The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1125841
C-4 Wednesday, June 5, 2019 The Press-Dispatch HOME LIFE TO ADVERTISE: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: ads@pressdispatch.net Visit: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Deadline: 5 p.m. on Monday Youth First Today by Amanda Jo Haney, Youth First, Inc. Katiedid vs... by Katiedid Langrock Tick trauma Social media safety tips for children 3-bedroom, two of them with master baths. A spacious great room, laundry room, plus the kitchen of your dreams. THIS ONE WON'T LAST LONG! HURRY! SAVE $20,000 Plus HOMES 814 NIBLACK BLVD., VINCENNES • 1-800-743-7004 • WWW.BAIRDVINCENNES.COM Live like a Movie Star in affordable luxury! SOUTH DAKOTA FRITO TREATS MEALS IN Monica's MINUTES Share your favorite recipe! www.facebook.com/mealsinminutes Monica's Meals in Minutes PO Box 68, Petersburg, IN 47567 mealsinminutes@pressdispatch.net FACEBOOK MAIL EMAIL By Monica Sinclair I know I have been putting in several desserts lately. How- ever, a recipe popped into my email this week that was just too interesting not to share. You get sweet and salty all in one snack. Not to mention, it uses one of my favorite ingredients, peanut but- ter. Enjoy! INGREDIENTS • 2 packages (9 -3/4 ounces each) corn chips, divided • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided • 1 cup sugar • 1 cup light corn syrup • 1 cup creamy peanut butter DIRECTIONS 1. Spread 1 package of corn chips on the bottom of a greased 13x9 -in. baking pan; sprinkle with 1 cup chocolate chips. 2. In a large heavy saucepan, combine sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil; cook and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in peanut butter. 3. Pour half of the peanut butter mixture over chip mixture. Top with remaining corn chips and choc- olate chips; drizzle with remaining peanut butter mixture. Let stand until set. Cut into bars. Source: tasteof home.com REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS Taylor Padgett FK A, Taylor D. Bise conveys to Wil- liam J. Powell, real estate as recorded in Pike County. Leo Oxley and Ann E. Oxley convey to Lane Jere- my Oxley, Rebecca Jo Carlisle and Linc Jeffrey Oxley, real estate as recorded in Pike County. Norma Jean Mulkey conveys to Kelly L. Mulkey and Tracey L. Mulkey, real estate as recorded in Pike County. W. Kemper Lease Trust and W. Kemper Lease Trust- ee conveys to Outdoor Recreational Adventures LLC, real estate as recorded in Pike County. Patricia Anne Jenkins and Beverly Sue Smith con- vey to Brittany A. Nance and Jonathan A. Nance, real estate as recorded in Pike County. Willie C. Smith conveys to Toby L. Nelson and Pris- cilla Nelson, real estate as recorded in Pike County. W. Kemper Lease Trustee and W. Kemper Lease Trust conveys to Outdoor Recreational Adventures LLC, real estate as recorded in Pike County. Greg A. Fraze conveys to Greg A. Fraze and Lisa M. Fraze, real estate as recorded in Pike County. Sheryl Lynn Pokorski conveys to Robert W. Nelson and Sara K. Nelson, real estate as recorded in Pike County. Jimmy Lee Warner and Kathleen Diane Warner con- vey to 1st Franklin Group, LLC, real estate as record- ed in Pike County. Charlotte E. Ragan, Charlene H. Ragan and Rob- ert A. Ragan convey to Jace A. Houchin and Brittany R. Houchin, real estate as recorded in Pike County. In our modern society, social media is one of the most common ways we communicate with one another. This is true for adults and children. With summer break starting, many children will find even more time than usual to spend on their phones, tablets, or computers. Often times they are communicating through social media apps. Do we know who they are talk- ing to? Do they really know? As parents, our main goal is to keep our children safe and healthy. This ap- plies to both physical and emotional health. One important way to help them stay safe while using social media is to mon- itor their usage. Just like when our chil- dren spend time with their friends in real life, we need to know what they are doing and who they are talking to through social media platforms. While it is important to give our chil- dren some freedom, we still need to know that they are being safe and fol- lowing the social media rules we set for them. Giving them clear rules and con- sequences for their misuse will help them continue to use social media in a positive manner. Teach them social media safety hab- its. While it is ideal to share this in- formation with them before they get on social media for the first time, that might be difficult. These rules and safety measures will be valuable at any time. According to www.connectsafely. org/social-web-tips-for-teens/, some of the things children (of any age) can do to stay safe online are as follows: • Be your own person. Never pre- tend to be someone that you are not. Be who you really are and you will at- tract the people who will become your real friends. • Be nice. Don't say mean things just because you can hide behind a screen. Your words hurt the same as if you would say them to the person's face. • Think about what you post. Re- member that once it is out there it is out there for everyone! • Do not add people you don't know on social media accounts. Having friends and followers is fun but can be dangerous when they are