When you think about teens and drugs, pot and alcohol come quickly to mind. But if you take a peek in Answers, you'll see that teen prescription drug abuse is also a huge problem. It's scary to read some of the comments from moms who are living it.

"I knew a girl who overdosed and died on methadone two years ago. She was 17."

"I'm dealing with it now. My 16 year old and three of her friends were caught exchanging pills."

"I'm 18 now. When I was maybe 13 or 14 I knew A LOT of people that would take like five Lortabs and other crap. I wasn't into that crap but had some friends that did and knew a lot that did."

Right now I'm thankful for the temper tantrums and fights over toys.

Too dangerous for a kid?

CafeMoms are already starting to talk about holiday shopping and when it comes to Big Kids that means toys. Most of the gift guides out there tell you which toys to get -- but a recent post at Momversation lists 20 dangerous toys NOT to get.

Bummer. Some of these were my all-time faves as a kid. Here are three in particular that I played with constantly. Tell me if you agree that these are really hazardous. I promise I won't tell my mom what you said.

Then click over to Momversation for the full list.

Photo by abjbrewer

They're safe!

They work!

Okay, so you knew that. But here's some other stuff  you may not have known from a recent Children's Hospital of Philadelphia study involving 7,000 children ages 4 to 8 involved in real-world crashes:

• Children ages 4 to 8 who are restrained in the rear seat of a car in a belt-positioning booster seat are 45 percent less likely to be injured in a crash compared with children using a seat belt alone.

• There was no difference in the level of protection offered by backless versus high back booster seats.

• Of those riding in booster seats, children involved in side-impact crashes saw the greatest reduction in injury risk.

I love hearing stories like these. Not stories about people choking -- I'd never wish that on anyone. But stories about the heroes who save them from dying, especially when they are children with special needs.

It reminds us that they can do anything and everything that typically functioning kids do.

Here's a clip of Kyle Forbes, an autistic child who saved his teacher from choking on an apple by delivering the Heimlich maneuver he learned in Cub Scouts.

Thanks to the ladies in the Newcomer's Club for pointing this one out.

Days after the Balloon Boy hoax, authorities are now deciding what charges they are going to levy against the 6 year old's parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene.

Two of the four proposed charges are class four felonies including lying to the government, each carrying possible sentences of six years in jail and fines up to $500,000.

But even more charges are possible due to the fact that they involved their child in a fraud or criminal activity.

Truly, what type of parents would tell their children to lie for them? I can't imagine sitting my own 6 year old down, after spending all his years trying to instill honesty and ethics, and saying, "It's okay to tell a fib if it will help Mommy and Daddy make lots of money, but you can't do it any other time, okay?"

Photo by rockerchic

It's hard enough deciding whether our kids will get one shot of the swine flu vaccine, let alone two. But that's what the makers of the inoculation are saying most kids under 10 will need for it to be effective.

It's like the first time your baby got the seasonal flu shot. The pediatrician has to administer two doses of the flu vaccine about a month apart for full immunity to develop.

People magazine has the first photograph of kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted from her South Lake Tahoe home over 18 years ago when she was 11. Click the above link to see how beautiful and happy she looks, though I'm sure the pain and sadness is many layers deep.

Her kidnappers, Phillip and Nancy Garrido of Antioch, California, forced the girl to live in a shed in their fenced in back yard.

Phillip Garrido allegedly raped her repeatedly, fathering two daughters, now 15 and 11, who grew up believing that Jaycee was their big sister.

It's stories like this that make me wish I could home-school.

By now you've heard about the first-grader who was suspended for 45 days for bringing a fork to school.

It all turned out okay. The public school educators reconsidered and will allow the kid to come back to school next week. But this whole mess could have so been avoided if school officials just used some of those critical thinking skills they feel are so important to teach our kids.

It was a Swiss Army Knife for goodness sakes. I'm all for zero tolerance policies in the proper context -- a kid who knowingly violates the policy, who intends to threaten or do harm. Yes, anything to prevent another Columbine. None of those cases apply here.

This sweet little boy was excited to join the Cub Scouts and wanted to bring in his Swiss Army gadget to eat his lunch with. That's it. His mom should have been more on top of things, but oh well.

I'm still undecided about getting my kids vaccinated against the Swine Flu, but as I was scheduling my daughter's annual physical the other day, I decided to ask the nurse what our pediatrician's office recommended.

She said it's still too early to tell. They don't even have it yet, don't know when or if they will, or who will get it. For right now, she's only advising and scheduling for the regular flu shot.

Well, at least that gives me more time to deliberate on this very important topic. Because like you the Daily Buzz bloggers have lots of questions and concerns regarding ourselves and our own kids, we've been following this topic closely in our Swine Flu Guide.

If the report I read recently on Time.com is correct, parents of teens who do dumb stuff like drink, speed, have sex, and other reckless activities have at least one thing to be happy about.

Their kids are so mature! You read me right. Not immature, like everyone once thought. Very mature.

Which means those phrases you use constantly like, "What's that stupid kid done now?" and "Stop acting like an idiot!" are blatantly false and you should stop saying them.

[Okay, here comes the academic reasoning] Scientists armed with brain scanners found that reckless kids have more white space in their craniums than their more cautious, obedient peers. White space is the wiring, the neurons that hold everything together and help speed up the processing potential.