Parents

I am sorry that Marta H. Mossburg and her family are leaving Butchers Hill in search of better schools for their kindergartner ("Bye-bye, Baltimore; we'll miss you, but it was time to go," July 18). Parents, before you leave Southeast Baltimore take a look at the innovative school in your own backyard! Archbishop Borders Catholic School is a dual-language, pre-K-to-8th grade school, moving in August to the Sacred Heart parish campus at Foster and Conkling streets. For less than $5,000 tuition per year, Ms. Mossburg's child could have joined the new model of Spanish-English immersion in a loving, orderly and enriching environment.

Wednesday morning on a quiet sidewalk in Halethorpe, before their workday begins, Joe Herbert, fourth-generation electrician, and Eric Evans, a building maintenance man, take a moment to describe precisely -- and proudly -- all the work they and other parents of Ascension School have done over the years. They both raised their families in Halethorpe and sent their kids to the Catholic elementary-middle school. They can't believe the Archdiocese of Baltimore wants to close the place without giving the parents a shot at keeping it alive.

We all had hope of the return of Phylicia Barnes ("Teen's family is left with a heartbreaking puzzle," April 25). No parent or family wants to hear about the disappearance of a family member let alone discover he or she has been killed. As a mother, I can feel the pain of Phylicia's mom and my heart goes out to her. After reading articles of her disappearance, I know she was well-loved by all who knew her. As time goes by perhaps the pain of losing her will heal, but for those who were closest to her, her memories will live on. May she rest in peace.

I appreciated Ann Egerton's commentary "Leaving home and heading for 'the home'" (July 5). My wife and I and our siblings wrestle with the issue of elder care, not only on behalf of our parents in their 80s and 90s but also thinking ahead to the decisions we will face ourselves. I sympathize with Ms. Egerton's feeling of imposing on her children and encourage her to try to embrace their help. If she is at all like my mom, she has helped others her whole life - her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, friends and strangers.

Afforded a night away at college, something he never experienced when he was young, Roger Sobrado had an idea: toga party! Alas, he couldn't get enough of his middle-aged cohorts to sign on. So he had to settle for dining hall chow and a blandly furnished dorm room. But that was enough for Sobrado, whose daughter is an incoming freshman at McDaniel College in Westminster. "I personally did not have the college experience, living in a residence hall and eating in the dining room," he said.

Lawrence J. Swartz, who gained national notoriety as a teenager in the killings in 1984 of his adoptive parents at their Cape St. Claire home, died of an apparent heart attack Wednesday in Florida, where he had lived the past several years, his lawyers said. He was 38. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and served nine years in Maryland penal institutions. The killings occurred Jan. 16, 1984, and became the subject of a national best-selling book, Sudden Fury, and a 1993 NBC movie, A Family Torn Apart.

The more I see in Baltimore, the city I live in, as well as the more news I see and read, the more I am convinced too many of us are becoming "welfare" parents. When I use the term "welfare," I am not talking about income level but the idea that we are getting something for nothing — in this case, something much more valuable than money. So many of us as parents have convinced ourselves that our main role is to love and be loved by our children, but the reality is that the giving and receiving of love is a benefit — not an on-the-job task.

Baltimore's school children call her "The Sex Lady," and during the four decades Deborah Roffman has taught them about their bodies, the only thing that hasn't changed is the discomfort of their parents when they try to talk about sex. Even the sex has changed, becoming casual and transactional, invasive and pervasive. Marketing and advertising have driven the mercury higher. Technology has put sex only a touch or a keystroke away. "The boundaries that used to separate children's lives from adults' lives have in many respects vanished," said Ms. Roffman, who has taught at Park School for 38 years and often teaches at other independent schools locally and nationwide.

It's been almost 13 years since Brandi Care Hicks tried to end her life, and the spiraling depression that engulfed it, by jumping from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. As she told parents of Arundel High School students about her near-tragedy Tuesday night, the Severna Park resident visibly choked up once — when speaking about the joys she would have missed had she lost her life that day. Hicks, 29, spoke about her ordeal during "Mind, Body and Soul: A Mental Health Awareness Evening," which focused on identifying stressors in teens' lives.

Man of the Year Rating -- PG-13 What it's about: -- Talk show goof decides to run for president. The Kid Attractor Factor: -- Robin Williams. Good lessons/bad lessons: -- People respect honesty. Violence: -- A bit, of the vehicular variety. Language: -- Crude at times. Sex: -- Joked about. Drugs: -- Yes, though not used recreationally. Parents advisory: -- If they're too young to know what "satire" means, they're too young for this.