Strollerderby : Britain

Kids to Judge Britain’s Smelliest Cheese Contest

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:36:00 GMT

The UK has found an unusual way to make use of their country’s youth—as judges in the national smelly cheese contest. Contest organizers say they use child judges because children’s sense of smell is more acute than adults’, but I think it’s really because no self-respecting grownup would spend all day with his nose glued to hunks of cheese that make gym socks smell like roses.

But apparently Britain’s youth are gung-ho, as numerous eight to eleven year-olds have turned out to audition for one of five available judge seats. The Smelliest Cheese Championships (to be held on May 27, just in case you haven’t yet marked your calendars!) will feature 1,000 cheeses from 150 cheese makers. That’s a lot of sniffing for five little noses.

Next time your kid is driving you crazy, you could stage your own version of the smelly cheese contest at home: they smell, you eat—preferably with a baguette and a perfectly paired glass of wine. After all, when it comes to pungent cheeses, taste and smell are two entirely different experiences.

Photo: coldplaying.com

DNA Test Confirms 13-Year-Old Not Dad

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:42:00 GMT

A British newspaper is reporting that 13-year-old Alfie Patten is not the father of Baby Maisie, in a case that just keeps getting sadder and more bizarre.

The tests came after many other boys claimed they also slept with the mother, then 14, who had previously said that Alfie was the only boy she had slept with.

Says Alfie's mom, “It had not even crossed Alfie’s mind whether Chantelle had not been faithful to him. He’s absolutely devastated that these lads say they slept with her."

Does that sound like a very unsubtle veiled shot at the poor girl? As Intern Katy says over at Jezebel today, "We can only hope that this news does not stop Maisie from getting the love and care she needs or lead to further slut-shaming of the 15-year-old mother."

Word.

[photo: Mirror]

British Single Mums Forced to Name Father on Birth Certificates

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:55:00 GMT

A new British law could make it mandatory for single mothers in the UK to name the biological father on their birth certificates, unless they do not know who he is. Advocates of the law claim that this will make it easier to enforce child support payments and will signal “official recognition of the importance of fathers in children's lives.” But critics say the measure could endanger abused women, since it would allow estranged fathers to add themselves to the birth certificate.

Given that four out of 10 of the single mothers who give birth each year are teenagers, the law does seem like it could send an important message to teenage boys (and other men) that they are just as responsible for their actions as females.

But the potential backlash to victims of domestic violence seems to outweigh this benefit. As a charity for battered women points out, "A pregnant woman could, in theory, escape domestic violence only to find that her abuser has registered himself as the father of her child and has automatic rights to the child."

Photo: Upstream Gallery

Hospital Hangs on to Children's Bodies for Two Years

JeanneSager — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:40:00 GMT

It's almost the exact opposite of the stillborn baby thrown in a New Jersey hospital's trash - and just as horrifying.

When a British mother suffered her second miscarriage, she went to the hospital to see if she could arrange a funeral for little Jonah.

He had already been cremated, the hospital told her. But her first son, miscarried two years ago at twelve weeks, was still in the hospital, they said. Would she like him?

Leanne McCabe had been told baby Ty was cremated shortly after her miscarriage because of a British law that requires babies stillborn before twenty-four weeks be "disposed of" by the hospital, usually via cremation. Why she never returned for his cremains is unclear (although it IS clear she wasn't aware that his body was still lying in a mortuary two years later).

McCabe's discovery has since led to the hospital's admission that hers isn't the only stillborn baby awaiting his parents' final wishes to be carried out. Two more suffered what hospital administration dubbed a "delay."

I know it's coincidence that this story came up just over a week after the missing New Jersey baby tale. It's hardly a pandemic. But what do these stories say about how the world treats stillborn and miscarried babies? Do these hospital officials think they matter less or that the outrage would be diminished because the children never actually breathed in the real world?

Moms who suffer through miscarriage and stillbirth already suffer with the misperception that their grief should somehow be less because, well, "at least you didn't have a child and lose it." No, in many ways they didn't have a child - they had a baby who they never got to enjoy, but that doesn't diminish their feelings of love or the depth of their loss. And their children all deserve the same amount of respect in the end.

Image/Source: BBC

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Designer Baby Born Without Cancer Gene

Brett Singer — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:00:00 GMT

Pop quiz: you have a history of cancer in your family. You want to have children. Science has progressed to the point where you can alter your unborn child's genetics so that they will be born without the particular gene that causes the particular type of cancer in your bloodline. What do you do?

This is no longer a hypothetical question. A baby girl was just born in Britain without the defective BRCA1 gene, which causes cancer in 50 to 85 percent of girls, according to London's Daily Mail. That gene is rampant in this particular London family, who wisely chose to remain anonymous. (No reality TV show for those two.)

When the unborn are mucked with, controversy follows. Various Pro-Life/Anti-Choice advocates, such as James Dowson of LifeLeague, are against the practice, calling it a "slippery slope…It is designer babies. Screening for cancer is an emotive issue - my own father and grandfather both had cancer, so I know - but it is a dangerous road to go down. Today it is cancer, next year it will be IQ, and the year after that blue eyes and blonde hair."

I don't like the term "designer baby". It sounds like something you create in a lab. But isn't that what doctors are doing? I realize that I'm not offering a good analysis of the science involved here. The Daily Mail article is decent, and there is lots of information online if you want to read up on it. I'm going to stick with the more parenting-related issues that come up with this story.

I'm somewhat ambivalent about the idea of genetic screening, and even more hesitant to agree with genetic manipulation. Although I'm not a scientist (I even graduated college without passing a single science class, for what that's worth) I feel strongly that doctors can't possibly know what the long-term effects are of adding and removing genes from anyone, in utero or fully-grown. Like most Jewish parents, my wife and I went through the genetic screening process when she was pregnant, but declined to know all of the information that they found. It's one thing to check and see if you are a carrier for a horrible and incurable disease such as Tay-Sachs. It's something else to find out what the chances are that your child will contract various types of cancers. We decided that we'd rather not know.

And therein lies the core of the issue – choice. If a technique is available and medically possible, it shouldn't be up to me or anyone else to decide whether or not it can be used.

My ambivalence comes from the idea of trying to create a baby with traits that you pick off of a menu of human characteristics – "I'll have the blue eyes with a hint of hazel, and a boy with a strong right leg so he can grow up to be an NFL punter like Jeff Feagles." (Hey, Jeff Feagles is one of the best punters in football. And punters can play longer than any other position in the game because they don't get hit much.) This may sound silly, but I've read enough comic books and seen enough movies to know that messing around with genetics rarely ends well. Eventually some lunatic – Hitler, perhaps – decides to create a Master Race of Super Soldiers and starts World War III. Hm, maybe it's not just a comic book thing.

As with abortion, this is a religious issue. Conservative British politician Ann Widdecombe said, "'A lot of embryos have genes in them that could lead to nothing but them turning into perfectly healthy humans. Once again this shows a worrying precedent that man wants to play God."

This is the argument that nobody ever makes when it comes to the death penalty. But that's a different story.

What do you think? Is this just another issue of personal choice and women's reproductive freedom? Or is it more dangerous? And even if it is more dangerous, does anyone have the right to tell someone not to do it?

Source: Daily Mail

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The Demise of the Fairy Tale

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:30:00 GMT

Do you read traditional fairy tales to your kids? If so, you are in a dwindling group of parents. According to a survey of 3,000 British parents, Snow White and Hansel and Gretel are increasingly being replaced by happier modern favorites like Gruffalo and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 25 percent of parents choose not to ever read fairy tales to their kids and 65 percent do not choose fairy tales for bedtime stories.

According to the parents who object to fairytales, Cinderella is not empowered enough. Rapunzel is “too dark.” Little Red Hiding is a bad role model for kids because she walks alone in the woods. And one-tenth of parents believe Snow White is offensive because of the un-PC term “dwarf.”

I can certainly understand the need to carefully introduce your kids to fairy tales—some of them are pretty scary, and I’ll be the first to admit that being rescued from a life of servitude by a handsome prince is no healthy goal for a young girl. But if you’re going to shield your child from Cinderella so as to avoid imparting gender stereotypes, you would have to shield her from nearly all pop culture. If Little Red Riding Hood is violent or scary, even commercials for the latest Superman movie are downright terrifying. And if Snow White wrongly teaches young women the value of being the “fairest in all the land,” Bratz dolls wrongly teach girls to be the most scantily clad in all the land.

This is not to say that we should just give up on fighting media that gives kids the wrong messages, but perhaps Jack and the Beanstalk is not the best battlefield.

Photo: The Daily Mail

Teacher Tells Kids: Santa's Not Real

JeanneSager — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:59:00 GMT

Alert NORAD: Santa has been taken down by the substitute teacher at the Blackshaw Lane Primary School in Royton, England. The mean Ms. Grinch told her classroom of seven-year-olds that Father Christmas is a big fat fake.

And parents are complaining about campus security guards stepping in as substitute teachers? The sub told the kids "it's your parents who leave out presents on Christmas Day," when the class started to get out of control during a discussion about Christmas.

Because this substitute apparently needs a refresher course in how to deal with children, here's a quick lesson. First rule of Santa: Don't talk about Santa (unless you know kids' beliefs). Second rule of Santa: you know how this goes people.

Kids will eventually learn the big guy doesn't exist, and parents everywhere will lose their best-valued fall/winter behavior modification method. Most parents hope for later rather than sooner, and they hope the magic dies accidentally - not via a callous adult who decides she needs to shock some kids. If the kids were being rowdy, whatever happened to the good old-fashioned, "Santa's watching?"

Perhaps I'm just cranky because I remember my Santa dreams being dashed by a teacher too. Lying in the bed in the nurse's office because of a stomach ache, I could clearly hear all the goings on in the main office - linked to our nurse's station via a narrow, open hallway. The gym teacher, father of one of my classmates, was so busy checking his mailbox that he never noticed me lying there while he talked up what he had to do to get things ready for his kids on Christmas morning . . . including his massive production to make Santa "seem real." Wouldn't you know it - I was seven too.

Do you think adults have the right to throw this one at kids?

Image: PBase.com

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Dying Dad Gets Extra Time Thanks to Mystery Donor

JeanneSager — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:27:00 GMT

Finally, a bit of news that reminds us hedge fund managers are people too (the NASDAQ be darned). A mystery manager here in the states has ponied up the cash to fund the cancer treatments for a British father denied care by that country's National Health System.

Jack Rosser knows he will die, but thanks to the mystery donor, he may have as much as several extra years to spend with his toddler daughter.

OK, commence weeping. I know I shed a tear or two at this story, not least because the Rosser's diagnosis with an aggressive cancer of his kidneys came just days after little Emma was born. The Rossers should have been celebrating new life; but they were staring death in the eyes.

Rosser was told he probably had two years left, unless he began treatments with Sutent, a cancer drug which costs three thousand pounds a month (currently about $4,450). The medicine would give him extra time, but it couldn't save his life. It wasn't enough of a benefit for the British National Health System. The government told Rosser the treatment was off the table. Attempts to get him into a clinical trial were out too - he was told his cancer wasn't advanced enough. He'd have to accept death . . . and leaving his wife and daughter sooner rather than later.

When his story was highlighted by a group working to fight for cancer patients denied life-lengthening care (and highlighted by Bloomberg late last month), the man identified only as a hedge fund manager from the states stepped forward. He'll pay for the fifty-seven-year-old Rosser's treatments, he said, as long as he needs them.

"It's been such a fight and all I can say is thank you. He's given my daughter the opportunity to get to know her dad," Jenny Rosser told Sky News this week.

Perhaps someone could remind the National Health System - and nasty American HMOs - that sometimes the decisions they're making aren't about that one patient, but the lives around them too. A few extra months for a little girl to get to know her father can make a world of difference in her life.

Oh, and while you're at it, could someone pass me a Kleenex?

Image: Sky News

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They Say: Cosleeping Doesn't Cause SIDS

Miriam Axel-Lute — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:32:00 GMT

A detailed four-year study in southwest Britain on bedsharing with infants has concluded that when known risk factors—such as alcohol, drugs, or extreme overtiredness—are excluded, cosleeping with an infant does not increase the risk of SIDS (known in Britain as "cot death").

Reactions across Britain included from relief from midwives who now feel they can stop telling parents who want to cosleep not to and enthusiasm from breastfeeding advocates, as well as caution from anti-SIDS advocates.

One point the researcher, Peter Blair of University of Bristol, made that I hadn't thought of is that since falling asleep with a kid on a sofa is quite dangerous (loose cushions, places to get wedged), there is a risk from parents who dutifully put a baby to sleep in a crib, get up to feed it on the couch, and fall asleep again by accident. The proportion of SIDS deaths occurring on a sofa has doubled in the past decade.

Meanwhile, the study has received little to no play in the American media. Local American papers are still churning out stories almost every day about rising rates of "cosleeping deaths," with few making the distinction between risky behaviors and cosleeping itself, or if they do, burying it under sensational headlines and leads. One paper even wrote "the problem, known as 'co-sleeping' or 'parent rollover.' " At least this appears to have been edited online since I first saw it.

