David Archuleta is one of three contestants left in the final round of this season's American Idol, so it stands to reason that the pressure is on. But it's hard to say who's feeling the pressure more, David or his dad.

Jeff Archuleta, who is allowed backstage because David, 17, is still a minor, recently lost his backstage pass for not following the rules. Though Archuleta had been warned about his overbearing influence during rehearsals in the past, he broke a rule last week that cost the show extra money. When David sang the song "Stand By Me," his father added in a verse from Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls," which American Idol then had to pay for.

According to Wikipedia, this isn't the first time Archuleta has been accused of overstepping his role of stage parent. Naomi Judd, who worked with the family on Star Search once said that Jeff Archuleta was the "worst stage dad," and that security measures had to be put into place during that series as well.

The term 'gateway drug' is used to describe certain lower classed drugs that some believe can lead users to harder, more dangerous drugs. Marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes are all considered by some to be gateway drugs. But lawmakers in Georgia believe there is such a thing as 'gateway candy' and have moved to ban the sale of such confections to minors.

The candies in question are marijuana flavored and lawmakers believe that selling them to underage kids promotes the use of drugs. But this week, Georgia governor Sonny Perdue signed into law a measure that makes it illegal for retailers to sell marijuana flavored candy and other products to anyone under the age of eighteen. The new law takes effect July 1 and anyone found guilty of breaking it will be fined $500.

These candies are sold under names like "Kronic Kandy" and "Pot Suckers" and are usually flavored with hemp essential oil, which is legal. This gives the taste of marijuana without the intoxicating effects.

I had no idea such a candy existed, but according to Senator Doug Stoner (is that his real name?!), that may be because of who I am and where I live. "I don't think that folks are aware this is going on," he says. "It's mainly, from what I can tell, particularly targeted to minority communities."

My first reaction to this story is one of total agreement. Why on earth should a child be eating candy that exists for the sole purpose of imitating the taste of an illegal drug? But then again, why should that candy even exist in the first place?

Social networking websites like Facebook are all the rage with teenagers these days. Unfortunately, they're also popular with those who would prey on teenagers. Facebook, the second largest such site, has just gotten safer, however. Working with states' attorneys general, the company has agreed to make changes to become less perilous for kids.

Last January, MySpace, the largest social networking site in the world, came to a similar agreement. Some of the changes Facebook are to prevent alcohol and tobacco ads from reaching those too young to purchase those items, to disallow groups related to incest, pedophilia, and bullying, and to issue a warning when a child is about to provide personal information to an adult.

"Social networks that encourage kids to come to their sites have a responsibility to keep those kids safe," North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said. "We've now gotten the two largest social networking sites to agree to take significant steps to protect children from predators and pornography." Forty-nine states and Washington D.C. have approved the agreements.

Richard Blumenthal, the Attorney General from Connecticut, hailed the agreement as the start of "a new era in social networking safety." It's a new world inside the computer and it's good that steps are being made in making it a safer environment for kids.

Last summer, sitting on a beach together, my closest college friend and I watched our four little ones splash in the water together. As we laughed together over old times, we wondered if our kids would ever be able to get anything past us. Looking at them then, building sand castles, all youth and innocence, it was hard to imagine them even trying.

But some day, they'll be tweens, then teens, then (gulp) college students and adults. And at some point, they're likely going to ask us some pretty difficult questions. They say that experience is the best teacher, but is sharing your own life experiences really the best way to teach your child a life lesson? Or does telling your kids that you [fill in your own inappropriate/dangerous/illegal behavior here] just give them license to try it themselves?

Among the experts, advice seems to be absent and what little there is is mixed. But the Washington Post has an excellent article exploring the topic and the pros and cons of sharing this kind of heavy information with your kid. What do you think?

Marci Milfs was shocked! Shocked, I tell you! She went into an Urban Outfitters clothing store in Northwestern Washington State to buy some hip, trendy clothing for her teenage son when she spotted some books on a table in the store. In addition to such subversive works as Stephen Colbert's "I Am America (And So Can You)", she found a book entitled "Porn for Women" which featured pictures of -- gasp! -- men doing housework.

