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The French president Nicolas Sarkozy has a rescue plan for the national newspapers, who have serious financial problems since years already. He is going to fund a free subscription for every 18-year old in France. Sarkozy is convinced that young people get used to reading the paper and will automatically renew the subscription later in life. Very ambitious and also generous, but I doubt that this rescue plan for the written press is going to work. Young people are already more and more learning about the news via Internet and mobile phones. Paper news is old fashioned. Sarkozy can better invest in more modern ways of spreading news among young people. Waste of tax payers money.

January has been up to now our month of the flu, and it is really hard this time to get it out of our system. Since 3 weeks I have been taking care of one after the other flu patient in my family. And although I have not been feeling well myself, work and care always continues for mothers. Only the Flowerchild blog suffered a bit from the sneezing and coughing. I am very much against taking medicine. It is much better for the body to cure itself. But this time the fever had a hard time beating the microbes. In general cases of the flu rarely require specific medical treatment.

These at-home tips can help most otherwise healthy kids cope with the flu. Have them:

- drink lots of fluids to prevent dehydration

- get plenty of sleep and take it easy

- take ibuprofen to relieve fever and aches

- wear layers, since the flu often makes them cold one minute and hot the next (wearing layers — like a T-shirt, sweatshirt, and robe — makes it easy to add or subtract clothes as needed)

For the most part the flu is usually gone in a week or two with a little rest and tender loving care.

This sounds a bit silly, but I do have a child who is completely stressed when she doesn’t understand something immediately. She is 6 years old and in her class they are calculating now until number 500. She is a very bright pupil and that is of course part of the problem. Not understanding something right away, makes her not want to go back to school at all. It took me years, or better decades, to be able to think positively even about failures and bad experiences. But how to explain this to a very stubborn six-year-old?

Maybe I’ll try these tips in the coming weeks:

1.     The key to optimism is to maximize your successes and minimize your failures.

2.     It’s beneficial to look honestly at your shortcomings so you can work on them, but focusing on your strengths can never hurt.

3.     Keep in mind that the more you practice challenging your thought patterns, the more automatic it’ll become. Don’t expect major changes in thinking right away, but do expect them to become ingrained over time.

4.     Always remember that virtually any failure can be a learning experience, and an important step toward your next success!

5.    Practice positive affirmations. They really work!

In the Journal of Neuroscience I found information about the functioning of the brain with young children compared to adults. The front part of the brain is the part where learning takes place. Children and adults were asked to answer questions while they were inside a brain scanner. The brain activity with young children was much higher when they got positive feedback. With adults this was opposite. Their brain activity was stimulated with negative feedback. The turning point is at the age of twelve. This means that children under 12 do not change their behaviour rapidly telling them that something is wrong. Saying ‘no’, of ‘that’s wrong’ does not have an immediate effect. Positive stimulation on the other hand works much better. Teachers and parents can profit from this by showing children how to find the right answer and the right behaviour.  

For a lot of adolescents being addicted to something has become their way of showing their independence. The use of mobile phones is extremely high. More and more teenagers drink alcohol at a young age. We read and see regularly documentaries on coma drinking. Smoking, using drugs, excessive use of Internet, chatting and playing games online and offline. Teenagers are looking for thrills and do not know the limits. Psychiatrist Patrice Huerre concludes that this attitude is more likely to be seen with adolescents who were spoilt during childhood. They got everything they requested and have not learned sufficiently how to long and dream for something. They always had instant satisfaction. These children are bored quickly because they never learned how to play and be creative on their own. It is important for our children to rediscover dreaming and playing with nothing. If they are not stimulated all the time, they have the chance for finding their own talents and passions.