Strollerderby : dads

Baby Toupee Creator Speaks

Brett Singer — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:00:00 GMT

If you made something as dumb as the Baby Toupee you might think keeping quiet would be the best course of action.

But you would be wrong!

TruTV interviewed Graham Farrar who did indeed come up with the idea for a line of baby headgear. Not just hats -- these puppies have hair.

Here's a sample:

Q: Who’s your typical customer?
A: Nuts with kids.

What a card.

Now, I suppose if someone wants to buy this sort of thing -- you know, a "nut" with a kid -- go for it. Apparently Farrar's customer base is mostly reggae fans, since his Bob Marley-esque model (aka "The Bob") is his biggest seller. (One of my colleagues wanted me to say that she feels the jokifying of Black hair is racist -- anyone agree/disagree? Let us know in the comments.) And in this economy, I don't want to bash a small businessperson.

Yet, bash I must.

Personally I'm not a fan of this sort of thing. Babies are cute enough on their own. OK, maybe Halloween. But these wigs look kinda nasty to me. I picture baby food getting stuck in those fake dreads... excuse me, I'm a little nauseous.

What do you think? Cute, not cute? Irie? Offensive? A great big plate of who cares?

Source: TruTV Dumb as a Blog

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UPDATE: Dad Who Forced Son To Get Tattoo is Arrested

Brett Singer — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:15:00 GMT

Updating the story from a few weeks ago: Enrique Gonzalez, the Fresno father and gang member who allegedly forcibly tattooed a dog's paw on his 7-year-old son, has been arrested in Madera County, California, according to the Fresno Bee. Gonzalez was found hiding out at a motel with his girlfriend; he tried to escape through a window but police caught him. He is being held on $700,000 bail.

Original post follows below.

*-*-*-*

This is pretty hard core.

Enrique Gonzalez, a Fresno, California father, is a member of a gang called the Bulldogs. He wanted his son, who is 7, to get marked with their symbol, which is a dog's paw. The boy didn't want to, possibly because he's seven and tattoos hurt. (I can barely get my kids to stick a thermometer in their mouths to see if they have a fever.) So, according to a police report, Gonzalez held his son down while Travis Gorman gave him the tattoo.

Gorman has been arrested, Gonzalez is still at large. (Note that these are charges that the two men have been accused of, so everything here is "allegedly.")

Adding to the troubling nature of this story (if that's possible) is that Gorman isn't a licensed tattoo artist. So what, you say? That just seems less safe. Not that it would have been OK to do this in a tattoo parlor, of course.

In California, it is illegal for anyone under 18 to get "inked", although police acknowledge that they have seen gang tattoos on children as young as 14. "But never this young," said Fresno Detective Jesse Ruelas. I hope not.

Other details of interest: the boy lives with his mother, and was visiting his father over the Easter holiday, which I suppose means the parents have shared custody, or maybe just that the father has visitation. I'm guessing that won't happen anymore. The mother found the tattoo when her son came home from visiting with dad and wouldn't let her see him get undressed to take a bath.

Scary stuff. Hope the kid is OK and he can get over this.

Source: Fresno Bee

Update source: Fresno Bee

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Not Every Kid With a Mother Has a "Mommy"

Miriam Axel-Lute — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:00:00 GMT

A few weeks ago I was at Music Together with my daughter. We were singing a song where a typical verse went like this:

"Who's that tapping at the window? /Who's that knocking at the door?
Mommy's tapping at the window?/Daddy's knocking at the door."

(Makes you think of the toddlers who lock their parents out, doesn't it?)

After it was over, my daughter turned to me and said "That's song's silly."

"Why?" I asked, though I was pretty sure I knew what was coming.

"It doesn't have a Mama in it."

And indeed it didn't. Though most of the world thinks of "Mommy" and "Mama" as interchangable, for children like her who have both, they're not exactly. She's been told, and basically understands, that they are just "parent names" and that all mothers and fathers get to choose a specific ones like "mommy" or "mama," and that doesn't mean they have different roles as parents. Nonetheless, she likes them to be in balance—from early on she would assign various unnamed mothers in her books, human and animal, one or the other and stick to her designations firmly, and she's quite concerned to know which one the various parents-to-be in her life are going to pick.

