Hi friends - I hope you tune into the show today. AM 1160/WYLL Chicago (2:00 central time), streaming live on wyll.com, or podcast after the show on the site here and on NationalReview.com.

This week is all about when it takes a parent - to care for a parent! Many of us are in the sandwich generation - we’re called on to take care of young kids and aging parents. We talk about managing those challenges, and the options available today to an older generation that, blessedly, rightly expects to live longer fuller and more independent lives than ever. I have two great guests on from Park Place of Elmhurst, a vibrant senior living facility in Elmhurst and part of a network of such facilities in the Chicago area. We talk about some of the unique challenges facing the elderly, including health and emotional changes. And why is that so many of us “infantalize” our aging parents? How can we still honor and respect our parents even when we have to start making some decisions for them, or caring for them in a way they once cared for us?

My guests talk about these issues, and the options for both independent living and senior care available under one roof that are springing up all over the country and that were not available to my grandparents. I hope you’ll tune in, and check out their site below (I plan on talking to my own dad about considering Park Place!)

Park Place of Elmhurst

Next week, my guest is Kate O’Beirne on women in the military. Should it really take a mother to go to war?

I hope you’ll tune in, and have a great week!

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Hi Friends - be sure to tune in today to “It Takes a Parent” 2:00 CT, AM1160/WYLL Chicago. I am interviewing Michael Farris, President of the new parents rights group ParentalRights.Org (See my blogroll for a link.) I’m a skeptic when it comes to amending the Constitution for almost anything, but he lays out a great and very reasoned case for why we need a Constitutional amendment to protect parents’ rights which are now implicitly, but not explicitly, laid out in the law.One big concern? A push from the Left after the next election to adopt the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

So I hope you’ll tune in, or afterward get a podcast here or on NationalReview.com

Happy Parenting!

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Hi friends - from my home to yours, wishing you a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!Today’s radio show is a rebroadcast of the show on which I talked with Dr. Leland Ryken about the true legacy of the Puritans. To listen to it just click on the link below.

Betsy Hart 

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Hi friends. Today I’ll be talking to Charlie Sykes, author of “50 Things Your Kids Won’t Learn in School.” He wrote a really great piece recently for the Wall Street Journal about an overprotective culture that seems to want to wrap our kids in bubblewrap - and what that’s costing our children. We’ll look at his piece called “Adult Supervision” - in which Sykes recounts that ABC News recently revealed that - gasp! - many playgrounds have germs. (ABC should see my kitchen. Actually - they shouldn’t.

You’ll definitely want to tune in!

You can listen on AM1160/Chicago at 2:00 central time, or streaming live at WYLL.com, or as always, by Friday you can listen to the show here on my blog on get it at NationalReview.com

Thanks for tuning in.

Betsy

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It’s Thanksgiving time which means for a few weeks at least thinking about the Pilgrims and their big hats and dour expressions and the Mayflower and being thankful they made friends with the Indians, right?

It seems that’s about all we know, or care to know, about those early separatist protestants, part of our great puritan heritage. But there’s so much more to who they were, and what they gave us. And it’s so important we pass the right legacy onto our kids who are not hearing the true story about the puritans and the fact that, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis, everything we think of as “puritanical” today is actually antithetical to who the puritans really were.

For starters, did you know that at least one puritan New England husband was excommunicated by his church for refusing to meet his wife’s sexual needs? Seriously. And please remember - these are people who could party and feast for three straight days. But what they gave us isn’t just democracy itself (The Mayflower Compact) but a pattern for thinking rightly about their world and their place in it.

So what does it matter if we get it right on the puritans? Well what frustrates me is not that an anti-Christian culture so dislikes the puritans. It’s that the puritans are almost as likely to be derided in our churches as in our public school classrooms. Leland Ryken, prolific Christian writer, puritan scholar, and professor at Wheaton college talks with me today about using Thanksgiving to reflect on who the puritans were and what the puritans gave us - and why it matters that we get it right.

A tip for parents - here’s a great book for kids on who the pilgrims really were:

So You Don’t Know Much about the Pilgrims, by Ken Davis - you can check it out on Amazon.

You can listen to the show in Chicago on AM1160/Thursday at 2:00 pm, or streaming at WYLL.com, or podcast afterward here or on www.nationalreview.com. And hey, the idea for today’s show came from a National Review Online listener - keep the suggestions coming!

We also get to meet today one of our new sponsors, Dr. Kyle Bonesteel, who offers parents struggling with kids with ADD or ADHD some real answers for objectively finding a correct diagnoses for your child - and treating it in many kids without medication. You can find out more by clicking on his link under our sponsors, “Neurohealth Associates.”

