Rape, sexual assault, boys, girls. It is on everyone's minds, including the minds of every media outlet available. First there was Steubenville, and then there was our Canadian version in Cole Harbour where Rehtaeh Parsons lived, and died.

We spend a lot of energy talking to girls about how to avoid rape but now, finally, the conversation is turning to talking to boys about respecting and expecting consent. In other words, teaching not to rape. 

But it's not an easy conversation to have and it starts very young. We should be teaching all kids about boundaries -- that the words 'stop' and 'no' have weight. Even professionals have a hard time with it. I asked Marnie Goldenberg, a mother of two, a lawyer, a sexual health educator and the person behind Sexplainer.com to write about how she spoke to her 8-year-old about sexual assault and how she was planting the seeds of informed consent at a young age.

We were errant parents in the babyproofing department (well, not just there). We didn't do anything outside of gates at the tops of stairs (which have become very useful for our dog). No bumpers on the corners of our glass coffee table. No outlet covers, or drawer locks.

And you know what? Our kids hurt themselves sometimes. But so do all kids. They never stuck anything into an electrical outlet though. I just think that in this day and age were are too quick to protect and discourage. We tame everything because of our own fears and accidents still happen. Some serious and some not. Most of them are learning experiences.

So how far do you go to protect your kids?

The Globe and Mail is reporting that a 10-year-old Ontario girl foiled a would-be kidnapping by using her smarts. A man approached her after school and told her that her mother had sent him to pick her up, she asked him for the pre-arranged family safe word and he got it wrong.

She realized that it was a bad situation and got away, catching some of the license plate letters too. According to police they are searching for a man and woman in their 20's.

You would never go with your child to a job interview, right? (Just maybe tell them what to say, and probably drive them there.) 

Would you call a professor and ask them about your child's bad grade? The thought is ridiculous, isn't it? But university professors say it happens all the time (and my Dad is one, so he knows).

Now that we are almost two weeks into 2013, it's time to figure out what we all be obsessing about in the year to come.

The nice people at iVillage and the Today show say that in 2013 we will be thinking about the:

"I think," I tell my husband, "that he has THE FLU." Dun dun dun DUNN!

I then immediately come down with guilt for not schlepping my 12-year-old son to get the flu shot out of sheer laziness on my part. 

"Maybe it is just a cold," says my husband. "And who cares what it is?"

And then hit me. As long as the kids are sick but not overly sick; why should I care if it is the flu or a cold? Just because the government has released more Tamiflu; and flu season has been "nasty and deadly and normal"? This does not mean we are in a pandemic, or that I should panic, because that's the nature of influenza. (I don't do well in pandemic season, one day I will write about our SARS experience that left me scarred forever).

So, I set off to find the differences between the common cold and flu:

Women aren't the only ones whose biological clocks tick louder as they get older. There is new research suggesting that men need to stop pushing the snooze button and start making babies, if they are so inclined.

A number of studies have shown that men's age at conception can affect the outcome of the pregnancy and also the baby's health. An Icelandic study shows that aging sperm carries genetic risks and may be tied to the increase in autism and schizophrenia. It shows that men possibly pass on more genetic mutations to their babies than women do. The researchers also found that the number of mutations increase as a man ages. 

When 13-year-old Gregory opened his brand new iPhone, it came with a contract -- not just from the provider -- but from his mother. And it is a long one.

Janell Burley Hofmann wrote up the 18-point contract covering everything from privacy to porn to music to reminding him to look out the window. The mother of five's post on the contract has over 1,000 comments on the Huffington Post, and has been labelled "the first viral sensation of 2013." The contract's popularity shows our deep-seated fear of our teens' love of technology.

Some highlights of the contract:

In a totally biased, non-scientific way, I have decided on the biggest parenting stories of the year. These aren't the stories that got the most clicks (Jessica Simpson may own that title) but these are the stories that had us talking in the schoolyard and online and are the ones that we may remember in years to come (unlike what's her name.)

Just like last year, we were told that parents from another country were doing it better than us; we ruminated on the impossibility of work-life balance and the shape of motherhood and we mourned the loss of innocence. And if we got it on.

The 2012 Biggest Stories in Chaos: (in no particular order):

The blank page is a little bit daunting today. There are lots of topics to write about, but really there is only one thing that I can think of. The violent loss of 20 Grade One students in Connecticut hangs heavy on every parent -- no matter where you live, or how old your children are.

There is really no good way to talk to your kids about an act so brazen and so violent that you can't talk about it without crying yourself. How would I tell my 6-year-old that girls her own age were hurt in a place they consider safe? That teachers and the principal lost their lives for those kids? So I chose not to tell my 6- and 9-year-olds. I'm not sure if that was the right decision; I'm not sure if someone will say something at school or not. But for now, that is what we've decided.

My 12-year-old had to know, as he is out in the world. Before I could do that, I compiled some ideas from experts to keep in mind when talking about this tragedy: