For some, high school is the best part of their life. For others, not so much. And sometimes parents make it worse on their children. As one parent explains in The Huffington Post, sometimes she projects herself onto her children, imagining her child has the same problems and will have the same experiences as she did when she was her child's age.

In her column, Shelley Emling explains that her youngest daughter is a sophomore in high school with many graduating senior friends.

"For weeks, my daughter has talked to me about her many emotions surrounding these eventual departures," Emling said. "Already, the idea of saying goodbye to so many in her 'friend group' is creating serious pangs of angst and sadness."

Emling explained that while having lunch recently, her daughter again explained at length just how hard it was going to be to lose her friends who had graduated. By the time the pair had finished eating lunch and Emling was digging in her purse for money to pay the bill, Emling's patience for her teenager's melodramatics had run out.

"She told me to prepare for a 'flood of tears' - and I have no doubt there will be many days filled with crying come August," Emling said. "But as she carried on, and while I rifled through my purse trying to find money to pay the bill, I said something I almost instantly regretted: 'Honey, I know this is hard for you to believe, but you probably won't even remember these people when you're my age.'"

Almost immediately, Emling explains her daughter grew defensive, assuring her she'd remember each and every one of her high school friends long after she herself graduated from high school and beyond.

Emling explained that this wasn't the first time, and probably won't be the last time, she and her daughter had this conversation. However, Emling explained that this particular exchange bothered her more than other past conversations the two have had.

"Why was I so dismissive of her emotions?" Emling mused. "Was it because I am one of those people who was so eager to get out of high school that I graduated six months early? Was it because I wished I'd been better at keeping up with friends from my past? Or was it because I, too, have been feeling wistful about the past and anxious about - and probably even a little jealous of - my daughter's future?"

Emling goes on to muse about why some people keep their high school friends while others don't. Emling admits that she doesn't keep up with her high school friends and wonders if her own insecurities and experiences in high school are tainting her reaction to her daughter's confession.

"Just because my own high school experience wasn't all that fulfilling doesn't mean hers won't be. Indeed, it already is," Emling wrote. "I love my daughter and should never belittle her sensibilities, even if I don't always relate to them. Listening to her interminable worries over the departure of her friends made me wonder why some people hold tight to high school relationships and others don't. I marvel at those who can remember every single aspect of high school - including their teachers' names - when I can barely remember what I did last week."

To close, Emling explains she talked to a friend about her daughter's situation. The friend explained that for her, high school friends are her closest friends, that because they grew up together, they have a bond and an understanding that allows them to talk about anything without fearing judgment.

"And so maybe my daughter will be the same, and will keep her friends forever - or at least some of them," Emling wrote. "Sure, I'm struggling with my own difficult feelings about the stressful transitions coming up in my life - but so is she. Adding my own apprehensions to her emotional stew is never right. But being a good listener - and being more deliberate with my responses - is."

High school friends and the drama they often entail aside, Emling's point is that she needed to listen actively to her daughter rather than listen to her own insecurities. More than that, though, actively listening not only helps parents avoid unnecessary confrontations with their children, it also helps them build a stronger relationship with them.

"Active listening is a good way to improve your communication with your child," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. "[Active listening] lets your child know you are interested in what she has to say and want to hear more. When you are actively listening, you give your full attention to your child. You make eye contact, stop other things you are doing, and get down on your child's level. You reflect or repeat back what she is saying and what she may be feeling to make sure you understand."

The Center for Parenting Education explained that actively listening to children can help build relationships between parents and children. It also helps with their self-esteem because a parent listening shows children that they are important and worth listening to.

The CPE points out that one key to active listening is acceptance of whatever the child is saying. Acceptance, as the CPE points out, is not the same as agreeing, rather it's simply listening and taking in the information the child is trying to communicate without judgment or evaluation from the parent.

