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Young race car driver dies
UPDATE: Youth race car driver Tyler Morr, 12, who lived in Arcadia, has died.
On news of a 12 year old critically injured in a stock car race, parents are defending their choice to let kids as young as 5 get behind the wheel of a racecar. As our colleagues Laura C. Morel and Lane DeGregory report here, driver Tyler Morr, 12, had been traveling about 40 mph along the oval in Winter Haven Saturday night when his No. 17 black stock race car crumpled against the wall, just past the second turn in the track. Monday night, Morr, who lives in Arcadia, was in critical condition at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Parents of other youth race car drivers seemed eager to defend the growing sport, even as they acknowledged the risks. ... Read more
Kid afraid of rollercoasters? Here's some tips
We've got Memorial Day weekend coming up, the unofficial start of summer. So the next few days on this blog we will be looking at what's new this year at theme parks and attractions that you might want to check out with your kids.
And for parents hoping that this is the year their child musters the courage to take that first roller coaster adventure, it’s a tough call: Do you encourage, bribe or shame the kids into facing their fears? Or do you let them decide for themselves?
Legoland in Winter Haven sent out an interesting guide they’ve come up with to help families deal with veloxrotaphobia, or fear of roller coasters.
The park asked psychologist and author Dr. Susan Bartell to offer some suggestions. To make that first plunge a positive experience for the entire family, Bartell says, there are a host of mistakes parents commonly make.
“Dismissing a child’s fear, comparing them to a sibling or friend, bribing them with gifts and money, or labeling a child with a negative name based on their reluctance won’t make them any braver,” says Bartell. “In fact those strategies often cause greater anxiety, and resentment and make them more reluctant, not to mention ruin what should be a great day for the family.”
Here’s her suggestions on how to manage a melt-down and celebrate at the end of the day: ... Read more
Would you let your kid play football?
I have to admit, I'm kind of glad my kid broke his arm.
After years of playing flag football, he'd been begging me to let him play "real" football with tackling and pads and helmets. I finally relented when he was 12 and wanted to play in a city league. But then, just a couple weeks in, he broke his arm trying to catch his fall off a tackling dummy. It took him out for the season and I was quietly gleeful because he'd experienced the worst of football -- practice in 98-degree weather every night for hours. He was sore every night and the fun part hadn't started yet. They had only just started the tackling drills when he broke his arm.
So now that it's been all over the news how damaging football turns out to be for the players who suffer multiple concussions, I'm starting to feel like a real hypocrite because I love to watch football but I don't want anyone I love to play it. Former Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner has said he doesn't want his kids to play football, either. ... Read more
We found ticket deals for theme parks, attractions
With Memorial Day weekend upon us, we took a look at the deals you can get, particularly the ones offered only to Florida residents. You'll notice Disney is absent from this list but that's because time has run our on their "Wild for 3" of three days in its theme parks for $99. The tickets must be purchased by today (May 21) and used by May 24.
Still, there's lots of other theme parks offering deals this year. And being a Florida resident gets you a price break at most attractions if you jump on the Internet early and use your tickets before the height of vacation season. Here's some of the best: ... Read more
Disney closes scary (really scary!) Snow White ride
I really liked our colleague Sean Daly's take on the closing of Walt Disney World's Snow White ride on May 31, which you can read here. Like so many folks who grew up in Florida, that's the ride that scared the poop out of me as a kid.
But I hadn't thought about it the way Daly puts it as a rite of passage:
For 41 years, the Snow White ride has been a Sunshine State rite of passage. Both of my daughters unleashed big fat tears on the ride. They exited red-eyed, stunned, hitting me with the same what-just-happened look I no doubt flashed my parents: betrayal, anger and, beneath all that, a tingling pride at joining the club.
So true. It's the only ride in the Disney universe that by design is intended to make you jump a foot when that wicked queen turns around. ... Read more
Parent complaints about early school days grow
Our friends on the Gradebook blog report here that the Manatee School Board is considering ending its experiment with an early release day to give teacher's planning time. With more demands on teachers to prepare and meet together, many Florida school districts have adopted early release days to give educators that time together. Hillsborough uses Mondays. Pinellas does it on Wednesdays.
