As they say, time flies when you're having fun.  But before you can say PB & J, it'll be time to get the kids geared up and ready for school again.  Part of that readiness should include mental and physical checkups. Oops, did I say mental? Yep, I did.

Mental Health is just as important as physical health, yet mental health disorders are often the last ones we think of addressing. Time to reorder our thinking. There was a 400 percent increase in bipolar disorder diagnoses in children in the past decade. What's up with that?

There's trouble brewing with our kids, and we need to take preventive actions -- the cost is too dear. Between lost workdays and lost taxes, Medicaid, and juvenile-court costs, psychiatric and learning disorders cost society billions of dollars a year.  It is estimated that the US loses 113 billion dollars a year because of untreated and mistreated mental illness. But trust me - mental health issues can't truly be measured in monetary terms alone.  The more significant cost is loss of happiness, joy, potential, and ultimately, human life. The suicide rate for teenaged girls increased by 76 percent in the past year alone.

We need to begin checking for mental disorders when our kids are young - not only for the obvious reason that children afflicted with mental illnesses should get help as soon as possible, but because studies show that 75 percent of all adult psychiatric disorders start during childhood and adolescence.  Based on health statistics, 20 percent of children and teens in the US have a psychiatric disorder, and 50% of kids with ADHD are never diagnosed.

Tune into your kids and take note of their mental health.  Are they anxious? Sad and lethargic? Have a hard time concentrating? Do they restrain their eating? Consider the following: anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health problem, affecting 13 percent of 9- to 17-year-olds. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects 5 to 10 percent of children. Clinical depression affects one in eight adolescents.  Approximately 20 percent of all kids have a learning disorder.  Studies show that approximately 3 percent of teenage girls have an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or binge eating.

These are sobering statistics that can have a serious impact on you, and your family. Get help if you need it. Find out what mental illnesses are. 

Check out these sites: National Institute of Mental,  

Health Mental Health, 

Mental Help

As parents, it falls to us to advocate for more mental-health programs, and make sure mental health services are available to all who need them. Especially our kids.

My husband was recently the subject of a rather extensive interview in a Conde Nast magazine - Portfolio. I was asked to be present, for photos and for a lengthy interview, and of course, I obliged.  Guess what. Though I spent perhaps three hours being puffed and fluffed, and being grilled about what I do and how I feel and what I think about my husband and my life, nothing of substance was printed about me or what I said. However, I was given a lovely compliment; I was called a beautiful woman and for that I am grateful. I know my mom is extremely happy about that, and to be honest so is my husband, and so am I. 

Ever hear the phrase, barefoot and pregnant? Clearly it wasn't spawned from current pop culture.  Though this artifact of generations past was probably meant to be endearing, the subtext behind it seems to have more to do with territory and boasting rights than terms of endearment. By keeping a woman barefoot and pregnant, a man was not only staking his claim on her as his territory, but was also bragging that his penis worked and his seeds were lively and strong.

Men have historically been territorial where their women, sex and children are concerned and we women have come to accept this behavior, and to a certain degree, foster it. In fact, we seem willing to jump through all kinds of hoops to attract a man.

Throughout recorded history, women have learned to take the male's particular fancies into account when seeking a mate with whom to have children.  Current fashions, style and cultural rituals typically dictate how women behave.  Making ourselves attractive to the opposite sex isn't new. Each generation and every culture adds new moves and brings a slightly different flair to the male-female mating dance.

It's generally accepted, for example, that men like long legs and so we wear high-healed shoes and short dresses to show them off. Why? We instinctually want to perpetuate humankind.  Some studies show that women will wear shorter dresses and higher heels when ovulating - we dress more provocatively during specific days of our menstrual cycles because we are consciously or unconsciously trying to attract a mate.  Just for fun, notice what you wear between the 14^th and 18^th days after your period.  Perhaps more telling, check out what your teenaged daughters wear on those days. Oh my - Perhaps it's a good time to discuss birth control.

