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Now here's an interesting insight. Parents are more confident their pre-teen child would know what to do if there were a house fire or tornado than whether the child would avoid playing with guns if home alone, a new national poll says, according to newswise.com. When my son was little, I never thought to ask the parents on a playdate whether they had a gun in the house, as some friends smartly did.  But then, that was before 20 1st graders were massacred in Newtown. Today, with growing gun use (even by women) after every tragedy caused by a gun, it's a no-brainer.  At the time my son was in elementary school, I probably would have felt embarrassed to ask.  But today, if he were small, it would be the first question I would need to have answered before allowing him to play at another child's house. In the past I just assumed the people I and my child were friends with were smart enough not to have a gun.  But today you just can't be sure.  I'm amazed a...

This may surprise you.  I know it did me. But singing the company song in a circle or going to camp with your colleagues, like they used to do at IBM,  may just not be good for you. They did it to instill spirit in workers, but now a new study says inspirational managers may actually harm employees. "Managers who inspire their staff to perform above and beyond the call of duty may actually harm their employees’ health over time, according to researchers from the University of East Anglia," newswise.com reports. The findings suggest that constant pressure from these "transformational leaders" may increase sickness absence levels among employees. They also indicate that some vulnerable employees in groups with transformational leaders may, in the long term, have increased sickness absence rates if they ignore their ill-health and frequently show up for work while ill, known as "presenteeism." Transformational leaders are defined as those wh...

I've been there. I lost two jobs in a row in my 20's.  Neither was really my fault (in one case, I accused a vp of sexual harassment) and in the second, my boss accidentally stepped on the toes of her boss when hiring me.  But there I was, out of my second job in less than six months. Fortunately, I went on to have success at my next job and this was just a bitter memory.  But why do some people recover from job loss , while others don't? A new study by Syracuse University provides a deeper understanding of why some people recover after losing their work identity, while others languish and develops interventions that facilitate recovery from job loss, according to newswise.com. “It can be a devastating loss of identity when someone loses a job they’ve held for decades,” says Trenton Williams, assistant professor of entrepreneurship at the Whitman School. “For some, the loss might come in the form of an injury, such as a professional athlete, but for others, ...

It makes perfect sense.  Early life stress may damage our brains. According to newswise.com, a little stress is good for kids because it helps them learn to overcome it, and cope.  But "chronic, toxic stress like poverty, neglect and physical abuse — can have lasting negative impacts." A study has showed that these kinds of stressors, experienced in early life, might be changing the parts of developing children’s brains responsible for learning, memory and the processing of stress and emotion. These changes may be tied to negative impacts on behavior, health, employment and even the choice of romantic partners later in life. As a person who experienced this kind of stress as a child, I can attest to its truth.  It affects how you view life and shapes your perspective, for better or worse.  I was lucky.  I had people around who helped me through it  and over time, I learned to cope.  Did it affect me for life?  Yes. "We haven’t really u...

I found this shocking.  But a new study has found that bullying by a sibling is every bit as bad -- maybe even worse -- than by a schoolmate. And it's linked to increased depression, anxiety and anger among victimized kids and teens, according to Michelle Healy at USA Today. She writes, "Although peer bullying has increasingly become a recognized problem and the focus of preventive efforts, sibling bullying has historically been viewed as 'benign and normal and even beneficial' for a child's social development and ability 'to learn to handle aggression in other relationships,' according to the study," which was featured in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics , published online today. I came from a family where the siblings banded together against our dysfunctional family so this is something not that well-known to me. But I've seen it in other families and what's been most disturbing is that the child being bullied very often idoliz...

I'm in a bit of a quandary. I heard today that the VA is refusing to honor the part of the healthcare law that requres them to release the names of those they consider likely to hurt themselves or others. Part of me thinks, I sure hope I'm not around when that PTSD-crazed vet starts emptying his assault rifle at ShopRite. Yet, as someone who saw a therapist for marriage and other counseling, I'm not so sure I'd want my name swirling around out there, either. The provision is set to take effect Saturday. It's a very delicate balance.  We all deserve to be protected from those who might hurt us, or themselves. But shouldn't our most fragile veterans also be protected from having their very personal information released? I'd love to hear your opinion. It's so hard because Newtown is still taking up a lot of space in my brain.  http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/va-refuses-to-follow-n-y-gun-law/?cat_orig=us