November 2007 - Posts

• If You Thought the Pink Ladies Were Tough...

  Posted by Kelly Mills

  I saw this story a couple days ago in a few places, and I just love it. A group of women in India--wives and mothers mostly--call themselves the "gulabi gang," or pink gang. They have uncovered corruption in grain distribution to the poor, and beat down men who attacked or abandoned their wives. And when I say "beat down," I mean it. Like, with sticks. First they try talking, and if that fails, it's gulabi gang kicking ass. In an area rampant with discrimination against the poor and women, the gulabi gang get things done.  The leader, Sampat Pal Devi, is a mother of five... Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 07:05 PM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: crime, india, poverty in America, feminism, gulabi gang, justice, misogyny

• ATVS Are Dangerous For Young Kids! Who Knew?

  Posted by AmyinMotown

  I am just shocked, I tell you, shocked, by this CBS News report that ATV-related deaths and injuries to children under 16 have more than doubled in the last ten years. Hook a lawnmower engine up to a bike, ride it over uneven terrain, and O-M-G! People get hurt! And kids are just so gifted with great judgment and realistic risk assessment skills, it's a fabulous idea to let them ride their little hearts out, right? Actually, says University of Arkansas radiology fellow Chetan Shah, not so much. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 04:04 PM with no comments Filed under: stupid parents, dangerous toys, ATVs

• Schools in Lockdown As Hillary Clinton Campaign Office Stand-Off Continues [UPDATE]

  Posted by Madeline Holler

  Schools near downtown Rochester, New Hampshire, are in a full- or soft-lockdown this afternoon pending a hostage situation in Hillary Clinton's downtown campaign offices. Some of the schools are releasing students only to their parents this afternoon as an extra precaution, while the rest of the area has been evacuated.   Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 03:35 PM with no comments Filed under: hillary clinton, political nanny, hostage, school lockdown

• Kitchenista: Kids Like Yellow Soup, Trust Me

  Posted by Karen Murphy

  When the weather turns colder, my kids start asking for squash soup. Of all the soups I make and there are a lot of them (because hello, soup - easy!) it's their favorite, hands down. Of all three, and when all three like the same thing it's either a minor miracle or it's something so awesomely yummy that I just have to share it with you. Because I like you so much. So here goes, the easiest butternut squash soup in the universe:   Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 03:34 PM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: kitchenista, soup, butternut squash soup, squash soup

• Crude And Unusual Punishment: Gas Prices Affecting Children's Healthcare

  Posted by makeitadouble

  The ever-rising cost of crude oil is affecting consumers in more ways than just what they pay at the pump for gasoline, which reached a National average of $3.11 in mid-November. Many common household items are derived from oil (plastic products, polyester, synthetic rubber and soapless cleaners just to name a few) which, coupled with increased shipping costs, is causing most Americans to closely monitor their spending and cut-back where they can. I think we’ve all felt the pinch and have tried to phase out spending money on unnecessary items and amenities like that $6 Starbuck’s Caramel Macchiato on the drive to work, certain name brand products at the grocery store and the health care of our children. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 01:45 PM with no comments Filed under: medical, health and kids, gas prices, sacrifice

• Judgment Day: Smackdown With Other People's Kids

  Posted by Karen Murphy

  There's nothing that provokes my inner lioness more than seeing one of my cubs beset by somebody else's kid. You know the type: the aggressive playground stance; the dirty face wth snot rivulets creeping ever downward; the flagrantly flouting of playground conventions and safety; and not a parent in sight. So what to do? Your toddler just got pushed down in the sand by someone else's kid. What do you do next? If you said race over there and pummel the kid into the dirt, you'd be wrong. Even though 98% of you aches to do just that. After all, it's your preshus baybayyy that got hurt! Must protect! Must propagate the species! But take the 2% that still has self-control and let's walk over and sit down on a bench for awhile and discuss this.   Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 12:50 PM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: kids, discipline, Playgrounds, other people's kids