"When you are active listening, there is no judgment or evaluation of what the speaker is saying. Often parents resist at this point, thinking that active listening implies that you are agreeing with whatever your children are saying. But accepting is not the same as agreeing," the CPE reports. "Acceptance is the heart and soul of active listening. It is not the time to object, teach, help your children to solve a problem or ask a ton of questions. This is a time to let your children talk without interruptions or judgment while you listen to what they have to say."

The CPE points out that in a world that is often fast-paced, it can be hard and uncomfortable to slow down and listen closely. It can also be frustrating to the listener because rather than analyzing the situation and offering solutions, the listener reflects or repeats back whatever the speaker says, thus encouraging the speaker to continue until they've fully expressed the problem. Because of this, active listening often requires practice and patience before it becomes an effective tool for parents and children. But once parents master the skill, the CPE said they will become a safe haven for children where they can express their deepest concerns without judgment.

"By becoming a safe haven for your children, they will see you as someone they can turn to in difficult situations, even during the teen years when they could face difficult and complicated life choices," the CPE reports. "By being nonjudgmental and accepting of what is on their minds, they will feel more comfortable opening up to you and will have a trustworthy place where they can explore their reactions and feelings."

While active listening can be an effective relationship building tool between parents and children, it can also be applied to any relationship, including work relationships.

"In today's high-tech, high-speed, high-stress world, communication is more important than ever, yet we seem to devote less and less time to really listening to one another," Dianne Schilling said in an article for Forbes. "Genuine listening has become a rare gift - the gift of time. It helps build relationships, solve problems, ensure understanding, resolve conflicts and improve accuracy. At work, effective listening means fewer errors and less wasted time. At home, it helps develop resourceful, self-reliant kids who can solve their own problems. Listening builds friendships and careers. It saves money and marriages."

Schilling explained that there are a few tricks to being an active listener. Those tricks encourage the listener to:

• Face the speaker and maintain eye contact.

• Be attentive but relaxed.

• Keep an open mind.

• Listen to the words and try to picture what the speaker is saying.

• Don't interrupt and don't impose your "solutions."

• Wait for the speaker to pause to ask clarifying questions.

• Ask questions only to ensure understanding.

• Try to feel what the speaker is feeling.

• Pay attention to what isn't said - to nonverbal cues.

"But when your children are troubled or have any kind of strong emotions, some form of active listening is often the best first approach to use," the CPE said. "After you hear more clearly what is going on with your children, you can decide what you need to do next."

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It doesn't take a scientific study to tell parents that teenagers are always finding new ways to interact with their friends. And while there are horror stories about teens getting stalked and harassed online, one thing parents can do to avoid their children getting hurt is be on the social media that their kids are using so they can see what they are doing online.

We'll explain musical.ly, an app that teens love.

"Musical.ly is a DIY music-video making app, where users (or 'musers,' as they're called) create 15-second videos of themselves lip-syncing and dancing along to popular music," Tech Insider reports. "You can 'heart' videos and create digital duets with your 'BFFs,' or people you follow and who follow you back."

But musical.ly isn't just for music videos. As their tumblr account explains, "Every day, millions of people use musical.ly as an outlet to express themselves through singing, dancing, comedy, and lip-syncing. The app celebrates creativity with videos recorded in 15 seconds or less and shared across the musical.ly community."

According to their tumblr, musical.ly was first made available in October 2014 and is available in both the iOS App Store and in the Google Play store. Musical.ly users are known as "musers" and and the app allows musers to share their videos not only on musical.ly but also on other social media platforms like Instagram and Vine.

In an interview with Forbes magazine, the app's co-founder, Alex Zhu, said he "spent 16 years in design and product management for enterprise computing. But what really interested him was building a community; bringing people together."

According to Zhu, musical.ly started out of the ashes of a different project where users created three-to-five-minute videos explaining a variety of topics. The project failed after six months because the videos just weren't engaging enough, especially where young people are concerned Zhu explained.