Apparently, the store also carried "Pornogami: A Guide to the Ancient Art of Paper-Folding for Adults" which is wholly unsuitable for teenaged pieces of paper. "When I saw it, I was shocked," Milfs said. The books were apparently right there in plain sight where anyone -- teenagers included -- could see them. She is planning to file a complaint with the city and has already contacted her state representative.

Urban Outfitters, for their part, wants to be "the brand of choice for well-educated, urban-minded young adults." They do this by "creating a differential shopping experience, which creates an emotional bond with the 18 to 30 year old target customer we serve." The store's corporate office told Milfs that the books are not sex books but art books.

I can see the art book argument with the Pornogami book, but the Porn for Women book is just plain humour. It features pictures of clothed men doing housework and saying things such as "Ooh, look. The NFL playoffs are today. I bet we'll have no trouble parking at the crafts fair." It seems to me that if that's the raciest thing a college-aged girl sees, she's doing something wrong.

In a recent NY Times article we were introduced to online programs that allow parents to track their children's grades. Many parents are choosing products like ParentConnect, Edline and PowerSchool to assist them in conversing with their children about their grades.

As the Times article points out, it cuts out the middle portion of the conversation. The parents know what the grade is, good or bad. There can be no hiding of the grades or pretending they're something other than what they are. ParentConnect allows the parent access to the grade, and lets the child know that information is out there, and that discussion is sure to follow (especially if the grade is less than desirable).

Such programs are currently being utilized by 10,000 schools in all but one of the states. Studies have shown that parental involvement can have an effect on grades, and with test scores being more important than ever these days, many are turning to such sites to assist them in their quest for kids with good grades, even though several of these sites have been around for ten years.

I knew Miley Cyrus' career was going pretty well, but this is unbelievable. At the tender age of fifteen, Cyrus has found huge success as a singer, actress and amateur model. Everybody knows her name and the cash is rolling in at a steady pace. In fact, according to People, the girl will soon be a billionaire!

She's already the richest kid in the world and her future looks even greener. She made a whopping £9 million last year, which according to my currency converter is over $17 million in US dollars. By the end of 2009, the Miley Cyrus machine is expected to have generated £500 million. Convert that and you get awfully close to one billion dollars!

Despite her father's hands-off approach to parenting and the resulting mini-scandals, I would say the kid is doing pretty well for herself. If her enormous success blows your mind just a little bit, you are not alone. Even her bosses at Disney sound happily surprised. "Kids are earning more and more and can command huge fees in Hollywood. But no one could have predicted how popular Miley would be. She's a true star," says a Disney spokesperson.

Miley's mom says a lot of her money goes into an investment fund, which she can't touch until she turns eighteen. Clearly money will never be an issue for Cyrus, but where does she go from here? When you reach the top at such a young age, what in the world do you have to look forward to? Spending all that money, I guess.

In a move reminiscent of the Hitler-Jugend, planning is underway for the Delaware Academy for Public Safety and Security, a charter high school in Wilmington that will take as many as six hundred inner-city youths and train them to become part of the Homeland Security forces and take part in the war-on-whatever.

Students will be called cadets, will wear uniforms, and will follow courses of study in special weapons and tactics, prison guarding, and professional demolition, among others. The languages taught in the school will include Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. Physical training will be a big part, with daily after-school exercise programs already planned.

Spearheading the project is attorney, former Marine hand to hand combat expert, and Olympic Judo coach Thomas Little. Little also spent more than a decade on the African continent training urban youth. Maybe this will turn out to be the best thing since sliced bread, but I'm not convinced. It just seems a little too familiar.

Parents of college-bound children, beware! Boys and girls, your innocent little babies, perhaps, are co-habitating in a single dorm room, with school approval! Even well-known, respectable schools such as Brown University, Oberlin College, and the California Institute of Technology are permitting this heinous situation. Next year, Stanford University will join in the debauchery and allow it.

