Strollerderby : australia

The Mystery of the Toy Droppers

JeanneSager — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:26:00 GMT

Ever see a toy lying on the sidewalk and feel sorry for the child who dropped it? You might want to look a little closer.

A mysterious Australian group that calls itself The Toy Society has jumped across the ocean to the states, where they've started dropping their handmade toys for you to find.

"Nothing to it really just a bunch of handmade toys looking for a nice home," according to the society Website, but a look-see at the hundreds of toys dropped (they upload pictures and locations to their blogspot) and responses from excited kids who've found the toys show this is much more than "nothing."

What is simply is the premise. They make toys, attach a tag that says "Take me home. I'm yours," and drop them in random places around the world. Lucky finders have written in by the droves, some sending pictures of themselves, their kids and their finds with the happy news of little kids whose smiles got brighter thanks to a new toy and the kindness of strangers.

Although its creators are in Australia, their generosity has prompted mini sections to crop up here in the states, in Germany, Slovenia, Guatemala and a slew of other countries. As one recent finder noted, the Toy Society taught them a "priceless lesson in receiving." "I am going to hang the little toy somewhere so it can remind me every day about being open to the gifts of the universe."

Check out the society for a look at all the grinning kids and find out how you can get in on the giving. If only I was crafty enough to make my own handmade toys!

Image: The Toy Society - the new owners of "Lucky" the rabbit, with their real rabbit, Vickie

Australian Kiddie Show Star Appears In Laddie Mag

Brett Singer — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Imagine, if you will, a favorite children's TV show host. In her underwear.

In the case of Kellie Crawford, you don't have to imagine it. Because it happened. Crawford used to be part of the Australian children's television show and music group "Hi-5"; she was replaced by Lauren Brant. (I didn't know any of this, by the way, I just looked it up online.) There's also an American version, in case you were wondering. As far as I know, there are no photos of those performers in their undies.

So what's the fuss? According to News.com.au, "Family groups say Crawford is sending a negative message to little girls." (Presumably little boys just think she's hot? That topic was unaddressed.)

In an interview, Ms. Crawford talks about how she "stripped to her smalls" in Ralph Magazine because she wanted people to see her as something other than a children's performer. As for young "Hi-5" fans seeing the photos, Crawford says that she wouldn't let her kids look at Ralph. (Magazine, that is. Nader, maybe. Well, he can be scary to young children. But I digress.)

This isn't a new phenomenon. Teletubbies star Pui Fan Lee (she played Po) is apparently naked on the British series "Metrosexuality". I guess you can't see her face in the costume. And let's not forget the terrible scandal that ensued when (NOT SAFE FOR WORK) this video of Woody from Toy Story saw the light of day.

OK, that last one was a parody. The Teletubbies thing is real, as far as I know.

The thing is, who cares? Are kids really going to see this magazine? If they do, that's their parents' fault for letting them. Right?

Would you be upset if Nitya Vidyasagar from Sesame Street were to do a photo spread in Maxim once her time on PBS is done? Personally, I think it's her business what she wants to do with her business. (Note: I have no idea what Ms. Vidyasagar's career plans are, I'm only using her as an example since she's currently on the air.)

So what do you think? Does it matter if kiddie performers do more "adult" work?

Image: HottiesInTheNews via Buzzfeed

See all of the photos of Kellie Crawford at Ralph Magazine's web site. They're not really safe for work.

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Homebirthing Advocate's Baby Dies During Homebirth

Brett Singer — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Janet Fraser is a big advocate for homebirth. She is described as "one of the principals behind the homebirth organization Joyous Birth," and goes so far as to call C-sections and episiotomies "birthrape." "I don't care if you don't like the word or the idea," she writes in an article on the site. "Survivors are angry and we are starting to talk about it."

Sadly, Ms. Fraser lost her baby during a recent homebirth. One site says that she had been in labor for "several days" at her Australian home. The Age had published an interview with Fraser a week before, in which she stated that she planned to deliver "the baby at home without an attending midwife," prompting The Australian College of Midwives to say that she "recklessly" promotes "free-birthing," which is where the mother gives birth alone, according to London's Daily Mail. (If that's not a good description of free-birthing, let me know and I'll update this article.)

The Age reports that police are investigating the newborn child's death. At press time authorities were unsure if the baby died after delivery or was stillborn; in the latter case, there is no autopsy.

