.  If there wasn't already a baby growing inside me it would have felt as if my stomach was being kicked in. Pummeled.  I hear the words being calmly stated, "Two weeks severance...one month of insurance...", and my mind just reels.  How are we going to survive?  I feel like one of those brief profiles you read about in a story on the current toll of the U.S. economy being featured in Newsweek.

Click HERE to continue reading on DC Metro Moms Blog......

What I learned from the Sex and the City movie

.....cross posted from our sister site, DC Metro Moms Blog.

I'm going to bet that anyone that was interested in seeing the Sex and the City movie in the theater has already seen it, but if you haven't seen and want to go in without any hints to the story, stop reading now.  If you're groaning and rolling your eyes, go read your Atlantic Monthly or Salon or find and activity to share with your kids.  Seriously. K-Bye!

OK, now that the pseudo-intellectual buzzkills are gone, here's what I learned from the Sex and the City movie:

A serious break up takes some serious mourning
Sarah Jessica Parker's vulnerability and portrayal of a woman in the middle of a major break up were really amazing.  When she shows her red, makeup-less eyes and tells her friends in a voice that breaks, "He was just a bad guy," I found myself transported back to my own and my friends' tough, shake-you-to-your core breakups. SATC shows the anatomy of a breakup, and proves that the female experience is not all shopping and shtupping.

Click HERE to continue reading on DC Metro Moms Blog.....