"Kid Nation" Reality TV Show to Premiere Sept. 19th, Greased with a Bit of Scandal

Something to look forward to when I return? A new reality tv show about 40 kids electing their own government in Montana will premiere the week I return to the USA, and already a participant's parent is complaining that child welfare laws were not followed. I can't quite follow the kernel of the complaint (inadequate supervision? failure to register with the state film office? child labor laws?) and my cynical nature leads me to wonder if this isn't part of the advance PR for the show, since I certainly had not heard of it until this story. But I must admit, I am intrigued.

Tonight Begins Pottermania

Tonight people will be on line in bookstores at midnight to purchase the first legal copies of the final Harry Potter book. I have generally been neutral on Harry Potter; anything that gets kids to read chunky 700 page books has some good to it. But those of you who have listened to me discourse on "what's good for kids" know that I have issues when kids are portrayed as unnaturally independent and in perpetual conflict with adults. I am less concerned about the "witchcraft" problems that fundamentalist Christians have oft mentioned; I tend to tally much of that brouhaha up to sheer sexism. Male "wizards" are seen as benign or at least neutral while female "witches" are seen as evil; even Glinda is suspect. But the day is here at last, the Potter saga is at an end, and soon enough we will have new controversies to debate.

Girls With Supportive Friends Still At Risk For Depression, Anxiety

Much discussion in the popular media recently about an interesting study on the effects of "co-ruminating" (excessive and repetitive discussion of problems with friends, constant venting) on both boys and girls aged 8-15. Both boys and girls seemed to form stronger friendships after this, but girls exhibited moderately increased depression and anxiety as well. Both boys and girls are likely to ruminate with friends when feeling depressed or anxious, but girls are more likely to fall into a circular pattern where ongoing rumination increases depressive and anxious feelings. The media are generally doing a decent job of presenting this, although there are several annoying headlines along the lines of "Girl Talk Bad." What stands out to me is that relatively young children can experience this kind of ongoing depression/anxiety cycle and they experience it even in the midst of a supportive friend network. As we adults do our yoga and guided meditation in efforts to "let go" of our stress, I wonder if this isn't something from which even younger children can also benefit.

What Kids Think of Adults' Jobs: Drinking Coffee, Using the Computer, Yacking on the Phone

Cute article in the WSJ about how the transition to an information economy has made it harder to explain to kids what Mommy and Daddy do at work. I immediately thought of the Tom Wolfe novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, where Judy McCoy provides a catty but not inaccurate description of her husband's job as a bond trader: "Just imagine that a bond is a slice of cake, and you didn’t bake the cake, but every time you hand somebody a slice of the cake a tiny little bit comes off, like a little crumb, and you can keep that."

But I have to say I am not sure I agree with the sentiment of the article. Even young kids know tons about computers, and they can certainly understand the myriad ways Mom and Dad do work on a computer. Not only can your son or daughter understand what work you do on a computer, chances are they could offer decent suggestions for improvement if you described it to them!

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Seen As Strenuous But Not Unhealthy

Something that caught my eye in the hard copy of the U of C Magazine is news of an encouraging study by our own Professor Linda Waite, suggesting that grandparents raising grandchildren face a strenuous but not intrinsically unhealthy task. Grandparents raising grandchildren are the most common form of kinship foster care, and it is encouraging to see the data so carefully parsed. Waite found that grandparents who were in ill health while raising their grandchildren were often already experiencing health deficits prior to becoming kinship carers, and that there were a fairly wide variety of potentially contravening variables that should be controlled for in researching the grandparents raising grandchildren phenomenon. This is not to dismiss the real problems that many such grandparents face, but it is an encouraging finding that may help prevent hasty assumptions about older parents.

Russia Re-opens International Adoptions

Good news in today's Chicago Tribune: Russia has re-opened international adoptions. Evanston's outstanding adoption agency The Cradle is among the USA agencies re-certified by the Russian Federation. An astonishing 700,000 kids are in Russian orphanages.