We've covered quite a few stories here where a kid climbs into the driver's seat of someone's car and takes it out for a spin. Sometimes the kid is looking for chocolate. Sometimes it's an Applebee's fix. Other times, there is no destination in mind, just a joyride. Usually the ride - and the story - ends when the kid crashes the car into something. This ride ends that way, too. But unfortunately, this is probably just the beginning of the story for this kid.

Unlike the car-thieving kids mentioned above, the Longmont, Colorado boy who took his mother's van in the wee hours of the night isn't a toddler. He's a 12-year-old who police say was trying to prove to his 14-year-old friend that he could drive. Long story short, he can't drive and proved that by crashing the van into someone's garage.

He managed to back out of the smashed garage and flee the scene. He returned mom's van to her driveway and went back to his 14-year-old friend's house, where he was having a sleepover. Except somebody should have told him that you can't actually smash a car into someone's garage and think you can get away with it. Police easily tracked him down using the clues he left behind - a license plate at the scene of the crash and a broken windshield with bits of fence in it on mom's van.

Mom, being the registered owner of the van, got a visit from the police and she was none too happy. She immediately said she wanted to press charges and the kid was arrested that afternoon. He's now in the Boulder County Juvenile Detention Center facing a whole slew of possible charges: aggravated motor vehicle theft, driving without a valid license, leaving the scene of an accident and failing to notify police, and reckless driving.

Pressing criminal charges against your 12-year-old child may seem harsh, but I think this woman is probably doing the only thing she could do under the circumstances. A non-family member certainly would have pressed charges and the boy could have seriously hurt or even killed someone. I feel bad for this mother, but applaud her for exercising some tough love on a clearly out of control child. What would you have done?

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I've never liked the smell of incense and actually find it rather discomforting. When I was in high school, however, a lot of kids I knew liked burning it -- quite possibly as a means to cover up certain other odors they didn't want noticed by their parental units. It turns out, though, that they may have been better off taking their chances on getting caught.

According to a new study, burning incense is linked to a "statistically significant higher risk of cancers of the upper respiratory tract." In fact, those who burned incense continuously during the day were eighty percent more likely to develop cancer in the respiratory tract. These findings remained even after taking other factors into consideration, such as tobacco use, diet, and alcohol intake.

"This association is consistent with a large number of studies identifying carcinogens in incense smoke," the researchers note, "and given the widespread and sometimes involuntary exposure to smoke from burning incense, these findings carry significant public health implications." I would say that if you've got a teen who likes to burn incense, you might want to let them know about this study.

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Perhaps you have heard of Katy Perry, an up and coming young singer who is working hard to shock and alarm parents while positioning herself as the anti-Miley Cyrus. A former Christian music singer, Perry is now getting all kids of attention for a song she wrote called I Kissed a Girl. I haven't heard the song, but a quick read of the lyrics indicates that the tune is about alcohol and lost inhibitions. Specifically, a girl getting drunk and kissing another girl. And liking it. A sample:

The taste of her cherry chap stick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don't mean I'm in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it,

Perry's fans may be teens, but a lot of parents are freaked by the song, claiming it promotes homosexuality and promiscuity. Even Perry's own parents say they are disappointed in their 23-year-old daughter and find the song "shameful and disgusting."

But Perry has made it quite clear that she has no interest in being a role model for the young people who listen to her music. "Being in the business of rock and roll means having an attitude, being sexy, being edgy and being unapologetic unless I do something wrong...I look up to people like Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury and Cyndi Lauper. I want to have that same type of appeal. If people want a role model, they can have Miley Cyrus."

Miley Cyrus and her poor choices aside, I don't think every young artist has a responsibility to be a role model for the entire youth population. That said, I don't really understand the controversy surrounding this song. She got drunk, she kissed a girl. The takeaway - at least for me - is that drinking makes you do things you wouldn't otherwise do. Maybe that is the point kids should be getting.

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My older daughter's soccer coach called last night. I groaned when he told me he'd set soccer practices for the same day of the week that my daughter has dance. Now, one evening a week, she'll go from one dance class to the other, then directly to soccer practice. It's too much, in my opinion. But she's adamant that she doesn't want to give either activity up. Luckily, soccer season is short-lived.

