Parents are investing more and more time, money, and emotional effort into their kids’ sports — despite what the research shows is best for kids.
by: Kirsten Jones Neff | July 9, 2016
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A few years ago, when our youngest was 12, he waited for a pause in dinner conversation, then cleared his throat and told us that he did not want to play competitive sports anymore. For a moment, the family was stunned into silence.
Full disclosure: for the past decade, we’ve been that family, the one living and breathing our kids’ sports: driving cars full of cleated kids to remote, windblown corners of California to set up goals, sell cookies, shoot photos, run the clock, keep stats and even, yes, coach the teams. We’ve split up to attend different events and foregone family vacations to fly to other states for tournaments. Even as I write, I’m in the midst of organizing a trip to San Diego for my daughter’s high school lacrosse team.
Devotion to our children’s athletic endeavors has “paid off”: our oldest child competes on her university’s beach volleyball team, and our second was recruited to play college lacrosse. Because their sports required huge investments of time and money, my husband and I vowed to never get ahead of our children. They had to be eager to make sacrifices (miss school dances, family vacations, etc.) and at least appear thankful for our financial and logistical support. As it turned out, both daughters love their sports, despite the sacrifices involved. When our son began to play soccer, basketball, and lacrosse, we assumed the status quo: a yearly calendar jam-packed with sports priorities. It was jarring to hear he wasn’t happy. What did we do wrong?
Ridgewood NJ, Slippery road conditions resulted in numerous motor vehicle crashes in the Village of Ridgewood on Sunday evening, 12/11 including this crash on Glenwood Road in which the driver of an Acura MDX lost control of his vehicle and hit a retaining wall as he was driving eastbound toward the Ho-Ho-Kus train station. No injuries were reported in the incident, although a passenger’s side air bag did deploy. Ridgewood PD and EMS responded. The damaged vehicle was removed by a flatbed tow truck. Glenwood Road remained closed between Upper Boulevard and the Ho-Ho-Kus train station until road conditions improved.
Mark Krulish , Staff Writer, @Mark_Krulish10:14 a.m. EST December 11, 2016
(Photo: Courtesy of Roni Farfalla)
Port Authority Police Badge No. 1214 may not be as shiny as most, but it’s every bit as treasured.
On Friday, Nick Farfalla accepted that badge as he graduated from the Port Authority Police Academy, just as his father and grandfather had before him.
Steve Janoski , Staff Writer, @SteveJanoski4:34 p.m. EST December 11, 2016
A former probationary Ridgewood police officer is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Sussex County on Monday on charges related to an Aug. 23 car accident.
Patrick Ward, 22, resigned from the force in September, submitting a letter to the village citing injuries that he suffered in the early morning car accident in Sussex County.
Council, please tell them before they hire an architect that you will never permit this. Flood zone, serious parking issues for years already, loud stuff next to a library? The area between the buildings should never have been built on–that’s the only logical place for the entrance driveway. Aronsohn and Pucciarelli had their years to dream. It’s over and so should be this ridiculous idea. These groups meet and meet and have to come up with projects and plans. Maybe it’s time to disband every committee and board–they’re wrecking the place with their dreams.
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood PD and EMS personnel were dispatched to aid an adult male pedestrian who was struck by a motor vehicle as he was trying to cross Godwin Avenue in front of Whole Foods, late afternoon, Sunday, 12/11. The victim, who was transported by ambulance to The Valley Hospital, sustained a non-life threatening leg injury. Ridgewood PD issued three (3) summonses in connection with the incident.
Weather Summary for the local Tri-State Region
National Weather Service New York NY
505 AM EST Sun Dec 11 2016
Another dry and cold day today but snow coming into the picture this afternoon and tonight as a low pressure system moves into the Great Lakes. Its associated warm front will be approaching and eventually moving northward across the region late tonight into Monday morning. Likewise, we should see a transition of snow to a wintry mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain across the far interior parts of the region while closer to the coast, this will be more of mix of snow, sleet, and rain. Eventually all precipitation changes to rain late Monday morning with warmer air moving across on an increasing southerly flow. The rain tapers off behind the cold front from west to east Monday afternoon into Monday evening. Dry and seasonably cold weather is in store for Monday night with high pressure building southwest of the area.