Now clearly it's no revelation that kids from anything other than a one mother-one father family don't see their family structures reflected in stories, songs, school exercises, etc. very often, and they feel it.

But what struck me about this exchange was that the parent names angle provides a fairly easy way to be a lot more inclusive without interrupting things with extended awkward clauses like "except some kids instead have two moms or two dads . . ." Not that kids shouldn't be explicitly presented with the idea of family structure variety—they should—but in passing cases like this music class, it can get a little silly. In those cases, perhaps just adding more parent names to our patter could go a long way. Nothing PC and obsessive. Just mixing it up a little.

In fact, it has the extra benefit of being a little more comfy to those from a het two-parent family who have a mama or papa. I've heard from one grown woman who had a papa who says that she was fairly annoyed by the "daddy" hegemony. Meanwhile, for the kids for whom they are interchangable, it likely won't even register.

I mentioned the idea to the music teacher, who acknowledged that she'd had concerns about those mommy/daddy songs too. This session, she's been singing a different song that mentions parents by name, and she's given it four verses—Mommy, Mama, Daddy, and Papa. It doesn't cover everyone, certainly, but I think those are far and away the top choices, so they should cover a lot of ground. It was simple and non disruptive and my daughter doesn't think that song is "silly."

What do you think? Would your kids notice? Would they care?

Photo CC license, YatesLaberge, via Flickr.

More by this author:

Dads Don't Babysit

editors — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:17:00 GMT

Today on Babble:

Dads Don't Babysit

by Jeanne Sager

Taking care of our kid doesn't make him a saint--it makes him a parent.

Read it here.

Ben Affleck Suffers Same Fate As Dads of Daughters Everywhere

JeanneSager — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:07:00 GMT

Jennifer Garner says she can always tell when husband Ben Affleck was left to his own devices with daughter Violet's hair. It comes out looking like a rat's nest.

Hey dads, sound familiar?

“You can always tell when he has been at it, just two random barrettes hanging in there. It’s so sweet," Garner told InStyle.

She could have been talking about my husband. He was over the moon when I gave birth to a little girl (which - despite us not finding out prior to delivery - he just "knew" was going to happen), but when she started sprouting enough hair to require clippies and ponytail holders, he was lost.

"It doesn't ever do what I want it to do," he tells me. "I just don't have the patience for it." This coming from a guy who once had hair past his shoulders. But his was super fine, super straight hair, hair that never needed to be brushed out with no more tangles spray after a night of rolling around on a crib mattress, hair that never needed to be secured in two little braids hanging down his back.

Some guys get hair and are perfectly adept at handling their daughter's locks. More are like my husband - facing a major learning curve after years of just not caring what their head looks like (because after years of long hair, his is now shaved in a Marine-like buzz - he does nothing more than shampoo daily). In our house it's particularly funny because it's the bald mother who has been showing Dad the ropes, teaching him about where on the head to place a ponytail (Not too high, this isn't the eighties. Not too low - she isn't an aging hippie) and how to brush out tangles without yanking on the scalp.

I'll give credit where credit is due. He tries. If he's the parent getting her ready for the day, her hair is at least brushed, albeit with a clip stuck at a random angle - kind of like Violet Affleck's.

Dads, did you jump over the curve after your daughters were born or do you turn out girls who sport the ragamuffin look in the morning?

Image: TheInsider

Best of FameCrawler: Week of March 27th

Whit Honea — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:00:00 GMT

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Rating Yourself on the Obama Parenting Scale

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:48:00 GMT

Do your kids make their own beds? Clean up the dog poop? Do they have their own alarm clocks and get themselves ready in the morning? Do you maintain a date night without them, and when you're home, do you read to them?

Well then congratulations, you're an Obama parent.