But in Manatee County, parents have inundated the School Board with complaints about it. So much so that the board is considering whether to return to five full days of instruction. Board members note that a change could help parents while adding to student learning time, but also realize that time for teacher training and planning still must be provided. ... Read more
Free and cheap things to do with the kids this week
Get those kids to unplug and get outside this week because we have lots of free and cheap things to do on the go, from a kids biathlon to a nifty planetarium show followed by telescope viewing or they can take the dog on a play date. We have that and more in this week's roundup:
It’s a biathlon for kids! The St. Pete Beach Community Center is hosting Splash and Dash, a pool swim and fun run through the park for ages 5 to 12. Stick around for the post-race Splash Bash with music, games, water slides, contests and prizes. It costs $5 on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. St. Pete Beach Community Center and Horan Park, 7701 Boca Ciega Drive. ... Read more
Tips for taking tots out to the ballgame
A friend of mine was so excited to take her toddler out to his first Tampa Bay Rays game on a recent Sunday, which are dubbed Family Fun Days because for a $23 ticket you get a hot dog, drink, snack and the kids get to run the bases after the game. (The next ones are May 20 and June 3) But then it hit her: A little one is just as likely to get antsy and meltdown -- and probably just as the game was getting good.
She turned to her veteran parent friends for help and here's some of the advice she got, from snacks to a debate on whether electronic devices like iPads ruin the experience you are trying to share with your child.
Access: Make sure to get aisle seats so you can "walk it off" if he gets antsy.
Snacks: Bringing a snack that takes some work, like a bag of unshelled peanuts, helps pass the time (and yes the Rays let you bring snacks in). ... Read more
Parents lied to get kids in right school
Sports writer John Cotey has a brutal column today in the wake of the news that five Armwood High School football players, just off a state championship season, have been declared ineligible, "the ones who made up electric bills and addresses and rent receipts, the ones who lied about where they lived instead of doing the right thing — moving into the zone where they wanted their son to play football."
You can blame coaches and recruiting, Cotey writes, but in the end:
Simple: It’s about parents cheating.
This is where you start when looking for people to blame, trying to figure out how something like this could happen, so many kids, so many lies. ... Read more
So how do you teach a kid to behave in a restaurant?
The uproar over the recent story by our colleague Laura Reiley about the pizza place in Seminole Heights that banned children from its back patio and posted strongly worded signs inside to keep the kids quiet or face ejection brought out a host of comments. Most of them were along the lines of "Parents need to make their kids behave!" That's much easier said than done when you have a toddler. As parents weathering the Terrible Twos well know, trying to "make" them do anything is sure to bring on a screaming, kicking, howling tantrum that draws the pointed stares from those around you. Pointed is too mild. Daggers!
We stopped going to restaurants for a few years when our kids were that age. We got takeout or a sitter. That was the very sage advice I received from my pediatrician when I asked why it is my friend who goes out several times a week had such a wonderfully behaved toddler and I couldn't keep mine in his seat or occupied while we tried to eat. Her answer "What the heck are you doing taking an 18 month old to a restaurant? It's not fair to expect him to sit for 30 minutes and it's stressful for you to jump through hoops entertaining him. Get takeout or get a sitter and try again when he's older" I love that woman.
But still, learning to behave well in public is a skill like any other that has to be taught. Here's what we did (thanks to the many moms and aunts I called on for advice) and it worked beautifully. ... Read more
About the bloggers
Raising children isn't easy. Whoa, Momma! is here to help you with parenting tips and discussion of all parenting issues. We think there's no such thing as TMI, so our blogging moms aren't shy about the hot topics and won't back away from a good debate. Bottle or breastfeed? Public, private or homeschool? And sex -- it's all open for comment. Don't sit on the sidelines -- pull up a bouncy seat and join the chat.
Email us ideas you'd like us to write about.
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THE AUTHORS
Sharon Kennedy Wynne has sunscreen in her blood. She may have been born in Buffalo but she got here as fast as she could, in time for kindergarten. She grew up in St. Petersburg, graduated from the University of Florida journalism school, and even got married at Sunken Gardens. She's one of the few adults we know who actually loves taking her kids to the beach. She has two sons and with 10 years of parenting under her belt, she's starting to feel a little less out of her league. She comes from a large family and loves to debate, so brace yourself when the hot topics come up.
E-mail Sharon Kennedy Wynne:
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Freelance writer Courtney Cairns Pastor wasn’t so sure about having kids and how she would balance child-rearing with her journalism career. It turned out that her journalism training went to good use. As the mom to a funny, active toddler, she learned to handle him like she did her sources. Never ask yes or no questions (the answer will always be no), get him to be specific (are you crying because you’re wet or your tooth hurts?) and be prepared for anything because no two days are the same. When she’s not playing trucks, Courtney crams for her book club, trains for races and occasionally bursts into showtunes. E-mail her at 
Suzannah DiMarzio has it bad for the Mouse. Although she grew up outside of Boston, she took her degree in tourism management down to Orlando just to work at Disney and the travel industry. Of course, when she married her high school sweetheart, the reception was at Disney. She’s now a seasoned stay-at-home mom to two tweens and a toddler – and yes, that is as crazy as it sounds. Suzannah has her own blog, Comment Policy
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