Ridgewood NJ, Americans are living longer than ever, which means retirement could last 20 to 30 years for some people – maybe even longer.
That’s great for those who remain in reasonably good health and retire with plenty of financial stability.
But lengthy life spans also increase the odds that many seniors will deplete their savings, face debilitating health problems and need to turn to their children for financial help or caregiving.
That’s a far cry from the kind of retirement they dreamt of over the years.
“I’ve done focus groups where one of the chief concerns that comes up is people don’t want to become a burden on their kids,” says Jeannette Bajalia, a retirement-income planner, president of Woman’s Worth® (www.womans-worth.com) and author of Retirement Done Right and Wi$e Up Women.
It’s really too late to do much, though, when you’re 80 and your life starts unraveling. That’s why it’s important to plan ahead to get your finances and health in the best shape possible, she says. Among some of the points worth thinking about:
• Unanticipated health care costs. It’s estimated that the average married couple will need to pay up to $250,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for healthcare during their retirement, beyond what Medicare and most Medicare Supplements will pay. “We’re beginning to see a lot of cost shifting out of both Medicare programs and private health plans, which means more out-of-pocket healthcare costs,” Bajalia says. “It’s entirely possible that the savings you thought would allow you to travel or to at least pay all the bills could be gobbled up by medical expenses. As you plan for retirement, you should make it a priority to discuss this concern with your adviser so the two of you can look at what options you might have to try to keep that from happening.” • Long-term care planning. When it comes to aging, consider the possibility you might have to receive home healthcare or live in a nursing home or an assisted-living facility. The costs of such care can be daunting. For example, studies have shown that home healthcare can cost $50,000 or more per year, and nursing home care can run as high as 90,000 per year. “You don’t want your kids to have to pay for that,” Bajalia says. There are ways to prepare, such as buying a long-term care insurance policy or checking with a financial professional to help you develop a strategy for protecting your assets from nursing-home claims, she says. • Self-care. Not every financial professional may do this, but Bajalia says she believes it’s important to integrate health education and a lot of self-care into a retirement plan. Spending money on preventive health routines to take care of yourself now can help you avoid significant health problems that lead to even costlier expenses later on, she says. Research is now telling us that longevity is over 70 percent lifestyle.
“I know it’s important to older people that they be able to remain independent as long as possible and not have to turn to their children to help,” Bajalia says. “They just need to remember that careful planning is the route to accomplishing that.”
And one of the planning tools would be to help fund long term care insurance for your aging parents to keep assets in their estates, she says, so long term care is not simply for yourself but for your aging parents.
About Jeannette Bajalia
Jeannette Bajalia, author of Retirement Done Right and Wi$e Up Women, is president and principal advisor of Petros Estate & Retirement Planning, where she has designed and implemented innovate estate-planning solutions for clients and their families. She also is founder and president of Woman’s Worth® (www.womans-worth.com), which specializes in the unique needs facing women as they plan for their retirement.
Catholic Online reports that new priests will be expected to be familiar with and promote efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
New priests to learn about global warming as part of formation
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LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) — The Catholic Church is intimately concerned about climate change. The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences is the world’s oldest, longest running scientific mission. That body, which advises the pope on matters of science, has concluded that global climate change is real and is caused, at least in significant part, by human activity.
This is important to the Church because creation care is part of our mission. We are called to be stewards of creation. It’s also important because climate change can exacerbate the ills of poverty. Poor people in much of the world are the most vulnerable to changes.
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Unfortunately, the issue is politicized. In the late 1970s, when the issue threatened the financial interests of the fossil fuel industry, the political lobbies, chiefly in the United States, financed a massive political disinformation campaign to manufacture the illusion of dissent within the scientific community.
We know because this manipulation of public opinion has been caught and documented. The fossil fuel industry funds nearly all of the climate change skeptics, going so far as to commission questionable studies, to financing think tanks, and even paying individual bloggers. The deception continues today.