"It's always young people who are early adopters in new communities and new tech in general," Zhu told Forbes. "They are curious and looking for new apps and social media, and also very willing to spread ideas word of mouth, so you don't have to spend a lot on marketing - they will come to you if you can make your app compelling to this group of users."

Because, as Zhu said, young people are most likely to be early adopters of new communities and technology, musical.ly is marketed specifically to teens and has a clean, hip interface with a handful of options, but not so many it becomes overwhelming.

"More than 80 million people have registered, mostly teens," Tech Insider reports. "If the target demographic isn't abundantly clear from scrolling through the featured videos, the app also reminds you during sign-up, when it enters 2000 as the default birth year."

So instead of minutes long videos on educational subjects, the videos are seconds long and feature music and video taken by the user. Musical.ly looks a lot like Vine and Snapchat, but with a few other features.

"The app allows users to easily record themselves lip-synching to their favorite songs, but sets itself apart with the addition of unique video effects like time lapse, which makes everyone's dance moves look as fast as Looney Toons," W magazine reports.

According to The Daily Dot, musical.ly is "fairly intuitive" and easy to use. These are the steps they outline for becoming a master muser.

Download the app

As stated above, musical.ly can be found in both the iOS App Store and in Google Play. Once downloaded, you'll need to make an account, using either an email address, Facebook or Twitter.

Musical.ly admits on its tumblr page that there are some issues with the app for some Android users, but says it is working on fixing any bugs.

Tap around

One of the best ways to get familiar with any app is to just tap around in it and explore for a minute. OneHowTo, a tech tutorial site, explains the options musers will find on the app's home screen.

"At the top, you can see three options: follow, which shows you videos from friends and other people you follow; featured, which shows you the most popular and trending videos, and my city, which shows you videos from other users located nearby," OneHowTo wrote. "You can follow a user at any time by clicking on their name and accessing their profile. Along the bottom of the screen there are further options to explore the different features of musical.ly."

The other buttons include options that allow musers to search videos, create their own, view notifications on their posts, and visit their own profile, according to OneHowTo.

Try it out

"Once you're ready to make your musical.ly debut, tap the plus sign on the yellow button, which will bring up the option to pick music for your video, shoot your video, or import a video from your media library," The Daily Dot said. "While a majority of musers create lip sync videos, you can also shoot GIFs and set them to music by tapping 'shoot first' then 'live moment.' You can also dub scenes from movies or television. To do so, find tracks in the app's online library, or upload the video file to your phone's library."

The Daily Dot said that once you've picked your music, you pick how fast you want the finished video to play.

"This part is a little confusing once you start filming, but think of it as an inverse: The faster you want your video to appear on settings 'fast' and 'lapse,' the slower your track will play back while you're filming," The Daily Dot reports. "Similarly, the slower you want the video to appear on settings 'slow' or 'epic,' the faster your track will play while filming."

Daily Dot suggests playing with the speed of a video, reporting that some interesting videos can be achieved through speeding up and slowing down the movement.

Action!

Now that the video settings are set, it's time to start filming. Daily Dot reports that users simply "tap and hold the video camera icon on the pink circle to start filming. To stop filming, take your finger off the icon. ... When you're done, click the green arrow that will appear in the top-right corner and view your musical. If you're satisfied with the product, go onto editing, or tap the back arrow in the top-left corner to either reshoot the musical or delete it entirely."

However, advanced musers can choose to select their music first before filming or to edit pre-recorded videos from their phone's library to set to music on the app.

"You can pick music, which gives you the option to select the track first, so that it plays while you record the video," OneHowTo reports. "If you choose this option you will be prompted with a menu where you can find the song you want. Alternatively you can shoot first (and ask questions later?) As the name suggests, this option allows you to make a video first and then select the track to sync with afterwards. Lastly, you can import existing videos from your device and sync them up the track of your choice."

