Tag: parenting

Medical Marijuana Helps Mothers Be ‘More Present Parents’ And Develop ‘Positive Relationships With Their Children,’ Study Finds

New government-funded research out of New Zealand finds that mothers who were able to access medical marijuana reported that cannabis improved their quality of parenting by allowing them to more effectively manage health conditions and tolerate the stress of caring for children.

At the same time, study participants reported persistent obstacles, such as the high cost of legal products and ongoing stigma and legal risks.

The new report, published this week in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review, drew from interviews with 15 mothers who used medical cannabis (MC) obtained either through prescriptions, the illicit market or both during the past year. They were asked about use in general, their conversations with children, societal stigma and risks.

“Mothers reported MC as an important facilitator of their ability to positively parent their children,” the study found, “enabling them to manage their own health needs (i.e., anxiety, endometriosis and arthritis).”

Mothers also reported feeling that “managing their health with MC allowed them to be more present parents and better tolerate the stressors of motherhood,” wrote authors at Massey University in Auckland.

The mothers were recruited for the survey from a larger group of 38 participants who were part of a larger project around women’s relationship with medical marijuana. They were interviewed one-on-one either in person or via an online video call.

“Participants felt that being able to manage their physical pain and mental distress with [medical cannabis] meant they were in a better mood and more present.”

Nearly half the mothers who participated (46.6 percent) said they primarily smoked marijuana, while smaller proportions reported using edibles (40 percent), oils (26.6 percent), vaporization (20 percent), tea (6.7 percent) and topicals (6.7 percent).

Most obtained marijuana through the unregulated, illegal market (53.3 percent), while a third of participants (33.3 percent) reported accessing both prescription and illicit products. Only two mothers (13.3 percent) said they used exclusively prescription products.

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Using Marijuana Increases ‘Positive Parenting’ Behaviors, New Federally Funded Study Indicates

A new federally funded study on cannabis use and parenting finds that parents typically don’t consume marijuana while their kids are present. Those who used cannabis, however, were also significantly likely to report positive parenting behaviors in the same timeframe that they consumed the drug.

But the relationship between marijuana and parenting is a nuanced one, wrote authors from the University of Tennessee, Ohio State University and San Jose State University, and appears to also rely heavily on who else is present at the time.

Overall, the findings “reveal a complicated relationship between cannabis use and parenting among a sample of cannabis users,” authors wrote. But the results nevertheless provide “some information on ways parents can engage in harm reduction to support positive parenting.”

The study, funded by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant and published this month in the journal Parenting: Science and Practice, analyzed survey responses from 77 parents recruited by research assistants at Sacramento area cannabis retailers. On average, participants were 32 years old, and nearly three quarters (72 percent) were mothers. About half (50.6 percent) were either married or “living in a marriage-like relationship,” while the remaining half were single, widowed or divorced.

Participants were asked to complete a baseline survey and then five brief surveys per day for a 14-day period, followed by a final survey on day 15. They were asked “a battery of questions,” the study says, “pertaining to parenting behaviors, stress, cannabis use, alcohol use, and context.” Participants received small financial incentives for filling out the surveys, with a total possible incentive for each participant of $190.

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Parents, Not Lax Regulation, To Blame for Tweens’ Excessive Screen Time

Instead of calling on the federal government to regulate tween and teen use of social media, perhaps we should look a little closer to home. A new study suggests parental policies and habits around screens are a significant predictor of problematic use among adolescents.

One major finding: Kids getting too much “screen time” are more likely to have parents who get too much screen time.

“One of the biggest predictors of adolescents’ screen use is their parents’ screen use,” pediatrician and lead study author Jason Nagata told The Washington Post.

This was a massive study looking at the screen habits of more than 10,000 kids ages 12 and 13. Published in the journal Pediatric Research, the study—”Associations between media parenting practices and early adolescent screen use”—looked at how often parents used cellphones or other screens around their kids and family policies surrounding technology, such as whether screens were often employed during meal times (35.6 percent said yes), whether kids had access to screens in their bedrooms (46.2 percent said yes), and whether parents monitored and/or limited screen time during the week (67.4 percent and 76.2 percent said yes). Researchers also examined how often the children of these parents engaged in tech-based activities (including using social media, playing video games, and being on a cell phone generally) and how this affected various aspects of their lives.

The researchers found that “parent screen use, family mealtime screen use, and bedroom screen use were associated with greater adolescent screen time and problematic social media, video game, and mobile phone use.”

