The Responsibility Project

Liberty Mutual

Responsibility. What’s your policy?™

Blog

Provocative articles and stories about responsibility.

Cold But Not Cool: Time to Close the Door?

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (0)

Cold air is a hot topic, as shops and stores across the country blast arctic air out their front doors, wide open, non stop. If you embrace the door-busting chill, are you a cool customer or an unwitting accomplice to an irresponsible environmental crime? A New York city councilwoman recently introduced legislation to stop the practice, but should wasting energy be illegal? Read full article »
Should You Drink With Your Kids?

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (4)

Parents are frequently encouraged to share more activities with their kids. But should drinking alcohol together be one of them? Is it time for parents to take a different approach towards kids and alcohol? Time Magazine reporter John Cloud says it’s a “good way to teach responsible drinking behavior”. Read full article »
Growing Up

Posted on July 16, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (0)

If you find it difficult sometimes to define responsibility, watch Growing Up and see four extraordinary young people go beyond definitions to live the word in truly inspiring ways. Read full article »
Just Rewards: Banking On It?

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (9)

If you do the right thing, should you expect to be rewarded? Yes, say three men in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The men—all city-employed water department workers—were on the job when they discovered an abandoned safe at the side of a road. The safe had been stolen by robbers who broke through the wall of a local bank during a winter ice storm. Read full article »
Review of New American Girl Movie

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Nell Minow Comments (1)

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl is the first feature film based the popular doll and book series produced by the Pleasant Company. Each of their dolls is a girl from a different period of American history from Colonial days to the 1970’s, and each character has books about issues and challenges specific to their eras… Read full article »
Too Old To Be Responsible?

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (4)

There’s an age when society expects people to be responsible—usually about 21. But is there also an age when people are no longer expected to be responsible? How about 73? That’s the age a California widower named Robert Pyle was when he made a series of decisions that triggered a financial freefall, resulting in the loss of his $650,000 home and $500,000 life savings. Read full article »
Fertility Treatments: For Convenience?

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (7)

Motherhood—achieving it and surviving it—is a perennially popular topic of blog discussions. But rarely does one comment continue to draw responses years after first being posted, like the following one has from a woman who wanted to undergo IVF fertility treatments as a matter of convenience. Read full article »
Needling Questions: Immunizing Kids

Posted on July 1, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (63)

If you choose not to have your child vaccinated against measles, mumps, chicken pox, and other infectious diseases, does your responsibility end there? It’s a debate that continues as the trend for not vaccinating children increases. Read full article »
Teen “Pregnancy Pact”: The Perfect Storm?

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (34)

The shocking news from the small fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts spread across the country and around the world: 17 girls from one high school were pregnant, part of a supposed ‘pregnancy pact’ in which the students intentionally set out to become teen mothers, with a vow to raise their babies together. Read full article »
Parenting or Spying: Who’s Watching The Kids?

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Kathy McManus Comments (28)

If you electronically monitor every website your kids view, secretly read all their instant messages, filter their TV viewing, restrict their incoming and outgoing calls, and track their movements by GPS devices lurking in their backpacks and cell phones, are you parenting, or spying? Read full article »