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We’ve talked in the past about parents needing to be more thoughtful or more careful what we post online about our childrenespecially if they are old enough to have their say in the information and images that bring you to the digital world. But there is one area where you may be revealing too much information that you might not have thought of, especially when dealing with the pandemic: your mental health.

If we’re squinting really hard to find scraps of silver lining that the pandemic brought us, it could be that we’re all talking more about self-care and mental health than in the past. Suddenly we were all struggling – which was definitely not a pandemic silver lining – but at least it felt okay to acknowledge it. However, here is what the clinical psychologist Annalize Caron wrote for the Washington Post which she has also observed in recent years:

However, a by-product of this greater acceptance and openness has been more parents sharing their children’s mental health issues on online public forums, especially as the pandemic has heightened children’s mental concerns over continued financial hardship, social isolation, and distance learning. Many of the same benefits can occur, e.g. For example, parents receive support, feel less alone, and disseminate information about treatment options. But the most important person in the equation seems to be forgotten: the child.

Whether you’re sharing information about a mental health crisis or a medication change because you’re actively seeking advice, or sharing it because another parent is experiencing something similar and you want to support them or exchange ideas, the end result is a loss of privacy Of your child – and possibly the trust they have in you. Your intentions may be good, but the consequence is that you may feel shame or embarrassment; and at least it is pretty clear that consent to posting information about others online is not mandatory.

We are starting to teach consent to children from a very young age do not force her to hug relatives, ask before we tickle her, and ask for permission to post photos of them on social media. This is another extension that allows you to set these limits for yourself. So much about how our children should behave follows directly from what we set an example for them. Protect your privacy and you will learn why it is important to respect the privacy of others. Overshare, and so will they.

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However, the solution here is simple: just ask them. If you think your story could help someone on the internet who is struggling, you might be happy to share it and be part of an important movement to normalize those conversations – but either way, they’ll appreciate your asking, and it is . They strengthen that they can trust you on difficult topics.

If you need immediate action or other mental health services, this is absolutely something you should give them – but your Facebook group doesn’t need to know about it.

Photo: Sean Rayford / Getty Images (Getty Images)

Despite the upheavals of recent presidential election cycles, the most popular voting format in the US is undeniably simple … in theory: voters choose the candidate they like best, and whoever has the most votes in the end wins. (Unless they don’t.)

Despite its supposed simplicity, problems appear to exist, and critics continue to argue against many of the governing institutions of our system, from voter identification laws to campaign finance laws to the electoral college.

For these and other reasons, a new form of ranked voting is becoming increasingly popular in many U.S. cities, with the most populous city in the country – New York City – ready to begin the format in the upcoming Mayor’s competition on May 22nd). Though it’s not new – it’s well established in cities like Oakland, California and St. Paul, Minnesota, and it runs all of the federal elections in Maine, along with it Alaska will follow soon– Ranking voting is very different from the system many are used to in the US, but there is a lot to recommend.

And if it’s rated a success in New York, it could potentially gain even more credibility and expand to more cities, states, and school boards – possibly your own.

What is a ranking choice voting?

On the surface, the premise is simple: in an election with multiple candidates, voters rank their preferred decisions from favorite to least preferred. For example, in an election with eight candidates, a voter would hypothetically rank their preferences from one to eight.

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The winner (or primary winners) is selected through a reallocation process in which candidates who finish last in each of several subsequent rounds of the vote count are gradually removed from the race. Voters who ranked a failed candidate first will then have their votes redistributed to the second candidate, and so on. The elimination process will continue until there is one candidate left. If a candidate wins a majority of the first choice votes from the jump, the second choice votes need not be counted.

This is a system that, given the various probabilities that may arise, enjoys a certain type of policy nod:

The theory behind the system is that it broadens the political spectrum by giving a wider range of candidates a fairer chance of winning office. How The New York Times explains:

The basic idea is to allow people to both choose their favorite candidate and indicate their preferences among the other candidates. This combination can allow the most widely recognized candidate to win the election while revealing the full range of voter views.

The number of participating candidates depends on the particular breed and the particular community. There are technically 13 politicians trying to become NYC’s top officials, though city rules allow only five of the most popular to be on the ballot on June 22nd.

