In the United States, you're considered an adult and old enough to vote, make your own legal decision, and be drafted into military service at the age of 18. However, you're not old enough to have a beer for three more years.

The Amethyst Initiative is made up of chancellors and presidents of universities and colleges across the United States who think that rather than curbing drinking issues in young adults, the 21 drinking law actually promotes a culture of binge drinking on campus. So far over 100 university leaders have signed a petition asking lawmakers to lower the drinking age to 18 and the reasons why are very thought-provoking.

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My thirteen-year-old niece won't admit to liking their music, but she will say she's going to marry a Jonas brother. Or maybe all of them. I'm not really sure because she was gushing so much when she spoke of them that it was hard to understand her. In any case, I gather they are something teenage girls fawn over. The only problem is, if it's Joe Jonas she's after, she'd better get a move on -- there's no telling how long he's going to be around now.

You see, he just turned nineteen and one of his presents was a motorcycle. Sure, a helmet was included, but that doesn't change the fact that the term for someone who rides a motorcycle amongst nurses like my sister-in-law is "organ donor." At least, that's what she told me when I was thinking of getting a bike for commuting to work.

Of course, what goes around comes around, as they say -- my son Jared has been eyeing the neighbor kid's motorbike and asking if he can get one. Given that he's only six, the answer is pretty easy, but what about when he gets older? Would I be willing to let him commute to high school and college on a motorcycle or scooter? That's a much tougher question and I'm not sure what the answer is except that I'm pretty sure it will be either "No!" or "Hell No!".

Would you let your kid get a motorcycle? Helmet or not, they can be deadly. Of course, so can just about anything else. What do you think?

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No parent would want to have to deal with a situation like this. Your teenage daughter is acting a little odd (more so, even, than one would expect of a teenager) so you decide to check things out a bit and there, on her cell phone, you find a text message from her teacher. "It happened around 9:35 at night," said the girl's mother who didn't want to be identified. "It said, 'I don't want her to find out, I don't want her to get hurt. I need to meet with you.'"

Checking the phone bill, she found many calls and messages from the teacher, at all hours. "He called her at midnight," said the mom. "They were on the phone for 30 minutes." She notified the school by phone and in writing, but, so far, the response has been a bit unimpressive and certainly not what one, as a parent, would hope for.

The school district admitted that the teacher did "communicate with [the girl] at times of the day and night that was concluded to be unprofessional" and apologized for a "lack of professional behavior." The district also said that a letter would be added to the teacher's file. As for the teen, however, she's still in his class.

After the local news media contacted the school district, the mother says they are starting to take some action and may remove the girl from his classes. I think if it were me, I would make darn sure the teacher were removed from the school, unless there were a pretty darn good reason why he was calling my teenage daughter at midnight.

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Blake Peebles likes to play Guitar Hero, the video game that lets players pretend to be rock stars with a small plastic guitar. In fact, he likes to play it so much that the sixteen-year-old has dropped out of school to be able to play the game more. His hope is that he can turn his affinity for the game into a career and, so far, it looks like he might have a chance.

His parents agreed to his plans but only if he were to be tutored at home. They would rather he stayed in school, but Blake managed to wear down their resistance. "We couldn't take the complaining anymore," says his mom. "He always told me that he thought school was a waste of time." So far, Blake has won about a thousand dollars worth of prizes.

I suppose as long as the kid is learning what he would learn in school, it doesn't really matter what he does with the rest of his time, but it sure seems to me like putting all his eggs in one basket -- and a basket that has yet to show it has any real financial potential. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't let my kids quit school to play video games, no matter how good they are.

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Being overweight is tough for a kid. There are many options toward weight loss, but some are more (or less) appealing than others. For many, over the years, the weight-loss camp has been a dream. But, while "fat camp" is almost as American as apple pie, it's now going the way of many other American dreams--it's too darned expensive to attend. Like any other camp, weight-loss camp costs money to run and maintain. With more than nine million children who are considered obese in this country, such camp can seem like a knight in shining armor for families struggling to get their kids' weight under control. The weight-loss camps, while they can be affective, are far from free. Few to none accept insurance.

