Empty Nesters on Blog Talk Radio Month: 03/2009

On Demand Episodes 15692

Original Air Date: 3/25/2009 6:00 PM UTC

The Empty Nesters

Two longtime friends, both empty nesters, talk about the many exciting, new and unknown challenges facing the baby boomer generation of parents Emptynestersradio.blogspot.com

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Original Air Date: 3/18/2009 6:00 PM UTC

The Empty Nesters

The Empty Nesters will be speaking with Todd Creager,LCSW,LMFT about his book The Long Hot Marriage. Help you relationship go from Boring to Roaring! Emptynestersradio.blogspot.com

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Date / Time: 3/16/2009 9:34 PM UTC

To parents of hight school seniors, the middle of March means only one thing...Dum da dum dum....those pesky college thumbs up/thumbs down letters will soon be appearing in the email or snail mail box nearest you!!! You senior has most probably checked out and the flurry of activity between now and when the final decision is due on May 1 will lead your student back to business.

Those 12 years of hard work have reached the moment of truth and you will finally discover if have you been a good parent or bad parent: Berkeley or Yale... good, Arizona or SMC... bad.

Now wait just a minute...if the past few years have taught the Empty Nesters anything, it is that those assumptions are bull! Of course if your senior is accepted to Yale you should be very proud of their accomplishment. However, if an Ivy League education is not in your child's future, there is no need to throw your hands up in despair. There are many schools outside of the New York to Massachusetts corridor that offer fabulous, well rounded educations. The most important part of this process...that we repeat ad nauseam...is for your child to be in the collegial setting right for them. One hour or six hours from home, ivy league or schmivy league doesn't matter because what really matters is what is right for YOUR CHILD.

Hopefully, your almost college student will have many choices. Much has been written about the ripple effect the economic meltdown will have on this year's acceptances. Many private colleges will be over accepting and offering more financial aid to make sure they achieve their "desired yields." Some public schools (especially here in financially insolvent California) are planning to limit enrollment. So rules that have existed up to now will be thrown out the window and the only certainty is uncertainty.

College is as much about the best possible education as well as a successful and smart social life. After a secondary education that included upwards of 35 hours a week of classroom time before after school activities, the average 15 hours a week class time in college can be a shock to the system. That leaves a lot of time for individual choices...from clubs to student government to parties and sex. Those choices are at the core of what makes the college experience special and scary for everyone: parents, students, and educators. Will your child be mature enough to take the smart fork in the road most of the time (few people make good choices 100% of the time) or will they choose the road that leads to a 1.0 GPA?

The most important advice is to know your child. Some are not meant to be 3,000 miles away from home and that is ok!!! For others, two years in a community college is a fantastic opportunity to mature, develop good study skills and then transfer to a Berkeley or UCLA or SUNY @ Albany. Others will thrive in a new environment and find the independence they never would have discovered if they didn't repeatedly get stranded in bad weather at O'Hare. The most important piece of this puzzle is what they do with this gift of higher education, wherever it may be.

As parents we have worked tirelessly to give our children the tools to fly. Now is their time to take flight and it is important to remember they will still need our help, both financial and otherwise for a long time. Opening the letters and making the big decision is just the first step in their take off towards adulthood. Please remember, whatever decision is made on May 1st is not written in stone. Transferring is not an anamoly and certainly a viable option if the university you thought was the best thing since sliced bread turns out to be a stale bagel!

So take a deep breath as you enter this runway with your high school senior. We've learned most freshmen are happy with their choices. If they aren't and you observe problems, trust your instincts and be proactive. Our role as involved parents doesn't end, it just evolves. We are not going the way of the dinosaur just yet.

Good luck. The next few months will be quite a ride.

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Original Air Date: 3/11/2009 6:00 PM UTC

The Empty Nesters

Join the Empty Nesters for a talk with dermatologist Dr. Doris Day. Dr. Day is a frequent guest expert on Good Morning America and In Style. Her most recent book is Forget the Facelift: Turn Back the Clock with Dr. Day's Revolutionary Four Step Program for Ageless Skin. Emptynestersradio.blogspot.com

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Date / Time: 3/5/2009 6:53 AM UTC

Denial isNot Just a River in Egypt

We spent quite a bit of time on Wednesday's show taking about The Bachelor but Jason's behavior was not the only upsetting male action of late.