What are the advantages of ranking choice voting?

From a strategic point of view, the ranking vote seeks to eliminate the possibility of two similar candidates stealing votes from each other and possibly giving victory to a candidate whose political positions are overall less popular. A classic example was the presidential election in 2000, in which Ralph Nader of the Green Party cut off a significant portion of Democrat Al Gore’s would-be votes. George W. Bush won the race by a smaller margin, and the rest is history.

The way the general majority winner system works can allow quite unpopular candidates to win elections before even considering the difficulties faced by the electoral college. As a non-partisan voting rights organization FairVote Notes, “[b]Between 1992 and 2019, 49 senators from 27 states were elected with less than 50 percent support. ”

Still, FairVote’s data shows that such victories are the exception rather than the rule. Synthesizing the data of the organization, Vox completed In most rankings there is usually a single majority winner anyway and notes: “In the USA there were 236 rankings with individual winners and at least three candidates. In 94 percent of cases, the candidate who gets the most votes in first place in the first ballot is the winner at the end of the day.

Some critics argue that the complexity the ranking selection system – and the rare occasions where it takes some complicated math to determine the real winner in a tight competition – is not what this country needs, especially in a time of deep –when made—Skeptic about the legitimacy of our elections.

And while no system is perfect, it is true that the wider range of candidates made viable through ranked voting could open the political field to a wider range of views – and perhaps apathetic voters back into the county and the voting booth could lure.

This post was edited after it was published to correct a bug regarding Maine’s use of the leaderboard selection only in federal elections.

Photo: Stock-Asso (Shutterstock)

Who of us has not endured a restless night (after night after night) of sleeping? When you can’t fall asleep, just think about how to keep yourself from falling asleep. You could even keep recalculating how much sleep you would get if only you could fall asleep now. Or now. While we know that all of this thinking is hindering our ability to achieve our dreams of sleep, how can we prevent it? The answer, according to one cognitive scientist, could be a trick he calls “cognitive mixing”.

Luc Beaudoin, Simon Fraser University, developed a method (and an app) to mimic adults falling asleep as children. Beaudoin writes the following on its website:

Adults live in a very “left-brained” world that is dominated by language and thinking. Small children, on the other hand, spend a lot of time imagining and playing. Of course, adults look at a lot of pictures – videos, TV, films, photos, and logos. But they tend to do so passively, and usually with a lot of chatter (whether vocal or not).

Sleep researchers have found that people often experience visual images and “micro-dreams” when they fall asleep. The varied images that people imagine can help them fall asleep.

In contrast, thinking ahead in a verbal, analytical, and problem-solving mode can delay falling asleep.

In other words, we need less thinking and more imagination. Don’t picture a bunch of sheep jumping, however – this shit is boring and will make your mind wondering again why you are having such big trouble falling asleep in the first place. Instead, you have to allow your brain to wander through a variety of random images – the bottom line is that you have to create some “micro-dreams” and that’s where Beaudoin’s method come inside.

How to Use Cognitive Shuffling to Fall Asleep Quickly

1. Lie in bed and prepare for sleep.

2. Think of a random, emotionally neutral word of at least five letters. Beaudoin suggests “bedtime” as an example. Others could be “laptop”, “peach”, “movie” or “lightbulb”. (Try to choose a word that doesn’t have too many repetitive letters, such as “banana”.)

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3. Slowly spell the basic word in your mind and then, starting with the first letter, think of another word that also begins with this letter. Imagine the element that the word represents. If your base word is “peach,” start with words that begin with the letter “p,” such as “peach”. B. “Puzzle”, “Pig” or “Pizza”. Imagine each item one at a time and pause long enough to get a clear picture of it before letting go of it and moving on to the next “p” word.

4. Repeat as many times as possible for each letter. If you run out of “p” words (or if you are bored with “p”), skip to the next letter which, in our example, would be “e”. Now imagine an Easter egg, an eagle, and an eggplant.

If you have trouble finding “e” words, skip it and go to the next letter. Likewise, if you choose a word that you cannot easily imagine, leave it out and move on to another. You can also think of different versions of the same word. For example, when you think of “bread,” you might think of soft white sandwich bread and then crusty French bread, followed by your favorite homemade sourdough. If you can make it to the end of your base word without falling asleep, start over with a new base word.