Sure, students say that nothing goes on and that they don't even watch each other getting dressed, but -- come on! -- these are college kids! Their hormones are raging! The fires of lust are burning inside them and there they are, dropped into those dens of iniquity known as colleges and you're going to tell me that there's no hanky-panky going on? Puh-lease!

Well, actually, according to those involved, it isn't about sex; it's about friends rooming together even though they happen to be of differing genders. "People are shocked to hear that it's happening and even that it's possible," said twenty-year-old Erik Youngdahl, a sophomore at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. But "once you actually live in it, it doesn't actually turn into a big deal." Youngdahl shares a room with friend and fellow Russian studies student Michelle Garcia.

"It ultimately comes down to finding someone that you feel is compatible with you," said Jeffrey Chang, founder of the National Student Genderblind Campaign, a group that promotes gender-neutral housing. "Students aren't doing this to make a point. They're not doing this to upset their parents. It's really for practical reasons."

In all honesty, it wouldn't bother me and I do think that men and women (and, despite the fact that they seem like kids to me, we really are talking about young men and women) can share a room without there being anything more to it than that.

After delivering a baby alone in her bathroom, a 17 year-old high school sophomore in California walked 4 blocks from her house to a nearby hospital with her child wrapped in a blanket and her umbilical cord still attached. The girl, scared that her mom would kick her out of the house, kept her pregnancy a secret, presumably using her naturally full figure to disguise her condition.

On the morning that the contractions began, she did not call 911 because her home phone was disconnected She also did not seek help from neighbors because it was very early in the morning and she did not want to wake them.

Mom and baby are doing well, though doctors say she is lucky since the blood loss incurred during the delivery and her walk/jog to the hospital could have been fatal. The teen's mother was called to the hospital and has since accepted the situation and has agreed to help her daughter raise the 8 lbs. newborn.

How terribly frightening it must have been for this girl to have had no adults to confide in during her entire pregnancy and to ultimately labor and deliver alone in her bathroom. In the age of "Juno", this story may be yet another cautionary tale and "teachable moment" for parents and their teenagers. It speaks not only to the immaturity of teen moms, but also to their need for love and support once they find themselves in this situation. I clearly remember how my own mom told me when I was a teenager that while she would be very disappointed if it happened, she would always be there for me and the baby if I ever became pregnant. These were sage and compassionate words that stayed with me and that I will surely pass on to my own daughters.

As I approach my own due date in a week and a half, my heart goes out to this young mom. Somehow she kept her wits about her; many teenagers in similar situations abandon their helpless babies in garbage cans or dumpsters to die because they are scared, unprepared, and often in denial. While by no means an ideal pregnancy or delivery, I give her credit for trying her best to get her baby the help he needed. Regardless of how he entered the world, he is a gift from God.

I pray that Grandma will now truly step to the plate. Clearly, both mom and baby alike are children in need of love, support and guidance in what is sure to be a difficult, but joyful time for everyone involved.

Here in San Francisco, being a gay high school student may not be the easiest path, but it is certainly not as dangerous as in other areas of the country. There are, sadly, places where simply being gay can -- and does -- lead to harassment, assault, and even death. I don't know where Tennessee falls on the tolerance scale, but given the 56 anti-gay hate crimes in 2007, I imagine it's not quite San Francisco.

So, I could understand that teenage boys might not want to advertise their sexuality to the whole school. Too bad the principal at Hollis F. Price Middle College High School in South Memphis didn't understand that. Daphne Beasley asked her staff for the names of students who were paired up, ostensibly to be able to control public displays of affection at the school.

Unfortunately, what she did with the list of couples was much worse -- she posted it where staff, students, and even parents could see it. On that list were Nicholas and Andrew, two boys who had just begun a relationship. "It was actually frightening," said Nicholas, an 11th grader, "to see a list with my name on it where not just other teachers could see but students as well."

