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• Babble Talk: Boozin' With the Kids

  One essay earlier this week got people fired up about nursing in a moving vehicle. Now comes another hot-button topic: Giving alcohol to children. In an installment of Bad Parent, Gretchen Roberts confesses that she allows her daughters, one of whom is 5, to take the occasional tiny taste of wine. As someone who writes about food and wine, Gretchen sees her pinots and zinfandels as a vital part of life, something to share at the table with the whole family. Read More... Posted May 02 2008, 10:02 AM by Jen Chaney with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: alcohol, babble talk, kids drinking, wine, Bad Parent

• Study: Alcohol May Lead to Breast Cancer

  Over the recent years it seems there’s been a tug of war between the supposed benefits of alcohol versus the supposed negatives. Who didn’t cheer when they heard the news that a glass of wine or beer is good for the heart? I and my heart jumped for joy, even though my liver was a little more reticent on the subject. Well, chalk up this news up to a big fat negative for you booze lovers... Read More... Posted Apr 16 2008, 07:00 AM by Cole Gamble with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: medicine, alcohol, breast cancer, wine, heart health, prevention, health study

• Babble Talk: Wine While Pregnant? Oui, Oui.

  After reading Rachelle Atkins' Dispatches essay on France and its parenting practices, I so want to move there. While she admits that the daycare situation isn't as specatacular as it's cracked up to be (though still far more affordable than what most Americans pay for childcare), she raves about the kid-inclusive lifestyle. But that's not the most important thing in the story. To me, the most significant point comes in paragraph five: "For plenty of French women, the notion of going without wine, cheese, cigarettes or caffeine for nine months is as crazy as saying a French man must go through forty years of marriage without taking a mistress." That's right: Pregnant French women slurp wine and chew on soft cheeses with no shame or guilt! If I may borrow a phrase from the comic genius Yakov Smirnoff (who is not French, but just go with it): "What a country!" Read More... Posted Apr 15 2008, 01:32 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, alcohol, fetal alcohol syndrome, babble talk, wine, France

• Your Kid Has Probably Tasted Alcohol

  I grew up in a house with wine. My dad managed a wine store for a time and was big into the swirling and inhaling thing. I know why different wines come in different-shaped bottles, and what "fingers" are in wine. And I was free to taste it any time and even have a glass of my own if I wanted. Which I never did. I mean, eww. An acquired taste, that, for kids anyway. I suppose my parents figured that there'd be little interest if they took away the forbidden element, and for me, at least as a kid, that was true. But you'd be surprised how many kids have tasted alcohol, and a good many of them have done so without their parent's knowledge. Read More... Posted Jan 06 2008, 11:08 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, kids, alcohol, new york times, wine, kids and alcohol

• What Every Parent Needs: An LCD Wine Thermometer

  Wouldn't you know it, it's a month and a half too late to buy this and call it my Mother's Day gift to myself, and a week too late to buy it for Father's Day and pretend it's really for my husband. The Carl Mertens wine thermometer clips around a standard bottle and within a minute, you're informed of the bottle's temperature. It's cleverly marked around the band with different types of wine, so even a novice can't screw up and serve the Chard too warm or the Pinot too cold. Absolute genius. I wonder if it works on baby bottles? Eh, probably not. But it's surely more useful than a damn wipes warmer. And I do have an anniversary coming up...  via Gizmodo  Posted Jun 26 2007, 09:29 AM by Patti with | with no comments Filed under: parenting, products, gadgets, drinking, wine

• Crafty Use For Wine Corks

  Quick, go dig through your holiday weekend trash and sift out all the wine corks, 'cause here's a way to keep your kids endlessly busy and justify your pinot noir habit at the same time: cutting the corks into ink stamps. Craft Chi is one of my favorite craft blogs, with ideas that often translate down into things the kids can do, and this is a perfect example. With nothing but an exacto knife and a little patience, you can turn your natural or synthetic corks into wee little stampy things, then set your kids loose with a few ink pads and a whole lot of paper. Amy at Craft Chi made several different shapes, any of which would tickle my girls. I'm thinking of trying my hand at the alphabet, and I bet I could make a rockin' little kitty head. Oooh, or a tiny engine and little individual train cars! I guess this means the end of my support of the screw top wine bottle. (photo credit: Craft Chi)  Posted May 29 2007, 04:29 PM by Patti with | with no comments Filed under: crafts, activities, wine, craft chi