Reality Check Nation Radio Show

Teens are not one hundred percent of our population, but they are one hundred percent of our future. The statistics on poor choices some teens make are staggering. The solutions to the problems our teens face are not necessarily difficult to implement, but parents need to know how to access them and get support to follow through. And teens need to know they are loved regardless of those poor choices. Each week hosts Sean Mulroney and John Martin interview parents, teens, celebrities, sports stars, and experts who have been affected by the dangerous consequences of bad choices. Sean and John cover the issues that people often candy coat, not by just revealing the problem, but by focusing on pursuing a solution. They strive to care and make a difference in every listener’s life. Tune in every Monday from eleven a.m until two p.m. to Reality Check Nation, here on Westplex News Talk 1280.

Women set the temperature of society, culture, community, and homes The role of women in community development can be crucial to the health of a society. According to some sociologists, women make many of the decisions that determine a household's participation in the community, including healthcare, educational, and cultural decisions. In many families, women often decide where the family will shop, what schools and activities children will attend, and the extent to which the family will participate in community events. As a powerful decision-making force, women are often well acquainted with the pros and cons of their community, and may be in a good position to analyze how best to improve society. As members of community development organizations such as outreach programs, parent-teacher associations, cultural societies, and city planning boards, women can use the knowledge they garner from household decisions to make a substantive contribution to the future of their city or town. Some sociologists also c

Why do today's teens answer the question, "What is character?" with good looking? Since when did physical appearance become a character trait? Society and pop culture send messages like: It's all about me. Sex outside of marriage is the norm. Girls must dress sexy to be attractive. What's at stake with this kind of thinking? Our culture's moral compass — and our sons and daughters' future. Can we help our teens reclaim Christian values so their lives make an impact? Yes. Our influence still matters. The teenage years are a time of self-discovery for most people, and that stage of life can be difficult to navigate for some people. Teenagers can be quite self-absorbed, so it is good to show them that there are other things in life that are important. Character-building is planned & doesn't happen by accident. It is up to us as adults to instill character in the next generation whether they are your children or your students, so that they can learn some important life lessons.

Times have changed, but teens still need someone on their side. Today’s teenager is said to love luxury, have bad manners, have no respect for elders, don’t take school seriously and have contempt for authority. “Times have changed,” it has been said, and today’s teenagers have changed to reflect the changing times. Before we take a look at today’s teenagers, let’s look at the influences acting on the adolescent stage perhaps since the beginning of the human race. These influences were present on our grandparents and parents when they were teenagers. Times have not changed the following observation: Adolescence seems to be a time of seeking status as an individual, an attempt to emancipate the youth from childish submission to parental authority. It is during this time that the teenager is asking in a serious manner, “who am I and how am I different from my parents and perhaps from every other teenager?” Adolescence tends to be a time when group relationships become of major importance. The adolescent is v

The best way for a parent and adult to understand a teenager is to hear what they have to say. They know what's going on in their culture. Teens have a built in lie detector, they know if an adult is genuine or not. So, in this episode you will hear what they have to say. Plus we have John Berlin who made a video plea to Facebook to make the Facebook movie in honor of his son Jesse who passed away.

The growing epidemic of fatherless families has taken a grave toll on children, both young and old, in the form of emotional, social, spiritual, academic, physical, criminal, and suicidal issues later on in life. There is no doubt that we live in a fatherless generation. We either have fathers that are absent physically or mentally, and relinquish there responsibilities, fathers aren't taught to be fathers, or teens are becoming fathers prematurely. It's time for fathers to step to the plate and start teaching and training your sons, those that don't have a father it's time us as men to step in and mentor them, & teens need to wait until they are married, have a job, & not living off their parents Adolescent fathers have remained an understudied and underserved population.1 While teen fatherhood appears to be associated with similar consequences to those observed for teen mothers,2 most national programs serving low-income families focus on mothers rather than fathers.3 Recently, attempts to include

Teens are more advanced than their parents and the predators more advanced than teens. It's time for parents to parent up! So, who's at the other end of your teens devices? We must be aware of the dangers lurking behind the computer screen.

Many parents warn their children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Fewer parents, though, know that they should also warn against so-called "games" that are so risky they can lead to injury or death. Teens frequently keep details about these games under wraps. Parents often don't hear about them until someone in the community is rushed to the emergency room or dies.

Reality Check Nation fulfills the promise of "getting real on every level". The 2-hour radio program features stories, advice, inspirational insight, and gets right to the point. It spares no details about the gruesome effects of growing problems in this generation such as the abuse of alcohol, drugs, and harmful practices such as bullying, self-injury, and much, much more. It's funny, serious, educational and filled with attitude. Each week the hosts Sean Mulroney and John Martin interview parents, teens, celebrities, sports stars, and experts who have been affected by the dangerous consequences of bad choices. Sean and John cover the issues that people often candy coat, not by just revealing the problem, but by focusing on pursuing a solution. They strive to care and make a difference in every listener’s life. Reality Check Nation targets pre teen, teens, parents, and families and the rapidly growing list of advertisers interested in connecting with the largest group of teens and parents in U.S. history.