Here's hoping some sense will wend its way across the pond.

Photo by davef3138, via Flickr.

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British Teen Makes History with Siamese Twins

JeanneSager — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:31:00 GMT

A British teenager and her husband will make medical history this week, but all they're too frought with worry to celebrate. Laura Williams is just eighteen. When she delivers conjoined twins this week via a C-section, she'll be the youngest-ever woman in British history to give birth to Siamese twins.

Williams and husband Aled, twenty-eight, have been told their twins, already named Faith and Hope, may not survive past the two-week mark. Like most parents, survival for their children is all the Williams' have focused on since her twelve-week sonogram revealed the babies' rare condition. Tests have confirmed the girls have separate hearts, which alone greatly enhances their chances of survival. They've also revealed the babies are joined from the breastbone to the top of the navel, but little else. Whether the girls share any major organs - which will play a large role in doctors' moves immediately following birth - has yet to be determined.

Laura Williams has spent the last month in a hospital under constant monitoring, in part because doctors warned that carrying this pregnancy to term could prevent her from ever again having a child. She'll be transferred to a hospital in London this week for the birth. "It's scary every day and it's been the hardest decision of our lives, but if they're meant to be in this world and if they've come this far, we've got to hope they'll make it the rest of the way," she told London's Daily Mail.

To have the strength to go forward with a pregnancy that could not only result in losing your children within two weeks but also destroy your chances of ever again having another child is incredibly brave and highly personal. I can't find fault with the Williams' decision; I can only cross my fingers for them that their brush with medical history is also a medical miracle.

No matter the outcome, at the very least, they have Faith . . . and Hope.

Image: Buckles Family (another set of conjoined twins)

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Adoptive Parents Say: Boys Are Too Much Trouble

JeanneSager — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:57:00 GMT

When I researched an article for Babble on gender pre-determination awhile back, I heard a laundry list of reasons parents were choosing one sex over the other. This I never heard: "boys are too much trouble." WTF? According to an article in this weekend's Independent, boys in Britain wait twice as long to be adopted.

The London newspaper cites research by the British Association of Adoption and Fostering, surmising, "most people believe that frequent coverage in the media of boys as knife-wielding, cannabis-smoking gang members may fuel the reluctance to adopt them."

A strong believer in nurture over nature, I wonder what prospective parents are planning to do with these children in the years after adoption if these are the thoughts foremost on their minds. Do they not plan on being the sort of involved parent who works to keep their kids off drugs and out of gangs? The sort of parent who teaches their kids about kindness and generosity? The sort who works to raise a law-abiding little citizen?

On the flip side, have they watched any movies lately? Heathers, maybe, or Monster? As the mother of a little girl, I can admit I'm biased, but I look at some of the high school girls walking around the mall and grit my teeth. That, I pledge, will never be my daughter. And if, by some chance, she turns out to be the shoplifting, rabble-rousing, too-much-make-up/too-little-clothes-wearing teenage freak I see all too often (and somehow these British parents have blinded themselves to), she'll be spending a lot more time in her room, "thinking about her actions."

Because, ultimately, parenting has to weigh out. The experts paraphrased in the Independent say parents think girls will be "easier to control." An adult who walks into parenting worried about "control" needs to sit down and re-evaluate whether they really understand what they're about to do. It isn't about who controls who so much as it is how a family unit works together and grows together.

Whether they can help a girl grow into a woman or a boy grow into a man, they need to start on the same page.

Image: Amazon

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Father Can't See His Little Boy, But Can He Give Him His Organs?

JeanneSager — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:01:00 GMT

Imagine just finding out there's a little boy out there with your genetic make-up. Yes, he's your son. Oh, and he needs an organ transplant. One of yours would probably do the trick. But, sorry, you can't meet your son.

The plot of a day-time soap? No, this is the story of British dad Michael Shergold, who learned just recently that an ex-girlfriend hid her pregnancy and the subsequent birth of their child. A school caretaker, Shergold was divorced in 1996 after his first wife was unfaithful. He secured full custody of their three children, and raised them single-handedly. His first relationship after his divorce didn't last long, Shergold told London's The Daily Mail, because he discovered the woman had a drinking problem. They broke up, and Shergold moved on. In 2002, he even remarried, this time to Alex, a Pentecostal pastor who moved from Los Angeles to Britain the same year the couple were married.