• More On the Annoying Hot Pregnant Celebrity Thing From Maxim

  Posted by Kelly Mills

  When I covered Xtina's nude-knocked-up pics, I totally neglected to dicover that Maxim has a slideshow of the hottest pregnant women. It is, of course, not very interesting choice-wise. Maxim is generally boringly celebrity A-list fawn-y, only Monica Belluci is a good selection, and if you're gonna do it, uh, how can you leave out Gabby Reece? But leaving aside the merits of the Maxim slideshow selection process, I just feel even more annoyed with the pregnant-hot thing. There's the tagline: "When you're Christina Aguilera, you can pull off swollen ankles." Wow guys, thanks for your generosity in still finding your favorite pinups sexy even when they are with child. Oh, or Halle Berry's bit: "Descriptions like 'over 40' and 'with child' aren´t usually things we associate with looking hot, but Halle pulls off both better than anyone we´ve seen." Hmmm, why is this "we'd still do you knocked up" thing feeling just this side of condescending? Maybe it's also lines like this when talking about Naomi Watts...   Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 10:04 AM with 8 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, angelina jolie, MILFs, pregnant celebrities, christina aguilera, halle berry, sex symbol, maxim

• PSA For PPD

  Posted by AmyinMotown

  If post-partum depression got you – or somebody you care about – you know it's very, very real and nothing to mess around with. Researchers at Illinois State University are conducting a study that compares garden-variety depression and anxiety with postpartum depression. The study is in two parts— one for pregnant women past 26 weeks, and one for women 6 weeks to 6 months after giving birth. They are looking to see if a specific diagnostic tool used for regular depression predicts postpartum depression if given before a women gives birth. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 09:05 AM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: post partum depression, research, screening

• Apparently Kids No Longer Beaten Up for Liking Computers

  Posted by Matt Wood

  Pause for the annual holiday season hand-wringing: our kids are materialistic! But the more troubling part this year is that they don't just want the coolest bikes and the giggleinest Elmos, they want electronics, just like Mom & Dad. A piece from yesterday's New York Times points out that Amazon's Hottest Toys of 2007 list is loaded with high-tech gadgets like MP3 players, digital cameras, and mini computers. It then pads that observation with anecdotes from parents, tut-tutting from nervous pediatricians, and menacing sound bytes from toy flacks. The gist: our kids want high-tech toys, they won't settle for rounded, plastic facsimiles of the real thing, and they're all going to be fat, lazy, selfish, and get carpal tunnel syndrome because all they do is stare at screens and peck at keyboards. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 07:11 AM with 9 comment(s) Filed under: christmas, computers, technology, high-tech toys

• Coin-Eating Kids: Something Must Change

  Posted by Karen Murphy

  My younger daughter is really oral. Still. And at five, she was really oral. Even though she spent three and a half years with a nipple in her mouth (mine). Some kids are just oral like that, mouthing things, carrying things in their mouths, all that. So it was no surprise when one day she had a nickel in her mouth for awhile, just sitting there calmly, and then all of a sudden no one could find it anywhere, so the only possible explanation was that it had been swallowed. So we waited patiently but it was never recovered. But lots of kids require surgery or other emergency procedures from swallowing coins or other little appealing objects. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 07:52 AM with no comments Filed under: kids, preschoolers, swallowing coins, choking, coins

• Strollerderby Playdate: No, I'm Not Crying, Don't Look At Me!

  Posted by Kelly Mills

  If you recap my playdates, you'll see a theme emerge: I like funny. Smart funny, bitter funny, swearing funny, but always, always funny. I don't look for my heartstrings to be tugged or my humanity to be found. I just wanna get in, guffaw, get out. Wham bam. So no one was as surprised as me to be drawn to things that melted me more than I'd admit on a blog. Mike did it earlier this week on his blog, the bastard. And then, I went playdate cruising, and I found this. I thought...   Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 30 2007, 07:02 AM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Cry it Out, strollerderby playdate, dad bloggers, mom bloggers, redneck mommy, heartfelt

• Need to Pass a Drug Test? Use Your Kid's Pee!

