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Join Susie Brown and Sex Education Expert Scotney Young talk sex ed: global sex education standard disparities, age appropriate sex/gender education, helping parents with difficult (and awkward!) discussions with their tweens/teens, empowering teens for gender equality, & what you can do to support child safety.

Scotney Young: https://www.instagram.com/rootsandboundaries?igsh=b2VveThpankyZDgz 

Scotney's website: https://www.rootsandboundaries.com/  

Resources for parents:

• The Sex Education Answer Book: By the Age Responses to Tough Questions Kids Ask Parents About Sex: A definitive guidebook for parents for questions about sex & demystifying sex for parent & child. 
• Kids Ask Script-building resource for parents/adults for conversations with kiddos around self-esteem, healthy relationships and making informed decisions.
• https://amaze.org/parents/- resources for parents & youth(8-14) about sexuality, bodies, and relationships
• Porn: fact or fiction - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdB2rmGqqNU&ab_channel=AMAZEOrg
• Guide to talking about porn: https://amaze.org/parents/guides/porn/
• https://parents.culturereframed.org/course/parents-of-tweens/  - Free self-guided programs on build kids' resilience & resistance to hypersexualized culture and impacts of pornography 
• Sex ed for Christian parents - https://www.sexedreclaimed.com/ 
• Sex ed for Muslim parents - https://resources.muslimkids.tv/sex-education/ 
• Sex ed for Jewish parents -  https://mizrachi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/HaMizrachi_Yom-Ha_Atzmaut_Israel_2021_58.pdf 
• Great Podcasts: This is so Awkward puberty podcast (and great newsletter)
  • Birds and bees and kids with Amy Lang
• Sex Positive Families: Massive database of sex-positive books and resources for every age. 
• From Susie: https://www.youtube.com/@asklisapodcast all topics tween & teen related, including sex, drugs, hormones and study habits

Resources for educators:

• Rights, Respect, Responsibility: K-12 Sexuality Education Curriculum by Advocates for Youth based on US National Sex Education Standards https://3rs.org/download-3rs/ 
• Amaze: Age-appropriate videos providing medically accurate sex education for adolescents as determined by parents, educators and medical professionals. (annual free “Sex Ed Con” webinar for educators; all the past webinars are linked)
• https://www.joinonelove.org/our-education/  - intimate partner violence prevention organization - free healthy friendships and relationships for all ages lesson plans & trainings 

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Finding professional fulfillment overseas can be challenging, but not impossible.  What can you do to make this lifestyle work for you, professionally?  Join Susie Csorsz Brown and Scotney Young as they talk about different ways to find professional fulfillment, keeping sane, and what does networking do for you.  

We talk about challenges and benefits of EFM employment, successful career transitions, portable career networking and more.  Listen here!

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There comes a point where our foreign service journey ends, and we find ourselves leaving this space, this label, this persona for ... who knows what to expect?  Finding yourself facing this as your next move?  Listen to Sharoya share her wisdom, and Lisa shares some of her concerns and solutions.  Join us for the chat.

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Right now, government employees are hit hard by the government shutdown.  Angi and I talk about what this feels like, wishing for a solution and offering community to anyone feeling especially hard hit.  We can hope that this will end soon, and our budget will be approved.  Until that finally happens, we are here to listen and support.

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Sharoya, Angi and I talk about different aspects of kids leaving the house, having fewer family members around, and what happens when they come back home?  Some great suggestions for keeping the peace, making the most out of the new additional space ... and making sure you have beds for everyone when/if they come back home!

We all know that our kids are supposed to grow up, go to uni, and then go off on their own. This is our primary goal as parents: help foster independence, innate curiosity, caring and capable humans to go contribute to something. Sometimes, real life rears its head and they come home unexpectedly. You may think you're going to be an empty nester but at any given point, family may walk in the door. 

Make the most out of the small and big spaces you have and the people filling them.

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Why drive when you can tuk or metro easily?  Or use the family driver?  FS kids often arrive to university not having a driver's license.  What to do?  

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Shipping our kiddos off to university feels like a bit of a leap of faith, but it is what is supposed to happen, and it will all be fine.  There are some stark differences between foreign service kids and those who graduated from stateside high schools amongst uni attendees.  It isn't that one kind of high school experience prepares kids for university better or worse, but there are definite differences.  Being prepared for these -- and preparing your kid for these -- will help manage expectations! These are just the differences I observed; I am sure there are many more.  I'd love to hear some of your stories, too!  

Next episode, I'll talk about one of the biggest differences: driver's license! 

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Fitness, nutrition and health are all concepts we sometimes understand, sometimes embrace and sometimes are confounded by. Join me for a conversation with 3 foreign service women who are "fit" and also looking for answers.

Long talk with 4 FS women about fitness, nutrition, stress relief, menopause, FS life and times zones.  

Participants: Hillery Midkiff, Lisa Tilstra (of Make Life Less Difficult), Morgan Loosli, Susie Csorsz Brown

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If you are a Foreign Service family, and you're about to send your kiddo off to university, you might have some questions about how that travel can happen, and if there are allowances that support that. As a matter of fact, there are! The allowances are not always easy to understand and are open to interpretation by your Finance and Management Officers, so be sure to have that conversation with them so you fully understand their interpretations. 

Plan ahead, have your kiddo get their items ready, and let's prepare for a successful send-off to university!

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Having the opportunity to take an R&R is phenomenal.  Some destinations can be more rewarding and enjoyable than others, though.  Here are 4 Women Talking (Morgan Loosli, Hillery Midkiff, Lisa Tilstra, and myself) sharing our top R&Rs destinations and briefly why (top 2 each) and suggestions to help make R&R or extended vacation actually enjoyable and relaxing.