The childcare crisis and how it’s affecting the workforce
Posted On January 4, 2024
Many business leaders around the country say they can’t find enough workforce in today’s economy. While some point to the aftereffects of the pandemic or the idiosyncrasies of the younger generations, one of the main problems doesn’t have anything to do with a willingness to work. It’s childcare – or the lack of it. Our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” was Autumn Zellner, CEO of STARS Early Learning Academy in Fairhope, Alabama. And she says there is a crisis in childcare. “I take phone call after phone call from desperate parents who have either… Read More
Categories: Blog, Parenting, What's Working with Cam Marston
Social media and screen time: How will it affect the next generation in the workplace?
Posted On September 17, 2022
For today’s generation of young people, their smartphones are extensions of themselves. That’s how they communicate, how they entertain themselves, how they connect with others. One might even call it an addiction. Screen time predictably climbed noticeably during and after the pandemic, as recent studies show that young people spend an average of almost seven hours daily looking at a screen. How will that reliance manifest itself as this generation of young people enters the workplace? For answers, we turned to Kristi Bush, a licensed social worker, national education consultant and social media safety advocate, who joined us in the… Read More
Categories: Blog, iGen, Parenting, Podcast, What's Working with Cam Marston, Workplace
How to stand out: the differences between manners, etiquette and protocol and why they matter
Posted On August 30, 2019
Have you ever been invited to a formal dinner and didn’t know what to do? Been in a meeting and weren’t sure if it was rude to check your smartphone? Joined a conversation in progress and didn’t know how or when to introduce yourself? Our guest in a recent episode of “What’s Working With Cam Marston” has some answers. But more importantly, she wants to tell us why they matter. Cindy Grosso is a corporate etiquette expert based in Charleston, S.C., who founded the Charleston School of Protocol and Etiquette. Knowing manners, etiquette and protocol is important not just to… Read More
Categories: Education, Parenting, What's Working with Cam Marston
Having trouble adulting? Now there’s a class for that
Posted On January 22, 2019
Well, this won’t help combat the millennial stereotype: There apparently is now such a thing as “adulting classes.” According to CBS News, the classes teach life skills like cooking, sewing, budgeting and time management — you know, those things most of us learned from our parents or through our own trial and error. I can see the memes now: “What do these things have in common?” in all-caps above pictures of a cassette tape, a rotary phone and a frying pan. “Millennials don’t know what they are.” Before we laugh too loudly, however, let’s remember that it’s the Baby Boomer… Read More
Categories: Blog, Generation Y / Millennials, Parenting
Still supporting your adult children? Join the club
Posted On January 10, 2019
Have you helped your adult children with a rent payment since they moved out on their own? Covered their insurance? Helped them pay down their bills or chipped in on a down-payment for a house or car? You’re far from alone. You’re actually in the majority. Nearly 80 percent of parents continue to help their adult children out financially, according to a recent study conducted by Merrill Lynch and shared by CBS News. Ranging from major expenses like weddings and college tuition to everyday expenses like utilities and groceries, parents shell out about $500 billion a year to help their… Read More
Categories: Blog, Generation Y / Millennials, Parenting
My kids have no idea about the other use of a yard stick. Maybe they should…
Posted On November 1, 2018
Keeping It Real Alabama Public Radio Broadcast November 2, 2018
Categories: Keeping It Real, Parenting, Travel
AL Public Radio – Weekly Commentary – 10/19/18
Posted On October 22, 2018
Alabama Public Radio Commentary Air Date: October 19, 2018 Topic: Progress can be defined by how chickens get to your kitchen.
Categories: Keeping It Real, Parenting
Lifeguarding isn’t just for the young anymore
Posted On July 13, 2018
They were the cool kids, the kids we aspired to be. They sat atop their chair, with their mirrored sunglasses and tan skin, twirling a whistle around their finger and reminding us, once again, to stop running and stop hanging on the rope by the diving well. One day, we told ourselves, we’ll be lifeguards too. But a funny thing happened on the way to the pool for today’s generation of would-be lifeguards. According to the Washington Post, you might be just as likely to see a Baby Boomer sitting atop the chair at your neighborhood pool this summer as… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Blog, Parenting, Work, Workplace
I Don’t Want to Grow Up, I’m an iGen Kid
Posted On October 6, 2017
So it appears today’s teens are doing less. According to various studies and surveys, fewer of them are driving or working part-time jobs. Are they just lazy? Fewer of them are drinking, having sex or getting pregnant. Are they more responsible than previous generations at that age? In a recent piece for CNN, San Diego State psychology professor Jean Twenge proposes another theory: iGen is just taking longer to grow up. Twenge contends that how quickly teenagers grow up – or take more interest in doing things adults are supposed to do – is dependent upon what’s happening culturally at… Read More
Categories: iGen, Parenting
Another dose of adversity, please, for the kids’ sake.
Posted On December 23, 2016
Are millennials suffering from a lack of adversity? The question was posed in a headline on AL.com this week, introducing a column by Eddie Vines, a Jefferson County, Alabama district judge whose guest editorial on the website was basically a column-length version of “Get off my lawn.” Most millennials haven’t known want, Vines says, on the level of his parents in the Great Depression. Most millennials have never had to sacrifice like the Greatest Generation. The sky is blue. Water is wet. Every generation thinks the one below it is soft. Fathers who lived through the Revolutionary War probably thought… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Parenting