It's tremendously sad when this happens of course, no matter where the birth occurs. It never occurred to my wife and I to have a homebirth, but of course millions of people do it and everything turns out fine. Medpie offers some statistics that are alarming, such as one study that found "an infant mortality rate of 2.2 per thousand for home births and 0.7 per thousand for hospital births in Sweden." They interpret these numbers as saying that "having a home birth resulted in a preventable death of the infant in one out of every 666 cases," which they call "not a reassuring number." But again, I'm not trying to say that homebirthing is automatically a bad idea. It's a choice, one that should be taken very seriously.

The real problem with Fraser's views isn't the views themselves but the way she expresses them. She's clearly angry, and may have reason to be. But as with those who are strong proponents of breastfeeding, it's better to advocate rather than attack anyone that may do things differently than you do. C-sections are sometimes medically necessary. Is that a "birthrape"? The rest of the site appears to be equally high in volume, such as this page about C-sections which makes the claim "The fact is that surgery is a suboptimal way to be born and that most surgeries are not for evidence based reasons," (emphasis not added), and advises mothers to "Put your anger where it belongs - with your surgeon." Because yelling at your doctor is an excellent way to get better healthcare.

With the obvious tragedy of what happened to Ms. Fraser's baby, it seems uncouth to really go after her with the same level of vituperativeness that she displays on the Joyous Birth site. And one sad event does not mean that every homebirth is a bad idea. But it seems fair to take a moment to suggest that the best course of action, when lives are at stake, is to take a deep cleansing breath and consider all of your options, rather than act out of anger or any sort of revolutionary zeal.

Source: medpie.com, others

Image from here

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Dad Finds Kidnapped Kids in a Week, Cops Tried for Six Months

JeanneSager — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:50:00 GMT

I've got a hearty respect for the boys (and women) in blue. With two state troopers in my family, you don't hear me saying a whole lot against the cops.

But to the police who spent six months searching for two boys kidnapped by their mother . . . only to be shown up by dad, who found them in a week, I've got to ask: what were you doing all this time?

The boys, ten and eleven, went missing from their Australia home when their mom, a Swedish citizen, grabbed them and ran in October. Suspected to have returned to her native Sweden, the mom became wanted there, and police started searching for the boys.

But after six months of waiting in Australia for word, Dad decided he'd had enough. He hopped a plane from Melbourne, rented a car and parked it outside the home of the boy's grandparents - the parents of their mother. He says now he had a hunch they were harboring the fugitive mother. Let's hear it for dads' intuition!

He was right. After a week of staking out the place, he snuck up to the door late one night only to hear the voices of his sons inside. He called the cops, who raided the house and came up with the fugitive mother and the missing boys. Mom is now in custody, and the boys are back with dad.

It's got a happy ending, but isn't this kind of obvious? When someone goes missing, don't you check with their parents first? I don' tknow about you, but I'd like to think my kid would come to me first if she were in trouble!

Image: TheSimpsons

Family Dog Survives Four Months on Desert Island

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:00:00 GMT

An Australian cattle dog named Sophie has lived through a harrowing experience that has her owners marveling over the powers of adaptability and unconditional love. Last November, Sophie fell overboard while on a family sailing trip off the coast of Australia. After more than an hour of searching, her owners sorrowfully resigned themselves to Sophie’s death by drowning or sharks.

But four months later, they learned that rangers on the remote island of St. Bee had captured a seemingly wild dog. The dog, who was surviving off of baby goats, had become so ferocious that it took several months for rangers to capture her. They carried the caged dog to the Australian mainland, where Sophie’s owners were eagerly waiting to see if she was their lost pet. And sure enough, as soon as they called to her, the snarling wild beast turned back into loving Sophie, whimpering and running to lick and cuddle her family.

Animal experts are amazed at Sophie’s adaptability. Though she had been a house pet all her life, she managed to swim five nautical miles to shore and then survive in a harsh climate home mainly to koala bears.

And her transition back to home life has been just as impressive. After four months of not allowing any humans to come near her, Sophie immediately resumed her old life of eating food from a can and sleeping happily on the family bed.

Photo: MSNBC

Wife Set Husband's Genitals On Fire, Charged With Murder, Endangering Life

Brett Singer — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:58:00 GMT

Rajini Narayan, the woman who lit her husband's penis on fire in December because she saw him hugging another woman (it's not alleged because she confessed), will now face murder charges because her husband died after the incident. The "endangering life" charges are because her three children were home when she poured "an alcohol-based solvent" on his genitals and then lit them on fire. That fire spread to the rest of the house, as well as the townhouse next door, causing over 1 million dollars (Australian, about $711,000 U.S.) in damage, according to MSNBC.