Another known turn-on for men is a high, rounded, voluptuous butt.  Add that to a narrow waistline, and you get the classic hourglass figure. This so-called perfect figure has a ratio of 70 percent. Such a figure - the narrow waist, flat abdomen, large, round, easy-to-grasp fanny historically signaled 'fertility' to the male species. Women became aware of this particular male lure and went to incredible lengths to draw attention to their curves.

In the nineteenth century, women wore bustles under their skirts to accentuate the size of their hips.  Was this comfortable do you think? Hell no, but what does comfort have to do with it? Our female predecessors strapped on torturous corsets to reduce their waist size to make the distinction between waist and hip even more obvious and alluring. Women of that era cinched their waistlines to the point of damaging their rib cages - going as far as surgically removing ribs to achieve that perfectly narrow waist.

Ohmygod. The corset squeezed their organs and restricted their oxygen intake and turned fainting into a gender-oriented pastime.  According to studies on the subject, this ratio has consistently proven to grab a male's attention.  So much so, in fact, that throughout history it was thought that a woman most capable of bearing children had a waist that was 70 percent smaller than her hips. Not surprisingly, the ideal waist size for a girl in the nineteenth century was one that matched her age.  Could this have been a trigger for an eating disorder? Hmm.  And all of this to attract a man.

Another feature of women thought to be highly attractive, is a long neck; this stunning attribute is so prized that we adorn them with jewels to show them off. Japanese Geishas painted their necks in white body paint, leaving only a small, seductively bare patch of skin showing at the nape, which at the time of Geishas was considered highly erotic, and could bring a man to his knees - and encourage a hefty payment.

The attraction to long necks is so pronounced in some Southern and East African tribes that girls begin to elongate their necks with silver rings as youngsters, eventually stretching the neck completely out of proportion, ultimately deforming the collarbone, and of course, the neck. These women can never take the rings off, for if removed, the elongated, deformed neck could not possibly support the weight of their heads, and their necks would break.  A high price to pay for attraction.

Though we may not universally follow their lead, our culture's glossy magazine pages are filled with beautiful, young, painfully skinny models who promote skeletal thinness, body piercing, tattoos and sexy body wear - all of which is, essentially, this generation's iteration of male bait; Beauty chasing the beast. 

Though some of our current come-hither trends are quirky, when I read about rituals that women of other cultures engage in to hedge their bets in the mating game, I think we of the westernized persuasion basically have it easy.  Lucky for me my guy is a leg man.  I can handle high heels.

What guys need to do to attract us is a whole different conversation.

All the women I know accept the idea that education is vital, and in fact consider it fundamental to our growth.  An education is freedom; a vehicle that can help us reach our fullest potential in life. This concept isn't new. As parents, we've been pitching the idea of education to our kids as the answer since they were in diapers.  

However, though education is sought and schools are attended in great numbers by all girls who get the chance, are they landing the top jobs? Are girls and women equally represented in power positions based on percentage of population? Nope. So what are girls going to do with all this hard-won knowledge and education if our society doesn't allow them access to the highest-level careers, power board seats and corporate positions?

Oh, I know -- we do have many notable women in power positions. We have a female Secretary of State, a woman Speaker of the House, and an extremely notable woman just made a run for the Democratic Presidential nominee.  However, the actual numbers of women in top-level positions is still far below par with men. 

This apparent mixed message may be contributing to the fact that with all the possibilities seemingly on our plates and with all our legitimate potential, women still venture into the same fields that we have always historically dominated; 59 percent of all women workers are still concentrated in sales, clerical, and service positions. Either the majority of us don't realize there are other career options, or we don't believe we can vie for them.

Though we're loathe to admit it, the socialization of girls and women is still pretty much based on outdated schemas and norms. We're raised to assume, from an early age, usually by about 6 to 8 years old, that there are gender-specific roles we should play; a hierarchy of power; a norm or generalized set of behaviors and cultural rituals that we should perform. We've been bucking these boundaries for centuries, yet as a group, we continue to pursue the tried and true. 

Though there is no single answer to resolve this conundrum, perhaps education is still the key. Studies show that girls make up 57 percent of all college students in the United States. Perhaps the sea change will come when these young women cross society's unwritten boundaries and choose careers that fall outside of the norm.