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• Pregcellent: Before We Peed On a Stick

  Everyone remember the moment you saw the little double line on the stick or got the results of the blood test that confirmed, yep, gonna have a baby? (By the way, I know lots of people who gave their spouses the home test wrapped up as a gift, like "Surprise! We're having a baby!" but I wonder if my first thought would be, "Eeeek! That stick had pee on it.") Well, it wasn't always as simple as it is today with our drugstore modern conveniences blah blah. Behold: A history of wacky pregnancy tests. It is totally interesting (for a fact-dork like me) to learn the ancient Egyptians had a method of pregnancy prediction with 70 percent accuracy... Read More... Posted May 14 2008, 09:01 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: parents, fathers, mothers, history, pregnancy tests, pregcellent, pee, expectant moms, facts, ept, home pregnancy test, egyptians

• 5 Things You Swore You'd Never Say to Your Kids

  efore we become parents, it is easy to think of all the things we'll never do or say to our kids. Ever. Well, nothing like real-life to make certain phrases come tumbling out of our far-from-perfect mouths.  Here are 5 choice parenting statements we might wish we'll never say, but often do:   Read More... Posted May 13 2008, 07:02 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with 12 comment(s) Filed under: parents, angry parents, walk three miles in the snow, dumb parenting sayings, when parents lose their temper, ungrateful imperfect parenting

• Counseling Over Transgendered Third Grader

  When a third-grade boy in Pennsylvania decided to transition to being female, his parents asked the school for assistance with peer acceptance. The school consulted with experts on transgender children and asked a school counselor to hold sessions with 100 third graders to explain why their classmate would be taking a different name and wearing female clothing. The idea was to help the kids with acceptance and to prevent them from saying mean things.  So what's the kerfuffle?   Read More... Posted May 13 2008, 06:35 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: children, parents, bullying, child, girls, diversity, transgender, sex education, boys, counseling, peers, third grader, transition

• Best of FameCrawler: Week of May 9th

  Hello, Harlow! Sheyla Hershey's Got Big (Size FFF) Dreams Nicole Kidman: DUMPED Elisabeth Hasselbeck's Post Baby Bikini Bod! Secrets of How Celebrity Moms Lost Their Baby Weight Britney Finally Gets Her Boys Oh My God That Britney's Shameless: Oops, She Did It AGAIN? Pregnant Posh! Beckham Baby on the Way! Sarah Jessica Parker's Pregnancy News! Laura Fay Is N.Y. Rep. Vito Fossella's Baby Mama Posted May 09 2008, 04:00 PM by Whit Honea with | with no comments Filed under: kids, celebrity, baby, parents, dads, pregnant, Britney Spears, strollerderby, family, moms, secrets, diet, boobs, boys, body, Brazil, Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman, breasts, victoria beckham, david beckham, elisabeth hasselbeck, weight, movie, gossip, posh, famecrawler, joel madden, nicole richie, sarah jessica parker, hair, Hershey, Baby Mama, stars, best of, harlow, bikini, vito fossella, laura fay, swimsuit, sheyla hershey, post-baby, 34, hello, lyrics, sex in the city, cooter buger, lionel richie, n.y. rep, fff, spice, huge boobs, dumped, shave, implants

• Father-Son Commercial Heralds the Apocalypse

  So maybe a Meatloaf Jr. isn't that bad in the grand scheme of worldly things that would really suck, but it sure feels like it, especially when this insipid Go Phone commercial airs four or five times a night. Please tell me this is not Meatloaf's real son, because A. he acts worse than a bat out of hell, and B. that would lead me to believe someone actually slept with Meatloaf. Great googly moogly, people. This is one father-son song we could have done without. The only thing it makes me want to buy is a better remote control ... to change the channel. (And is that Tiffany singing harmony?! You should be running, girl, running just as fast as you can!) Posted May 09 2008, 11:29 AM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: parents, dad, son, meatloaf, commerl, things. that. suck.

• Did VF "Groom" Miley Cyrus?

  All joking aside, this business of Miley's half-naked pictures in Vanity Fair is raising quite a kafuffle.  And this fills me with great hope.  In a culture where young girls are modeling at 12, and being pushed into adulthood by age 13, it starts to feel like fighting to keep our girls Bratz and low-cut jeans free and innocent might be a losing battle. But Gawker suggests that something even more evil is going on here.    Read More... Posted Apr 29 2008, 03:01 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: parents, Babble, Vanity Fair, hannah montana, famecrawler, tween, miley cyrus, Billie Ray Cyrus, Achy Breaky Heart, oversexualized girls, Annie Liebovitz

• World's Shortest Memoir: Miley Cyrus Tell-All?