Narayan said that she wanted to burn her husband's penis, "so it belongs to me and no one else." Narayan and her attorney maintain that she did not want to set the house on fire or put anyone else in danger.

I have two thoughts whenever I hear about a story like this. (Not that I've ever heard a story with these exact details, but stories that are somewhat similar.) First, shouldn't she be entering a plea of insanity? How is it not insane to light someone's genitals on fire, especially if you then say that you didn't think the fire would spread? Are you unfamiliar with the way fire works? The second thought, clichéd though it may be, is for the kids. How can they move on after something like this? What do you say to them about how their father died?

Remember the Phil Hartman case, where his wife killed Phil and herself? They had kids. Every time I see an old SNL bit with Hartman I think about those kids. I've never looked up whatever happened to them, it's just… sad.

Source: MSNBC
Image: news.com.au

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Kid and Kangaroo Best of Friends

JeanneSager — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:27:00 GMT

Why couldn't my mom have been a zookeeper? Yeah, she put food on the table, but having a mom in healthcare means hearing a lot about proper handwashing and absolutely no chance to nurse a baby joey abandoned by his mama!

Eight-year-old Lilly Dyson, however, hit the mom jackpot with a zookeeper mama who has been bringing home a baby kangaroo each day in an incubator designed to act like her mom's pouch.

The pictures of the Milly the joey and Lilly the kid are the kind you find of your mom's firstborn cuddling with your mom - the type that make you all indignant that it isn't you. Nose-to-nose, Lilly and Milly are obviously the best of pals.

The joey's mom fell ill earlier this month and was no longer able to carry her in her pouch. That was bad news for Milly - joeys generally spend at least nine months in mom's pouch before their first venture into the outside world (no wonder I've always felt a kinship with Kanga from Winnie the Pooh - we have nine months of carting kids in common). The joeys continue to spend a significant amount of time there until they are around a year.

Milly is still too young to come out of the incubator for anything more than limited amounts of time, and she requires round-the-clock care, with Lilly's mom Deb Dyson and her colleague splitting the bulk of the duties. But Lilly has gotten to lend a hand too - a rare chance, as this is the first joey to be hand-raised by the Melbourne Zoo (where Deb works) in more than two decades.

Baby joeys can be a handful (kind of like baby humans), but Deb says Milly has been a breeze - even with the one and four a.m. feedings. And Lilly looks like the luckiest kid down under!

Image/Source: Herald Sun

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Nipple Piercing for Kids? Not so Fast

JeanneSager — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:31:00 GMT

I've been railing on the Australians for awhile lately - peeved by decision to go totalitarian on net nannying and the like - but I've got to hand it to them on this little piece of new year's legislation.

As of January 1, anyone who performs an intimate body piercing on a minor will face big fines.

Now that's what I call good old-fashioned common sense. I know, parents will probably be up in arms that their rights are being absconded with. According to one commentor a few days back, I should be appalled at dads who actually would like their daughters to remain virgins as long as possible (sorry, can't do it - I'm with my husband on this one), so I'm imaging they'd be all for teen girls stepping up for a piercing on their you-know-what.

I just don't see why parents would WANT to give their approval on a piercing for their son's penis, or a ring through their daughter's clit. Parents are still allowed - by the way - to weigh in on other piercings. Fines will be levied on piercers who don't get a parent's approval for non-intimate piercings on any kid under sixteen (which offers more leeway than the laws in New York).

And if you think this is just silly - check out the picture of the little boy with the nose ring. If parents will let that happen, I'd guess they'd let their little one get a ball through the johnson.

Image: ModBlog

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Aussie Firewall: Stepping into Parents' Shoes?

JeanneSager — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:48:00 GMT

The "Great Aussie Firewall" is supposed to make browsing the internet safer for Australian kids. It could also put the Australians one step closer to becoming the most western country to boast a state-run internet filter.

This isn't new news - the Aussies announced last year they'd spend $189 million on the project, but after the recent decision by an Australian judge, declaring drawings of Bart and Lisa Simpson having sex as "child porn," I'm wondering how far our friends Down Under really need to go.

The most recent tests on six of the proposed filters found they missed three to twelve percent of material they should have barred and wrongly blocked access to one to eight percent of sites. The most accurate filters slowed browsing speeds up to eighty-six percent. So - they're blocking a lot of "bad" stuff, and some good stuff too - and they're slowing down the access of information for everyone (child or adult). And this is progress?

