In Recent News...

I came across a news article that shocked and appalled me. A woman and her crying 2-year-old were shopping in a Wal-Mart in Georgia. Another shopper, 61-year-old Roger Stephens, got irritated at the crying child. He said something along the lines of "If you don't shut her up, I will shut her up for you." The child continued to cry. He proceeded to pick up the girl and smack her 4 or 5 times in the face until the child screamed. Other shoppers held Stephens until the police arrived. He is now in prison for child cruelty.
If that was my child or relative or really anyone that man would not be walking strait. He had no right to touch, let alone punish a stranger's child. What kind of world are we living in that people think it's ok to SLAP a woman's baby in the face? He later apologized to the mother for beating the crap out of her little baby.



http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j4gGHqEFR8mciuQHzYarTpwJL9HAD9AFFTMG0

Another disturbing news article I came across just today was also about a child around the age of two. The police got a call from a man who apparently had found a 2-year-old child wandering ALONE by the side of a road in nothing but a disposable diaper. The man said that he had no idea who the child belonged to. The girl was walking beside a busy road in a diaper holding a doll. The police spent about 2 hours going door-to-door asking if anyone could identify the child and if they knew who she belonged to. Finally, they came to the girl's grandparent's house. The grandparents said that she and her mother were visiting them from out of town. Police found the girl's mother in a local bar. The mother is now in prison.
Sadly, this happens way too often. I had watched a video about this particular case, but the article was not posted with it. I googled the situation and I found several almost identical cases like this one. It makes me very sad. At any moment those situations could have turned fatal. They don't realize how lucky they are.
This type of thing also happens way too often in places like Africa, but these children are abandoned intentionally. These children are left to fend for themselves. Newborn babies are THROWN AWAY alive in plastic bags.
We all need to step up and take charge of our responsibilities; our children.

http://www.mtairynews.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Mother+arrested+after+leaving+toddler+unattended%20&id=3519459&instance=secondary_stories_left_column

http://www.katu.com/news/56637012.html

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/Dogsthorpe-Toddler-2-is-found.5555799.jp

Self-Esteem

Why are self-esteem and body image important?

Being a teenager that has struggled with self-esteem, I think it is very important to educate people about children's(particularly girl's) self-esteem. Here are some facts about self-esteem and what poor self-esteem can do to young girls.

Self-esteem is related to how we feel about ourselves: it's not just how we look but how we feel about how we look. And it's not just how successful or smart others say we are, but how confident we feel about our talents and abilities. Consider the following in order to understand the internal and external pressures girls feel and how these pressures affect the development of their self-esteem:

• Eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression are the most common mental health problems in girls.


• 59% of 5–12th grade girls in one survey were dissatisfied with their body shape.


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  20–40% of girls begin dieting at age 10.


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  By 15, girls are twice as likely to become depressed than boys.


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  Among 5–12th graders, 47% said they wanted to lose weight because of magazine pictures.


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  Health risks accompany girls' drop in self-esteem due to risky eating habits, depression, and unwanted pregnancy.


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  Girls aged 10 and 12 (tweens) are confronted with "teen" issues such as dating and sex, at increasingly earlier ages. 73% of 8–12–year olds dress like teens and talk like teens.

When and why does girls' self-esteem drop?

• Starting in the pre-teen years, there is a shift in focus; the body becomes an all consuming passion and barometer of worth.
  
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  Self-esteem becomes too closely tied to physical attributes; girls feel they can't measure up to society standards.
  
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  Between 5th and 9th grade, gifted girls, perceiving that smarts aren't sexy, hide their accomplishments.
  
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  Teenage girls encounter more "stressors" in life, especially in their personal relationships, and react more strongly than boys to these pressures, which accounts in part for the higher levels of depression in girls.
  
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  The media, including television, movies, videos, lyrics, magazine, internet, and advertisements, portray images of girls and women in a sexual manner—revealing clothing, body posture and facial expressions—as models of femininity for girls to emulate.
  

http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/how_raise_girls_healthy_selfesteem