On July 5th, 2008 I’m the guest on The Puddle People Hour on BlogTalkRadio. The two hosts are Beth Marino and Pam Sargant. That show will be archived and available 24/7. We pre-recorded the show tonight and of course talked quite a bit about my first book, THE ENCHANTED SELF, A Positive Therapy and my newest book, The Truth (I’m a girl, I’m smart and I know everything). 
It was fascinating for me to go between the two books-THE ENCHANTED SELF being a rather dense book, full of case studies, positive psychology techniques, historical perspectives on women, my own journey as a woman in our society, etc. and The Truth which is a girl’s diary written in a simple, easy manner. However, what struck me as the most fun as we chatted was our discussion about “Mystery Rides”. The girl in The Truth goes on mystery rides with her family on Sunday afternoons and loves them. I was sharing her adventures when both Mary and Pam joined in saying that they also, had gone on mystery rides as children.
One family had eight kids and they would all pile into the station wagon and drive out into the countryside. So would the other, slightly smaller family. And Dad was the driver in both cases and he didn’t know where he was going. But it was so much fun, discovering small towns and local fairs and at the end stopping for icecream. The girl in The Truth also stopped for icecream at the end of the family’s mystery rides.
Now I’m wondering. Are mystery rides universal if you are over 45? Let me know. I went on them also, but sometimes I think they weren’t supposed to be a mystery. I think sometimes my father might have gotten lost! I don’t remember icecream at the end but I do remember often ending up at Savin Rock in New Haven, late in the afternoon on Sunday after riding around. What a treat! That was an amusement park along the beach. Usually I got to ride the ‘flying horses’ as we called them, my mom and Aunt Lil caught to sit on a bench and people watch and we all got to eat in the car at Jimmy’s hot dog stand, where we bought delicious grilled hotdogs (not boiled, like at home) and wonderful fenchfries that were crinkled and served in paper cones. Ah, such sweet memories of the old days!
Tonight, Monday evening, I happened to catch some of Two and One Half Men on CBS. It is a modern day comedy-a far cry from I Love Lucy that I so loved to watch on Monday nights at 9:00 PM so many years ago. That show had an innocense that Two and One Half Men lacks. However, it is a different era. And that’s what made tonight’s show so poignant, in terms of being a tween. The youngster, who is the son of one of the characters and the nephew of the other is going to Junior High or Middle School-I didn’t catch which. So the men are taking him shopping. They make him buy old people’s looking sneakers so no one will try to beat him up and steal his sneakers. They make him buy beige pants because no gang members wear beige. By the time they put him on the school bus he looks scared to death. As they walk away, one of the men remarks, “We’ve done all we could do, now it’s up to him.”
2. If you child talked about a bully in school or the neighborhood LISTEN and stay alert. If you see any changes in your child, even small ones like leaving the dinner table early, talk to her and see what is going on.
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/tweens/