An Associated Press report on the issue quotes an Australian ethics professor who complains "net libertarians" believe freedom of speech is more important than limiting what children can access online.

What ever happened to knowing what your kids are doing? If the babymaking Duggars can monitor eighteen different kids' access to the 'net, why can't average families with two point four kids get their hineys to the family room and keep their eyes on the screen?

Image: Daily Mail

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Is This Baby Obese? Aussie Mom Says No

Kate Tuttle — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:02:00 GMT

Are we too quick to call babies overweight and obese? One Australian mother thinks so, and she's pulled her infant from a daycare center for fears the staff there, who labelled her ten-month-old overweight, will fail to feed her adequately. Olivia Villella, ten months old, is hitting the 75th pecentile for weight and the 25th for height -- maybe a little on the round side, but nothing most doctors would worry about -- but her teachers at the ABC childcare center in Australia have called her fat and obese (which her four-year-old brother mis-heard as "a fat beast"), prompting her mother to worry they will withold food from her should she remain there.

I'm all for helping parents feed their children a healthy diet, and even giving them tools to know when their child might need expert help, but the knee-jerk labelling of any child as obese, particularly by people who have no medical training, seems counterproductive at best. While I'm sure the mother is leaving the daycare out of embarrassment and anger as much as any real concerns of her daughter's starving, I can understand how she feels. It's all too easy to judge someone else's baby, and when those doing the judging may well be bringing in their own baggage (especially when it comes to gender: why is it always a girl baby that gets this label?), then it's downright destructive. I know that if my child's daycare wanted to put my child on a diet without consulting me, I'd be out of there fast, calling everyone on the waitlist as I went.

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Dad Wants Daughter Back Despite Negative DNA Test

JeanneSager — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:05:00 GMT

A text message from England told an Australian man the nine-year-old girl he always thought was his daughter isn't technically his daughter. The man's reaction? He doesn't care. He's still her dad, and he wants her back. Cue the tears folks.

An Australian newspaper reports the man (whose identity is being protected) was in college in England with the girl's mother when she became pregnant. Believing the child was his, he stepped up in terms of financial support and involvement in the girl's life. By the time the girl was two, the couple's relationship fell apart. The "dad" met an Australian woman, fell in love and got married. His ex-girlfriend stayed in England, but she too fell in love and got married. The man continued to make trips back to England to see his little girl, sending presents and letters. His mother, who still lives in the UK, remained involved as well - even stepping in to babysit.

But in the past year, the man says the girl's mother made it increasingly difficult for him to see their daughter. Packages and letters he sent to the little girl were returned unopened. His lawyer suggested a paternity test would give him grounds in a legal case to see his daughter more often. The hope was that the result would reopen the lines of communication between Dad and daughter.

But the DNA test came back negative. The girl's mom sent a blunt text message: "Got the results. Im sorry. I will sort out the birth cert + there will b no more contact. Sorry." She followed it up with legal papers, cutting off the man's financial responsibilities. Now he's being offered a refund for child support. But all he wants is his little girl. "She's still my daughter," he told the newspaper. It sounds like we've found the poster dad for that saying "any man can be a father, it takes a real man to be a dad."

The hundreds of thousands of adopted children are evidence that a biological connection has nothing to do with the bond between a parent and a child. So is this really any different?

Image: The Mercury (paintings the little girl sent to her "dad")

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Teacher Has Affair With Student, Parents Say Keep The Door Open

Brett Singer — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

OK, I really really really need to never say, "I'm beyond being surprised" EVER AGAIN.

From our big blog sibling Scanner (at Nerve.com), comes this little item.

Anna Louise Thompson, 28, was a "maths" teacher in Brisbane Australia (They says "maths" in Australia, I guess). For three years she had a sexual relationship with one of her female students, beginning when the student was 14. When the student fell in love with a fella, she turned her former lover in and Thompson was fired.

Apparently this was quite the affair to remember. It began "when Thompson proposed the 14-year-old girl go to lunch with her. It soon escalated into sleepovers and racy text messages... while Thompson continued to be married to her husband." Eventually they experimented with various sex toys and other things that sound like these two had a more interesting sex life than I ever will.