The government generally offers no more assistance than insurance companies. Instead the children rely on their essay writing skills and other means to win scholarships to attend. Yes, even weight loss camp is something only possible for the rich. Corporate sponsorship is one way to help get kids who can't afford the often more than $1,000-a-week pricetag what they need. Advocacy groups are being formed, such as the Childhood Obesity Treatment in Action. Some tax deductions are coming into play, and some insurance is starting to cover a portion of the cost--mostly in the cognitive behavior area.

But is it enough? Rarely. And financial cost is to say nothing of the emotional cost to the children, who are often left with either feeling exploited by their situation--their essays and their experiences become the property of the camp, who share that information freely with the media in hopes of growing the industry--and/or have to deal with life after camp, which can be even harder than before they found their salvation. While most children lose some portion of their body weight at the camps, few manage to keep it off after returning to the real world.

Pic by skampy.

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School dress codes are getting a lot of attention lately, mostly as a result of school officials actually trying to enforce them. In a sad twist on the dress code debate, a family in California is suing the Hueneme school district for not enforcing the dress code.

Dawn and Gregory King claim that E.O. Green Junior High School official's failure to enforce the dress code resulted in the murder of their 15-year-old son, Larry King. Larry was gay and liked to wear feminine clothing and makeup to school. Apparently this angered classmate Brandon McInerney so much that he felt it necessary shoot Larry to death as he sat in class.

King's parents say that Larry's "unique vulnerabilities" made him a target for abuse and that the school should have protected him by not allowing him to dress this way. You may be asking yourself why Larry's own parents weren't enforcing the dress code, especially if they were so concerned, but the answer is simple: Larry didn't live with is parents. At the time of the shooting, Larry was a ward of the court and living at a shelter for abused, neglected and emotionally troubled children.

The Kings have filed a personal injury claim against the district and are seeking unspecified damages. As for Brandon McInerney, he has been charged as an adult in the shooting and also faces a charge of committing a hate crime. He has pleaded not guilty.

How could the school have bettered handled this situation? I just don't know. Had they enforced the dress code, they surely risked being accused of violating Larry's rights. And by not enforcing it, they are now being held responsible for the consequences of Larry exercising his rights.

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My teenager asked me to look at some bug bites on his back the other morning. The Cross Country team had been taking long runs through the woods and he thought something had chewed him up while he ran the trails.

A half hour later, we were sitting at the doctor's office. The itching and burning was actually poison ivy and it was spreading rapidly. My son was given a predisone shot, oral medications, and a cream to be applied twice a day. However, that left many itchy hours in between.

After conferring with friends, researching on the internet, and talking to local homeopaths, here's what we ended up trying:

• Rhus Toxicodendron (known as "rhus tox") is a homeopathic pill that my son says relieves the itch almost immediately after it dissolves under the tongue
• Soaking in a bath of tepid water and apple cider vinegar or baking soda 2 or 3xs a day
• Vitamin C to promote healing of the skin
• Black Walnut capsules which are supposed to help the body fight the poison ivy toxins
• Burt's Bees poison ivy soap

Of course, if your child found leaves of three and didn't let them be, check with your doctor before trying any of these treatments out. Good luck!

The latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight, features Heath Ledger's scary-looking Joker as the bad guy. In the film, the Joker marks the scenes of his crimes by leaving behind jester-faced playing cards. Apparently some kids in Pembroke, Virginia are fans of that movie and decided to make the Joker's calling card their own. They left playing cards with handwritten messages on them at different locations around town. What exactly the messages were isn't clear, but police say some of them referred to a specific date (August 15th) and had the word "Joker" written on them.

18-year-olds Justin Colby Dirico and Bryan Eugene Stafford say they were just having some fun and didn't mean any harm with the Joker cards, but officials are taking the prank quite seriously. They have both been charged with conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism. This severe charge may stem from the fact that many feel the Joker character in The Dark Knight is a terrorist himself. The boys copied something a fictional terrorist does, therefore they must be terrorist themselves.

I think what these kids did was supremely stupid and they deserve to be punished. But they are facing up to twenty years in prison. Isn't that a bit harsh?

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Red Bull, the popular energy drink may give you wings in more ways than one -- according to an Australian study, they might get you a harp as well and a new, fluffy home in the clouds. Researchers found that even one can of sugar-free Red Bull appears to make blood more "sticky," increasing the risk of blood clots.