  I was born in in 1992 (or whenever) in Tennessee.  I love horses and makeup and boys and Facebook.  My fans are so kickin.  I was rocked to sleep each night with Daddy singin' "Achy Breaky Heart."  My Daddy used to have a mullet and now it's all grown out so he's hawt. My Mom is trippin and I like to sing and kiss boys and wear cute underwear. But Dad and Mom or so totally rude.  They won't give me MY money or let me and my new boyfriend post pictures of ourselves on the Web.    Read More... Posted Apr 27 2008, 07:03 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with no comments Filed under: parents, Babble, hannah montana, famecrawler, tween, miley cyrus, teen, Billie Ray Cyrus, Achy Breaky Heart

• Five Kinds of Moms and How They Mess You Up

  Jezebel reports on a new book by clinical psychologist Stephen Poulter called The Mother Factor: How Your Mother's Emotional Legacy Impacts Your Life. The gist is that your bond with your mom can have a big ol' influence on your emotional development, ability to form meaningful relationships, and so on. (Do the dads do anything? Cuz we should share the dysfunctional love!) Anyhow, according to the book, there are five kinds of mothers. This immediately begs the question: Which mother are you?  The five types are... Read More... Posted Apr 26 2008, 11:33 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, kids, parents, mothers, moms, therapy, psychology, relationships, jezebel, perfectionism, development, book, types, emotions

• Probe Uncovers Bad Behavior at Bootcamps for Kids

  A federal probe has evidence of shady marketing practices at "bootcamps" for kids, also known as residential treatment facilities or behavior modification centers. These places, in case you don't know, claim they can "rehabilitate" children and teens with serious behavior problems such as violence, defiance, and drug abuse. Since no kid in his or her right mind would willingly check into one of these joints, some centers "abduct" the kids with the parents' permission. Oh, and the federal investigation began with thousands of allegations of abuse, sometimes resulting in death.  What did the probe find?   Read More... Posted Apr 24 2008, 06:37 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: children, kids, parents, teens, discipline, insurance, punishment, abduction, bootcamp, federal, behavior modification, residential treatment facility, investigation, probe

• Advice You Should Have Been Listening To

  Based on Randy Pausch's distillation of all of the advice he wouldn't be around to pass on to his kids, the New York Times' Well Blog solicited the best parental advice that readers have received or given. The contest turned up some tidbits that I wish my parents had passed on to me.   Read More... Posted Apr 22 2008, 11:30 AM by Adrienne Martini with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: parents, new york times, advice, Well blog, tara parker pope, Randy Pausch

• Best of FameCrawler: Week of April 18

  CONFIRMED: Ashlee Simpson is Pregnant Nicolette Sheridan Pregnant At 70! Rob Lowe's Former Nanny Speaks Out David Beckham Really Likes Miller Lite and/or Ass Minnie Driver's Baby Daddy: Revealed! George Clooney Hates Kids. Yes, Yours Too. Ashlee Simpson, Pregnant and Happy(?) Jennifer Aniston Names Her Son? Tom & Katie Split, Fighting For Suri Ashlee Simpson's Baby Bump! Sort Of.  Posted Apr 18 2008, 04:00 PM by Whit Honea with | with no comments Filed under: children, kids, celebrity, news, katie holmes, parents, Babble, divorce, pregnant, Tom Cruise, celebrity moms, girls, Her Bad Mother, david beckham, George Clooney, baby daddy, tabloids, gossip, ashlee simpson, whit honea, famecrawler, jennifer aniston, custody, nanny, penis, bump watch, best of, ass, minnie driver, suri, son, baby bump, sassy smith, lakers, the adoption papers, miller lite, pete wentz, michael bolton, split, adopt, breaking, rob lowe, karen, sexual, rumor, hate, nicolette sheridan, sweatpantsmom

