Katie Couric and Children of the Recession

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Today I had the privilege to be part of a conference call with Katie Couric and her team at CBS news to talk about the problems facing "Children of the Recession". This came about because Katie reached out to the Silicon Valley Mom Bloggers Group to help her with story ideas and to get the word out. The 50-something Moms blog that I contribute to is part of that group.

All this week on the CBC Evening News (6:30 p.m. in most places, but check your local listings to be sure), Katie is doing a report on Children of the Recession. She is doing this mainly because "the ones who bear no responsibility for the crisis, our children, are often shouldering the bulk of the consequences". For more on Katie's discussion of this series, see her blog post on the NYC Moms Blog.

Katie Couric welcomed us all to the conference call and thanked us for helping. She told us that almost all of the CBS news programs will be helping cover this story, in addition to the CBS Evening News. Some of the the many problems facing Children of the Recession that we discussed were:
  • Abuse and neglect cases are on the rise. Katie will be reporting on this during Wednesday night's (5/20) evening news.
  • The psychological ramifications that the recession has on children. Kids can usually feel the anxiety that their parents are experiencing. Katie will be reporting on this tonight, Tuesday 5/19.
  • Teachers who are already overworked and underpaid are now dealing with this. Often they are using their own money to help these children out.
  • On Thursday Katie will be interviewing two homeless boys, ages 8 and 10, living in a motel.
  • 20% of all families are forgoing medical care. If dental care isn't kept up with it can lead to serious medical ramifications.
  • On Monday night, 5/18, Katie ran a story about a grassroots movement began by a doctor called Safe Families. Families take in kids for up to a year to give them a good safe place to live while their parents get back on their feet.
  • On Wednesday morning's Early Show (5/20) there will be an expert discussing how parents can talk to their kids about the recession.
  • Many families are spending less money on food. Depending on how they are doing this, it could lead to more childhood obesity.
If you miss any of these stories you can see them on the CBS News website. Katie told us that she is trying to tell these stories from the perspective of the children. She feels that this is one story that has been mostly ignored during all the reporting of the recession and she wants to shine a light on it and hopes to start a national movement. After doing a story every night this week on Children of the Recession, she plans to continue to do one a week thereafter. Asked by one of the mothers how she can work long-term on something so heartbreaking and emotional, Katie answered that like her work with colon cancer, these children can't be forgotten about. Their story must continue. The KatieCouricSVMomsGroup is going to try to help.


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7 comments:

  1. I think it's awful that here in the richest country in the world (even with a recession), children are going without medical and dental care. Really? As wealthy as we are, we can't take care of our children?

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  2. I agree. One of the bloggers on the phone call was from Canada and she said that even though their government is making many cuts, they don't cut health care and education.

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  3. I actually saw this tonite! Every day no matter where we turn, the recession is hitting everyone hard, east coast, west coast, north, south, central. My DD22 is graduating college in a week, and comes off my insurance policy. She's been off dental now since she was 19. We'll probably get her some type of gap health insurance until she finds a job. Thanks for bringing this to the forefront.

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  4. This is such an important series from Katie and CBS. In a related effort, the National Association of Children's Hospital has created the Speak Now for Kids campaign to ensure that children are not forgotten by Congress as they overhaul the country's health care system. We need parents to share their stories about their experiences with the health care system at www.SpeakNowforKids.org, and to tell Congress what they want to see happen legislatively. We are sharing these personal testimonials with Members of Congress as they finalize the health care bill.

    Please visit www.SpeakNowforKids.org today!

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  5. @Miranda and Jen, I agree that it is a real shame that so many of our children don't have health care. I'm afraid as more and more people lose jobs... it's only going to get worse.

    Thanks Jen for taking a part in(hopefully)bringing about a change. And thanks for sharing!

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  6. I have had such a hectic week this week, I didn't even hear about this series. So glad you pointed it out, so I can tune in.

    As someone who's been a single mom for the past 8 years, and struggled monetarily for much of that time, I can tell you that nothing hurts more than to watch your children do without.

    I'm glad Katie and CBS are drawing attention to these innocent victims of the recession.

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  7. Good job for letting your readers know about all of this! It's so important to get the word out!

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