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But what does this have to do with the Church?
The Church has a responsibility to care for people, and the environment. And care for one is also care for the other.
Now updated guidelines for the formation of clergy says new priests should understand this as well:
“Protecting the environment and caring for our common home — the Earth, belong fully to the Christian outlook on man and reality. Priests should be “promoters of an appropriate care for everything connected to the protection of creation.”
The new guidelines suggest that in the future, priests will also have a good grasp of the global climate change problem and will share this with their congregation.
… For some time now, experts and researchers, active in different fields of study, have turned their attention to the emerging planetary crisis, which is reflected strongly in the current Magisterium regarding the ‘ecological question’. Protecting the environment and caring for our common home – the Earth – belong fully to the Christian outlook on man and reality. They constitute in some way the basis for a sound ecology of human relations. Hence they demand, today above all, a “profound interior conversion. It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment. Others are passive; they choose not to change their habits and thus become inconsistent. So what they all need is an ‘ecological conversion’, whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evidence in their relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience. Therefore it will be necessary for future priests to be highly sensitive to this theme and, through the requisite Magisterial and theological guidance, helped to “acknowledge the appeal, immensity and urgency of the challenge we face”. This must then be applied to their future priestly ministry, making them promoters of an appropriate care for everything connected to the protection of creation. …
Friday, December 16, 2016 (8:00pm) at The Ridgewood United Methodist Church
December 11,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood United Methodist Church (RUMC) is the residence of Jersey Jubilation. RUMC is an ‘acoustically active’ venue that reverberates musical presentations equivalent to many fine music halls in New York City. The venue has been the site of concerts and recordings of many professional, accomplished groups and musicians including the Youth Ringers (a touring, concert and broadcasting youth handbell choir resident for over 15 years under Christine Braden, Director), Dr. Jean Langlais, Virgil Fox, Dr. Richard E. Frey, Dr. James Wynne, and the current guest resident choir, the Jersey Jubilation Handbell Choir.
We are delighted to be offering our 13th Annual Home Holiday Concert through the RUMC music department. The Concert is open to the community and takes a free will offering to support the costs of the Handbell Choir, the music program of the RUMC and in addition, to other programs in need.
Programs are part of the RUMC 2016-2017 Music Concert Series which presents music of different mediums throughout the year. The programs begin at 8:00pm and will be presented at the Ridgewood United Methodist Church Sanctuary located at 100 Dayton Street in Ridgewood, NJ. (Office Phone: 201-652-2868)
Jersey Jubilation Handbell Choir (JJHC)
JJHC is currently centered in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and is being hosted by the Ridgewood United Methodist Church. Members moving up from the predecessor choirs and ensembles have significant concert experience throughout the eastern US from Maine to Florida and as far west as Ohio and Ontario.
JJHC rings on two 5-octaves sets of Whitechapel English Handbells originally tuned using the analogue tuning system that was employed for years giving the Whitechapel Bells their distintive clarity and overtone sound. In addition to the Whitechapel instruments, JJHC also rings a 5-octave set of Suzuki hand chimes which most closely matches the tonal mosaic that the ensemble wishes to present.
JJHC selected this combination of these instruments in order to accomplish two goals in preenting their musical programs. The first is that Whitechapel bells are superb in allowing higher paced ringing when required to maintain lightness in the music(Ring of Fire had same conclusion).
The second goal is to allow interpretive changes in volume within any given arrangement. This requires that the ringers learn to modulate their playing techniques while handling the Whitechapel bells to give texture to the music as differentiated from the american versions of handbells which typically are set for a given sound by changing the clapper setting once prior to the start of the music selection.
Suzuki handchimes also are responsive to the same modulation techniques of the Whitechapel bells. The harmonic structures of both instrument sets are complimentary, thus giving cohesiveness in sound in the entire presentation.
Ridgewood NJ, it has been pointed out by some readers that unless the published list of Ridgewood Library Trustees is incorrectly stated on their website listing the ex-mayor and one of his appointees on the Library Board as the current mayor .