What do you say to your daughter or son when a major female pop star gets the crap beat out of her by her young pop star boyfriend and takes him back a month later. Not really much time for an anger management class to have an effect, you think? In another type of questionable conduct, The Bachelor Jason proposed to Melissa Monday night and then proceeded to publicly dump her the next night...for runner up Molly. And after maybe one minute of introspection, Molly took him back and sucked face with him on national TV. Honey watch your back... be very careful of Mr. Fickle Pickle!

Okay, we admit we only know these young people from their media image. And you know what everyone says about the media. But we are media too and we shoot from the hip whenever we talk. The truth is we have never met Chris Brown or Jason Mesnick so we cannot say for sure if they are truly jerks or only appear that way.

The concern is that Rhianna and Molly may adversely influence millions of their contemporaries by publicly accepting sketchy behavior without consequences. That message in this day and age doesn't bode well for our sons or daughters.

We have been married to our respective husbands for a combined total of 60 years and neither spouse has ever laid a hand on us in anger. We have taught our kids that if any one ever lays a hand on them they should run, not walk to the nearest exit. Simply unacceptable. Period, end of story. That type of behavior takes time to work through and the person responsible has to want to change

Listening to Bachelor Jason talk about integrity...puhlease. Integrity, schmegrity. He shouldn't have proposed in the first place. But for Miss Molly to fall into his arms without seeming to have any second thoughts after he threw Melissa under the bus was even more disappointing. She validated his actions without missing a beat.

These two separate events simply remind the empty nesters how little control we have over relationship choices our sons and daughters make. Affairs of the heart are so complicated and the painful reality is our kids must learn from their mistakes. Our role is to be there to help them pick up the pieces. Hopefully, their errors in judgment remain private and don't wind up splashed on the pages of People magazine.

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Original Air Date: 3/4/2009 7:00 PM UTC

The Empty Nesters

We will be joined by one of our favorite guests- Damian Holbrook- of T.V. Guide Magazine. Two longtime friends, both empty nesters, talk about the many exciting, new and unknown challenges facing the baby boomer generation of parents Emptynestersradio.blogspot.com

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Date / Time: 3/2/2009 6:21 PM UTC

Who Turned Out The Lights

Another opportunity to quote one of Jill's favorite sayings, "Man plans and God laughs." The Empty Nesters gathered together with friends last Sunday to participate in the time honored ritual that is the viewing of the Academy Awards Show, complete with red carpet coverage and dishing about how beautiful (or not) the stars looked. This year was especially exciting as we had spent a few days at the Kodak Theater reporting for the radio show. We were up close and personal with the really big Oscar statue.
(Can't really call a towering gold naked man a statuette). Our press passes, Oscar show posters and photos were proudly displayed for all to admire. We were charmed by Hugh Jackman, inspired by the tributes given by past honorees to current nominated actors, and quite pleased as our predictions were becoming realities, when the powers that be (Department of Water and Power ? a Higher Authority ?) sent a electrical surge and bam- the lights went out. Total blackout- no big screen HDTV, no Internet access. Nada. Just a transistor radio by candlelight. ( This channeling of Abe Lincoln is going too far) The guests waited a polite few minutes hoping the power would be restored and then made a hasty retreat to their light filled homes and Tivo'd recordings. Yes- the best laid plans do often go astray.

We were able to recap and breakdown the Oscar show with guest Jason O'Brien of Blog Talk Radio's Oscar Oscar show. Jason is a filmmaker himself and really knows the industry.
T.V. Guide writer Damian Holbrook will join us on Wednesday, March 11th
Join the conversation live at 11:00 a.m. PST.

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On Demand Episodes 15692

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Denial isNot Just a River in Egypt

The Empty Nesters

Who Turned Out The Lights

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