The cutting room floor

After the video has been shot, there's the option to edit your video visually before posting it. The Daily Dot cautions readers when using this function since it can screw up a video entirely if musers aren't careful.

"After you're done shooting, you can choose to add a visual filter to your musical. You can also choose to play the video backwards, add a "time trap" (a selected point in the video that loops), or move the segment of music that's playing in the background," The Daily Dot said. "Be aware: These three options will mess up your video if you lip synced or dubbed a track."

And that's it. Once you're happy with your video, add a headline and post your video. If you want your video to share to more than just musical.ly, The Daily Dot has some suggestions.

"After you upload the musical to your profile or save it to your phone, you'll be directed to a page from where you can share the musical to other social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Vine," The Daily Dot reports. "If you want to share a musical later, go to your profile, tap on the musical, then on the three dots on the right of the screen, and then tap 'other share options' to be brought back to that share page."

The app even offers challenges for musers to participate in under the app's "search" feature. OneHowTo explains that musers can add hashtags to post their own videos to the challenges and even earn prizes if their videos win.

Of course, just as with any other artform, there is much that can be done so that even experienced musers can improve. Searching on YouTube provides musers with many musical.ly tutorials that explain some of the finer points of making videos and expanding your muser community.

Some popular musers who've provided instructional tutorials, according to The Daily Dot, are Baby Ariel and TheyLoveArii. Both tutorials, given in the sometimes halting and distracted speech common among teenagers, suggest musers use natural lighting for their videos by sitting in front of or near a brightly lit window. Musers also suggest using music with a heavy beat and that has lyrics that are easy to dance with your hands to.

Abigail Payne is an intern with Deseret Digital Media and a recent graduate of Weber State University. Abby can be reached at apayne@deseretdigital.com.

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It's no wonder that these women reported in Buzzfeed feeling "heartbroken and disgusted" after their rings came back wrong from repairs at major jewelry retailers - everything from stones being swapped to rings looking worse after repairs than before.

Buzzfeed reported that Chrissy Clarius' husband Jim bought her wedding ring in 2010 from Kay Jewelers in the White Marsh Mall in Maryland. Along with the ring, Clarius' husband got a certificate from Gemological Science International guaranteeing and authenticating the quality of the diamond. Clarius reports in Buzzfeed to being "religious" about getting her ring inspected every six months so it would stay protected by Kay's gemstone guarantee, which states that Kay will replace a stone free of charge if it "chips, breaks or is lost from its original setting during normal wear," according to its website.

According to Buzzfeed, Clarius took her ring to Kay in February to be repaired because the prongs had come loose. When she got her ring back, Clarius knew the diamond in her setting was wrong.

At that point, Buzzfeed reports that Clarius took her ring to another jeweler in the mall, Littman Jewelers, and had them test the ring and setting. Littman told Clarius that not only was her stone not her stone, but it wasn't a diamond at all, but rather it was moissanite, a cheaper stone that looks like diamond. The band, which Clarius thought was white gold, turned out to be titanium by Littman's tests.

When Clarius took the ring back to Kay to confront them about the problem, she reports being met with skepticism.

"I feel heartbroken and disgusted. I feel like it is my word against a big jewelry store and I'm being made to look like a liar," she said in a report on Buzzfeed. "The fact that the manager had the audacity to imply I took my ring elsewhere is very discouraging."

According to the Buzzfeed report, Clarius has "filed a police report in Baltimore County and a complaint with the Maryland Attorney General's Office consumer protection division," Buzzfeed reports. Despite that, Clarius still hasn't settled the matter with Kay.

Between that article from Buzzfeed and a second also from Buzzfeed, seven women report their rings either coming back from repairs with the wrong center diamond, with needing ring repairs almost immediately after receiving it back from repairs or having their ring disappear all together. According to Buzzfeed's calculations, Kay's Facebook page received complaints between Feb. 15 and April 21 that the "inspection or certification records were misplaced," the ring looked worse or had a diamond of lower quality, and the ring had been lost after repairs.

