My five-year-old has been lucky so far. She's never been bullied.That I know about.

BlogHer's Shannon wrote an insightful post looking into preschool television shows back in January. But what about television that tweens and teens watch? Television that you and I watch (or will watch someday) with our kids? I'm not talking about individual shows, I'm talking about television in general. With a gazillion channels to choose from and DVRs abounding, one can certain insulate against undesirable shows easily. But what about our kids?

Some parents never fight in front of their kids, and their kids grow up fine. Some parents scream at each other day, and their kids grow up fine. And some in each camp end up with kids who either think a fight means the end of the world or that love is best expressed by yelling and cursing.What's the right thing to do?

I remember my children's vitamins clearly. They were pastel purple, pink and yellow, and they tasted like Pez. I longed to take the whole bottle, for I loved them so.And I don't give my daughter vitamins with any sort of regularity.

Children are taught the expression "it's not fair" in the womb, shortly after they're told how to suck their thumbs and how to walk into the rearview mirror of every car in the parking lot. While they don't have speech until their second or third year, that crying you hear? They're saying, "Mommy, IT'S NOT FAIR!"

"I just want to be happy." That's what I told my daughter. I was trying, again, to explain to her why her father and I were getting a divorce. She wanted to know why he had moved away and got a new job and a new home and a new puppy, and didn't invite us. I told her that it was just me that wasn't invited, that she and her sister were always welcome. She wanted to know why I wanted a divorce and I told her that I wasn't happy, and neither was he - that we hadn't been happy together in a very long time, and back when we were, it was sporadic.

My 5 year old, Isabella, told me that last week. Why? I'm not exactly sure, but it stung. Not because it's true, but because of the conviction she held when she said it. I'm not sure if it's been me moping around and saying that I didn't want to be with anyone at all, or if her father said anything to that effect (I really don't believe he would), but she seemed pretty convinced. I told her that I thought I was a nice person, and maybe one day someone else would want to marry me. She thought about it for a few minutes and agreed, adding on that I was 'very pretty too'.

A few weeks ago, I noticed on my 14 year old cousin’s Myspace page that her status was set to ‘melancholy’. Now I thought to myself, what exactly does a 14 year old have to be melancholy about?

Growing up in my family, there was never an emphasis on sports. I guess being that my parents initially only started out with 3 daughters; they didn’t feel a need to ‘develop’ athletes. It wasn’t until years later, when they finally had a son, that sports became something big.  As my brother grew older and taller, everyone always assumed he was interested in either basketball or football.