• Chuck E. Cheese Is Hotbed of Crime

  So what exactly is it about Chuck E. Cheese, um, entertainment centers that inspires violence and crime? Perhaps it's the infernal noise of fifty video games beeping wildly. Maybe it's the fact that there's a giant mouse walking around and everyone pretends that's normal, just like they do at Disneyland--and someday I'll tell you about the time the guy in the mouse costume actually groped me. It could be the animotronic creatures that line the walls, punctuating the din with even noisier singing and clacking (though to be honest, I don't even know if they have those animals anymore, this is a childhood memory we are mining here.) Could be the wretched pizza, the sticky floors, the crying and the ultimate frustraton that is skeeball. What the hell am I talking about? Well... Read More... Posted Apr 11 2008, 04:01 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: entertainment, activities, parents, crime, violence, police, birthdays, party, arrest, restaurant, Chuck E. Cheese, fight, brawl

• Best of FameCrawler: Week of April 11

  Bobby Brown: I Was Whitney's Beard Smoke Tom Cruise, Go Crazy Woody Harrelson & Owen Wilson Swim Naked? Tori Spelling's Pregnant Bikini Photo Heather Mills Sends 8 Pages of Instructions To Hotel for Daughter Bea Beyonce Bump Buzz Twin Bumps! Lisa Marie Presley & Angelina Jolie Tom Cruise: Leaving Katie, Taking Suri? Heather Mills Nude Pics Finally Surface Jamie Lynn Spears Goes Postal  Posted Apr 11 2008, 04:00 PM by Whit Honea with | with no comments Filed under: celebrity, twins, katie holmes, parents, angelina jolie, pregnant, Tom Cruise, gay, tori spelling, bobby brown, heather mills, pictures, pot, scandal, gossip, famecrawler, naked, marijuana, book, jamie lynn spears, bump watch, round-up, nude, bikini, suri, hustler, postal, photo, stoned, bea mccartney, presley, beyonce, woody harrelson, skinny-dip, baby bump, whitney houston, weed, smoke, owen wilson, lisa marie, beard

• Open Letter of the Month: Dear PR People...

  Greetings PR people! First, let me say I'm so glad you love the site, I appreciate that compliment. And I know your job can't be all easy, sending e-mails to bloggers and not knowing if you will be well-received or if some rogue is gonna mock the product or event you are pitching, though I suppose publicity is publicity. So let me just say a couple things and you can take or leave it, but I do mean this kindly. First, I should warn you that I'm not such a fan of receiving e-mails that start, "Dear Mommy Blogger." I know many are fine with that term, but even my kid... Read More... Posted Apr 08 2008, 06:35 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Celebrities, products, parents, dads, moms, stereotypes, daddy blogger, sexism, mommy blogger, PR, posts, open letter, titles, mocking, public relations, letters

• OK! The dog didn't eat my homework! Don't shoot!

  "Hi honey, what happened at school today?" "Nothing much. Oh wait. Someone found a handgun. Can we stop at McDonald's?" One of Jayne DeArmond's students was looking for something in a drawer and found – wait for it – a handgun. It wasn't loaded, but there was ammo. The teacher was arrested and is out on bail. Read More... Posted Apr 06 2008, 02:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with no comments Filed under: parents, guns, teachers, students, elementary school, guns in school, third grade, Jayne DeArmond, handguns

• 100 years old, 100 miles per hour

  I used to say that if I lived to be 100, I hope I can at least feed myself. But Gordon Miller has raised the bar by going 100 miles per hour on land and sea for his 100th birthday. Details after the jump. Read More... Posted Apr 05 2008, 03:06 PM by Brett Singer with | with no comments Filed under: parents, birthdays, cool stuff, speed, boat, 100 years old, feel good stories, car

• Best of FameCrawler: Week of April 4

  Kate Hudson Is a Strict Mom Video of Celebrity Babies with Secret Super Nanny: The FameCrawler April Fools Robin Williams and His New "Nanny" Katie Holmes' New Haircut: Fug, Or Just Sorta Fug? Courteney Cox Wants Another Child Jamie Lynn Spears in Hustler! Future Mother Of George Clooney's Children Skanks It Up Piping Hot: Giada De Laurentiis Has a Baby Girl Suri Sighting! Suri Sighting! The Bonham-Carter-Burtons Talk a Walk With Baby   Posted Apr 04 2008, 04:00 PM by Whit Honea with | with no comments Filed under: children, boy, celebrity, Kate Hudson, baby, blog, mom, Sex, katie holmes, parents, divorce, dads, Tom Cruise, video, porn, George Clooney, gossip, famecrawler, nanny, Juno, jamie lynn spears, famous, goth, romance, bump watch, round-up, baby on blog, daughter, new baby, April Fools, April, suri, time burton, haircut, courteney cox, robin williams, giada de laurentiis, hustler, sweeney todd, arquette, secret, girl, son, celebrity mom, new style, girlfreind, helena bonham-carter, wanting another child, spears, super nanny