While this is a tactic worth trying, Beaudoin says it has its limits. It does not work in these conditions:

• You are too tired to evoke words but not sleepy enough to fall asleep. (For example, when you wake up in the middle of the night.)
• You don’t like to think deliberately when trying to fall asleep.
• Despite practice, you find it difficult to find words that begin with a certain letter.
• You find the spelling a hassle.

But if the conditions are right and you just find it difficult to guide you through the practice, you can also download Beaudoins free mySleepButton app for iOS or Android. Think of it like a guided sleep meditation rather than meditating in silence – it may be helpful to start with the guided version until you are comfortable doing the practice on your own. Sweet dreams, hopefully.

Photo: DD Images (Shutterstock)

Bidets are a common bathroom device in many other countries, but it is hardly commonplace in the US and has only recently to be considered more often (partly from the pandemic and a perceived lack of toilet paper). If you haven’t thought of getting a bidet yourself, you should. Here are a few reasons to buy a bidet and how to use it.

What is a bidet

A bidet is a separate device that washes your buttocks and abdominal areas after you’ve used the bathroom – basically, you use it instead of wiping. There are different types and uses, but we’ll focus on stand-alone bidets and toilet seat bidets.

Why buy a bidet?

Buying a bidet is a healthy, environmentally conscious and economically sensible decision. According to research location Study finds and bidet company Tushy, the average American uses 57 sheets of toilet paper a day. Since you need less paper with a bidet, you can use approx 15 million trees one year in toilet paper production.

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I know what you’re thinking – if we replace toilet paper with water, it is now a waste of water – but Michelle Yan with the insider reported It takes 37 liters of water to make a roll of toilet paper and only one-eighth of a liter of water to use a bidet. The US now has the world’s highest consumption of toilet paper 34 million roles per day and spending more than $ 120 per year on toilet paper per household.

A bidet also minimizes bacteria by washing it away instead of smearing it around your undercarriage. Depending on the type you buy, bidets can also be sanitized and dried so that you never have to use toilet paper again.

Bidets also use the most hygienic way of cleaning your buttocks: plain water. The LA Colon and Rectal Surgery Staff Indeed, urge people not to use soap when washing their bums and explain that the anus is a self-cleaning machine and “[t]Traditional soaps and cleaners are too harsh to apply directly, especially in combination with rough scrubbing. “

If you needed more reasons, bidets are also incredibly effective for people with disabilities, as they provide barrier-free and hygienic toilet use. The gentle washing also helps Hemorrhoid Care and General Genital Health.

So why not save $ 100 a month and buy a bidet? Some people think it’s too expensive, or it would be too troublesome to install (or require a plumber). On the other hand, some people just don’t know how to use them.

What types of bidets are there?

There are several types of bidets, including stand-alone bidets, hand-held bidets, and bidets that attach to your toilet seat. Those that spray water to dry you off, spray disinfectant fluid, and have a variety of settings. Wellness site Itself has an extensive list the countertop bidets and all of their options for you to explore. We’re only going to explore the basics of toilet seat mounts and freestanding bidets.

How to use a stand-alone bidet

Depending on the type of freestanding bidet, you may need to span the sink so be ready to take your pants off completely. You can sit astride facing forward or backward – however you want to get clean. Fill up the basin with water, bring the water with the temperature indicators to the desired heat and then sit comfortably on the bidet and turn on the stream.

You may want to test the pressure beforehand so that a jet of water does not surprise you. You’ll need to dry yourself with some paper, but at a fraction of the amount you would normally do.

How to use a toilet seat bidet

From the average toilet seat attachments to the full service attachments that will give your butt a five star spa treatment, Bidets are pretty simple. After you’ve done your business, turn on the bidet spray nozzle. Depending on the attachment you bought, it may be mechanically distracted from the seat or it may already be there and start shooting water. You’ll want to make sure the water is out from the front to the back, and let the electricity rinse your bum for 30 to 60 seconds. When it’s done, take a small amount of toilet paper and pat it dry. If you’re lucky enough to have a dryer attachment, just turn the dryer on and you’ll never have to wipe again.