Last time we checked there was a new mayor in the Village of Ridgewood , and she seemed eminently qualified to represent the residents of the Village.
Removing the Ex-mayor and his appointee and adding the current mayor with her appointee would help restore the public’s confidence as to the direction of the Library . The continued association with the ex-mayor only leads one to conclude for many residents that something nefarious is going on.
Ridgewood Library Board of Trustees
Gail Campbell
President
Arlene Sarappo
Vice President
Daniel Cummings
Treasurer
Christine Driscoll
Secretary
Jean Cleary
Member
Janis Fuhrman
Member
John Saraceno
Member
Paul Aronsohn Mayor of Ridgewood
Albert Pucciarelli Mayor’s Delegate
Dr. Daniel Fishbein
Superintendent
Linda Diorio
Superintendent’s Delegate
Ex Officio
Paul McCarthy
Friends
Betsy Giordano
Foundation
Nancy Greene
Library Director
Meetings are held in the Library’s Administration Conference Room, 3rd Floor
125 N. Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Meetings will be held monthly on the 4th Tuesdays of each Month at 7:30 PM
Ridgewood NJ, a reader and frequent commuter has mentioned this issue before and this time of year we thought it was important to remind people of the dangers. No one has a problem with people out haveing a good time ,but this excessive binge drinking at holiday parties and sporting events needs to be better monitored .
“More and more after hockey or basketball games, Friday night after work Ridgewood bound NYC trains bring holiday bingers especially the post 12 midnite train known as the Drunk train.
NJT Releases the crowd of zombies onto the Ridgewood platforms ,many incoherent and alone it is a tragedy waiting to happen. Conductors often call the situation into local police and move the train onto its next stop. With winter and darkness, there is only trouble ahead.Kids getting sick on the train create a real safety issue for local police.
Don’t want to babysit these young adults ,and reality is unless a Good Samaritan intervenes there is Risk to many young people. I have been at Penn station and witnesses co-workers putting young lady’s on the train and wishing them luck to their destination . Some can’t even tell you their name or cell number to call their Family.
This is a bigger problem than anyone lets on, excessive drinking is creating a hazard that no one including NJT NJT and local police are largely ignoring this problem hoping the Incapacitated person will just stager away so they can get on with their next stop.
Train stations are dangerous places for sick and Incapacitated people.You could freeze to death if you pass out.Especial if you miss your stop , end up in Suffern and the trains stop running after 145 am.
It’s a don’t ask don’t tell policy,Police do respond at some point but human nature is to hope the Drunk just walks away.”
Ridgewood NJ, Councilman Voigt announced a multi-million dollar renovation plan for the Ridgewood Public library this past Wednesday night at the Village Council meeting and Elks Lodge closing the very next day .Janis Fuhrman a member of the library board of trustees, tried to clear the air in June when the issue first arose, said in the Facebook It takes a Ridgewood Village, “I can assure you that the Elks Club is in no way tied in with the library in any way shape or form!! Too funny.”
When asked again if the recent closing of the Elks and the corresponding announcement that the Library planned a $5 million dollar renovation , Janis Fuhrman was kind enough to respond once again on December 9th ,”Still not related , The Village neither owns nor operates the Elks Club. You are more than welcome to attend our Board Meetings, they are and have always been open to the public. Next one is next week.”
However some found it a bit odd that the Glen Rock Patch also ran an article on the closing of the Elks at almost the same time the Ridgewood lodge was notified , using the Elks Grand Lodge as its primary source.
Others reminded the Ridgewood blog of the dubious undoing of the Pease Library Trust and ensuing court case .
Ridgewood Nj, the Ridgewood School system rolled out a new very impressive website making it much easier to keep
abreast on what is going on in the Ridgewood School system. The new website will be followed by a district mobile app. We have to say we were pleasantly surprised by the new site and we congratulate the School system for putting together this massive project . It must have taken countless hours that must have gone into, not only building the new site but also moving the data and testing features to make sure the work. Good job to all those involved , now if could only see the same progress with the Village of Ridgewood site .