Thanks for listening - and have a great week.

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Hi friends - today I’ll be talking with Neil Swidey who wrote that great piece “Rush Little Baby. . . ” for the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine this week. (You can find the link under Monday’s “Parenting Tip.”)

We’ll be talking about the epidemic of parents who push their kids academically and otherwise - why? Are our egos too tied up in our kids? And how as parents do we get off that track if we are on it?Also, I’ll be having a great “giveaway” for anyone in the Chicago area. The Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus is coming to town, and I’ll have some great ticket vouchers to give away, so listen in to win! This is a family four-pack and a $100 dollar value. (Technically, it’s a $96 dollar value but you get the point).

Here’s how to do it - the first person to comment below and correctly identify my favorite rock star (boy, is this easy!) wins the tickets. You know the rules, no employees or family members of WYLL, and no one who has recently won a prize from WYLL (in the last 30 days) may participate.

HINT: To all the folks e-mailing me and trying but not quite getting the rock star angle - yes, I mean a real secular rock star, I talk about him all the time (there’s your hint - it’s a male) and if you listen to the music on the show when we come back in, you can’t miss it . . . but since the webcast isn’t up quite yet, here’s ANOTHER hint, he’s in his 60s (wait, that’s all great rock stars) so try this - he loves soccer. Keep trying - I want to give away those tickets! And you don’t have to e-mail me, you just need to try here. . .

You can listen to the show streaming on www.wyll.com (or after the show, podcast here and on NationalReview.com)

Have a great day - Betsy

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Hi friends - I hope you’ll tune in to “It Takes a Parent” today. I’ll be talking to the brilliant Wendy Shalit. She wrote the very provocative book, “A Return to Modesty” in 2000, in which she argued for the feminine virtues of, essentially, keeping your clothes on and so valuing, and esteeming, one’s sexuality.

Now she’s written “Girls Gone Mild: It’s Not Bad to Be Good.” She interviewed hundreds of young women who are essentially rebelling against their mother’s generation - they are going mild, not wild! What’s going on and how, in spite of the culture, can we encourage our own daughters to “go mild” - and our sons to appreciate such women? Wendy and I will sort it all out. Be sure to listen today, 2:00 central, WYLL/AM1160 Chicago, streaming at wyll.com, or podcast here and on NationalReview.com after the show!

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Hi Friends - I hope you’ll join me today on “It Takes a Parent” when I talk to Chris Clapp of “Enough is Enough” about what Laura Ingraham rightly calls, “The Pornification of the Culture.”

Sexual images are so available in our society, it’s almost become “the new normal.” We’ll talk about what we as parents can do about it, particularly when it comes to our own kids and the internet - and can we take it on as a culture, too? And next week, along the lines of the same theme, producer Lynne and I will be talking to Wendy Shalit. Author of the book which created quite a stir, “A Return to Modesty,” and most recently “Girls Gone Mild,” Shalit argues that girls should value themselves and yes, their wonderful sexuality by - gasp - keeping their shirts on for a change.

With 6 girls between us, Lynne and I are eager to get her insights. You will enjoy both Cris and Wendy, I know!

You can listen live to WYLL/AM1160 in Chicago, streaming at WYLL.com, or after the show to the podcast.

Have a great day!

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Hi Friends - I hope you’ll listen in today to “It Takes a Parent” on AM1160 WYLL at 2:00 Central, streaming live on WYLL.com, or afterward via podcast either here or starting tomorrow, on NationalReview.com (a special hello to my new NRO listeners.)

Producer Lynne and I will be talking with Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers. She’s the best-selling author of many books, including “The War Against Boys.” We’ll talk to Christina about the incredible success of the new “Dangerous” book for boys. Full disclosure - I love the book - it fits right in with my belief that boys need to be civilized, not feminized. Christina always has really interesting things to say! Whether you are a parent of boys or just know some boys, you are going to want to tune in.

We’ll also discuss a recent TIME magazine piece in which one expert said, “masculinity is bad for you.” What?

Don’t miss “It Takes a Parent,” today at 2:00 Central

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Hi friends. Today I talked to Meredith O’Brien. She’s the author of the new book, “A Suburban Mom: Notes from the Asylum,” a compilation of her very funny, and sometime outright hilarious, parenting columns and blogs.

We talked (hopefully) about whether or not there’s a backlash against overwrought and overworried parenting. She’s terrific, and had something very sage advice to offer from one of her own children’s teachers about homework!We had a fun conversation - I hope you’ll tune in. Betsy

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