I know that, down the road, we'll have this conversation again. We're lucky that there are so many great programs out there for our kids to take part in, but yet there has to be room in the schedule not only for family time, but for downtime too. It's got me wondering, how does a parent know when to say when to after-school activities?

According to Scholastic, extra-curricular activities benefit kids in a myriad of ways -- academically, emotionally, and socially. But kids need to play a role in deciding what and how much they want to take on. (In other words, trying to turn an uninterested child into Tiger Woods through early and intensive golf classes isn't really going to do anyone any good). They've also got a grade-by-grade guide to after-school activities for little ones. According to them, our two extra-curricular activities are perfectly appropriate... I just wish they didn't all happen on the same night.

What about you? Where do you draw the line when it comes to extracurricular activities?

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Pimples are no fun, whether you're 13 or 30. Though anyone can be surprised by a blemish (usually just before an important event), teens are much more prone to acne due to their raging hormones, and some teens develop especially severe cases that can even leave scars. Having to navigate the minefield that is the high school social scene is hard enough without the additional challenge of acne, but teens aren't willing to break the bank to avoid it.

A recent survey found teens would pay a median of $275 to have never developed acne, $100 to have their acne disappear, $10 for half their acne to go away, and nothing for clear skin, but with scarring. Parents would pay $250 for their children to have never had acne, $100 for acne to completely to clear up or for 50% clearance, and nothing for acne with scarring.

While $275 is no small amount, for forever perfectly clear skin it just doesn't seem like that much. I'm long past the stage of worrying about pimples, but if someone asked my how much I'd pay to have my 20-year-old body back, I'd pull out my wallet and give them everything I had.

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Certain students in San Antonio, Texas schools will soon find it a lot harder to get away with skipping school. A new program designed to crack down on truancy will allow the Bexar County courts to fit habitual school-skippers with ankle bracelets outfitted with Global Positioning Systems. The bracelets will be worn at all times and will allow authorities to track the student's whereabouts twenty-four hours a day.

Believing there is a link between truancy and later criminal activity, the six-month pilot program will target truant students with gang affiliations. "We are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incarcerate," said Linda Penn, a Bexar County justice of the peace.

The electronic monitoring is the latest weapon in the battle against truancy that Penn started four years ago. And although similar programs in Midland and Dallas have proved successful, there are some critics. Terri Burke, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, expresses concern about the intrusiveness of what comes down to 24-hour electronic surveillance.

"We're all for keeping kids in school, and we applaud any efforts to make that happen," Burke said. "But the privacy issue: What happens with the bracelet or anklet after school is out? Is that appropriate for the school or courts to know where and what this person is doing outside of school?"

The privacy concerns may valid, but what I want to know about is the parents. In other Texas districts, a truant child is the parent's responsibility. You can be fined and even jailed if your kid doesn't go to school. Does this monitoring bracelet shift that responsibility from the parents to the courts?

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It cost the school district over $300,000 in legal fees, sent teachers to sensitivity training, and trampled the constitutional rights of students, and yet, many in the Florida community of Ponce de Leon still support principal David Davis' "witch hunt" against gay students and those that supported them.

While he was principal of Ponce de Leon high school, one of Davis' seniors came to him to report that other students were taunting her for being a lesbian. She probably thought that Davis would do something about the situation. Well, he did, but not exactly what she had hoped. He told her that it was wrong to be a lesbian, told her parents about her sexual orientation, and began a "relentless crusade" against homosexuality. He asked students about their sexuality and told gay students to stay away from the other kids.

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Many of today's parents grew up with the daily query, "Did you remember to take your vitamin?" and would dutifully trudge back to the kitchen and pop that Flintstone chewable.

Today there is a vast ocean of choice when it comes to children's vitamins. You can choose between omega3, immunity support, zinc & echinachea, extra iron, or extra C in liquid, swallow-able, or chewable in the traditional chalky version, gummy-bear, or bubblegum variety forms.

But are vitamins still an necessary part of a children's daily diet? A British website did a study on children's multivitamins and found only five out of 14 brands of supplements contained all 12 essential vitamins and stated that some have little more nutritional value than candy.

