New Hope and Help for Working Parents

We've always hated the term "Mommy Wars." The term is used as a description of the push and pull between stay-at-home Moms and Moms who work outside of the home. Over the years, we've had guests on the show talking about the issue and we've always came up with the same conclusion- for the most part Moms and Dads want the best they can provide for their children and what parents really need is quality options and resources to help them in that endeavor. Pursuing this route instead of focusing on the debate is best for our children, best for parents and best for our society in general - peace out. We've made it our personal mission to help bring attention to people and programs that are focused on solutions for parents rather than authors who want to sell books or be on national media tours.
This weekend on Family Matters we'll talk to the founder Ordize.com. It's a new free program for working parents to help guide their decision in finding the right daycare for their children. You can find and review daycares from the convenience of your computer and even rate a daycare and provide feedback. More good news for working parents is recently released research about the influence of daycare in the life of a child as he or she grows into an adult. The findings have been reassuring fears and doubts that working parents have endured for decades.

Back to School - Back to Sleep

As any parent of a teen can attest, teens' natural body clocks are rarely in sync with the morning school bell. Several studies have indicated that puberty is to blame for teens who stay up later at night and then desire to sleep later in the morning. And as a new school year is set to begin, new research has found that those sleep-deprived teens are risking more than droopy eyes and grogginess in algebra class. Cleveland researchers say they have shown for the first time that lack of sleep increases risk of high blood pressure in healthy teens. The researchers added that part of the problem is that iPods, cell phones and computers are cutting into teens' sleep time.

In this week's hot topics sleep expert Dr. Jodi Mindell shares her sleep wisdom for parents of teens and younger zombies who struggle with sleep issues.

Bernie Mac's Death Spotlights Immune System Disorder

When asked about the unexpected death of his friend- Bernie Mac, George Clooney responded " The world just got a little less funny." Clooney - who starred alongside Mac in 2001 movie Ocean's Eleven and the film's two sequels - revealed he would miss Mac, who died aged 50 of complications arising from pneumonia, in a Chicago hospital. Mac also suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease, but he had said the condition went into remission in 2005. His publicist, Danica Smith, has said the pneumonia was unrelated to the sarcoidosis. His death has brought attention to sarcoidosis and other immune system disorders affecting millions of people and growing. In most cases there is no known cause and there is no cure. In this week's hot topics, we talk with award-winning journalist Richard Cohen, author of Strong at the Broken Places, about the people coping with devastating conditions who fight hard every day to overcome. You can listen to the podcast here.

Shortcuts to Save on School Lunches

Summer is almost over for school kids. And you better be prepared to start packing more lunch money this school year as school districts across the country are raising prices to keep pace with the rising costs for food and fuel.
To save money and boost your child's nutrition, packing their lunch may be the best option. Recently we talked to Sonya Schweitzer, program director for Shortcuts.com, AOL's free online paperless coupon solution about pain-free ways to save on your grocery bill. You can listen to our podcast here.

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