Then, in January 2007, the Shergolds received a letter from Hampshire social services. Michael called the number listed. Their news? That ex-girlfriend had delivered a son four years prior. It was a shock to Shergold, who said he never even knew she was pregnant. After speaking with his wife, Michael agreed to a DNA test and immediately began planning to incorporate the child into their lives.

But the big shock was yet to come. The boy, the social worker told him, is in ill health, and his best bet for survival is an organ transplant. The best donor, doctors say, would be a close relative. Which is where Shergold comes in. The boy's mother had agreed to donate the organ, then changed her mind. She'd already given the child up to the foster system, and she said the transplant might affect her future chance at having a child. Shergold was the boy's only hope.

He said not only would he like to donate his organ, but he'd like to adopt his own child and get him out of the foster care system. The response? Sorry, no adoption. You can't even see him. But about that organ . . . The fight isn't over yet, and Shergold is still trying to make his decision. He's dealing with what some would call a parent's worst nightmare - knowing that his child is suffering - but he has been denied a chance to reach out and wrap that child in his arms and provide the comfort every parent most wants to give.

How would you choose? Although the organ wasn't specified because of legal issues (social services tried to keep the Daily Mail from publishing the story), the best I can approximate is giving a kidney to a long-lost relative you've never met. We don't usually do that - live organ donation is something we usually do for someone we actually know. But can you really say a child you never met is a stranger?

Image: Daily Mail (Michael and Alex Shergold and two of his children)

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6-Foot-Tall Lego Man Washes Up On Beach

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:25:00 GMT

Somewhere in Europe, a giant Lego family is missing a father.

Children playing on a Brighton, UK beach were stunned and thrilled to find a 6-foot-tall Lego man washed up on the beach, looking like he'd taken quite a swim. No one knows where the Lego man came from, though there are theories that he may have ties to a Dutch artist named Ego Leonard.

The Lego company was as surprised as anyone, though the giant Lego man's timing was impeccable: this year is the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Lego man, bringing police officers, firefighters, astronauts, and more yellow-faced, smiling men into Lego constructions everywhere.

Last year, a similar Lego man washed up on a Holland beach, bearing a grammatically esoteric slogan:

Take heed: the Lego people have spoken.

Photo (Right): Kent News and Pictures

World's Cutest Monkey Rejected by His Mom

JeanneSager — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:04:00 GMT

We might count monkeys among our relatives (shhh, don't tell Sarah Palin), but I'm happy to say most of us wouldn't do what a marmoset mom of triplets did to the cutest thing I've seen since my kid wrapped her arms around her best friend and puckered up.

The marmoset at a British safari park gave birth to a rare set of triplets, but with two teets and three babies, she did the math. Her decision? Bye bye little monkey. Fortunately for little John Wayne (because he's a quiet man? I don't know - he's definitely no challenge to the Duke in stature), the park photographer has stepped in to play foster mom.

John Wayne is barely the size of photographer Penny Boyd's thumb, and she has to feed him with a syringe at two-hour intervals throughout the day and night. Apparently newborn marmosets don't sleep through the night either (an inherited trait?). This is actually the second baby monkey Boyd has had to adopt since marmosets were introduced at the tourist destination. Elliott is older, but not much bigger - marmosets are the world's smallest primates.

She says John Wayne will make an excellent little brother for Elliott to play with. Let's just hope he doesn't get too cheeky.

Image/Source: Telegraph

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"GI Baby" Finally Meeting Dad After Sixty-Three Years

JeanneSager — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:32:00 GMT

Sixty-three years and an ocean separate them, but the English daughter of an American GI is finally going to meet her dad.

Heather Pearson was one of the tens of thousands of babies born to American soldiers serving overseas during World War II. Her mother was swept up in a whirlwind courtship with Private George Rish, married in March 1944 and became pregnant with Heather. Then Rish was called up to the front lines.

When the war ended, he called for his wife to join him in America, but passions had cooled. Heather's mom, Mary, decided to stay put in England. The couple divorced, and agreed not to contact each other again. You've got to hand it to them, they handled themselves with a lot more grace and decorum than Madonna and Guy. But what about their daughter?

Heather grew up with her mom, stepfather and a host of half-siblings. Her only link to her father was a faded black and white wedding photograph until an American cousin contacted her over the summer. The cousin, Dena, said her mother was George Rish's sister. Her mom had been looking for George's daughter for years, and when she died, Dena took up the cause. Rish, who is now 87, says he didn't have the resources to look for his daughter. Remarried after he returned from the war, he adopted a daughter with his second wife. Like Heather's mom, he made a new life.

