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Announcing The Great Parenting Show

Have you ever wondered:
How to discipline your children without ruining their self-esteem? How to deal with your picky eaters? How to protect your child from being bullied at school or online? How to overcome your own parenting issues so as not to raise children with hang-ups? How to raise your children financially aware?
Get your questions answered about these and so much more on the Great Parenting Show starting this Tuesday, March 13th.
There will be 24+ experts sharing their best strategies, tactics and process and best of all the information is FREE.
Included in the series, you will hear from experts and authors like Neale Donald Walsch, Shelly Lefkoe, Dr. Jane Nelsen, Bryan Post, Kathryn Kvols, Dr. Joe Rubino, Sharon Lechter, Dr. Laura Markham, Amy McCready, and over a dozen others – over 24 leading international  authors, teachers, educators and leaders in the parenting world.
Sign up here to register:
==> http://greatparentingshow.com/cmd.php?af=1389704

You can even get YOUR questions answered on the call!
More information here:

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Dream Job or Higher Salary?

According to a new USA survey of teens, less than half (43 percent) are “very confident” they will someday have their dream job, and a significant majority—71 percent— said they would either give up their dream job for one that paid a higher salary or might consider doing so.

The 2012 Junior Achievement USA “Teens and Careers” Survey, sponsored by the ING Foundation, also revealed that the most popular careers, selected by 61 percent of survey respondents, are in science, technology, engineering, math (often referred to as STEM), or the medical/dental fields. Given those results, not surprisingly, two-thirds (66 percent) of teens said their chosen career will require four or more years of college. However, nearly half (46 percent) have not started taking steps to prepare for the cost of training/schooling for their chosen career.

Other findings revealed that 1 n 8 wanted to start their own business someday.

Read the report here

All you need to know about online credit checks

Unless you’re a millionaire, whenever you make large purchases, notably for a house or car, you will need credit. Few of us have enough money laying in wait in the bank to buy a brand new car, let alone a house, outright; we need a loan to buy these things. And to get a loan, our credit history is given a thorough once over. Every time you apply for a loan or credit it is noted on your credit history. Too many applications and you risk looking dodgy, fraudulent or in financial trouble. Whatever conclusion is drawn, chances are you will be offered a highly unattractive interest rate of will be refused the loan or credit outright.

But few of us actually know what our credit history looks like. You can get a free online credit check from sites such as Credit Expert and finally get to see what financial institutions see. But before you get this free online credit check, you need to know exactly what a credit report looks like and how you should interpret it.

What is a credit report?

A credit report is basically your financial history. It is made up from two main sources. The first comes from public records, such as electoral roll information, court judgements, individual voluntary arrangements and bankruptcies. The second is based on financial information from banks, credit accounts, credit applications and financial associations.

What is a credit rating?

Once all the relevant information has been gathered, financial institutions will give you a credit rating. This is based on your financial history; things such as unpaid loans, late payments and even the size of the loans themselves will affect your credit history. You shouldn’t be afraid of your credit rating as it can be both good and bad, furthermore, there are things you can do to change it. The rating is there to help lenders lend profitably, but also responsibly.

What influence does a credit rating have?

Your credit rating, whether good or bad, will determine whether you get a loan, mortgage or credit; it will dictate whether you are included or excluded from certain offers and promotions as well as services and products. It can also affect employment prospects and whether you get a roof over your head.

Why should you have a credit rating check?

Everyone should take a healthy interest in their credit rating as a good rating can give you access to the lowest interest rates and best financial promotions. However, a poor credit rating can have devastating effects and mean you might not be able to get the home of your dreams. If you can get a free online credit check, you haven’t got anything to loose so you might as well give it a go.

Your credit rating is constantly updated in accordance with your changing financial situations, so it’s important to keep on top of these changes so if any problems arise you can deal with them before they become credit barriers.

Finally, and perhaps more importantly, ID theft is becoming increasingly common and costs the UK £2.7 billion. However, it takes the average Brit 15 months to discover their identity has been stolen. A credit check can quickly reveal the truth and allow you to do something about it. Get more information on identity theft and how to protect yourself from it from Crime Stoppers.

Fairy Tales and Political Correctness

The famous fables and fairy tales that earlier generations of children grew up with are being re-written or are completely falling out of favor with those who aspire to “Political Correctness”. What people don’t realize is that many of these tales have been “sanitized” repeatedly over the years, having started as truly gruesome stories. In early versions of the “Cinderella” tale, the two cruel sisters mutilated themselves in order to fit into the slipper, and the two of them ended up as blind beggars when birds pecked out their eyes.

Most stories and lore evolve over time, and fairy tales are no different. Here are some examples of old stories that have come under the modern microscope.

  1. Rapunzel – This grim tale from the brothers Grimm is too dark, say many people today. They point out that this story contains violent imagery, blatant sexism, and criminal child abuse. Imagine, a little girl being given up for adoption by thieving parents, only to find that the poor child is then placed in solitary confinement, and only a man can save her.
  2. Cinderella – In a corrected version, Cinderella might not be burdened by cruel sisters and the sexist drudgery of menial housework. Instead, she might end up stuck in a dead-end office job, just like everyone else.
  3. Goldilocks and the Three Bears – Another potential “Amber Alert” situation, though there does not appear to be any great hue-and-cry over a missing girl’s whereabouts. Didn’t anyone in the olden days have any parents (historical note: when some of these tales were first written, life-expectancies were only in the 30s, so there probably were a lot of parent-less children)?
  4. Jack and the Beanstalk – Why is it never “Jane and the Beanstalk”? Well, it is probably just as well. Jack turns out to be a little thief who doesn’t follow his mother’s instructions very well. He steals from an ogre, and then kills the poor guy to boot. In today’s version, Jack might have just gone out to get a job so he could help his poor mom out, and he certainly wouldn’t have jeopardized his future by stooping to thievery and murder.
  5. Sleeping Beauty – Another motherless story, this one also involves probable nudity. When the king forbade the spinning of all materials in order to thwart a witches curse, the realm probably ran out of clothing for the citizenry. This is another one where it’s a guy rescuing a girl in trouble, instead of maybe the other way around.
  6. Hansel and Gretel – Wrong in so many ways, this tale involves child-abuse, spousal abuse, inhumane treatment of captives and poor nutrition. The modern version might have the cottage windows made of Splenda rather than clear sugar.
  7. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – The term “dwarf” has come under fire in recent years, but “Frozen Caucasian Water and the Seven Altitude Challenged People” isn’t a title the folks over in Marketing are looking for.
  8. Red Riding Hood – “Sam ‘The Sham’ and the Pharaohs” admonished Red, singing that she shouldn’t “. . .go walking in these spooky old woods alone”. Good advice for a small child who was sent, unattended by a parent, to visit an aging relative who was probably in need of 24-hour in-home care. Of course, there is also the wolf, a stalker and an abuser of the elderly.
  9. The Pied Piper – The Piper of the tale was obviously a cult-leader who had lured not only the rats, but also the children of the beleaguered township of Hamelin. The Pied Piper obviously had anger-management issues, which might have been addressed with classes and counseling in a modern version of the story.
  10. The Emperor’s New Clothes – This tale has a pair of swindling tailors hoodwinking a vain emperor into thinking that the “nothing” they have made for him is a fine suit of clothing. A little kid busts the scam wide open, but the emperor is held out as the selfish patriarch that he is.

Almost every story has elements that may not suit future generations. Who knows, in a few hundred years, Cinderella’s step-sisters may turn out to be kind and gentle care-givers.

Article courtesy of my friends at www.babysitters.net