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CBS News
22 minutes ago
- CBS News
The "Loon Lady" on a mission to save Minnesota's state bird: "We need to do better"
It's peak summer on Minnesota's Gull Lake Chain. Boats are buzzing, jet skis slicing and loons are calling. "So it sounds like a territorial challenge that's starting," said Sheila Johnston, listening to loons in the distance. Johnston, known by her nickname "the Loon Lady," has made it her mission to protect loons. "I've heard people say, 'Well this is our lake.' No. This is their lake and we're sharing it with them," she said. It's a commitment that has been growing most of her life. Johnston grew up spending summers on Gull Lake. She and her husband now live there year round. "I love it here, it's our favorite place in the world." she said. The Johnstons' home is filled with reminders of her passion. Loon photographs and artwork can be seen on the walls. Outside near the shoreline, there's a large totem pole with a loon perched on top. "I think they just somehow stir our soul, and so I just feel really connected to them," she said. That connection began with a paddle and a camera. "I love kayaking and I love photography, so I just started combining the two," she said. For years, she quietly observed loons from the water, photographing them, getting to know them and even naming them. "As you get to know more about loons, they're just so complex," she said. Her work shifted from enthusiast to advocate nearly a decade ago, after a busy Fourth of July weekend when she found a dead loon chick in the water, killed by a boat strike. "I just don't think we take very good care of them," she said. "We need to do better." While loons face natural predators like eagles, snapping turtles and large fish, humans are their biggest danger. Boat strikes, lead poisoning from ingesting fishing tackle and fishing line entanglement are the main causes. Johnston raises awareness by talking to boaters and reminding them loons and their chicks are nearby. "Our slogan is watch ahead, slow down, go around," she said. She also hands out lead-free tackle to anglers. "Lead tackle is plain bad. And there's absolutely no reason that we shouldn't have restrictions on lead tackle," she said. Last fall, she started the Minnesota Loon Rescue, a volunteer group dedicated to rescuing, rehabbing and conserving the loon population. "I think we have rescued at least 10 loons this season that were boat strike injuries and fatalities," she said. So far this season, the rescue has also saved seven hooked loons, 18 sick and orphaned chicks and six loons in distress on land. "These lakes are like freeway traffic in the Twin Cities at rush hour, full speed, going through chick-rearing areas," she said. Her advocacy has helped bring caution buoys and signage to alert boaters in loon nesting areas. "I don't think I'll ever stop this mission," she said. "By changing our behavior to loon-safe boating, and loon-safe fishing, we can protect loons and future generations of loons." For Johnston, and all who treasure Minnesota's natural beauty, protecting loons means protecting our home.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
When Parents Of College Students And Their Rules Are Over Controlling
Starting college is often an important transition within the relationships between students and their parents. A 2024 report on discussed three ways that parents can have unique impacts on college students and highlighted how supportive parents can help students reduce stress and burnout. However, some students present to campus counseling centers and report stressful relationships with their parents. Common examples of these stressful relationships are 'helicopter parents.' According to a 2025 report by Boston University, the term helicopter parent emerged as the baby boomer generation had more money and time to spend on their children than previous generations. This resulted in a tendency to be highly active as parents of college students, which included some parents micromanaging their students. As members of Gen X and Millennials became parents, the general trend of having more money and time for children continued, resulting in elaborations of the concept of helicopter parenting. For example, a 2023 report on summarized the potential harmful effects of 'snowplow parenting,' which describes a tendency of some parents to remove all stressors or challenges that their children might experience. Regardless of the term used to describe these behaviors, or the reasons why these behaviors exist, having parents who are over controlling can have detrimental impacts on students. Over Controlling Parents Can Hinder Development And Opportunities The traditional college-aged years are formative for the development of personal values. Instead of specific rules, such as who a child can spend time with outside of school, what time is curfew, and when to do homework, college is a place to establish values such as lifestyle choices, personal development, and academic performance. According to a 2025 study in the journal of Brain Sciences, the establishment of personal values is associated with individual decision-making. Thus, over controlling rules which limit students' ability to make decisions can hinder the development of long-term values. Furthermore, many colleges and universities have thousands of students on campus. If a student enters the campus community with a set of rules that are more strict than other students, then it's expected that the student will miss opportunities, such as attending certain social events that could result in having more friends, participating in extracurricular activities that could lead to future internships, or attending campus events that could result in being more excited about college. Over Controlling Parents Often Have Limited Influence As detailed in the report on parents generally have significant influence over college students. This influence is mostly experienced by students as parents being positive role models and giving practical advice; however, such influence can last a lifetime. On the contrary, over controlling rules can influence the behavior of college students, but this type of influence is time limited. As students proceed through their academic careers, most of them will obtain financial independence, and this independence will minimize the impact of any parental rules. A 2020 study in the journal of Psychological Reports found that parent-child attachment can also impact the social relationships of college students, including factors such as social anxiety. Consistent with these findings is the fact that many students with over controlling parents attempt to put rules and expectations on peers. This usually has limited influence on peers and can result in these students being rejected by others. In turn, many of these students will start resisting or rejecting their parents, which could produce a vicious cycle of attachment problems and difficulty connecting with others. Over Controlling Parents Often Reap What They Sow According to a 2025 report on rules often represent boundaries to children. As such, over controlling rules to college students often represent an over reliance of boundaries during a time of independence. It's often beneficial for parents to ponder that college students eventually reach a point in lifespan development in which they put boundaries on their parents. Examples include relocating after graduation, getting married, and starting a family. The boundaries that students place on parents later in life often reflect their feelings about the boundaries that parents once placed on them. In closing, it's important to note that there's no consensus on what constitutes an over controlling parent. Furthermore, students need rules while in college, and some students need more rules than others. However, it's usually obvious when a student is burdened with rules that are excessive and don't match the general experience of being in college. Most parents want their children to succeed in college, and they can help foster student success by setting appropriate and normative expectations.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Now that my kids are off to college, what's this empty nester dad to do?