Even experts seem to disagree whether multivitamins are necessary for all children. The American Academy of Pediatrics only giving supplements if your pediatrician advises you to, but the same organization also says a daily vitamin isn't likely do any harm, unless it exceeds the recommended daily allowance amounts of a vitamin or mineral.

With so many of today's common food and beverages being fortified (Who could have imagined that calcium could be added to orange juice?!) even finicky children are probably getting a lot more vitamins and minerals than parents realize. We're pretty lackadaisical on the multivitamin front in our house. What about you?

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Word on the street is that smoking in movies is causing teens to be more likely to light up themselves. In a report issued Thursday by the National Cancer Institute ads for smoking and depictions of smoking in film make teens more likely to smoke. The report also countered the tobacco industry's claims that the $13 billion (yes, billion, when we have people starving to death on the streets and can't pay our mortgages) spent on promotion was to increase brand loyalty. Rather, according to the report, the only thing it increased was someone's chances of smoking--especially if that person was a teenager.

The report considered over 1,000 studies of how media impacts use of tobacco. It also noted that three fourths of recent hit films contained smoking, and that particular brands were easily identified in a third of the films. Perhaps as a preemptive strike six of the major movie studios recently claimed they would add anti-smoking ads to the DVD versions of their films. This of course has little bearing on the teen who sees the film in the theater, where there will be no such warning (only that smoking is not allowed in theaters).

According to Dr. Janet Collins, who runs the chronic disease prevention and health promotion at the U.S. Center for Disease Control, smoking, tobacco use, the promotion of both, etc. is "an assault on the nation's health." The report, whose findings she supports, was issued in a timely fashion: the Senate vote to give the FDA control over tobacco regulation.

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Our friends over at MomLogic have broached a subject that many of us will soon be dealing with: getting the kids off the summer schedule and back on the school schedule. I don't know about you, but we have gotten so far off schedule this summer that I can't even remember what a schedule is.

But the thing I love most about summer - after the swimming and sunning - is the sleeping late. And if I want to do it, the kid's gotta do it, too. So we tend to stay up later during the summer months and getting back into the swing of things in the fall is a challenge. But with a little forethought and planning, it shouldn't be too painful.

As with just about everything else in life, talking things out can help ease a transition. Explain to your child that in order to be healthy and ready to learn, a good night's sleep is necessary. And if you have to get up earlier, then you have to go to bed earlier, too. This transition takes a little time, so don't wait until the night before the first day of school to implement the change. A week or so of 'early to bed, early to rise' before the big day should help things go smoother.

For some of us, it is still light out when it is bedtime. This is when blackout shades or curtains are worth every penny you pay for them. But don't leave them closed. After your child has fallen asleep, sneak back in and open them up. When the sun comes up, the light should help rouse them.

Once you've got everyone back on track, try not to slip off schedule on the weekends. This just makes Monday morning even harder for everyone. Lastly - and this is the hardest part for me - try getting yourself to bed earlier, too. Cranky parents make for cranky kids and nobody wants to start the day off that way.

Lots of mothers would enjoy spending their birthday with their children. A nice family lunch, a day at the park, or perhaps driving the getaway car for your son while he commits armed robbery. According to police, that is exactly what 37-year-old Angelia Kelly did on her special day.

The Milwaukee mom has been accused of not only assisting her 17-year-old son, Elmer Taylor, with robbing a gas station in Greenfield, but also of taking her younger kids along for the ride. Surveillance video shows Elmer pointing a gun at the station clerk and taking off with an undisclosed amount of money. Police were alerted and after spotting the getaway car, pulled them over. Imagine their surprise when they found not only Angelia and Elmer in the car, but also a 13-month-old girl and two boys, 10 and 14 years old.

There were a few tense moments before Angelia and Elmer were arrested. "It's a very intense situation. I mean, you have officers with their guns out and they're concerned, with a gun battle out in the street," Greenfield Police Deputy Inspector Bradley Wentlandt said.

Fortunately, nobody got hurt (unless you consider the scars associated with having a mother like that) and Angelia and Elmer were taken into custody. Charges haven't been filed yet, but mother and son are both being held in the county jail. Yes, nothing says 'happy birthday' quite like a long prison sentence.