Heather says she doesn't have any problems with that, never even really thought about her "real" dad until her own husband passed away. With her two children grown and parents themselves, she started to feel lonely. She made a few failed attempts at searching for her father on the internet, but came up short until Dena bridge the gap across the pond. She'll fly to the states next week to meet her dad. In the days leading up to the trip, she told the London Daily Mail she's both excited and overwhelmed.

It's one of those "wow, the wonders of the internet" stories, and one with a happy ending. Still, I'm a little sad for Heather. Her parents' dying flame kept her from ever knowing a part of herself. Joint custody battles are rough, but there's a reason they happen every day. Back in those days intercontinental flights were likely cost-prohibitive and overseas phone calls a rare treat, but couldn't some accommodation have been made for your child's sake? Was this simply the result of a different era, or another example of selfish parenting?

Image: Daily Mail

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Facebook Kicks Teddy Bear Offline

JeanneSager — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:01:00 GMT

Christopher Robin wouldn't fit in at Facebook. Winnie the Pooh's best friend treated his stuffed teddy bear like he was a real live bear. Facebook, meanwhile, has kicked a British teddy bear offline, stranding his growing friend list without a bear buddy.

Bartie Bristle's creator Amanda Middleditch put up the page as a "bit of fun." But the English bear shop worker says she got "a very abrupt e-mail saying they felt Barty could be somebody masquerading as somebody else and it could be dangerous." The page was deleted, and calls to Facebook by the British newspaper the Daily Mail were met only with reference to the social networking site's terms of use which cite a user must be at least 13 years old. Bartie is only 2.

Before you start creating a site for your daughter's favorite dolly or your son's beloved bear, take heed: the terms also warn against impersonating "any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent yourself, your age or your affiliation with any person or entity."

If your kids want to be friends with Bartie, they still can. He's found a new home at the Ning site, McBears, and his fan base is thumbing its collective noses at Facebook.

Image: McBears.com

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Mom Carries Teen Son's Urn Into Court to Prove He's Really Dead

JeanneSager — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:57:00 GMT

As if Julie Strange hasn't had enough heartache. The British mother lost her teenaged son, Paul, when he was hit by a train near his job at a bakery on Oc. 16, 2006. Then she started getting the letters.

The government said Paul had sold a vehicle and not properly reported it. They wanted their money. But Paul Strange didn't have a vehicle while he was alive, and he certainly hasn't bought or sold one since October 2006. Each time a letter came, Julie Strange called the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and explained her story. She even sent a copy of his death certificate.

Then baliffs came knocking on her door with an order for Paul to appear in court. So he did - in a small wooden box carried by his mother, a brass plaque on the top that read "Paul Richard Strange Died 16th October 2006 Aged 19 Years." The court and the DVLA issued immediate apologies, and the mother of two (still living) children is grateful the flow of letters across her doorstep will finally stop.

Government ineptitude is something we've all come to expect, but sometimes they need to step back and realize - a mother knows best. Watch an interview with Julie Strange here.

Image: Sky News

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Woman Makes Up 14 Kids For the Money

JeanneSager — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:08:00 GMT

They were shelling out for foster care for 16 kids, but the Scottish government left Catherine Semple alone for four years. When they finally checked in, social services found 14 of the kids didn't even EXIST!

The Glasgow mom of two began telling the government she was caring for five of her sister's kids and five foster kids in 2002. She told them she had a total of six of her own, then loaded a pile of supposed maladies on the kids to qualify for more money. The government gave her more than 69,000 pounds (in today's market about $120,000) no questions asked over a four-year period. Finally, in 2006, someone got suspicous. Wouldn't you?

Her husband claims he knew nothing about the fraud (or his supposed sown seed, apparently), and he hasn't been charged. Semple has offered to sell her house to make restitution.

I'm not sure which is more disturbing, that she bilked the government by making up a bunch of kids or that no one checked in on 10 supposed foster/adopted kids - many with disabilities - to see how they were faring.

Image: Amazon

Source: BBC News

News from Darkest Peru: Paddington Turns 50

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News from Darkest Peru: Paddington Turns 50

JeanneSager — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:05:00 GMT

The bear of very little brain may get more press, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for another bear of English origins. Pad dingt on bear is still looking smart in his little blue duffle and jaunty felt hat – despite today's celebration of his 50th birthday.