This month, our twin boys — our only children — will fly the coop and head off to university. For the first time in 19 years, just two of us and our 12-pound Maltese Shih Tzu will be rattling around inside our family home. The laughter and music that have echoed off the walls will be gone, and my wife and I will enter a new, uncertain phase of life. We will become empty nesters. Admittedly, this is a rather stark interpretation of what empty nesting is going to be, but we hope we're well-prepared. We've been discussing our dreams for the future, exploring the restaurants that we never quite had time to frequent, and the pickleball paddles have been ordered. Still, it's been hard to ignore the daunting finality that has been creeping up on us for years. Empty nesting is a phrase that seems to be laden with heartache and trepidation. With high school graduation approaching last May, we could feel an emotional knife twisting as our social media feeds filled with nostalgic images of the first day of kindergarten alongside the last day of 12th grade. We started becoming hyperaware of the imminent transition, my wife even describing a dagger of pain in the grocery store when she bought a packet of brown paper lunch bags for the last time. It really does feel like only yesterday that our boys arrived together, their births announced to the world on air by my CNN International colleagues. Since then, we have anxiously wondered if the boys will be ready when it's time for them to take off on their own. But then I began wondering if the question should instead be, 'Are we ready?' Are we prepared for the transition back from 'parents' to 'couple'? I often think of an old friend in London who raised five children over about 25 years. When the last one left, she said she turned to her husband and, for the first time in a quarter of a century, asked, 'So, how are you?' We're obviously not the first generation to have experienced empty nesting, a concept reportedly coined in 1914 and popularized in the 1970s, but we may be the first generation to have openly talked about it. Former first lady Michelle Obama recently discussed how she was using therapy to transition to a new phase of life after having 'launched' her daughters. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay admitted that he was so sad when his son went off to university that he went into his son's bedroom and put on a pair of his underwear. Ramsay's heartfelt honesty also shatters a myth about empty nesting that it's only moms who are emotional when the children leave. The British author Celia Dodd, who recently updated her 2011 book, 'The Empty Nest: How to Survive and Stay Close to Your Adult Child,' told me that dads often seem to be coping fine with the transition but might be struggling the most. 'I thought my husband was just being a heartless bastard,' she recalled of the time her eldest son left home. 'He was going, 'It's great, they'll have a great time.' Whereas in fact he was feeling just as sad as I did. I think a lot of men feel there's not space for them to talk about how they feel, because they're supporting their partner and they're supporting the kids.' An understanding of how fathers might be affected in no way minimizes the attachment between mothers and their children, a bond that is (mostly) formed in the womb. Other parents have told me to expect a multitude of emotions, but surely the most immediate will be the sense of loss in the weeks after departure. 'When empty nesters talk about the teenagers,' the comedian Jim Gaffigan quipped, 'they always sound like they're describing a hurricane: 'My wife and I thought we were prepared; we lost everything!'' Madonna wasn't quite so dramatic when she talked about her daughter Lourdes leaving, but she still compared it to losing an arm. Once you've come to terms with that, there is often an identity crisis to navigate. As Dodd wrote in 'The Empty Nest,' 'To me, it was glaringly obvious that parting from a child who has been the centre of your life for twenty-odd years is a really big deal. Yet while new parents are bombarded with advice, empty nest parents are left to muddle through what is arguably the most challenging phase of parenting.' She added, 'It is the flipside of the seismic emotional adjustment that new parents go through with the birth of their first baby. A return to life without children — while still being a parent — requires another massive readjustment of self and your place in the world.' Since my parents' generation, there has been a revolution in family life. Dodd has observed that many modern-day parents are closer to their kids than they once were to their own parents. They're more involved in their lives, and some even want to be friends with them. I'm immensely proud of my sons, and I'm excited for their future, and as hard as it will be to let go, I recognize that it's crucial for all of us to shift the dynamic in our family relationship. They know that we're always here if they need us, but we don't intend to check in every day to see how they're doing. Perhaps the greatest concern is the increasing divorce rate among empty nesters. On a recent trip home to London, some friends of mine ran through the list of our peers who had recently been separated. It was anecdotal, but the handful of cases seemed alarmingly high. Why can even seemingly rock-solid couples run into problems when it's just the two of them at home? 'It's hard to imagine what life will be like when there's just the two of you, and it's natural to wonder what on earth you'll find to talk about,' Dodd wrote. 'One mother sums it up: 'Suddenly you're on your own and you look at each other and realise you haven't paid much attention to each other for years.' I want my kids to succeed and find their independence; the ultimate parental dream is to see our children soar. Equally, mine seem to recognize the void their departure will create — our sons have asked more than once if we'll be OK when they're gone. Such a level of emotional maturity signals to me that they'll be just fine on their own. Having thought about this impending transition for many years, I no longer fear it; in fact, I'm learning to embrace it. Planning and preparation are important, as is the mindset — we shouldn't be 'filling a hole' but finding a purpose. Intentional date nights are already back on the calendar, and my wife is excited to devote her full time to her art career. My creative space is the yard and garden, so finally the plants will have my full care and attention, and I'm one step closer to keeping the beehives I've been dreaming about. For the coming months, we've bought tickets to ghost tours and shows and even a gig in Canada, which seems very rock 'n' roll. The oft-quoted translation that the Chinese symbol for crisis means both danger and opportunity may not be totally accurate, but I choose to believe it at this stage of my life. It's not just our children who are gaining their independence; we're going to rediscover it, too. Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. Solve the daily Crossword