• Puff the Magic Bully Stopper

  Peter Yarrow (one-third of Peter Paul and Mary) is doing his part to stop bullying in schools with Operation Respect. This isn't a dopey updating of PPM tunes (although I admit I wouldn't mind hearing, "If I had a hammer / I'd use it on a bully..."). Yarrow seems to be doing something very specific and positive to address bullying in schools. Read More... Posted Apr 04 2008, 11:15 AM by Brett Singer with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: education, video games, parents, bullying, bully, teachers, cyberbullying, operation respect, bullie, peter yarrow, educational programs

• Pregcellent: Vacant Womb For Rent

  First off, I'd like to say that anyone who goes into being a surrogate strictly for the money has chosen a very challenging way to make a buck, because being pregnant is no picnic. But as this Newsweek article on the lives of surrogates points out, many women are also motivated by a desire to help others and to contribute something meaningful to the lives of couples who want kids. And the stereotype of the rich woman who wants a baby but not the stretch marks and thus hires a surrogate is strange also, since I can't imagine what would be more challenging than entrusting another person with your offspring before they are even born. So I doubt that one is founded much in reality either. The article, which chronicles the stories of a number of women who became surrogates, touches on the controversies surrounding the practice... Read More... Posted Apr 02 2008, 06:33 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, parents, mothers, laws, Europe, infertility, moms, Conception, sperm, stereotypes, childrearing, pregcellent, newsweek, gestation, egg, DNA, surrogates, contracts, couples

• Bullying Makes The Front Page

  The New York Times put Dan Barry's Monday column on the front page, which would indicate that someone at the paper of record thinks that bullying is a big deal.  This particular story is pretty horrible: apparently Billy Wolfe of Fayetteville, Arkansas has been getting regular beatdowns for the past three years, sometimes so bad that he required medical attention. Although I agree with this blogger that Barry's article doesn't try to show two sides of the story, it's clear that Billy is a target for repeated abuse. The article opens with... Read More... Posted Mar 25 2008, 09:29 AM by Brett Singer with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: education, video games, parents, bullying, bully, new york times, teachers, bullies, lawyers, lawsuits, legal, billy wolfe, cyberbullying

• Vice Principal Makes Kids Eat Off the Floor

  Sometimes I feel like a bit of a tool for reporting on all these wretched teachers and school administrators when there's plenty of decent ones who don't make the news, but I find these stories strangely compelling. Maybe it's the sense of anxiety I have as a parent, sending off my kid and telling her to listen to other adults who I may or may not always agree with. And I can guarantee you I would not agree with anyone making my child eat off the floor as punishment, as one vice principal at a Philadelphia elementary school did. Part of what makes this story particularly wretched is that it sounds like these kids were particularly vulnerable...  Read More... Posted Mar 07 2008, 06:28 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: education, parents, discipline, teachers, punishment, abuse, principal, fifth grade, elementary school, school administration, immigrant, ESL

• Dispatch from the Parent Wars: Who is Right?

  Take a look at this picture.  Slim lines, sweaty and taut, probably post-coital.  Perhaps Mom and Dad after fighting about who needs to pick up Billy from daycare?  Likely not...   Everyone knows the only people fighting about parenting philosophies are mommies. Not parents (and certainly not parents who look like this).  Mommy Wars imply that the only people fighting and disagreeing about raising chilluns are women, when in fact the real war is between parents.   Read More... Posted Mar 03 2008, 07:05 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: parents, Babble, mommy wars, fighting, strollerderby, Slate, parent wars, sexy parents

• Parents Spent $3,000 On The Kid's First Birthday Party

  A while ago the parenting story of the day was paring down parties for kids, and how these celebrations should be small and cost nothing and we should all forgo the party favors. There was even an online movement called Birthdays Without Pressure, for people who were kinda grossed out by the excesses of it all, and the word on the street was that big parties had more to do with competitive parents than the kids. At the time, I came out in defense of the lavish affair. However, I'm here to tell you I do have my limits, and they are definitely shy of this one-year-old's birthday.  How do you spend that much on a kid birthday? These parents did it by renting a room at a country club...   Read More... Posted Feb 25 2008, 04:35 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: parents, parties, toddlers, money, birthdays without pressure, birthdays, expensive, party, magician, one year old, pony rides

• Parents Love First-Borns More?