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The list of infractions resulting in kids as young as middle school getting suspended could curl your hair: drugs, bringing in weapons, bomb threats, physical violence, having sex under the bleachers, etc.

So hearing about a kid getting suspended due to having pink hair seems a bit ....tame.

Twelve-year-old Amelia Robbins lost her father to cancer six years ago. In his honor, she had pink streaks put in her hair at the end of the school year. School administrators warned her not to do it again, but Amelia, with her mother's permission, started out this year at her Missouri school with a full head of pink . To Amanda, pink is the "cancer color. " To the school administrators, however, pink hair is a distraction and the seventh grader has been suspended.

There are many things that can cause distractions in middle school. A little girl with pink hair seems pretty low on the list and it's not even dangerous or a life changing decision like having unprotected sex or doing drugs.

Kids have surprisingly short attention spans and after the murmurs the first day, pink hair probably wouldn't even be noticed among the student body. Amelia had a reason for the color (to honor her father) it's not harmful to others, and she had parental permission. Even if the entire school ends up being comprised of kids with rainbow-colored locks, will it really affect their education? When it comes to picking battles, I'm not sure this one is worth fighting.

It's hair, not heroin. But what do you think?

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Fart-lighting has probably been around since early man discovered fire. After all, what could be more entertaining than combining something smelly and gross with something flaming and hot? Whether that first fart ignition was deliberate or unintentional, fart-lighting for fun has stood the test of time and for some kids, become a competitive sport.

But it is a dangerous game and should not be played, as a 12-year-old boy in the UK found out. He may have won the fart-lighting competition with his cousin, but he paid a heavy price for victory. He not only managed to light his toot, but a nearby can of gas as well. The gas ignited in a flash and the boy was burned on the backs of his legs and thumb.

By the time firefighters arrived, the fire had burned itself out, but the kid was hospitalized with burns over 18 percent of his body. Fire commander Paul Harpin says this is the first time he's been on a call for a fart-lighting incident and warns others against trying it themselves. "I think he must have won the competition but he will have some nasty burns now. It is a warning not to mess around with fire," he added.

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What is it with the remakes? First every movie we've already seen, then all our favorite television programs (Mister Rogers is around the corner, I'm warning you) and now the boardgames. No, they turned Clue into a movie a long time ago--and it was a mighty good one, with three endings!--but they're actually "updating" the board game. In essence, Clue is getting a makeover.

What is the point of all this? I'm not sure, not sure at all. Clue is seriously my favorite board game of all time. I and most of the folks I know see no reason to mess with or update a classic, but here you have it anyway. I guess it's never too late to try to make a little more money, or to appeal to a new generation of kids. These kids, however, have seriously advanced technology to play with like Wii, PSPs, iPods, etc., so I can't imagine why a young person would be interested in a boring old board game.

Except that the old Clue WASN'T boring. It was fun and required a lot of skill in determining who the killer could be. Plus it was a serious opportunity to play dress up. Tell me you haven't at least had the urge--if not given into it-- to dress up like Miss Scarlett. The updates to the new version include changing the first, if not last, names of the characters as well as their backgrounds. Also, three new weapons have been introduced to the mix. Will these additions actually improve the new Clue and make kids more likely to play it? I doubt it. But, only time will tell. Professor Plum, beware!

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In some families, the original isn't always the best when it comes to fathers. For 'fragile families', described as low-income urban families prone to non marital births, mothers say that stepfathers are often more engaged, cooperative and willing to share responsibilities than married biological fathers.

A new study finds that while married biological fathers and stepfathers may be almost equally engaged with the children themselves, it is their interaction with mom that often makes stepfathers better parents. The mothers surveyed reported that stepfathers shared their parental views and were more open to talking about their parental wants than natural fathers. Rebekah Levine Coley, a developmental psychologist at Boston College, says this is probably because stepfathers "have to work harder to fit in and to have a useful productive role."

Coley says the findings contradict the popular view among social workers and experts that dads are more invested if the child is of their own flesh and blood. "I think this research does, to some extent, call some of those assumptions into question," she said.

The conclusions were made after interviewing 2,098 urban mothers from the The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study and will be published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

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