The Mommy Files over at SFGate has a quiz that lets you rank your own parenting style with the First Family's, and reading through it I have to admit I loved one of the old school traditions the Obama's are teaching. My own grandpa was a firm believer that if you didn't get yourself up and ready on your own, you could miss out. It was a lesson that hit home when I overslept one morning, waiting for someone to wake me, and missed a trip to the donut store.

It happened only once.

So it brought a smile to my face to think that with an entire White House staff at their disposal, the Obama kids are still forced to make their own beds and get themselves ready. These kids are so awesome.

As for the rest of the quiz, it looks like the Obamas are taking a cue from the educated yuppie playbook. Local, organic food? Check. Consistent bed times? Check. Date nights? Check.

"The Obamas are so seemingly outstanding that they're raising the bar for parents across the country. If Barack can work on solving the world's problems and then make it to his daughter's basketball game, shouldn't all moms and dads be attending their kids' sporting events?"

How do you stack up against the Obama's?

Black Market for Blankies

Kelly Mills — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:32:00 GMT

According to the Washington Post, there's a whole slew of sellers on ebay who are buying up seemingly "'eh, what's the deal" blankets, stuffed animals, and other toys. Why? Because the items have been discontinued by manufacturers, and sellers are hoping to capitalize on the desparation of one group in particular.

The "lost lovie" parents. You know, folks whose kids are attached to a binkie, snuggle, woobie, num-num, lovie, blankie, wootsie cueball whatsit. Whatever. Sellers are counting on parents paying top dollar when their child's most precious security possession goes missing. For example, one Carter's blanket had a "buy it now" option of $54.88 and a message telling people not to ask why the price was so high, because this item could only be found on eBay.

I'm simultaneously creeped out by the idea of capitalizing on a kid's attachment to an almost irreplaceable item, and impressed by the ingenuity of people who get exactly how far parents will go to keep their kids from a lost-blankie freakout. I know my family once drove five hours back to a hotel during a packed vacation to retrieve my sister's most beloved stuffed otter.

So how far would you go or have you gone to keep your kid snuggie-satisfied? Would you pay top dollar to ebay vultures/entrepreneurs?

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Babble Talk – The Color Blind Kid

Brett Singer — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:00:00 GMT

I'm not one of the people who thinks that racism is over now that Barack Obama is President. (Call me when Black people can hail a cab in Manhattan.)

That said, I do think that it's fair to hope that future generations will be less inclined to judge others by the color of their skin. This quote from Kids Say The Cutest Things illustrates this point:

Six year old Hanna.."Daddy why are Black people Black and White people White"...Daddy "Well because that is the way God made us"...Hanna "Oh..well can you tell God that my favorite color is PINK!"

Aw. Maybe one day we can all just get along. Or at least get a cab.

Read more stuff from kids that will give you nachas for the future of our nation right here. You can also submit your own aspirational aphorisms.

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Comcast Super Bowl Surprise

Brett Singer — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Some Arizona cable subscribers got mighty ticked off during the Super Bowl on February 1. But not only because the Cardinals lost the game.

Certain Comcast cable customers were watching Larry Fitzgerald's terrific catch and run with just over two minutes left in the game, when suddenly something… else… appeared on their screens. A movie. The kind of movie you really don't want your kids to see.

The title of said movie was "Wild Cherries 5." Let's just say that you don't really need to have seen any of the first four films in order to follow the plot.

This comment from The Arizona Daily Star website sums it up nicely and even uses clean language:
It was really weird. I thought at first, awww, whet are they doing , thinking it was just an edgy commercial that the Superbowl is known for.
Then it was clear that something was really wrong as the guy stood up and everything was there, yes, everything.

If you want to see the video, click here. It is not safe for work, school, children, or pets. Well, maybe pets. Maybe.

All kidding aside, parents who were watching the game with their kids were quite peeved at this year's wardrobe malfunction. (Also from the AZ Star.)
I had a 2 and a 7 year-old in the room and it was totally disgusting. Comcast better get ready to give all subscribers at least one free month of service for having to be subject to this filth!