Tales of the bear with an especial affinity for sticky marmalade sandwiches have been translated into 40 languages and sold more than 35 million copies since it was first published by Harper Collins on October 13, 1958. So why do I still feel like he's tromping in his wellies far behind Pooh?

Born in Darkest Peru and raised by his Aunt Lucy after being orphaned as a very little bear, Paddington falls into the lives of the Brown family of London much like he does any of his goofy predicaments. He's sitting with a suitcase and a tag that reads "please look after this bear," when the Browns stumble over him on their way to collect their daughter from the train. Thus ensconcsed in their London home, he proceeds to show he's made of much sterner stuff than Pooh - getting into the types of troubles the other, more wussy, bear would think, think, think about and never get around to. As Paddington says, "Things happen to me. I'm that sort of bear."

They share a taste for sweets and the resulting stout form, and like the other bear whose moniker starts with "P," Paddington has also been immortalized on the small screen. But without currying the favor of the Disney magic wand, the ever-polite Paddington has kept a stiff upper lip in the manner of all things British and let Pooh get all the play.

But with news late last fall that a producer of Harry Potter (you know, that other British import that's made movie magic stateside) is working on a Paddington Bear movie, there's hope that some day all American kids will be looking after the bear as he waddles into middle age.

Image: PaddingtonBear.com

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JeanneSager — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:05:00 GMT

The day my daughter gets married, I won't be losing a daughter. I'll be gaining a title. Mother-in-law. It makes me shudder.

With my daughter banned from dating until she's at least 47 (less of a chance of her getting knocked up on the first date that way), it's not something I think about often. I'm not quite that narcissistic (I said not quite). Still, reading the story in Britain's The Telegraph over the weekend pronouncing mothers-in-law are no longer a joke, I felt betwixt and between about my very distant future.

The wife's mother, they say, is no longer stuck at home and thus in your face, telling you how her dear little Snookums likes his eggs and wants his pants pressed. Good to know - as I don't press pants and my breakfast-making skills are more of the "grab whole wheat frozen pancakes from freezer, pop in toaster oven, slap on plate with slab of butter" variety.

Because it's out of London (with a host of mother-in-law jokes I haven't heard stateside, better brush up), most of the statistics quoted in the piece are Britain-specific. But I'd imagine they'd translate rather closely to life on this side of the pond - they point to women getting married later, more women working, all social phenomena we're seeing in America. Of note? Mothers-in-law are spending less time with the grandchildren because of the changes.

It's meant to show they're butting in less, which this daughter-in-law supports, but it made me a little sad. If, by some miracle, my husband lets his little girl out on unchaperoned at say, 36, and we end up grandparents, will the fast pace of today's life have jumped to such hyperspeed that we never get to see the little munchkins? While I grew up in the same town as one set of grandparents, the town where the second set had a second house, my daughter has one set of grandparents living four states away. My own parents ask to see her frequently, but factor in my job, my husband's and the jobs of both of my parents, and there are weeks that go by without the schedules jiving just right for a meet-up.

If that's the kind of future for the new mother-in-law, I'd rather have the jokes.

Image: CopyBlogger

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Only 43% of British Moms Offered Home Birth! Outrage!

Miriam Axel-Lute — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:55:00 GMT

Here in the states, we know things are a little different across the pond. British nannies have a certain something, their weather lacks a certain something, and there's that whole royalty business.

But sometimes we forget just how deep the differences can go. Take maternity care. In fact, in order to avoid a rose-colored-glasses look, take what bugs Brits about their maternity care, as described in a government-sponsored survey, and reported under headlines like "Maternity Nightmares!"

The top concerns, according to one TV station that has done a recent follow up, are:

"43% of women were not offered a home birth
23% said they were underfed in hospital
36% were not offered antenatal classes
18% said toilets and bathrooms on wards were not clean"

Well now. Certainly dirty bathrooms and not feeding new mothers enough is unacceptable. Sounds like there's some serious funding and staffing issues at NHS.

But to American eyes that top item feels a little like hearing someone complaining about the freshness and flavor of their food while you're starving. Natural childbirth and midwifery advocates here would be doing a ~~little~~ major happy dance if anywhere near 57 percent of pregnant American women were offered a home birth. (Or, you know, even if fully trained home birth midwives were no longer treated as criminals.)