  Posted by Karen Murphy

  Now this dad is a quick-thinker. Hoping to maybe think about the possibility of getting rehired at the Long Island trucking company that fired him three years ago, and knowing that his wayward ways with the hash pipe probably might stand in the way of his high aspirations, Brandon Costantino did what any good dad would do: he pulled his nine-year old son out of school so he could pee in a coffee cup behind a convenience-store dumpster. Problem is, some donut-foraging police noticed something funny going on and investigated.   Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 06:34 PM with 3 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, bad parenting, drug testing

• International Study: Family-Friendly Policies Work

  Posted by AmyinMotown

  Turns out that things such as paid parental leave, childcare, and work flexibility might actually be good for an economy –who knew? This report from the International Organisation (love the British S) for Economic Cooperation and Development compares the work-life policies in 30 different countries, comparing issues such as tax and benefit policies, parental-leave arrangements, childcare, after-school care, access to part-time and flexible working hours with indicators such as child poverty, the gender pay gap and the birth rate. The US scored fairly high, better or at the same level as the other 30 countries on all indicators except child poverty –interesting given the oft-cited statistic that we have the worst parental leave policies of all industrialized nations. The OECD suggests the following as elements of an effective public policy development strategy:  Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 06:10 PM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: work-life balance, families, public policy

• Stay-at-Home-Dads Raising Dumb Sons

  Posted by Madeline Holler

  Have I got some fuel for the Daddy Wars! (As a battle-weary veteran of the Mommy Wars – breast is best! breast is best! – I feel fully within my rights to fan the flames on the paternal frontlines). Forget about this guy who pulled the classic competi-mommy tactic of appealing to parents’ sense of responsibility and questioning their devotion to precious offspring. What really works in parenting wars are statistics. Like these:   Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 05:39 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: education, research study, mommy wars, daddy wars, stay at home moms, stay at home dads, U.K.

• Money Tight? No Conscience? Tap the Kids!

  Posted by AmyinMotown

  We've all been there: The bills are piling up, there's too much month left and not enough money, and the kind of credit card offers you get tend to feature words like "secured Visa" and "19 percent APR."  And there's your kid, all shining and pristine without a mark on his credit report….why not just send in one of those offers in his name? Okay, I have never been quite that desperate/skeevy. I'd guess the rest of you haven't either. But it's apparently not all that uncommon for parents or stepparents to "borrow" their child's identity to get credit in their name. Often, the fraud isn’t discovered until the child applies for a job, drive's license or their own credit, only to discover decades-old debts they never ran up. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 04:03 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: identity theft, credit, Bad Parent

• Asthma Drugs Under FDA Scrutiny

  Posted by Madeline Holler

  On the one hand, I should feel relieved that the FDA is cracking down on medications marketed for children, as they did in the recent recall of ineffective and potentially life-threatening children’s cough and cold medicines. On the other hand, what else are parents dosing their kids up with right now – at a doctor’s behest – that could someday warrant closer scrutiny? Like the latest treatment that millions of kids use to, uh, stay alive.  Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 03:29 PM with no comments Filed under: medicine, FDA, recalls, asthma, inhaled steroids, cough medicine, asthma attacks

• Hello. I Love You. Won't You Tell Me What To Name My Child?

  Posted by makeitadouble

  There is a recent scam movement affecting the agonizing plight of parents as they struggle to find the perfect name for their bundle of joy and it is the use of Baby Name Consultants. These crooks consultants sometimes charge overwhelmed parents up to $450 to tell them whether the names they have chosen are too hot, too cold, too hard, too lumpy or just right. Well, put those check books away and cancel that $300 half-hour call to that Numerologist you found on Craigslist because I am about to provide you with the down-to-earth honest answers those so-called professional consultants never would for the low low price of FREE! Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 03:08 PM with 10 comment(s) Filed under: baby names, advice, naming the baby, scams, consultants

• Things Fall Apart: Pre-Holiday Edition I

  Posted by Karen Murphy

  Look! I'm so confident that there will be further toy-related recalls between now and late December that I named this Edition I! Can you blame me? Because I think we can all be assured that the seeming endless parade of recalls is just that: endless. Today's selection? It incudes all the major toy groups: holiday-related stuff, strangling clothing, and our all-time favorite, the Lead-Laden. Care to join me? Let's take a walk down the aisle of disaster, shall we?  Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 02:51 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: toys, safety, lead, things fall apart

• Are Kids in the U.S. and U.K. the World's Dummies?