Since the reports started coming out about the damages, stock for Kay's parent company, Signet Jewelers, has plummeted. Specifically, Signet shares have dropped from just over $108 a share on May 25 to $86 on June 6. But it's hard to tell if Signet's drop in price comes from these reports or from a report in "Grant's Interest Rate Observer" that questions Signet's "heavy use of in-store financing for diamond purchases, and said its competitors are poised to take market share from the jeweler," a separate Buzzfeed article read.

According to the Buzzfeed report, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been investigating companies like Signet that are not banks that offer consumer loans. Because of complaints about Signet's debt collection methods, Buzzfeed reports that analysts at Height Securities say Signet's actions "could lead to the agency taking action."

"Grant's said a review of complaints filed with the CFPB shows consumers alleging the company made harassing calls to work phone numbers and reported incorrect information to credit bureaus," Buzzfeed reports. "Almost 3,300 personal bankruptcy filings listed Signet, or a Signet brand like Kay, as a creditor in the second quarter of this year alone."

In a letter sent to Buzzfeed about the organization's recent reports, Signet Jewelers criticized the report, saying that the claims made in the reports were overblown.

"We strongly object to recent allegations on social media, republished and grossly amplified, that our team members systematically mishandle customers' jewelry repairs or engage in 'diamond swapping,'" Buzzfeed reported the letter said. "Incidents of misconduct, which are exceedingly rare, are dealt with swiftly and appropriately."

For Clarius, the damage has been done and she doubts it will ever be truly rectified because her wedding ring is no longer the ring her husband proposed to her with or the ring she was married with.

"Even if this gets settled, I do not believe I will ever get my ring back, the ring my husband proposed to me back," Clarius told Buzzfeed. "That makes me feel robbed and so disappointed."

While this is a tragedy for many couples, there is a bright side. Research suggests that men who spend more than $2,000 on a wedding ring are 1.3 times more likely to get a divorce than those who spend under $2,000.

The authors of the study believe that couples who spend more on wedding rings also put more stress on their marriage because they want their wedding day to be perfect. They also believe that this pressure to be perfect is perpetuated, in part, by the wedding industry.

"The authors of the paper hypothesize that the correlation between high wedding and engagement ring costs and divorce may have to do with financial stress placed on brides and grooms who are determined to have the perfect day, whether or not they can actually afford it," The Huffington Post wrote.

However, being perfect isn't necessary to have a great marriage.

Mary Laner, a sociologist at Arizona State University, found that having too high expectations for your marriage can actually damage your relationship with your spouse. By placing unrealistic expectations on relationships, the pressure weakens and eventually destroys the relationship.

"We think that our partner can meet all our needs, know what we're thinking, and love us even when we're not terribly lovable. When those things don't happen, then we blame our partner. We think that maybe if we had a different spouse, it would be better," Laner said to Psych Central. "Such irrationality can lead us to conclude that when the 'thrill is gone,' or when the marriage or partner doesn't live up to our inflated ideals, divorce or abandonment of the marriage in some other form is the solution."

According to Psych Central, Laner believes that the only way to avoid the thrill going out of a relationship is to be realistic about expectations within the relationship. Laner believes students need to take relationship education classes starting as young as elementary so when they become adults they have healthy expectations for their relationships.

"A colleague of mine once said that one way to approach this was to say to yourself, 'You can never expect too little of marriage.' But it's like any other partnership," Laner says. "You hope that your relationship is going to be a happy one, where you will be cooperatively solving problems and where the rewards will exceed the costs. Inflated expectations aren't going to do a thing positive for you. They're going to spoil things. You go into the relationship thinking it's going to be worlds better than it has any likelihood of being. When those expectations aren't met, the chances are pretty good you're going to turn your anger and disappointment outward instead of inward."

Abigail Payne is an intern with Deseret Digital Media and a recent graduate of Weber State University. Abby can be reached at apayne@deseretdigital.com.