Even though the survey found only about 3 percent of British moms actually did give birth at home, even the mainstream British media clearly thinks having the choice presented to everyone is important. How strangely refreshing. Perhaps the AMA (which is trying to make home birth illegal) is overdue for a British invasion.

BirthChoice logo used with permission.

Brand Names Play Increasing Role in Bullying

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:25:00 GMT

A poll by the British Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that the products kids want to own are largely determined by a desire to be accepted by their peers. And this is an understandable, given that almost half of teachers report that kids who can’t afford the “right” clothes are ostracized or bullied.

While bullying is unfortunately as old as school, brand bullying appears to be on the rise. What, you ask, could possibly have led to this increase? Well, here’s a possibility: more than 70 percent of teachers say that advertising affects young people more today than it did 10 years ago, and almost all teachers believe that ads directly target youth.

Photo: Shoe Market

They Like Big Butts, and They Can Not Lie: Survey Finds Men Prefer Bigger Body Sizes

Cole Gamble — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:30:00 GMT

Drop that rice cake. I said drop it! For years, okay centuries, women have tortured, teased and starved themselves in the hope of reaching that ideal body size. One would assume this was all for the men. If that’s the case, someone should have asked the men, because ladies have been doing it wrong all along.

According to a body survey in the UK mag Fabulous, women claim their ideal body size is a 6. When asked, the men said they though the ideal female body size should be a 10. See the pic for a comparison.*

*These are UK measurements. Size 8 is equivalent to the U.S. size 6, size 12 is a U.S. size 10 and size 16 is a U.S. size 14.

Which begs the question, who have women been starving themselves for? When you ask your guy, “Do you like skinny girls?” and he says “no,” instead of reflexively calling him a liar and hitting him, maybe you should listen. He’s been telling the truth all along. So maybe it’s time to cut out the unending parade of diets and accept the fact men like women the way they look, maybe even more so with a few more pounds. And maybe before you ladies lose all the baby weight, take a second look at how thin you really need to be. The first round of fettuccini is on me.

For the record, I think all those ladies up there are hot.

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Pregnant Woman Apprehends a Thief

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT

The first thing 32-year-old Nadine Bevis did after she found out that she was pregnant was—stop a knife-wielding thief. Perhaps pregnancy hormones contain some crime busting agents.

Driving home from the doctor’s office, Bevis saw a man grab a boy’s bike. She immediately pulled over, got out of the car, and rushed toward the would-be thief. Even though the man was carrying two knives, Bevis was too pissed to be scared. “I can still see the boy’s poor little face,” she said. “He couldn’t catch his breath he was crying so much.”

Bevis blocked the assailant’s path, said, “Smile for the camera,” and snapped a photo of the man, named John King. Two other passersby then tackled the man to the ground, disarming him and restraining him until police arrived. King has admitted to the robbery and now faces a lengthy prison sentence.

The 14-year-old victim, who was very shaken up by the attempted theft, has said that he hopes he gets a chance to thank his real-life guardian angels in person.

Although Bevis realizes she was putting herself in danger, she has no regrets about intervening. “Too many people stand by and let this happen—I wasn’t going to be one of them,” she said. “Otherwise thugs will think they can get away with it.”

Not if there are any expectant mothers around, they won’t.

Image: Flickr

Teaching Rich Kids Not to Be Tools

Amy Kuras — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:24:00 GMT

I really hate rich people. Or, at least, the entitled asshole attitude so many rich people project – that because they are used to their staff jumping when they snap their fingers, that everyone else must do the same. And then there's the cluelessness about how the world works for regular people. Gah. Hate.

So I saw this article from the UK Guardian as a positive thing. Wealthy people in the UK, especially those involved in London's financial and banking industries, are beginning to teach their kids about philanthropy.

Demand is growing, both because of an increasingly professional approach to philanthropy in Britain, growing numbers of super-wealthy people, and increasing discontent over the growing gap between rich and poor.

Participants in the classes learn about different causes they may want to contribute to, the best ways to make an impact and how to set up charitable giving.

Courses range from three-hour seminars for individual families to 40-hour courses for a group of young people.
One financier who set up a course for his 11 and 13 year old children and gave them a 10,000-pound philanthropy budget said he did it to give them a little more structure and education about charity, instead of abstract notions of doing good. As they learned more, their interests shifted from animals and more abstract issues to children, and they ended up deciding to focus on fighting child abuse.

As our own rich celebs get more and more shallow and horrible (Paris, anybody?) it's good to see that some people actually believe in using money for good.