Columbus has a lot to be proud about. It’s the state capital, it’s the home to one of the nation’s largest, and finest, universities as well as a number of Fortune 500 companies, and it is one of the few growing cities in the Midwest. Now we can also proudly say that we are home to a kid who played video games for at least four straight days and had to be hospitalized for dehydration as a result.
What a tribute to the family values, careful parenting, and common sense that have made our city such a fine place to live! Fifteen-year-old Tyler Rigby locked himself into his room for four days to engage in a Modern Warfare 3 marathon, leaving his room only to use the bathroom and eat. Eventually he left his room and collapsed due to dehydration. His mother — who apparently didn’t do anything to stop Tyler’s ludicrous video game marathon — said she was worried he was going to die. Fortunately, he’s been filled with fluids and is expected to be okay.
Yes, it’s a proud day for Columbus, and for attentive parents everywhere.
Under the government’s approach to calculating the unemployment rate, those people just aren’t counted as unemployed any more. As a result of the continuing decline in the number of people looking for work, the share of Americans who are part of the labor force — either working or actively looking — has reached its lowest point in 30 years. Some of the people who have quit looking for work are early retiring Baby Boomers, but many are people who have just given up hope of finding a job.
Childhood obesity is a problem in America — but when should the state intervene to deal with individual cases? County workers say the boy’s weight is due to his environment and his mother’s failure to follow doctor’s orders; they consider the boy’s condition to be just another form of medical neglect. The mother, and her lawyer, say the county overreached because the boy is in no immediate danger and the mother has been trying to control his weight. They note that the boy is on the honor roll and participates in school activities, and add that removing a child from his home and family and putting him foster care can cause its own harms.
It shouldn’t be surprising that the female brain reacts to giving birth and caring for a child. After birth, females are flooded with hormones like estrogen, oxytocin and prolactin, and first-time mothers are learning an entirely new set of skills, including surviving on little sleep, coming bolt awake at the first murmurings of a waking infant, and mastering the interpretation of baby cries to determine whether a child is starving, dealing with a poop-filled diaper, or just lonely for Mom’s smiling face.
Not surprisingly, the study found that when mothers are expressively loving and supportive, their children are better situated to deal with distress and to develop effective life, social, and coping skills. The children of emotionally cold mothers, on the other hand, have more difficulty dealing with anxiety. There is a limit to the developmental effectiveness of maternal warmth, however. The study concluded that over-mothering can be “intrusive and embarrassing.”
