Parentopia Prop: Helena Oliviero Atlanta-Journal Constitution

As part of my job as a Contributing Editor at BlogHer.com I write about Digital Parenting. While many parents have ventured into the land of social media and making connections online, the idea of having kids doing the same makes a lot of folks nervous. It doesn't help when we've got a majority of mainstream media focusing on fear mongering and shaming their readership.

Seriously, it is insulting and patently ridiculous. We don't need this in our lives. Parenting presents enough challenges, we need information from our media, not finger wagging and navel gazing.

So when I was interviewed by Helena Oliviero from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution for her piece Parents Balance Freedom, Safety On Facebook I wasn't sure how my quotes would wind up or how the piece would come together. Which isn't at all unusual whenever anyone agrees to be interviewed. Unless you know the reporter personally, it's almost always a crap shoot.

Not to say reporters are the main problem, I don't believe they are, after all their are editors, producers and quite a few others who have their eyes on a pitch or piece before it is approved, put to bed and hits the stands or airwaves. I'm not dumping on journalists, I know many hardworking journos and for the most part they are the ones who want to do their job well, but at the same time, papers are losing money and those holding onto the purse strings are panicking. It's a trickle down effect. And when stories go bad, it is often the journalist who finds themselves on the hot seat and not positioned to thrown an editor or producer under the bus. With the current revolving doors at many of the newspapers and magazines, keeping one's job right now is outweighing quite a bit in my opinion. And understandably so. But last week I had a glimmer of hope that things may be coming back around...

When the AJC article came out last week, I yelped. I did. 'twas a yelp of joy. Finally a piece written in a major newspaper about a touchy topic that did not position parents as inept and offered pertinent and practical information to parents in a positive reporting style!

I'm holding up this piece as a model for others to read and emulate. This is what journalism is meant to do folks, find facts, report em and inform the public. Regardless of whether my quote had made it into this piece, I would still be singing it's praises.

And for this, Helena Oliviero is completely deserving of a Parentopia Prop!

Extra Extra Read all about.....

First go check out Laurel from Moms Minivan over at PBS Parents this month. She is their featured expert and has a discussion up about family travel. Even if you are only traveling from your house to a little league game, Laurel has some awesome ideas for together time that won't include crying, yelling and whining (not even your own!)

An Op-Ed piece in USA Today discusses what can happen if parents hover over their college students. According to Debra Bruno, parents do their college kids no favor when they aren't able to let go as their offspring spring off to college. While the title of the Op-Ed piece is an obvious grab for a readers attention, Parents Quit Hovering, the body of the piece reflects Ms. Bruno's own perspective of being a recovering helicopter parent herself.

Even if I wasn't quoted in the piece, I'd still be recommending the article to you. Many of our readers have young children, and our research has shown that as kids get older the guilt-o-meter spikes even more for a majority of parents. Consider it fuel for thought and not necessarily a warning that you need to cool your jets just yet.