In addition, “parental use of screens to control behavior (e.g., as a reward or punishment) was associated with higher screen time and greater problematic video game use.”

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Nanny State Social Media Mandates Are No Substitute for Effective Parenting

One of the basic tenets of American conservatism—at least it has been until the Make America Great Again movement has re-jiggered the Republican Party—is that individuals rather than government regulators are best suited to manage their own lives and raise their families. There’s always been an authoritarian streak in social conservatism, but progressives have traditionally been the ones to promote what we call the Nanny State.

“Whether it is forcing restaurants in England to print calorie counts on menus or banning energy drinks for under-18s, the government is full of ideas about how to protect people from themselves,” explained a 2018 BBC article. Although the term is of British origin, such policies are rampant throughout the United States and California in particular. One can think of any number of recent policies that fit the bill, but they all meddle in our lives to “help” or “uplift” us.

Most of these laws—from bans on single-use plastic bags and super-sized soft drinks to limits on trans-fats and e-cigarettes—accomplish little in terms of public health or the environment. There always are endless workarounds to render the edicts pointless. The Nanny State term is ideal, as we envision a hectoring nursemaid intent on depriving us of the simplest pleasures.

But now conservatives are giving leftists a run for the money. Throughout Republican-run Western states, lawmakers are passing legislation that treats adults as if they are children by mandating a variety of mostly pointless regulations in the name of protecting kids from pornography and other internet nastiness. Everyone wants to protect The Children, which makes it difficult to push back—even when such laws impose restrictions on everyone.

The latest frenzy started in Utah, which in 2021 passed a content-filter law that requires that all new cell phones and tablets sold or activated in the state be equipped with a filter that blocks “material that is harmful to minors,” as reports note. Because the law is contingent on five other states approving similar measures, lawmakers in other like-minded states have followed suit. The bills vary somewhat, but ultimately they require some form of age verification to disable the filter.

It’s obviously hypocritical for supposedly free-market lawmakers to mandate meddlesome business regulations. Device manufacturers don’t always know where their products will be sold or activated. Following the model of progressive California, these conservative legislatures are trying to use their muscle to create a de facto nationwide standard. But that’s the least of the problems with these proposals, which raise constitutional and privacy concerns.

If they pass, these laws will certainly get tied up in the federal courts. Previous U.S. Supreme Court decisions have made it clear that legislatures must take the least intrusive approach to limiting public access to websites. By foisting content filters on every device, these efforts take a heavy-handed approach. Such laws, as the court found, presume that parents lack the ability to protect their children.

In fact, parents have a nearly endless array of tools. They simply need to enable the filters and voluntary verification processes that are currently offered. The Competitive Enterprise Institute lists dozens of filter blockers from social media companies, Internet Service Providers, gaming companies, web browsers, and operating systems, as well as standalone app controls.

As the free-speech group NetChoice argued in testimony against Utah’s bill, such measures only provide a false sense of security, leading parents to believe their children are protected. Even the best filters are imperfect, so parents still need to be involved. The group also notes that it will stifle market innovation by imposing a one-size-fits-all standard.

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Helicopter Parenting Hurts Your Kids’ Mental Health

That young people are suffering an explosion of mental health issues is no secret. Anxiety and depression are through the roof, and social scientists are scrambling to find a cause so that whatever is driving kids over the edge can be undone. Extensive use of social media and electronic devices—exacerbated by the isolation of pandemic-era lockdowns—has taken much of the blame. But recent research says that psychological distress more likely results from depriving kids of unsupervised freedom. That’s a larger problem that could take longer to fix.

“From 2009 to 2017, major depression among 20- to 21-year-olds more than doubled, rising from 7 percent to 15 percent,” Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, wrote in 2019. “Depression surged 69 percent among 16- to 17-year-olds. Serious psychological distress, which includes feelings of anxiety and hopelessness, jumped 71 percent among 18- to 25-year-olds from 2008 to 2017…. By 2017, one out of five 12- to 17-year-old girls had experienced major depression in the previous year.”

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Proposed Illinois Bill Seeks To Criminalize Parental Discipline As ‘Parental Bullying’

As if things were not out of hand enough with California’s latest proposed bill implying that the suspension of disruptive students is somehow racist, Democrats in Illinois have introduced a bill that would criminalize parents who “knowingly, with intent to discipline or alter the behavior of a child, says or messages anything that would coerce the child.” In other words, the proposed legislation would classify the appropriate disciplining of children by parents as ‘parental bullying’ and would criminalize the act. And to think California’s legislation seemed outrageous.

