Choosing Wiser Student Debt

“If you were to put $5,000 on a credit card, were to have (an) 18.9 per cent interest rate and paid the minimum payment every month, the total cost of borrowing would be $13,068.42 paid over 28 years,” - Christi Quinn.

One of my colleagues and University friends was featured in the University of Winnipeg paper called The Uniter.

I include the above quote for emphasis.  I have met several students who were not willing to use Government Student Aid (because it will take forever to pay off) but were completely willing to use credit cards, as companies almost throw credit cards to students.  What some students don't realize is that they end up paying a lot more for much longer using a credit card.

Read the article here.  Read more about the Credit Counselling Society here.

Cricket & Life: Six Runs, Taking the Higher Road of Being Selfless

Scoring six runs requires the batsman to time his shot, so that he can loft the ball over the fielders and over the boundary rope.  I have never scored a six in my short cricket career, this is why scoring a six in life, I believe is the most difficult task, and that is being nice to others, being selfless, and using anger less.

It’s so easy to take shots at individuals and to speak about them negatively behind their backs.  It is so much easier to get angry about something negative, than it is to react in a positive way.  It’s so easy to put ones own needs before everyone else’s.  This is why we need to take the high road, and be nice to others.

Keeping Children Safe From Pornography

Pornography Warning Label: “Contents highly addictive. Extremely corrosive to the soul materials enclosed. Be prepared to have your mind twisted, your views of life ravaged, and your spirit shrunk. Be prepared that after an initial rush, you will experience feelings of depression, loneliness, despair and guilt. However, with repeated exposures over time, you can numb those feelings – and enter into almost total amnesia about who you really are and about the truth itself.” – Wendy Watson

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Read the rest of the column at the Battleford's News Optimist.

Research Idea: Sharing a Bedroom as a Child & Relational Stability

I have been bouncing this idea off of a couple of people, and I have noticed it has created great discussion.

The hypothesis is simply that the more one has shared their room while growing up, the more likely they will be to have a stable adult relationships.  The thinking behind this is, when married or cohabiting you have to share intimate space, like your bedroom, bathroom, closet and so on.  The same is true if you share a bedroom with a sibling, you are sharing intimate space with a person who one will have to negotiate with to get sleep, to have time alone in the room, etc.

However, after some thought and discussion with friends, there are some factors to consider:

• At what ages is there more of a positive relationship between sharing a bedroom and relational stability?
• Are there any ages where there is a negative relationship? Such as, if one never shared there room until 15, would this prove to be a shock and therefore influence latter bedroom sharing.
• Does sharing a room lead to different forms of relationships, instead of traditional marriage, like cohabiting, never settling down, etc.? Since one shared a room throughout childhood and adolescents would they be more likely to reject sharing a room.
• Or the vice versa, does not sharing a room lead to different forms of relationships besides traditional marriage.
• In the case of many immigrant families, does sharing a room with parents play a role.  Or how about when parents cuddle their infant and toddler to sleep, does this have an impact as well?

I am sure this list could go on, and it has gone on in many of my conversations.  Nonetheless, this is another one of my questions that I have had, that I would love to do research on, one day.

Featured in the Ontario Home Economics Association Newsletter

I had a colleague forward the Autumn 2010 Ontario Home Economics/Human Ecologists Association Newsletter to me.  She asked me to look for something familiar.

I found a reference to my blog! It was cited as a source to read Mary Carver's article on Shop Smart for Safe Food.

Thanks for the recognition as a relevant source!

Beating the Holiday Blues

"The “Perfect” Holiday Season: This time of year, I frequently hear people lament the up and coming holiday season. Stress and anxiety appear commonplace. The concerns often include the financial burden, the materialism, the bombardment of advertisements, and the resulting pressure from our children to make their wishes come true. Frequently, there is also anxiety around family get-togethers, due to unresolved conflicts & hurts, or old wounds or patterns that re-surface. At times, the expectations are so high, that they are impossible to meet; the perfect day, meal, gift, etc. For families that have a member that struggles with addictions, there is often the stress of increased alcohol abuse or concern about drinking and driving."


Read the entire article by Neta Friesen here at the Manitoba Association of Marriage & Family Therapists website.

Texting, Sex, Drugs & Alcohol

A couple weeks ago at an American Public Health Association convention, Scott Frank presented his findings on studied high school students and their cell phone usage and their behaviours. His results found a relationship between hyper-texting and high-risk behaviours, such as drinking and drugs.

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Read the entire article here at the News Optimist.