Here's the kicker:

But the couple were found out when the parents discovered them having sex one evening. Their reaction was simply to request that their daughter keep her door open when she had visitors. (bild.de)

Um, hi. If I come home and discover that one of my kids is having "relations" with someone their own age (forget about an adult), we're going to have a little chat. I definitely don't want them to do it in my house WITH THE DOOR OPEN WHILE I'M THERE. And did the parents not notice that Ms. Thompson was just a teeny bit older than their daughter? And that's giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming that they were unaware that Thompson was their daughter's "maths" teacher.

The remarkable thing about all of these sex scandals is how often they seem to occur. When you were in school, did you know anyone who was getting a little, shall we say, extra credit? Just based on the odds, I'd say somebody must know of a situation like this.

(Thanks to Brian Fairbanks at Scanner for the tip.)

Source: Scanner

Image/Original story: bild.de

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Australian Woman No Longer Dad's Girlfriend, Now She Lives With Him and New Fiance

JeanneSager — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:30:00 GMT

When I first read about Jenny Deaves and her father/lover earlier this year on Strollerderby, I had to take a long shower. When Madeline wrote about her, the Australian woman was living with her father and . . . no way to sugarcoat this . . . having sex with him. Willingly. "Lovingly."

Don't think it can get any worse? Just wait.

The Australian has reported Deaves has kicked dear old dad John to the curb, and she's engaged to another (not related - that we know of) man. Oh, but she and Shayne Farrell, a thirty-four-year-old bisexual father of three she met just ten weeks ago, are still living with John. Also in the house? Jenny and John's daughter, the youngest of her three children and the only produced by their incestuous relationship.

The Deaves reportedly split in July - not long after their story hit TV and they were banned by the courts from having sex with one another (who monitored that one, I wonder, and how? Don't tell me, I don't want to think about it). John became self-destructive. Or should we say MORE self-destructive? He started drinking and attempted suicide. Now he's seeking treatment, and Farrell says he doesn't have a problem jumping into his future father-in-law's bed. No problem living with his fiancee's former lover either.

Glad to hear Jenny Deaves has stopped shaking down the family tree for suitors. Or is she? I hate to be the bearer of weird tidings, but let's take a step back here. Court says no more sex with Dad, so she goes out and finds someone who likes having sex with women . . . and men. Then she brings him home. Anyone else wondering if three's company in the Deaves family? Wait a minute, don't tell me the answer to that one either.

Image: The Australian

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Australia Rejects Doc's Immigration Application Because of Down Syndrome Kid

Amy S.F. Lutz — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:04:00 GMT

Australia is facing a critical shortage of doctors, particularly in rural areas, necessitating the hiring of many foreign doctors and nurses. So, you'd think government officials would be thrilled when one of those doctors, Germany's Bernhard Moeller, applied for permanent residence after working for the past two years at Wimmera Base Hospital.

But no. Because one of Dr. Moeller's three kids has Down Syndrome, his application was rejected. Thirteen-year-old Lukas was considered "likely to be a permanent drain on taxpayer funding," according to news reports, although Lukas goes to a typical school and plays cricket and football.

Let's see . . . health care for one boy with Down Syndrome, versus the 54,000 people in the community for which Dr. Moeller is in charge of providing intensive care services. Which party is really getting the better end of this deal? No wonder Dr. Moeller's rejection has aroused the ire of thousands of Australians, including Health Minister Nicola Roxon and Victoria state government Premier John Brumby. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this decision were reversed.

AP photo

Australian Family Says They Were Served Poop Ice Cream

JeanneSager — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:03:00 GMT

Bringing new meaning to the words, "this tastes like crap," an Australin family claims a Sydney hotel staffer served them a bowl of "human excrement ice cream."

Steve and Jessica Whyte took sons Tom, Thomas and Ben to the popular Coogee Bay Hotel after seeing it advertised as a family-friendly venue in which to watch a rugby final match. That they have two sons with almost the same exact name doesn't mean the Whites deserved these kinds of just desserts. A bowl of ice cream, with what they say looked like "compacted chocolate" at the center, was served shortly after Steve Whyte complained to hotel staff that he wasn't able to watch the rugby match as promised.

Jessica says she had the spoon to her mouth when the stench of fecal matter burned her nostrils. She immediately spat the alleged crap into a napkin, but says it scared the s**t out of her. OK, not really, but she has said it has shaken her to the point where she's uneasy wiping their youngest child's hind end these days. The Whytes are glad their sons never got at the frozen feces, but they're hopping mad that someone would serve this to their kids.