The bill was introduced by State Representative La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) and states the following:

Amends the Criminal Code of 2012. Creates the offense of parental bullying. Provides that a parent or legal guardian of a minor commits parental bullying when he or she knowingly and with the intent to discipline, embarrass, or alter the behavior of the minor, transmits any verbal or visual message that the parent or legal guardian reasonably believes would coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to the minor. Provides that parental bullying is a petty offense. Provides that if a person is convicted of parental bullying, the court shall order that person to pay for the costs of prosecution and that a portion of any fine imposed, as determined by the court, be placed in escrow for the purchase of a certificate of deposit for use by the victim when he or she attains 18 years of age.

The bill was introduced back in December but, not surprisingly, does not have any additional sponsors.

The measure would, in effect, make being a successful parent a crime. As written above, a parent would be subjected to a petty offense and required to pay court costs and a fine if found guilty of yelling at their child for fighting with a sibling, throwing food at the table, or not doing their homework. It would be the end of the angry mom glare across the room when she catches her child doing something inappropriate. The list is endless and blurs so many lines that parents would live in constant fear of being arrested for being, well, parents.

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‘No Such Thing As Other People’s Children’: Progressive Group Slammed For Creepy Attack On Florida’s Parental Rights Bill

The progressive group “Together Rising” is being slammed for its creepy attack on Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill and for its point-blank admission that they view other people’s kids as something society should control. While it may seem like a new development, observers have been warning for several years the Left’s assault on the traditional family unit is explicitly linked to indoctrinating children with their progressive political agenda.

On Tuesday, the group shared a social media graphic, fear-mongering that the bill — incorrectly branded the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” by the Left — would harm children.  As The Daily Wire has previously reported, what the bill would actually do is ban teachers from instructing students in kindergarten through third grade on topics relating to sexual orientation and gender, among other things designed to protect children and increase parental rights and transparency.

Nonetheless, Together Rising pledged to provide financial support to LGBTQIA2s+ groups in Florida because “there’s no such thing as other people’s children.”

In a statement on its website titled “We Say Gay,” the group in part alleged that across the country children’s rights are being assaulted (emphasis added):

We know that the rights and safety of these precious children are being attacked not just in Florida and Texas but all across the country.

We stand with them and the LGBTQ+ community, and we will keep investing in these kids and their families.

Because there’s no such thing as other people’s children.

As a result, they are donating $150,000 to a number of groups, including, Compass Community Center, which is “a queer-led, deeply-respected community center in Palm Beach County that serves LGBTQ+ youth, starting at age 3.”

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Leftist writer calls for parenthood to be abolished to achieve equity, says your children should be given to ‘homeless neighbors’ or to the state

A writer is proposing that California abolish parenthood so that the state can “achieve true equity.”

The outlandish proposal was presented in an article published in the “opinion” section of the Ventura County Star – a daily newspaper published in California. The publication is owned by Gannett – the largest newspaper company in the United States. The article titled “California should abolish parenthood, in the name of equity” was also republished by Yahoo in its “news” section.

The author of the piece is Joe Mathews – a co-president of the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy, which is “dedicated to those active on issues of direct democracy, participation and citizens’ rights around the world.”

The article touts Californians as having the goal of “equity” to be their “greatest value.” However, Mathews notes that parenthood prevents true equity because “fathers and mothers with greater wealth and education are more likely to transfer these advantages to their children, compounding privilege over generations.”

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House Democrats Block GOP Effort to Codify Parents’ Bill of Rights

Parental oversight of their kids’ education shouldn’t be a complicated or divisive issue, but — as statewide elections in Virginia last month showed — parents’ rights have become a partisan wedge as Democrats seek to keep America’s families from having a role in what their children are learning.

To preserve parents’ ability to keep tabs on what’s going on in schools and protect their ability to get critical information about the people to whom they entrust their children, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy drafted the Parents’ Bill of Rights with Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Julia Letlow (R-LA), Burgess Owens (R-UT), and Jim Banks (R-IN).

The House GOP’s proposal is simple: Parents should have the right to review their school’s curriculum and reading materials, to be heard, to see school budget and spending, to protect their child’s privacy, and to be updated on any violent activity at school.

While the ideas in the Parents’ Bill of Rights are straightforward and seemingly common sense, Democrats don’t want such rights protected under federal law. So, House Republicans led by Rep. Letlow put Democrats’ opposition to parental rights into the congressional record.

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