links for 2008-10-10

  • If one of the names you answer to is "mom," chances are good that you live a decent portion of your life feeling overwhelmed. As if the responsibility of caring for another person's (or people's) every need isn't enough, you most likely also have a house to maintain, bills to pay, perhaps a job to go to or a business to run, a blog (or two or three) to keep up, a partner to cheer on, organizations to volunteer for, classes, activities or meetings to attend or to shlep kids to, and the list goes on and on and on.
  • There is a difference between feeling depressed, and being clinically depressed. We all feel depressed from time to time. But, how do we know when our feelings of anxiety or sadness, has crossed into something more serious? That's what Depression Screening is all about, and October is Depression Screening Month.
  • there has been considerably more economic sky-falling. Parents are having dinner-table discussions with their kids about what this means for them. Instead of just steering kids away from designer clothes and purses, many parents are considering cut-backs of a more drastic nature, ones more noticeable to kids. So, parents wonder, how much information is too much? How do you paint a realistic picture of the situation for your children, without creating fear?
  • Often when I speak to friends and they pour out their heart to me, I try to remember to ask if they want advice or for me to just listen. My natural inclination is to try and fix things but that is not what everyone wants. Others do and sometimes it is easier to get advice from an impartial stranger rather than from a friend. That's why newspaper syndicates created advice columns. And now that tradition carries over into the blog world.