"After one can it seemed to turn the young individual into one with more of the type of profile you would expect to see with someone with cardiovascular disease," said Scott Willoughby, of the Cardiovascular Research Centre at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Adelaide University. "People who already have existing cardiovascular disease may want to talk to their physician before they drink Red Bull in future."

"The study does not show effects which would go beyond that of drinking a cup of coffee," says Red Bull spokeswoman Linda Rychter. "Therefore, the reported results were to be expected and lie within the normal physiological range." Some of students that participated in the study said they drink as many as eight cans of Red Bull a night when they want to stay awake to study; the cans already warn customers not to drink more than two a day.

Although the study was done with college students, I know that a lot of high school students -- and kids even younger -- drink Red Bull. It might be worthwhile to talk to them to make sure they don't drink too much.

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Around here, nothing ruins Friday game night quicker than a bad deal on Uno. As my seven-year-old draws card after card, not getting what she needs to play, her chin starts to quiver and her eyes fill with tears. "It's not fair!" she howls as she finally gives in to the frustration and tosses her cards on the table in disgust. Yes, she's a sore loser.

I've witnessed this scene many times and it never fails to bring back memories of my own childhood. You see, I was a sore loser, too. My family played cards a lot and if I wasn't winning, I was pouting. If the pouting didn't work, I would begin complaining loudly. If things still didn't turn around, I would inevitably quit the game and stomp off in anger. Eventually, they stopped letting me play.

I don't understand why it was so important for me to win, but it was. And those feelings of frustration, anger and the unfairness of it all were very real to me, as I know they must be for Ellie. By this age, she knows that her sore loser behavior is unacceptable and she tries, she really tries, but she just can't help herself.

I never grew out of my competitiveness, but I did learn to handle the disappointment of losing. Unfortunately, what it took for me was being excluded from games not only by my family, but by my friends, too. Being known as the cry-baby loser among my peers was a painful experience and I am trying to help Ellie avoid that. We've had the "it's just a game" talk and we've discussed ways she can try to calm herself when she gets upset.

I've read that sore losers like Ellie (and myself) generally fall into two categories: those who are by nature easily frustrated and angered and those whose self-esteem is tied to winning and who worry about what others think of them. I think there is a little of both at play here. Do you have a sore loser in your house? How have you helped them deal?

Returning home from my company picnic yesterday, with my two thirteen-year-old nieces with me, I jokingly asked if either of them had their driver's license so that they could drive at least some of the way home and I could take a nap. (Neither one did, of course, and, really, I was just kidding.) In Texas, though, that's not something they kid about.

Police officers in the East Texas town of Longview noticed a minivan turn into a driveway and bump into the house.

Baby born 15x over legal limit DARE program increases drug and alcohol use Man consumes liter of vodka in the airport Teen buys booze, mom sells his car 'Cindy Brady' teaches son about hangovers, nearly barfs during radio interview

Investigating, they found a twelve-year-old girl behind the wheel. She told the officers that she had just driven her mother to a bar. Upon checking at the pub, they indeed found thirty-five-year-old Jennifer Lynn Rosenberg who admitted to having her daughter drive her there.

On the one hand, you have to give Rosenberg credit for not wanting to risk drinking and driving, but on the other hand... Perhaps it would be best if she just stayed away from the bars altogether. In the meantime, Child Protective Services is looking into the situation.

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Usually a school prank is a harmless trick or a clever gag designed to get attention and hopefully some laughs. But some pranks go way beyond what is considered amusing and venture into the sick and twisted territory. That would be the case with the prank 19-year-old Myles Frost pulled at Glenbard East High School near Chicago last year.

Frost has just been convicted of misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty and criminal defacement after scattering mutilated mice and a decapitated rat around his school campus in 2007. He left the rodent corpses in the stairwell, the bathroom, the drinking fountain and in the slot of a vending machine.

"Even if it's a prank, to say it's in bad taste would be an extraordinary understatement,'' said Judge Robert G. Kleeman. Judge Kleeman ordered Frost to undergo a psychological evaluation and serve two years probation. During the trial, Frost's attorney denied that his client was responsible for the disgusting prank, but a school official and the police say that Frost confessed to them.