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One study looking at obesity and a child's age suggested that the trend is slowly clicking downward while another argues it's not. Despite that though, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that childhood obesity is still an issue parents and school districts need to be addressing.

Among strategies the CDC suggests to prevent obesity is making healthy food choices and learning about nutrition with programs like Choose My Plate. While it's not always easy to convince kids to eat healthy foods, Elaine Magee, registered dietician and contributor on WebMD, said that involving kids in the kitchen makes healthy foods more palatable for them.

"It's true that including the kids in cooking meals requires time, patience, and some extra clean-up, especially when the children are younger," Magee said in an article on WebMD. "But many experts think it is well worth the effort."

Magee goes on to explain that it's OK if kids snack on chips or enjoy an ice cream cone now and again, the main thing is that kids eat healthy most of the time.

"Keep in mind that for kids today, healthy eating essentially means eating more fruits and vegetables, having whole grains and beans when possible, and choosing leaner types of animal foods," Magee said.

With parent supervision, kids of all ages can get involved in the kitchen from prep to cleanup. Here are a few ideas from lifehacker.com for getting kids involved in the kitchen:

Preschool cooks (2-5 years old)

Tiny cooks will need lots of help (and probably a change of clothes once they're done) from parents, but most are very willing helpers. Remember that young ones have very short attention spans, so small tasks are best.

• Stirring batter or mashing potatoes (this also helps build gross motor skills)

• Spreading peanut butter or jam on bread (this helps build fine motor skills)

• Cutting dough using cookie cutters (try this simple biscuit recipe from Paula Deen)

• Measuring ingredients

• Rinsing and straining fruits and vegetables

Elementary cooks (6-8 years old)

Kids this age still need quite a bit of help and supervision, but they're old enough to start doing some simple recipes or prepping ingredients by themselves or with a little help from parents.

• Using simple kitchen tools like a cheese grater or can opener (try grating with this zucchini bread recipe. This recipe is also a sneaky way to get kids to eat vegetables without them knowing it.)

• Cooking or preparing food using a microwave (popcorn, melting chocolate, frozen vegetables).

• Making cheese quesadillas on the stove.

• Whipping cream with a hand mixer (this super simple whipped cream recipe is a great one to have kids start reading recipes too. This recipe is simple enough parents can give more mature kids a little more independence in the kitchen.)

• Using a small knife or peeler to prep vegetables and fruits.

Intermediate/preteen cooks (9-12 years old)

Preteens are often mature enough they can start making simple meals, reading recipes and using kitchen appliances by themselves. Depending on a child's maturity, they should start feeling comfortable with knives and other sharp kitchen tools.

• Making simple cookies with limited supervision (Chocolate chip cookies are always a favorite, but shortbread cookies are an easy and versatile cookie).

• Making their own breakfast (including toast and eggs or overnight oatmeal, which provides an opportunity for kids to be creative in the kitchen).

• Cleaning, prepping and oven-roasting veggies (cooking times vary, test for tenderness using a fork).

• Making hamburgers for the family (this one may require more supervision, depending on if the burgers are cooked inside on the stove or outside on a grill).

• Cleaning up after themselves completely (dishes done and leftovers and ingredients stowed in the fridge or pantry appropriately).

Advanced/teenage cooks (13-16 years old)

Teenagers should be able to do just about anything they want in the kitchen with little to no supervision. They should have the skills to try anything they want, even difficult recipes like homemade marshmallows or French macaroons.

• Cooking pasta (biggest secret to this one is salting and oiling the water well. It's the only chance to flavor the pasta itself, so make sure the water is very salty and has a good film of olive oil).

• Making switches that are healthier (here are some ideas for making a switch).

• Or if eating healthy isn't their thing, making their favorite junk food instead of buying it (mozzarella sticks, corn dogs and fried pickles are the best, and they're cheap to make).

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