An Australian government lab tested the supposed poop, and the report confirms it "has an offensive odour and physical properties similar to human excreta ... and to contain fragments of a variety of plant matter typical of excreta." A statement from the hotel, meanwhile, calls the allegations "suspicious," and accuses the Whytes of trying to extort $1 million from the hotel owners.

It sounds like someone's full of s**t.

Image: The Daily Telegraph (the Whyte family)

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Does PSA Blame Parents for their Daughters Being Raped?

JeanneSager — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:29:00 GMT

The public service announcement warning parents not to buy their daughters alcohol because of the heightened risk for sexual abuse for drunk teens is a total of 30-seconds long. But the Queensland Government in Brisbane, Australia has been drawing harsh critiscm around the globe for putting the blame in the wrong place - the victim.

Opening with a girl's stricken face as she weeps and fights off an attacker in a dark alley, the commercial follows the girl's night in reverse. It backs out of the alley, away from the guy into a party of teens drinking, then back to the girl's house where Dad hands her a box of booze and waves bye bye. "Don't kid yourself," an ominous voice says, "buy your children alcohol and they could pay the price."

Feministing, Jezebel and dozens of others have taken up bashing the Aussies for the short, charging the ad makers with blaming girls for getting raped and their parents for putting them in that situation. "I think what is upsetting about this is that it perpetuates the belief that rape is a young woman's fault and that if parents buy their daughters alcohol they are putting them at risk of rape," says Feministing blogger Samhita. "What about telling young men to not rape drunk women? That is what the focus of the PSA should be. Perhaps another conversation about youth and alcohol consumption is needed, but let's not tangle the issues."

I agree that there should be more education for guys about a girl's right to say no. But I think it's Samhita who is mixing the messages here. This is about parents not taking care of their kids. It's about a smarmy smiling dad (watch the video and you'll see it) handing his daughter a big box of booze, putting her in a car full of teenagers with said alcohol and waving without a care in the world. Rape isn't the only horrible thing that can happen to her out there.

Unfortunately, rape is a reality, and there is only so much parents can do to protect their daughters. The U.S. Department of Justice has surmised a woman is raped here in the states every two minutes. It can happen in broad daylight or a dark alleyway. It can happen with alcohol or without. And you don't have to tell me that girls who undergo some sort of sexual abuse often feel like it's our fault.

Which is why arming our daughters to protect them from some day being raped is part of our jobs. Not because they're the weaker sex. Not because they're doing something wrong. Because it's something that can, and shouldn't have to happen. Add alcohol to any situation where boys and girls co-mingle, and statistics show the risk of a rape occuring increases. The U.S. Department of Justice Violence Against Women report figures 45 percent of all rapes involve alcohol - which could mean the victim or the attacker. The numbers include adult women, but considering two in six rape victim are under 18, there are plenty of teen girls being raped where alcohol is a factor.

Not because they're bad kids or because they asked for it but because they lost their ability to function because they drank too much. They lost their ability to protect themselves from the dangers that are out there, and guess who failed to protect them? Their parents. The ones who sent them to a party with a bunch of alcohol and no education on what it can do.

So, yes, I do put a portion of blame on the parents. Which was the point of the PSA to begin with - to teach them not to provide ther kids with free alcohol, to teach their kids about the affects alcohol will have on the body - including the risk of blackout, the risk of losing the physical strength to push off an attacker, and the risk that someone else who's drunk may have their inhibitions reduced to the point where they'll do something stupid. Like rape a girl.

In fact, the PSA shows a girl being abused, but the narrator says "67 percent of teenagers have been abused or assaulted whilst under the influence of alcohol." She says "your children." She doesn't say girls. She doesn't say daughters. It's an advertisement about protecting our girls and our boys, teaching girls to protect themselves, teaching boys they're not allowed to use alcohol as an excuse.

It's an advertisement that puts the responsibility for kids in their parents' hands. And when they drop the ball, the blame belongs with them.

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7-Year-Old Feeds 13 Zoo Animals to Crocodile

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:29:00 GMT

In disturbing news involving small creatures, a seven-year-old boy from Australia broke into a zoo and went on a killing rampage. He scaled the zoo’s fence at around 8 in the morning, and spent the next half an hour smashing rocks on the heads of reptiles and then tossing them, live, into the crocodile’s enclosure (as shown in this photograph from a surveillance camera). The young boy then climbed over an outer fence around the croc’s cage to survey the gory scene of the 11-foot-long crocodile’s feast.

