There is a group of roughly 20 per cent of our youth who are doing great in school, in relationships and in their lifestyles but for the majority of the young people today, self-sabotage is the daily practice. What are the stumbling blocks that have some many young people today choosing to derail everything that they are given instead of testing their mettle and what are the remedies?

If you are a parent today in the western world, you have joined a very special club. A club of parents cast adrift, drowning in self-doubt while dodging waves of pyscho-babble lurching at them from every direction. It's easy to throw blame around but what is the main question we all want the answer to? "How do I help my child unfold to be their very best in today's world?"

Turn back the clock this summer to an easier, laid back, simpler time in life, where kids got away from the screens and played with bugs, folded paper into boats and let their imaginations run wild. Here are some ways to get those kids away from their iPads!

A dear stay-at-home mama friend of mine recently reflected on the idea of being "present," which got me thinking: am I present and in the moment with our children? And if so, is that really necessary? To be present in every moment? In order to find out, I challenged myself to be present all day, as a sort of experiment. I was present when I ruined my favourite shirt, when the kids were crying, when water spilled all over the kitchen. P.R.E.S.E.N.T.

As a parent of a two-year-old boy, the recent public shootings in Toronto have left me shaken. But what they have not done is shake my confidence in our decision to raise a downtown baby.

Not only are we enamored with the ability to send and receive information in a digital format, but our children are equally smitten. I hear more and more parents bemoaning the fact that they're not able to retrieve their iPad or laptop from their young child who is busy surfing the web, watching videos or playing games on the device. Here are the top seven ways that digital technology has affected our children -- the good and the bad.

I don't want my kids to think that violence, entitlement and disrespect are a regular part of sports. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they are a part of the experience and will help prepare them for what's ahead. But is that really what little league baseball is all about?

Planning a vacation when you have children is almost always a headache-filled endeavour. But for divorced parents, such headaches can quickly become migraines, as they attempt to navigate through the provisions of separation agreements and court orders -- sometimes with the costly involvement of lawyers and, in some cases, the court. Here are some tips to avoid these pitfalls!

I have a recurring dream regarding vacations. They're always so perfect, so calm. But just like in real life, I'm constantly awoken from these visions of peace by, I'm sorry to say, my children. Let's face it, if you have kids, you're never going to have a dream vacation if you bring them along for the ride. So why not just leave them at their grandparents'?

Confession: I was an A-hole kid. I gave into the monkey mentality and harassed another person who everyone decided was a loser -- even our teacher. Consequences were only mentioned in passing after that kid killed himself. Watch the Karen Huff Klein video with your kids. Show them what bullying looks like. Teach them.

Literacy paves the way for endless opportunities. It is a skill most of us take for granted, despite how fundamental it is to our daily lives. Both educators and parents play a key role in helping children become successful readers. Here are some tips on how to help get your kids reading!

Porn is out there, it's accessible, and it's here to stay. Sex and porn are so inextricably linked that it's as impossible to imagine the world without the one as it is without the other. The problem with most porn is that it reflects a weird world of hairlessness, bleaching athleticism and diminutive speech. It's not real, and this can lead to some serious social problems for teens.

As the weather heats up, it seems world events keep getting wackier! A dingo, pee-filled swimming pools, David Cameron's lost child, a stress video and more. I saw some pretty good stuff last week. Here are the top five that got my attention.

Don't let popular myths sway you. Your child doesn't care if you are male or female, so long as you are there to provide food and comfort and protection. Everything else is just learning and, believe me guys, women don't have some secret users-manual for children. Just like us, women start off in the dark and learn as they go, on their own and from family and friends.

Why do men generally avoid reading parenting blogs? Men may not find a parenting blog written by a woman to be of continuing interest (due to content and topics), but there are blogs written on parenting by men. Which further begs the question, in light of the fact that there are male-authored parenting blogs, why are there not more men reading parenting blogs written by men?

I think North American women are ready to put up an "arret" sign against the recent barrage of books by French femmes who are writing about how they simply don't allow pregnancy and childbirth to disturb their bodies, their clothing size, or their lifestyle. But now I put deux plus deux together and come up with this: Could it be that the French are (gasp) sort of like us?

How many people are lucky enough to have had not just one great dad, but two? I was! One for my first 16 years, Harry, my birth Father. Another, Stanley, my wife's dad then became mine for the last six years of his life. Your child wants nothing more than to feel appreciated and trusted to rise above the mistakes and be successful. This is what I see everyday in the dads around me.

The Mommy Wars flared up again last month in time for Mother's Day, thanks to that insta-infamous Time magazine cover of the pretty blonde provocatively breastfeeding her almost-four-year-old beside the inflammatory headline: "Are You Mom Enough?" It talked about attachment parenting, but mostly in the context of mothers.

Oh birds and the bees... When the kids start asking questions about sexuality, how do you respond? How much or how little does a parent actually explain to their younger kids when they're asked the more challenging questions? Here are some good answers to tell your child about sexuality...

How do we inspire our children in such an ever changing, unknown world? Simply put, by sharing our passions with them. I have seen first hand that the chances we take, the times we challenge ourselves and the things we incorporate into our lives, that make our lives richer as much as having kids, are our greatest weapons against an unknown future.

This weekend's shooting in the food court of the Toronto Eaton Centre has many children frightened for their safety. It also has parents wondering what best to do to ease their child's fears. Here are my five points for building your approach...