Some of you may have been wondering what happened to the SK Parents Council, or at least we hope so.

The answer to that is “nothing.” Well okay, maybe something like the life of being a parent caught up with us, well me, the SKPC scribe. It seems that when I go away for just a few short days to take advantage of a free trip and awesome learning opportunity in DC was too much for that fragile thing I remotely call “structure” in the lives of myself and family.

Anyway, no excuse other than I fell down on the job and since I don’t subscribe to Life Alert or any other similar device, I had trouble getting up!

SKPC has still been meeting and talking about so many interesting and scary topics relative to today’s youth that I couldn’t let it go another week without sharing some of it. So, here you go folks – the summary of many a coffee hour chat of your wild and wacky parents council:

Tattoos

The great weather we have been privileged to experience over the past month or so has lent itself to adults and kids alike, showing a little more skin than they may have normally done during a typical winter/spring season.

AND, with more skin showing we have noticed more displays of body art on everyone from grand-ma to grand-kid. That combined with the news piece back in January about the 10 year-old’s mom who was jailed for letting her kid get a tattoo, we started wondering and talking about tattoos. The why, the what and the wow of it all. Here’s what we found out:

• It’s illegal in RI (and pretty much everywhere else) to tattoo anyone under the age of 18. (RIGL 11-9-15)
• There is a high risk of transferring infectious diseases like hepatitis (which is why you can’t give blood for at least a year after getting a tattoo); scarring, allergic reactions and some other skin related reactions that all make it important that the decision to get inked be taken seriously.
• You need to consider your future employment possibilities. It’s a fact that some employers have very strict dress codes and standards when it comes to how their workforce presents itself to clients. If your son or daughter is at all considering a career in one of these types of fields, perhaps its good to encourage them to think long and hard about their desire to get a tattoo and where on their body they are going to have it.
• All SKPC members agreed that we wouldn’t allow our children to get a tattoo until they were of legal age and hope that they didn’t resort to any number of the illegal services provided by some independent tattoo artists.
• We were happy to note that Wakefield’s own Main Street tattooing business, Marco’s Tattoo’s, prominently displays the age requirement on their website and states that they will not, under any circumstances, provide service to anyone under the age of 18.
• Suggest the more user and youth friendly airbrush tattoos that are not permanent.

Body Piercings

This discussion was a spin-off of the tattooing one. The two things seem to go hand-in-hand or perhaps its tongue and cheek with each other. Both forms of body art do have their roots in strong cultural rituals and our innate human desire to strive for individuality.

However, although that nose ring or whatever may not be permanent, the same principals of considering a tattoo apply:

• Infections are a possibility, especially if you pierce an area that is difficult to care for and keep clean or is exposed to, well, let’s just say bodily fluids that may carry and transfer certain communicable diseases;
• “Location, location, location” is also critical relative to the future job marketability of your kids;
• Some of us have family members who had the ears of their little girls pieced early on in their infancy and others of us were told by our parents that “God gave us all the holes in our bodies that we would ever need” and as such, didn’t get our ears pierced until we moved out of the house!

Tanning

Do we need to say more than “New Jersey Tan Mom” or can you pretty much guess where this conversation went?! It is after-all prom season and darker is still perceived better than light when it comes to tans.

Should teens be allowed to tan? Check out this recent article and video at the Huffington Post and you decide.

What’s a teen gotta do these days to feel good about themselves and their individual body?

What’s a parent gotta do to be supportive of their kid’s desires and choices?

If you aren’t sure or are struggling with how to talk to your kids about any of these topics or others, a great resource is the website KidsHealth.org. Just type in your topic in the search box and it comes up with great articles, some for parents, some for teens and younger kids that have information that is easily understandable to help guide discussions, make informed choices and help ease the craziness of parenting and childhood.

If you want to know more detail about any of these discussions, let us know, we’ll continue talking and post more on the subject for you. If you have a topic you’d like to see us discuss, post a comment below with your suggestions or send an email to SKParentsCouncil@gmail.com and we’ll work it in the mix.

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