13 animals were killed in total, including a large turtle, rare lizards, bearded dragons, and the zoo’s most beloved animal, a 20-year-old, meter-long goanna.

Since Australian law prevents children under 10 from being charged with crimes, the boy faces no legal consequences—and it’s a good thing. What he needs is serious help. Security videos showed that he was “expressionless” throughout the killings. It is imperative that he receive psychological treatment and that his family receive visits from social workers. He may have a mental illness that requires medication, or he may be in a difficult family situation. Whatever the reason for his destructive tendencies, he must receive adequate care to prevent harming himself or others even further when he’s older.

So I hope that the reaction of the zoo’s director, Rex Neindorf, is not representative of how adults will treat the boy. According to Neindorf, the boy “will just get worse and worse and worse, by the time he’s 10 he will be a hardened criminal.” If that’s the message this seven-year-old gets from the all of the adults in his life, it may well become true.

Photo: Times Online

Nicole Kidman drank the Kool-Aid and it was fertile

JeanneSager — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:22:00 GMT

As a proud member of the one and done club, I'll be crossing all trips to the Australian Outback off my list. Turns out Nicole Kidman's Sunday surprise had nothing to do with hubby Keith - it was all in the water.

Yeah, I heard that when I got pregnant, then one friend got pregnant, then another, and another. Got to be something in the water, they said. I always thought they meant the stuff we were drinking, but apparently eight glasses a day wasn't enough for Mrs. Keith Urban. Nicole and her co-stars were taking dips in "fertility waters" in a small Outback town while filming the upcoming Baz Lurhmann epic, "Australia."

As our own Madeline Holler already uschooled Kidman on the birds and the bees this morning, I'll save that talk for my own daughter in about 10 years. I will ask what Kidman meant when she said, "Seven babies were conceived out of this film and only one was a boy."

So, seven girls means "fertility waters," does seven boys mean "contaminated pond?"

Image: SFGate

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Australia Looks to Midwives to Handle Baby Boom

Miriam Axel-Lute — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Apparently birth rates are booming down under, and to handle the demand, Australia's federal government is looking to expand midwifery care, giving licensed midwives more access to insurance, prescribing rights, and ability to get paid through public health subsidies even if they aren't working directly under a doctor's supervision. The goals of the review will also include "how to cut medical interventions such as caesarean sections and forceps deliveries. Alternative birth options will also be examined, including the possibility for more home births."

Australian OBs aren't thrilled, but it seems that in a country that has a "chief nurse and midwifery officer," who is leading the overhaul, that they don't have quite as much power as they do stateside.

Photo by salimfadhley.

Storm Tracking? It Can Be Used in Pregnancy, Too

Jen Chaney — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:00:00 GMT

We're knee-deep in hurricane season. So here's a thought: What if we could predict premature births the same way we predict the status of storms like Hanna and Ike?

This story in The Age suggests we might be able to do just that. Researchers in Melbourne, Australia are developing computer technology that analyzes data and tracks the hormone levels of pregnant women the same way that the paths of hurricanes and tropical storms are tracked. That information could then be used to more effectively assess the risk of a pre-term birth and thereby help the mother-to-be manage her pregnancy differently. The researchers believe they could cut Australia's premature birth rate in half if this system is put into widespread use.

What the article doesn't explain is how accurate the technology is. As we all know, predicting the weather isn't always a precise science. Meteorologists often think a storm is going to go one way, then it veers in another direction. It's also unclear how expensive something like this might be and, if it's an approach that is adopted in the U.S., whether insurance would cover it.

Still, questions aside, it's a promising and intriguing development, especially if it means moms could take much earlier steps to ensure their pregnancies are healthy and full-term.

Should Moms Be Paid to Stay Home with their Kids?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:45:00 GMT

Australia’s senior child policy official is convinced the answer is yes. Gillian Calvert is encouraging the Rudd government to pay women to stay home for the first two years of their baby’s life.

Calvert argues that babies’ brain development can be impaired if their mothers work early in their lives, disrupting the normal connections between mother and baby. For instance, Calvert argues, “Because a baby finds the stimulus of its mother’s voice pleasurable, it turns towards the sound; if the experience is aversive, the baby will avoid the experience.”

Sounds to me like that’s an argument against leaving your children with abusive caretakers. I would hope that babies enjoys more voices than just their mother’s—say, oh I don’t know, maybe their dad’s? Or grandparents'? It’s even possible that the voice of a loving babysitter does not make babies turn away in disgust.

