There are so many examples of hatred, bigotry, and just plain idiocy in the world every day. The only thing more outrageous than knowing these people live and walk amongst us, is the fact that they're raising children. Many of those children seem doomed to be indoctrinated  and carry on with the same small-minded, hate-filled ways as their parents, but they don't always. A tale of two brothers in a video store illustrates beautifully how children can and do become better than their parents.

The story came from Kristen Wolfe, who blogs at Up and Down We Go, and was highlighted on Huffington Post. The 20-year-old student works at a Gamestop store in North Carolina, and she wrote a post about what she saw while working one day titled "Dear Customer Who stuck Up for His Little Brother."

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My first-born son, who is now 10, is also autistic. I don't generally lead with that explanation, because I figure people should meet the kid before they make any decisions about that. I've found the minute I say something about autism, people ask me about his "tricks." Like every kid with autism can count cards or something.

Newsflash, autism is a spectrum, not a disorder that makes every person diagnosed with it "Rain Man."

My son's a great kid, no doubt, but I can't help but notice how different our challenges are now that he's older. A tween with autism is far different than a two-year old with autism.

Especially when it comes to bullying.

I'd been outside, happily gardening, for the last few hours. Getting lost in my garden is one of my favorite past times and one of the few ways I can decompress. I'm not so much a yoga person -- I'm much more a "break stuff and haul it around" kinda girl. It works well.

When I went inside I saw my eldest standing there watching television while the smaller kids both snuggled up in their beds.

"Okay Ben," I said nicely. "Time to brush your teeth and get ready for bed." Not an unreasonable request, considering it was half an hour past his bed time.

"FINE," he nearly screamed, stomping off to the bathroom to brush his teeth, rolling his eyes along the way. Why the attitude?

What just HAPPENED?

The Tween Years. That's what happened. Here's how I am coping with the preteen attitude.

Just when you think you've worried as much as a parent can possibly worry about the dangers of drugs, unprotected sex, bullies, and stranger danger, along comes another disturbing trend to fear. It's called the ABC Game, and while it seems like just another one of those crazy things kids do, this scratching game can have some serious health consequences.

It's not new, but rather seems to make its way to various schools and parts of the country randomly over the years. There are variations of it, but here's how it works in general: The kids pick a category, and have to name an item in that category for every letter of the alphabet. While they're doing so, another kid is scratching the back of their hand. So the slower they are, the more scratching that's done. And sometimes, there's a LOT of scratching -- to the point that skin is broken and blood is drawn.

A few months ago, I hadn’t heard anything about the Amber Cole debacle until my daughter slid into the car after school on a Tuesday afternoon. “Mommy, you heard about Amber Cole?” she asked casually, noshing on a granola bar real casual-like. The way she was acting, I thought the girl was somebody I should know personally, a kid in her class maybe. Then I found out why she thought I should’ve already heard about her.

I’ve never seen the actual video of the child in action. I really don’t want or need to. I’ve known enough Amber Coles in my lifetime, and everybody who’s good and grown can piece together what happens when you get that one girl who doesn’t think very highly of herself alone in a compromising position with a horny guy. It’s been happening for longer than you or I have been around, that’s for sure. Only difference now is it can be recorded, searched, and shared with just a few mouse clicks. 

I'm a big fan of embarrassing people. My family has  a longstanding tradition of shaming one another, just for fun, so I grew up in an environment where I couldn't go to the bathroom without someone asking me if I was "going to take a poop." At age 20.

Really, there's been nothing more exciting to me than having kids of my own. Kids who made my skin sag, my nipples leak, and who don't allow me to use the bathroom without an audience.

Well, it's time (rubs hands craftily) to pay them back.

As parents we spend years teaching our children that they need to obey and follow the rules, but almost as important is giving them the skills and sense of self to know when it's okay to break those same rules at the right time. An 11-year-old boy in Massachusetts, Jared Flanders, recently provided a perfect example of disobedience that would make any parent proud.

According to a story on MSNBC, the boy was alone at his home in Worcester, Massachusetts, with orders not to leave the house. But then something moved him to the point he just had to do it. It wasn't for candy or to go meet up with a friend or anything else your typical 11-year-old might sneak out to go do, however. Instead Jared was driven by a mission of compassion.