Inspirational Mom: Annie Fox

 

Annie Fox is a mother, author and business owner and has recently released a new book called Teaching Kids to Be Good People.  In a time of news stories about the increase of social media bullying, it is nice to have this book available to help parents and educators teach about an important life skill – the importance of treating others with kindness and respect.  I had a chance to speak to Annie about their new book and the importance to taking care of your own health while juggling many roles.

 

 

 

 

 Tell us more about your new book Teaching Kids to Be Good People and the inspiration behind Middle SchoolConfidential.

I’ve been answer email from kids around the world since 1997. Every single day the questions come in and they frequently reflect a) confusion and b) a gap in moral development. They are confused by a jumble of emotions. (Welcome to the teen years!) But more than that, they don’t seem to be able to stand up for themselves in friendships when they’re not being treated with respect. These kids who write to me are representative of 21st century kids who spend a lot of their time in the digital realm. Their interactions with friends/ bf/gf, “frenemies”, etc. are often fraught with attacks and self-inflicted wounds.

Simply put, they either don’t know what is “the right thing” to do in a given situation OR they do know, but they don’t have the social courage to do it. As a result, they are floundering in their relationships, getting hurt and causing hurt to others. My Middle School Confidential book/app series is a graphic novel series that helps 5th-8th graders understand (through the actions of a cast of fictional 12 year olds) that choices really do matter. And that even when we’re feeling confused or sad or stressed or angry, there are ways to manage those intense emotions in responsible ways. Middle school is a rough time and these books/apps give empowerment tools to kids who are dealing with this stuff every day. They need to be able to help themselves and their peers navigate the social garbage of middle school. My new book, Teaching Kids to Be Good People, is a book for the adults who live and work with kids. It’s a very personal, funny, practical, real world guide to helping today’s kids become people of good character. Aside from keeping our kids safe and healthy (that’s a parent’s #1 job) our #2 job is teaching them to be good people. The world needs more good people, that’s for sure!

Social media is a huge, unsupervised playground. Like any playground filled with kids, there will be pushing, shoving, shouting, jockeying for positions of power. Social media brings together millions of young people who are at the time of their lives when they experience intense emotions… infatuation, jealousy, betrayal, rage, loss, feelings of low self-esteem. Does social media “contribute” to bullying? Only in the sense that the playground has been built and communication on this playground happens at warp speed. Now we’ve got a potent environment in which teens’ destructive emotions can play out. Someone hears a rumor “She was flirting with your bf.” The rumor takes on a life of its own while people take sides and pile on. We’ve got instantaneous warfare that continues the next day on the school bus, in the halls, in the lunchroom. The more combatants in any “war,” the higher the number of casualties. . Because 80% of middle and high school students are regular users of social media (and cell phones) parents have to give their kids clear guidelines for expected online behavior. And parents have to continue teaching their kids to be good people (online and off).