Still, I can think of quite a few mothers who would love to get paid to stay home with their children. But I can think of quite a few fathers who would like the exact same thing.

Photo: Mercola

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Brett Singer — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Australian crewman won a gold medal in men's pairs rowing. For inspiration, he kept a photo of his kids tucked away in his shorts:

So he's a gold-medal winning dad, and has been keeping a blog at drewginn.blogspot.com.

It seems like there are more parents competing at the games this year, but it's possible that there always were and I just never noticed. One of those, "now that I have children I see parents everywhere" kind of things.

My wife asked me if I would keep a picture of the kids with me if I were competing in the Olympics. The fact that she would compare me to an Olympic athlete is one of the many reasons why I love her.

image: nbcolympics.com

source: abc.net.au

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Woman Sells Evidence of Her Husband's Affair on Ebay

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Oh, revenge can be such fun--particularly for uninvolved spectators.

An Australian woman returned home to find a pair of panties and an opened condom wrapper in her bed—the bed she had shared with her husband for 22 years. Wasting no time in declaring her discovery to all and sundry, she snapped a photo of the offending items and put it up for sale on Ebay, along with a description that left little to the imagination. Titling her piece “Empty Condom Packet and a Photo of the Tart’s Knickers,” the thoughtful woman did Ebay shoppers the favor of describing in detail this dramatic still life.

Of the panties, she writes, “They are so huge I thought they may make someone a nice shawl or, even better, something for Halloween perhaps.” Interestingly, the photograph juxtaposes the larger-than-life quality of the panties with the diminutive size of the condom wrapper, described by the artist as “size small.”

Next for sale on Ebay? Her husband’s Harley.

Photo: Ebay

Creepy Lifelike Dolls Help Owners Grieve

Madeline Holler — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:31:00 GMT

OK, now I feel bad. Yesterday, I called adults who play with these lifelike "Reborn" dolls crazy. But now I'm reading they have helped many people -- including parents who suffered the loss of a child -- to grieve.

In fact, some people add on all kinds of stuff to enhance the "cuddle therapy." They even fit the dolls with a mechanism that mimics a heartbeat and breathing. (I'm still soooo uncomfortable here.)

From Reuters:

"I pick them up and I change them and I do hold them like a baby now and again -- it's relaxing," said doll-owner Gill, a 50-year-old grandmother who asked to remain anonymous because of the way reborning has been portrayed in the media.

Cathy Newcombe, who makes the dolls and runs reborning Website Reborn Babies UK, said counsellors were increasingly looking into the therapeutic benefits of holding reborn babies.

"The act of holding the doll may have a role in releasing a 'feel-good' hormone," Newcombe said.

The woman who started "Reborn" dolls didn't have therapy in mind when she created the first one. She just wanted to get her daughter off her back.

"My daughter wanted a sibling and I didn't want to have any more children, so I made her a doll instead," said the 32-year-old mother of two.

Still, dolls, "Reborn" or not, are showing promising uses for grieving parents and, in some instances, people suffering Alzheimer's.

Fine, it's a good thing. What do you think? Medical breakthrough or still a bit creepy?

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Photo: goearth.wordpress.com

'Reborn' Dolls Freaking Out Cops, Among Others (Myself Included)

Madeline Holler — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:03:00 GMT

Australian police smashed through the window of a parked car in an heroic attempt to rescue a baby that had been left in the backseat to swelter in the sun.

Only, whoops! That baby was a doll, one of the expensive, collectible, handmade and very lifelike "Reborn" dolls that some folks have found themselves becoming incredibly attached too. (Diagnosis: crazy!)

How could one mistake a doll for the real thing? Well, see that picture up there to the right?

Yep, those are two "Reborn" dolls. Here's what their "Mommy," Vynette Cernik has to say about her babies, which sell for $1,000 a piece and have eyelashes, fingernails, milk spots and wispy hair.

From Australia's Herald Sun:

"They're even weighted to feel like a baby's weight, and they flop like a baby," Ms Cernik said.

Some dolls even come with an umbilical cord and their own birth certificate.

"They are so realistic, people do become attached to them," Ms Cernik said.

"You don't stop playing with dolls because you grow old. You grow old because you stop playing with dolls.

Or not.

In any case, Cernik is recommending doll owners put a sticker in the car window if they plan to leave a Reborn doll unattended while they run into the store for more formula and diapers.