Full month of service from Comcast and Cox cable (make up your own joke there, Beavis)? Nope. Ten bucks. Maybe they can use it to order some pay-per-view.

One parent who understands how those parents feel is Tristan Kingsley, the star of the film in question. Kingsley, who has appeared in 600 adult films (I get tired just typing that phrase), has two children of her own, a three year old girl and a four year old boy. She told the Star, "I've read some comments that parents have left on different blogging sites, and I can understand that they'd get a little upset that their children might be watching it. I would never go and put one of my videos on for my kids to watch."

Wow. Just…wow.

What would you do if you were watching TV with your kids and suddenly saw… that?

Source: AZStarnet.com (1, 2), Gizmodo

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Pittsburgh Schools Open Late Day After Super Bowl

Brett Singer — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:50:00 GMT

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Children belong in school.

Pittsburgh Public Schools opened two hours late today. Why? Well, the Steelers were in the Super Bowl. Duh.

And now that the Steelers won (great game, for what it's worth), the statement that school district spokesperson Ebony Pugh made on Friday seems prescient: "People will be staying up late; there will be some partying."

I have no doubt that Pittsburgh partied like it was 2006, when Pittsburgh also won, and schools were similarly delayed. But the game ended at 10pm. While it's very nice of the district to delay the start of school so that parents can have an extra hour or two to get over their hangovers (frankly, I could've used an extra couple of hours and I'm in New York), it seems like a ridiculous move. One parent, Latoya Taylor, is going to miss time at work because of the delay. Is Ben Roethlisberger going to reimburse her?

I hate to be a sourpuss. But I really think this is stupid. "The district hopes the delay will cut down on absenteeism." How about expecting people to be responsible enough to get up and get their kids ready for school? Or not keeping them up so late that they're overly tired in the morning? If a parent decides, as my mother did with opening day at Yankee Stadium, that a sporting event is worth missing school for, that's one thing. But when the district makes that decision for everyone, I don't like it.
Anyone from Pittsburgh want to weigh in? I mean, congrats on the win. Great game. But are you happy that schools were delayed two hours? Non-Pitt residents, how would you feel if this happened in your hometown?

Source: PittsburghLive

Image: pps.k12.pa.us

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Jon Stewart on Dashing His Children’s Hopes

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Jon Stewart was on Conan O’Brien the other night, discussing the uncanny power of fatherhood. “Being a father is great for me because it’s a chance to ruin someone from scratch,” Stewart said, eliciting cathartic laughter from parents everywhere.

When you disappoint an adult, he explains, you know that they’ll get over it; they’ve been slighted or let down before. But when you disappoint your kid, you get a look that says, “I will never forget this as long as I live.”

Thanks to Jezebel for posting this clip, which is currently not available anywhere else. In fact, I’m unable to post the video directly on this page, but you can watch it here. Stewart also describes the hilariously adorable “secret plans” his son devises when her younger sister is taking a nap.

Photo: Blah Blah Blahg

Do Your Kids Watch The Super Bowl?

Brett Singer — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:30:00 GMT

This year, for the first time in many years, my friends and I are forgoing the family Super Bowl watching experience in favor of a visit to a local tavern. Basically, almost everybody has kids now, which means that by halftime, we all have to go home. Last year, when the New York Football Giants beat the New England Patriots (heh heh) in what was one of the biggest upsets in sports history, we were all back in our living rooms, watching it alone.

Is that a big deal? No. Would it have been more fun to watch the game with the guys, especially this catch by David Tyree (included here to torture Patriots fans)? Sure.

As it turns out, none of our children care about the game. They like to hang out together, but we can do that anytime. This way the fans can watch the game and only leave at halftime if its a blowout.

So that's my deal this year. I'm wondering about our readers. Do your children watch the Big Game? For that matter, do you? And if your kids do watch, how old are they?

My pick: Sunny is pulling for the Steelers, and I would join her. But the fact that the Cardinals haven't won in, like, 100 years or something, is making me root for them. That, Kurt Warner being really old (as The Onion points out), Edgerrin James getting a chance to win a Super Bowl after watching his old team The Colts win the year after he left, Arizona being the underdog... they get my rooting interest. That means nothing, of course. And I have nothing against the Steelers. They just won a couple of years ago, though.