  That is, if love equates to "quality time." New study blah blah blah says that first-born kids get more of mom and dad's time than the rest of the brood. Um, like this is news? Any parent-of-one upgrading to parent-of-more-than-one knows it's an exponential leap in the time and energy required, not to mention, weirdly, the number of baby wipes consumed. But I was still kind of staggered by the numbers: Read More... Posted Feb 22 2008, 07:33 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: kids, parents, families, birth order, first-born

• Parents and Teens Don't Recognize Weight Problem

  Yet another study found that parents of overweight teens don't identify the kids as being overweight, and the kids don't see a problem either. There's been a whole slew of these "parents don't know kids are fat" things lately. When both groups were asked if they thought the adolescents, who all have type 2 diabetes, were "very overweight, slightly overweight, about right, slightly thin, or very thin?" only 41 percent of the parents and 35 percent of the kids reported 'very overweight', even though 87 percent were considered overweight by accepted standards. The researchers say this is a problem because recognition of a weight problem is the first step in making lifestyle and diet changes. But, well, I gotta cry "bullshit" on this one. Frankly, I still do have some trouble accepting the premise that in this weight-obsessed society, the teenagers involved don't have any idea they might be overweight, even if the parents are blind to it. But... Read More... Posted Feb 19 2008, 03:32 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: health, research study, parents, teens, obesity, overweight, disease, eating disorders, weight, diet and exercise, adolescents, type 2 diabetes

• Your Permission to Deny is Granted

  Kids today. Man, they have it so much better than we did. After all, they have, well, us, and we rock. I mean, you do. Definitely. And you know why? Cuz you have not given in. You have not caved. You, my friend, are on the Cutting Edge of Parentdom. Which means you are doing exactly what your parents did. Welcome to the twisted little world of parenting! Where you find out that your parents were, after all, right. And this is why:   Read More... Posted Feb 04 2008, 09:02 AM by Karen Murphy with | with no comments Filed under: parenting, kids, parents, saying no

• New Reality Show: Lovie Hunt!

  Given that the networks have to lean on reality TV until the writer's strike is resolved, here's my pitch for the Hot! New! Concept! It'll grab more ratings than Survivor and American Idol -- combined! Read More... Posted Jan 08 2008, 01:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: parents, lovie, searches

• Baby Skeleton In Trunk and Mom Secrets

  This story has been fascinating me for a couple days: Some grown siblings were cleaning out their mother's house after she died in early December. Under the bed they found an old suitcase, and in the suitcase they found some of their mother's clothes and, oh, a baby skeleton. The infant was determined to have been born at 35 weeks gestation, was dressed in a smock, and curled in the fetal position. There were no signs of trauma to the infant, but there's an ongoing police investigation.  The siblings who found the skeleton say they didn't recognize the suitcase, but... Read More... Posted Jan 03 2008, 10:31 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: infant, Sex, parents, moms, secrets, police investigation, family secrets, suitcase, remains, experimentation, skeleton

• Parents stress teachers out

  It turns out that it's not the kids or the administration or "no child left behind" or the chalk dust or the rotten apples that burn teachers out, it's the parents. Or, at least, it's German parents, given that that's where the latest round of reasearch is from. Perhaps it's not too far of a leap to apply these results to the U.S. system, even if we don't have an autobahn or the Reinheitsgebot. Read More... Posted Jan 02 2008, 04:49 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: parents, teachers, students, public school, Germans, burnout

• When Do You Finally Become a Grownup?

  Those crazy kids today; what will they think of next? Apparently what was de rigeur back in the day of my parents, who married at 20 while still in college and began a family at the relatively late-for-the-time 28, is Old News. Passe. And when I was in college it was pretty well understood that when you graduated, you got a job and started living Real Life. But no longer. Because even when you can drive and vote and get killed in war and drink legally, you still may have yet to pass the real tests of adulthood: Read More... Posted Dec 14 2007, 10:04 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: kids, parents, college, grownups, adulthood