Leaving "love" behind

Auto Week is saying that Mitsubishi is pulling out of the Detroit Auto Show.

So many people here in Michigan are pulling up stakes and moving to another part of the country to start over. How do you cope with the move and still help your teen deal with the loss of friends and possibly what they believe is "the love of their life?"

In the stress of a move, it can be very easy to discount or even overlook the importance of lost relationships for your children. Even though you might see this relationship as "one OF a million," your teen might see it as "one IN a million." Help them to transition keep these questions in mind:
1. Are you letting them talk about it without feeling the need to fix, change or negate their emotions?
2. Do you ask open ended questions about the loss instead of telling them what they "need to" or "should" do?
3. Have you allow them to not only grieve the loss but to experience the emotions without judgment?

We may think we know the outcome but we have hindsight, they don't. We might believe there will be another "love" down the road but for them, but today is their reality. What can we do to let them learn from this in their own way, not ours?

Thoughts?
Lisa Jander

Teen Bailout

Today, the Boston Globe had an article about the auto bailout and how desperate the situation has gotten. The article says, "A Senate auto bailout bill unveiled yesterday noted that 355,000 US workers are directly employed by the auto industry, and an additional 4.5 million work in related industries."

Immediately, my mind turned to a host of other "bailouts" we need in this country, in fact in the world: rampant teen pregnancy, underage drinking, high school drop outs... How many teens are in need today? How many are directly affected by the relationship choices they've made and are in desperate need of relief?

While I cannot begin to speculate on how the auto crisis will be resolved, I do know that we can begin today to make a difference in the lives of our children by modeling better choices. If every adult in this country made a commitment to buy a new American made car today - what would the impact be? If every adult in this country chose to mentor a teen in their town today - what would the impact be?

We can contribute everyday to the "teen relief fund."

Road to recovery,

Mama j