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Congressionally recognized celebration to run from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day (May 14 - June 18)
NEW YORK, May 8 – Mother’s Day to Father’s Day (May 14-June 18 in 2006) are the official dates of this year’s National Family Month®, a congressionally recognized celebration to raise awareness and underscore the importance of family—kids, parents, relatives and caregivers—and to provide an opportunity for families to share special time together, develop or renew relationships, identify or rediscover needs, and remind everyone of the importance of family involvement in raising healthy, confident kids for America's future.
In 2006, National Family Month will be focusing on a number of key health, safety and social issues, including two of the biggest challenges in family news today: What America’s kids are eating (healthy childhood eating and obesity prevention) and what’s eating America’s parents (the increasingly hot topic of child manners and behavior).
A wealth of ideas, events, expert tips and free resources to help America’s families reconnect and work on these and other issues are available from KidsPeace, the 124-year-old national children’s charity that created National Family Month, on their websites www.kidspeace.org and www.familymonth.net .
Teaching Good Manners…and Giving Families Peace
Visitors to the websites will find many communication, relationship-building, and problem-solving tips for parents and advice, along with new resources to help make life easier for everyone, including such tools as “Manners I. Care,” (Child Life Books, www.mannersicare.com), a new “interactive family book” being released as part of National Family Month. Authored by David Bruce, the book seeks to improve children’s manners by having kids and parents read together an amusing story of a child, his behavior, his loved ones’ frustration, and the hidden reasons for kids’ actions.
“By putting a child on your lap and experiencing together in a fun way a fictional character’s less-than-perfect behavior and the frustration it causes, the whole family builds caring and sharing, understanding and values,” says Bruce.
5 Themed Weeks to Choose From…and a Special June 5 Spotlight on Manners
In keeping with National Family Month’s five themed weeks (“Home,” “Trust,” “Love,” “Freedom,” and “Hope”), author David Bruce suggests that during the event’s “Freedom” week that June 5 be a nationwide day to focus on manners, “Manners I. Care” Day, when families eat dinner together and listen to each other with good manners. He offers some mutual benefits that could profit families from the book, "Manners I. Care," including:
Freedom from feeling sad
Freedom from acting out
Freedom from being alone
Freedom from feeling rejected
Freedom from time out
Freedom from hurt feelings
Freedom from hurting others' feelings
Freedom from anger
Freedom from yelling
Freedom to be recognized for good behavior
Freedom to be trusted
Freedom to be valued
Freedom to make decisions
Freedom to change your mind
Freedom to dream
Freedom to be heard and understood
Freedom to have your limits respected
Freedom to feel loved
Freedom to feel at home
Freedom to be who you are and have others appreciate it
Helping America’s Kids Eat More Healthily
National Family Month is also being used as a focus by an alliance of nonprofits and consumer groups to battle the number-one growing health threat to America’s youngsters: childhood obesity. A new national campaign, “Make Healthy Eating Fun for Kids!” will provide information and resources to change the way our children eat, centered around a powerful concept: Getting children to want to eat right by teaching them fun facts about nutrition, involving them more in the process of buying and preparing healthy food, and by helping them problem-solve the day-to-day pressures in their lives that can lead to overeating and other unhealthy behaviors. In this way, both the physical and underlying emotional roots of the problem are addressed – a novel approach.
Information for kids and adults is available at www.familymonth.net and includes:
Food Facts, Nutrition and Calorie Guides
Fun Tips to involve kids in buying & preparing healthy food
Expert Help for Kids at www.TeenCentral.net , a unique, free problem-solving websource that provides clinically screened help to defuse stresses leading to eating disorders and other problems
Expert Help for Adults at www.kidspeace.org to identify and relieve pressures on today’s kids
Simple Ideas that Work: Eating Dinners Together – Ongoing research shows that children who eat regular meals with their families have significantly fewer physical and behavioral problems. By eating dinner more often with your children, you not only see what’s going into their mouths, you can listen to what’s coming out of their mouths (what their daily stresses are), so you can all problem-solve together and help defuse pressures that might otherwise lead to “comfort eating,” overeating, and obesity.
In addition, millions of free, informative materials with these tips are being given out as part of the “Make Healthy Eating Fun for Kids!” campaign, which is supported by the Cerritos, California-based consumer group Mass Connections, a leading consumer concept group in memorable and cause-related events, Hefty Zoo Pals, Quaker Oats, and Tropicana. .
“National Family Month is an opportunity to talk with our kids about the issues that most affect us and our family lives together,” says KidsPeace President & CEO C.T. O’Donnell II. “We urge every family to get involved and enjoy rediscovering in some new way the most important people in their lives.”
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KidsPeace is a 124-year-old national children’s crisis charity dedicated to giving help, hope and healing to kids facing traumas, depression, eating disorders and the stresses of modern life. Founded in 1882 in Bethlehem, Pa., KidsPeace helps more than 3,000 children a day at 50+ centers nationally and millions more through public education and outreach with the support of its National Spokesperson Leeza Gibbons, national safety and self-esteem icon RETRO BILL and other notables. KidsPeace was called “the outstanding organization” of its kind by the AAPSC and “a prototype of what we need for all children everywhere” by family expert Dr. Lee Salk.