According to the Martha's Vineyard Youth Task Force 2010's Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 43 percent of all Island high school students report having consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. While this number is lower than the national average, we know that too many of our kids out there drinking and doing drugs. We also know that the Island has a well-documented and troubling history with substance-abuse problems, as attested by the number of drug and OUI arrests and tragic accidents involving students. As the weather warms up, the options of drinking on beaches and other locations outside …

How to get little ones to sleep through the night may be the most hotly debated topic among parents. Whether it's co-sleeping or crying it out, parents seem to hold fast and hard to their beliefs about what works best. And it's no wonder. After trying method after method, when you've find one that allows you to close your eyes and keep them closed for more than an hour at a time, you stick to it. Since I'm now on my third child, I know that what works for one kid has no bearing on what works for another. My oldest child never wanted to sleep. My second one would sleep for hours. Of course, …

After a long and heated debate on both sides at Tuesday night's West Tisbury Annual Town Meeting, the Up Island Regional School District (UIRSD) budget was approved. In the end, the people of West Tisbury decided they did not want to reduce the budget by $750 per student, even though the UIRSD budget is by far the highest per pupil on the Island, and one of the highest per pupil in the state. In order to meet the proposed new budget, the school would have to make significant sacrifices, such as cutting teachers and programs. Roughly speaking, the reduced budget would have saved about $50 in …

There's all types of topics that are hard to discuss with kids: drugs, murder, war, racism. And then there's the big talk: Sex. I'll never forget when my oldest daughter asked me how babies were made. She was four years old and, gratefully, we were in the car so she couldn't see the pained look on my face. Since I come from a family of biologists, I launched into my best biologist immitation and gave her the rundown. At the time, that sufficed, either because she was satisfied with the information or because she decided I was totally nuts and needed to go somewhere else to get the goods. …

It's a fact that it gets trickier for families to come together as kids get older. Family time has to compete with after-school activities, sports, friends, even the TV and computer. If you've already got some traditions in place by the time your kids hit the everything-in-the-world-is-more-important-than-family phase, then you're way ahead of the game. However, if you haven't, it doesn't mean you're out of the running, either. Some of our favorite family traditions include Saturday night movies and big Sunday morning breakfasts. My older daughter and I have a standing cribbage match on …

I recently saw this quote by the wise Mahatma Gandhi: "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." It got me thinking about my children. In what ways to do they live their lives that are in service to others? Yes, we donate money and food around the holidays and they bring canned goods to the West Tisbury Library to donate to the Island Food Pantry. But that's not brought about by a need to help others; it's because they have overdue DVDs. Then, the other day after drumming home to both my older daughters (yet again) how important it is to be grateful, how …

The iPad 2 and iPod Touch 4 have arrived; the iPhone 5 is rumored to be released soon. No matter what new device comes out, my kids seem to have an in-born addiction/capability with them all. Each new release prompts a simple question: when is it appropriate to get a child a cell phone? I have a pre-teen who has been begging for one for years now, and her nine-year-old sister is not far behind. The line that really gets me: "Everyone else has one but me!" Of course, she's really not the only 12-year-old kid in the whole school who doesn't have a cell phone. But I was one of those kids who …

One of my favorite things about school breaks is that I don't have to think about what my kids will eat for lunch—at least not until lunchtime. So, this Monday, the first day back after 10 whole days of not thinking about it, I was faced with the ever familiar questions: What should they take for lunch? Should they buy? What's on the menu? What's in the fridge? Why, oh why, did I not figure this out last night?! On the whole, Martha's Vineyard schools go above and beyond average in terms of what they offer our kids to eat on a daily basis. Every school has their own garden, and the Island …

Moms across the globe know that finding good care for your kids can be one of the hardest challenges you'll ever face. And it's not like you only have to overcome this challenge once. It seems that the moment you find a babysitter that actually fits your needs (for me that includes: good with pre-teens and toddlers, can drive and can't be bullied by a know-it-all 9 year old), she takes off to Guatamala or heads off to college. Then you're back to square one. For us Island moms it can be near impossible to find the right fit—never mind afford it. While there are a handful of responsible high …

Moms Talk is a new feature on Martha's Vineyard Patch that is part of our initiative to reach out to moms and families.  Each week in Moms Talk, our chief mom, Mathea Morais, will introduce a topic or question. Members of our Mom's Council and the public are then invited to answer this weeks' question, give advice, share solutions or propose new topics and questions in the comments section.  Our hope is that, through this feature, moms, dads, grandparents and the diverse families who make up our community will have a new resource for the many questions and debates that arise while raising …