  Posted by Madeline Holler

  Let’s start with the bad news: fourth-graders in the U.S. haven’t improved their reading skills since No Child Left Behind was started. And the number of countries and regions whose fourth-graders are now better than their American counterparts has increased. A lot. The good news? U.S. scores are still ...   Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 02:03 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: school, no child left behind, literacy, international, U.K., surveys, U.S.

• Weekly Check-Up: Losing Weight Online

  Posted by Kelly Mills

  I started writing about exercise and weight loss in part because I just detested the usual tone of many fitness magazines: chipper, irritating advice handed down from someone yapping about what you should do in five simple steps to "burn fat and get a better butt--fast". Since then I have to say that salvation from the rah-rah you oughta blah blah can be found in the same place we've gotten an antidote to the preachy parenting books: online. There's some excellent fitness and health blogs out there, most written by people who have lost weight themselves or began an exercise program after being mostly sedentary, and they speak with the humor and realism of people who are doing this stuff themselves and have lived to tell the tale. Because we parents are often kinda concerned about fitness (wanting to losing pregnancy weight, needing the energy to chase our kids down the grocery store aisles, and so on) I thought I'd give you some good online resources for motivation, information, and laugh-ification in moving forward with a good program.  Women's Health did this highlight of fitness blogs... Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 12:43 PM with 3 comment(s) Filed under: health, fitness, weight loss, weekly check up, fitness blogs

• Are Families' Concerns Too Boring to Mention?

  Posted by Madeline Holler

  So you didn't watch the Republican debate last night? Good! Because it would have been 2+ hours of your life you'll never get back. Babble's Political Nanny did watch, however, and put together a summary of the major "issues" that the GOP presidential candidates tackled (when not verbally tackling each other) over on her blog, including the one question from a mom that related in any way to kids and families. I wonder when any of the candidates -- Republican or Democrat -- are going to talk about issues that are of concern to American families, because so far, they haven't. Are Iowans really only concerned about ... Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 12:19 PM with no comments Filed under: youtube, religion, families, CNN, Republican, God, Americans, debates

• Should Kids Fly Alone?

  Posted by Karen Murphy

  I've had more than my share of airline travel (ten years of standby travel while married to someone in the industry will do that). Way more than my share, and in it, I may have seen it all, or quite a lot of whatever "all" is when it comes to moving about the world inside a flying bus. And what I've seen mostly is that things get screwed up. And often. Maybe not often when compared to the sheer number of flights etc that take place even within a single airport in a single day, but when it's you that's affected, it's huge. And even worse when it's your kid. Flying alone. Where there are, sad to say, fewer protections in place than we realize. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 11:28 AM with 3 comment(s) Filed under: kids, airline travel, flying alone, unaccompanied minors

• Utah Boy's Brain 1, Antler 0

  Posted by Matt Wood

  Two things: first, look at that picture, and second, process this sentence about a five-year-old boy, "The antler went through his face and into his brain." Connor Schick was on a camping trip with his family in Utah when he found some deer antlers. He tripped and fell as he ran to show his parents, and the antler punctured his face near his left eye and went all the way into his brain. I mean, look at that picture. The antler was so freaking huge, it totally comes out the the X-ray even. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 07:24 AM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Utah, deer, antlers, brain injury

• Love's Labour's List: Music to Squeeze Out a Baby By

  Posted by Karen Murphy

  Once I had a CD of Pachelbel's Canon in D with a background of ocean waves. Yeah yeah, kind of new agey, huh? But I love Pachelbel. Er, or did. That was before I subjected myself to that CD during the two hours of godawful super-intense labor between arriving at the hospital and the birth of my younger daughter lo these 8 years ago. Pachelbel. Over and over. And over. I hate Pachelbel. 8 years in which I can barely stand the sound of Pachelbel's Canon in D, let alone amid the relaxing sounds of ocean waves. Seriously. What the F*CK was I thinking??! Fortunately you don't have to suffer the same fate, because the SD crew is at it again, and here are our picks for labor-worthy tunes:   Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Nov 29 2007, 07:26 AM with no comments Filed under: music, babies, childbirth, labor and delivery

• Teen's Suicide Motivates Fight Against Child Prostitution

  Posted by Kelly Mills

  I drove past our local high school the other day, and when I saw the kids gathered in small, rowdy clumps outside the school walls, I was struck by how young they are. "They look like babies," I thought. And I thought of them again when I