The struggles of a single parent Regardless of family structure, the quality of parenting is one of the best forecasters of children's emotional and social well-being. Many single parents, however, find it difficult to function effectively as parents. Compared with continuously married parents, they tend to be less emotionally supportive of their children, have fewer rules, dispense harsher discipline, are more inconsistent in bestowing discipline, provide less supervision, and engage in more conflict with their children. Many of these shortfalls in parenting presumably result from struggling to make ends meet with limited financial resources and trying to raise children without the help of the other biological parent. Many studies link incompetent parenting by single parents with a variety of negative outcomes among children, including poor academic achievement, emotional problems, behavior problems, low self-esteem, and problems forming and maintaining social relationships. **Today, one-third of American

What is Sex Trafficking? The Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act defines the crime of human trafficking as: The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act where such an act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age. Domestic minor sex trafficking occurs when a U.S. Citizen or lawful permanent resident minor are commercially sexually exploited. Children can be commercially sexually exploited through prostitution, pornography, and or erotic entertainment. Commercial aspects of the sexual exploitation is critical to separating the crime of trafficking from sexual assault, molestation or rape. Commercial sex act is the giving or receiving of anything of value (money, drugs, shelter, food, clothes, etc.) to any person in exchange for a sex act. The age of the victim is the critical issue, there is no requirement to prove force, fraud, or coercion was

The United States has been fighting a losing war against drugs for decades. Budgets have increased dramatically over the last two decades and drug-related incarcerations consistently reach new records yet drug problems worsen: adolescent drug abuse is increasing, overdose deaths are at record levels, heroin and cocaine are cheaper, more pure and more available than ever before, and health problems related to drugs, especially the spread of HIV/AIDS are mounting. Meanwhile an expensive and ineffective international counter narcotics policy entails growing human rights and environmental costs. Drug problems can be reduced at less cost if we change course and adopt strategies that work. At a time when the federal budget is limited programs need to be re-evaluated. Funding needs to go to programs that work. We need new ideas to save lives – we can't afford to continue to be wrong.

It is said that the most crucial decisions you will ever make is between the ages of 18-24 (College, career, & mariage) It is so important for a teen to have structure and stability and the need to take life seriously; to understand the process of making good choices while they are young. The informative years should be the testing & truing ground not when they are 18-24 We need to train teens for success... The voices of bad choices are getting louder & louder that when we were teens. While there are lots of kids making good choices, teenage behavior indicates far too many are traveling through adolescence and into adulthood without making good decisions. There are the "will I or won't I" decisions all kids face. Usually related to moral and ethical dilemmas, the negative fruit of their decisions can be seen in some of the current statistics on teen behavior. By the time they reach their senior year in high school, over 65% will have had sexual intercourse. Almost 55% will have used some illicit

Teen violence is a heart issue not a hardware issue If we don't listen to teens, they'll do something to be heard and that something could be an act of violence. Teen violence is a very real occurrence, and violent crimes are committed by teens regularly. Thirty-two percent of kids, according to a 2011 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, admit to having taken part in a physical fight. Whether you have concerns about bullying, verbal insults, physical aggression or the use of guns, teen violence is something no one should tolerate. Violence on our public school campuses is increasing at an alarming rate. It has been a loud noise ringing through our schools and in the ears of teenagers that are on edge. It seems as though teenagers have no concept of the value of life; from the school yard shootings, gangs, bullying, dating violence and the list goes on. With the violence so out of control, we have to get the youth of America to start taking a stand against the violence in America an

YOU can be that weapon anytime you drive after drinking. You could hurt yourself, an innocent bystander, or someone you love. How’s this? Every 22 minutes someone dies in an alcohol-related motor vehicle accident. On any given weekend evening, one in 10 drivers on America’s roads has been drinking. Is underage drinking a problem One out of 10 children ages 12 and 13 uses alcohol at least once a month. In a single year, 522 children under age 14 were arrested for driving while intoxicated, (113 of them were under 10 years old). 70 percent of all teenagers drink alcohol. 60 percent of all teen deaths in car accidents are alcohol-related.

WHAT EVER YOU DO ONLINE IS THERE FOREVER... The first step to keeping your preteens and teens safe on the Internet is to find out what they’re doing online to make sure they’re behaving respectfully and responsibly. Talk to them about what’s appropriate to say to others, what kind of content is okay to upload and download, and what kinds of interactions are important to avoid. Helping your children become responsible digital citizens is what will ultimately keep them safe online.

While Spice has been around a bit longer than bath salts — experts say it first appeared in the U.S. in 2004 — the word didn’t go out on the dangers of the drug until a couple of years ago. The problem being that most people assumed that, as a copy of marijuana, spice couldn’t be that worrisome. But they were wrong. Widely sold in gas stations, liquor stores, convenient stores, head shops and smoke shops, as well as online. Teens are getting high on an emerging drug called "fake weed," a concoction also known as K2 and "spice" that is also causing hallucinations, vomiting, agitation and other dangerous effects.

Society has taught both parents and teens that they don't need to respect each other. There needs to be mutual respect. Parents need to be parents, not prison wardens or friends. Teens need to honor their parents. Communication lines should be kept open. Teens need to know their parents love them. Too often though, parents are busy with their careers and their needs. They give their kids material stuff but they don't give enough of themselves. Parents think their kids do not know anything and kids think they know it all.

Driving while Texting Six Times More Dangerous than Driving while Drunk Driving a vehicle while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).1 The federal agency reports that sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent -- when traveling at 55 mph -- of driving the length of an entire football field while blindfolded. Texting and driving is now the new drinking and driving...

The distancing effect that technological devices have on today’s youth often leads them to say and do crueler things compared to what is typical in a traditional face-to-face bullying situation. While bullying and cyberbullying are often similar in terms of form and technique they also have many differences. Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying allows the offender to mask his or her identity behind a computer. This anonymity makes it easier for the offender to strike blows against a victim without having to see the victim’s physical response.