In what could be seen as a karmic turn of events, an eleven-year-old boy scout returned a wallet containing $800 and then had his own returned to him. Hailing from Michigan, J.R. Bouterse, got his own wallet back after publicity arose from his kind action.

Last month Jessica Cutler lost her wallet in a church parking lot. Bouterse lost his at an Easter egg hunt, where it was found by Nancy Bosse and her granddaughter. Even though there was no ID in Bouterse's wallet, somehow Bosse managed to track him down after hearing about Bouterse.

Rather than accepting the reward collected for his good deed by the Michigan State Police, Bouterse asked that the money be used to buy pizza for his boy scout troupe. Also in attendance at the party was surprise guest Jessica Cutler, the owner of the other lost wallet.

Even for big kids, staying home alone can sometimes seem a little creepy. But for a thirteen-year-old Ohio girl, a sick day resting at home really did play out like something out of a horror movie or crime show.

When a red pickup pulled into the driveway, Lauren Durnbaugh texted her mom at work and asked if she was expecting someone. When the girl heard someone coming in through an unlocked door, the terrified teen quietly slipped back to her bedroom and hid under the blankets on her bed.

"When I was walking in my room to find somewhere to hide, I figured if they were coming to rob us, you wouldn't just look in someone's bed for something," Durnbaugh told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira on Thursday. "You would be going in their closet and looking everywhere else."

While quaking under the covers with her phone, the girl sent her mother a terrified text: "Mommy omg im scard i think were being robbed im hiding help me!"

While racing home, Durnbaugh's mother called 911 and by all accounts reacted as any mother tiger would, ramming the thieves car in her driveway and wrestling with the female stranger in her house while police arrived. Thanks to Lauren's quick thinking, she was shaken, but unharmed and the criminals were captured.

I'll never figure out the tricks kids know that enable them to text so quickly because it had been me hiding under the covers, the place would have be stripped bare before I'd finished texted "OMG!"

And because I can never remember which button turns off the stupid ringer off on my phone, that would have given my hiding place away right off the bat.

There you are, at home in the beautiful Santa Cruz mountains, just South of San Francisco when your son, a straight-A student out for a hike in the woods, calls and tells you that he's broken his leg and isn't really sure where he is. Naturally, you'd call 9-1-1 immediately and get the search and rescue teams moving. Now imagine they find your son, only his leg is fine and the only tripping he's done involves magic mushrooms.

That's the situation Matthew Rosenberg's mother found herself in. When she got the call from her son, she immediately contacted emergency services, just as any of us would have done. The problem is, after spending between $5,000 and $10,000 to do the search, Matthew was found standing -- uninjured -- at the bottom of a ravine.

"He wasn't normal," said Capt. Bill Finch of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and part of the rescue effort. "He was like one of those guys who's been drinking a lot and starts saying, 'I love ya, man.'"

There was an episode of Leave it to Beaver where the Beaver decides to fake being sick so that he can get out of going to school. I remember the doctor (who still made house calls) telling Beaver that he shouldn't pretend to be sick because it means the doctor can's visit people who really are sick. That lesson has always stuck with me. Unfortunately, it seems Matthew missed that episode.

I don't know if it's fair to make Matthew or his parents reimburse the state for the cost of finding him, but it sure seems to me that he ought to think about doing it anyway.

When I was still teaching, I worked with an occupational therapist who was so talented, I wished I could bottle her up and take her home. She was constantly teaching me new things about my students and how to help them regulate their nervous systems.

One of the most important things she taught me, however, is that children with special needs aren't the only ones who need a "sensory diet." Instead, she said, we all have inside of us an engine. When we need to be calmed or energized, we need to give that engine the proper fuel. Every body is different, so the key is finding what kind of activities are the best fuel for you or your child.

Mommy Poppins has a list of 99 sensory activities for every child, organized by type. If your child seems overstimulated, these activities can help bring them back down to Earth. If your child is tired and cranky, they can give them the energy they need to get through to bedtime.