According to his lawyer, Frost is continuing his education and has high hopes for his future. "He has dreams of working with animals -- that's really what his dream is," said Frank Fanella. I am sure his court-appointed psychologist will be very interested in hearing about those dreams.

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Remember Bill Nye the Science Guy? Sort of a cross between Pee-Wee Herman and Mr. Wizard? Well, it's been about ten years since his TV show ended, but now he's set to return to the small screen in a new show called Stuff Happens, on a new channel dedicated to green living, Planet Green. On the show, Nye will explain "what happens when we use stuff, where it goes when we're through with it, and what impact it all has on the environment and the entire planet."

It appears the thirteen-part series will target an older audience than his previous show, but with "astonishing information, easy-to-follow science, lighthearted demonstrations, expert interviews and connective story-telling to amplify growing problems in the environment and important solutions," it sounds like it would be great for any kid old enough to care about science and the environment.

The first episode kicks off the series in the bathroom, exploring the impact of what goes on in the throne room. Other episodes will cover the bedroom, the attic, dinner, and breakfast. The first episode airs September 2 at 9pm Eastern. I think we'll be checking it out.

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I was at least twelve years old before I was allowed to cross the street by myself. It was several years after that I was allowed to stay home alone during the summer while my parents were at work instead of going to summer camp. I always felt like I could have stayed home earlier; now that I'm a parent I know how my parents felt: it was NEVER time to leave me home alone!

So at what age is it appropriate to start leaving your little ones home alone--without a babysitter? A recent New York Times article tackles that very question. There are few laws or guidelines to help us make such decisions. Pediatricians don't have much to offer. Ultimately, it becomes a decision between the parents and the child. Both have to feel ready to allow such a thing to occur. And, generally, it starts with an experiment. Leave the kid at home alone while you visit a neighbor for a cup of sugar (do people still do that?). Next time leave her home alone while you pick up the dry cleaning, and so on.

Many states see the tender age of 12 as the start of this new way of life. Twelve is different for each child. How the kid reacts makes all the difference in the world too, as does the general personality of the child. Is your child independent and can get things done on his own? Does your child fear being alone or throw temper tantrums? Do you find your child is in trouble all the time, even when you're around? All these things are taken into consideration when deciding to leave a kid at home. Many parents also have no choice but to leave their children alone--scary but true--even when they're not yet twelve. Luckily things like cell phones and other modern technologies have made it easier for us to keep in touch with our children.

I'm terrified to even think of letting my child stay at home alone or go anywhere alone in New York City, but I know it's a future I face. What about you? When did you let your children start staying at home alone? Was it earlier or later than when you stayed home alone as a kid?

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Depending upon your point of view, the Confederate flag is either a proud emblem of Southern heritage or an offensive display of racism. For 18-year-old Tommy DeFoe, it's the former. He says his great-great uncle served in the Confederate army and "died for the South" in the Civil War. For that reason, DeFoe feels he should have the right to display the Southern Cross on his clothes and belt buckle, even at Tennessee's Anderson High School, where it is in violation of the dress code.

Actually, the code doesn't specifically ban the Confederate flag, but up until 2001 it did. Today the policy is more general, but school board chairman John Burrell says it is understood that the Confederate flag symbol is not allowed. Which is why DeFoe was suspended more than 40 times for sporting the flag on his clothing while at school.

DeFoe feels his right to free speech was violated and is suing the Anderson County School Board. "I am fighting for my heritage and my rights as a Southerner and an American," said DeFoe.

Anderson County officials say the flag ban is in place to avoid stirring up racial tensions. Although Anderson High currently has only one black student, two years ago the arrival of two black students was met with racist graffiti and a Confederate flag raising. And at nearby Clinton High School, which happens to have been the first public school desegregated by court order in 1956, the student body is more racially mixed. "If he had worn at Clinton High what he wore at Anderson High it would have been a riot, somebody would have clobbered him," said Burrell.

DeFoe's lawsuit isn't the first to challenge the Confederate flag ban in school dress codes, but is one of the few to make it to trial. Most others have been settled with a payment to the plaintiff or thrown out by a judge. The jury in this case is on its third day of deliberations and has yet to reach a verdict.

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