strangers. • Never send inappropriate pic- tures or engage in sexual conversa- tions with peers or strangers. Nev- er. Never. Never. Also — never give out your address on social media! Don't even tell any- one you don't know what city you live in or what school you go to. Don't post photos that show your school or give any information about where you live. Try to be as vague as possible about where you live. If we stress the importance of these rules and safety habits and reinforce them with a consistent reward/conse- quence system, we can help our chil- dren stay safe online. This also will give us some peace of mind when trust- ing our kids with the responsibility and privilege of using social media. This column is written by Amanda Jo Haney, MSW, school social worker for Youth First, Inc., a local nonprofit dedicated to strengthening youth and families. Youth First provides 55 Mas- ter's level social workers to 76 schools in 10 Indiana counties. Over 38,000 youth and families per year have access to Youth First's school social work and afters-chool programs that prevent sub- stance abuse, promote healthy behaviors, and maximize student success. "His name is Howell! " "OK, fine. Then I have to remove Howell," I said. My daughter has a love of naming things — even things that are latched on to her body and sucking her blood. I took out my tweezers and consid- ered that perhaps she didn't under- stand that Howell, her newly named best animal friend, was a fat tick feed- ing off her and sucking her dry. Then again, the only Howell I know is Thurs- ton Howell III, so perhaps she did have some understanding. "I'll be gentle," I said as I pinched my tweezers and pulled. We are not even officially into sum- mer yet, and I have already pulled five ticks off my children. The kids used to freak out whenever they discov- ered that an arachnid was burrowing its head into their young bodies. Now they give the ticks names and person- ality traits. Howell, for example, was shy and enjoyed dinosaurs, dance par- ties and climbing olive trees. But he hated blue jays. I couldn't even men- tion blue jays around the eight-legged, disease-carrying pest latched on to my daughter, because she would scream at me. The ticks my kids unintentionally bring into our home have become just as much a part of the family as the ter- rifying FlipaZoo stuffed animals that must now join us at the dinner table. My children are obsessed with these two-in-one stuffed animals — recent presents given by family friends — and lovingly refer to them as "butt heads." I am not one to enjoy name-calling, but the term is hard to argue with once you realize that instead of a butt, the crea- tors of these flip creatures gave each of them two heads and a flap of skin that can flip, allowing kids to turn the stuffed animal from monkey to giraffe, from dog to opossum. Where there should be a butt, there is another head. So the but- theads join us for dinner. We call them by name, de- pending on which head is currently on display, and of- fer them seats and pretend plates of food. I'm far less impressed with the ticks joining us for dinner — or, more accu- rately, making us their dinner. Unlike "buttheads," the term I coined them was my error. I had a slip of the tongue while urging a particu- larly latched-on tick to remove himself from my son's shoulder. My children started referring to ticks as b******* as if it were their given scientific name. What's the Latin term for "drives Mom crazy"? Not a particularly proud parenting moment. You can see why I welcome it when my children move past Mom- my's potty mouth and give the ticks their own names, such as Howell, Sam- my, Trey, Leela and Alistair — all far more welcoming words to come out of my preschooler's and kindergartener's mouths. The problem with "Howell" and "Alistair," however, is that the kids have a problem when I kill them, whereas I don't know that they'd have much of an issue with my killing "the b*******." Again, not my most shining mom moment, but there is a point here. In my town, the going belief is that ticks carry so many worrying illness- es that we must take our children to the doctor every time a tick latches on to their skin. As I mentioned, we've already had five tick incidents. No one has time to go to a doc- tor that often. Instead, I fol- low the second-most rul- ing thought in these parts, which is to place each tick in a zip-close bag with the date and place of bite on the child and keep it in the freezer. This way, if the child starts to get sick, we can have each fro- zen tick tested. "Howell's too cold! " my daughter screamed as I put him in the bottom freezer bin with the other bloodsuck- ing friends. "He's just napping," I assured her. My kid wasn't buying it. "But Howell's my lovey." Huh, all this time, I thought we were talking about Thurston, not Lovey. And when did my 3-year-old watch "Gilligan's Island"? And was she re- ally making the political statement I thought she was making with her love for the Howells? I considered the effort I'd gone through to calm my children's terror when we used to find ticks on their bodies. "They're not trying to hurt you," I'd said. "Nature's our friend," I'd said. Maybe I should have stuck to the naughty words. Like Katiedid Langrock on Facebook, at http://www.facebook.com/katiedid- humor.