So – big game or no big game, and kids or no kids?

Image: Zimbio

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Babble Talk: Keep That Kid Away From The Police

Brett Singer — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:00:00 GMT

In general when our kids say something inappropriate, they don't mean to. That is, they just mix up a word or two.

Of course, there are mix ups and there are mix ups. Like this one:

Calls popcorn "Cop porn" – Rylee (3)

This isn't likely to be a problem. Unless you are at the movies and there is an officer of the law nearby. "Hey, Dad, thanks for the Cop Porn!" Could be a little problematic.

Read more stuff from kids that could get you arrested right here. You can also submit your own bombastic baby babble.

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Babble Talk: Dude Looks Like a Puppy

Brett Singer — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

There's a routine by a comedian whose name I can't recall that I always liked. In it, the comic talks about his son and how little kids are honest to a fault. The boy walks up to heavyset woman wearing a Guess? shirt and says, "I don't know. 280? 285?" And so on.

I was reminded of that routine by today's edition of Kids Say The Cutest Things:

"I didn't know dogs can drive cars!" said by my daughter Madelyne, 3, when she saw a not so attractive person driving a car past us who resembled a dog.

On the one hand, we want our children to be honest. On the other hand, there are times when being honest is not a good idea. When you receive a birthday present you don't like, you don't say, "Gee, this sucks." You say, "Thank you for the gift."

Or if you see a person who is particularly unattractive, it probably isn't such a great idea to refer to them as a K-9. I'm just saying.

Get more brutal honesty from people no taller than your kness right here. You can also submit your own trenchant toddler tidbits.

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Daddy Club Rule: Don't Argue Kids Shows

JeanneSager — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:24:00 GMT

I wonder if the puppy blogs miss me. Because I've been getting my much-needed (in this economy, anyway) fix of "yes, things are right in this world," from Kids Say the Cutest Things here on Babble of late.

Who doesn't want to share their kidlet's latest cutie pie saying with people who actually CARE to hear it? As in someone other than the guy at the coffee pot at work whose eyes start to glaze over just around the words "and yesterday, she said . . . "

But as we've got KSCT already taking care of the kid quotes, I'll spare you mine (or at least let you make your own guesses as to which on there might have been inspired by the three-year-old in the Sager household). As for the adult conversations - I'm sorry, you're in the same boat as the coffee guy.

Because if there's one thing my husband is slowly starting to learn, it's DON'T argue with the kid over kid stuff. We'll call it Daddy Club Rule number one. You might be in decade three of life on this planet, but let's face it - you're clueless.

Case in point - the argument last week over the dancing robot on Noggin. "It's Brobee," my husband said. "Noooo, Daddy, it's Plex," (said with appropriately exaggerated eye roll).

"Brobee."

"Plex."

You get the idea. I sat through this, and because no one likes to hear "I told you so," I stayed silent. Until the next episode of Yo Gabba Gabba came on anyway. The "magic robot?" Yeah, her name is Plex. Brobee is "the little green one."

It's not that my husband is always wrong. It's that he bothers to belabor the point with a three-year-old . . . about a TV show character. If we were fighting about the name of the president (Dick Cheney, duh), I've told him, he should go full bore. But it's a dancing fluff ball. On TV.

So Dads, this is from my husband to all of you - the first rule of Daddy Club, don't talk about kid shows.

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Babble Talk: Points For Honesty

Brett Singer — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT

One of the first posts I wrote on Babble was about certain words that toddler's should never, ever say in polite company. One of them was the phrase "fork and spoon."

In case you've forgotten, here's why:

(Fork - r = Fok) + (In - n = n) + Spoon = Fokkin' Spoon

Many people weighed in with their own toddler-isms, such as the child who walked around asking everyone where his stick was – except that he replaced the "st" with "d". That must have been fun.

Over at 'Kids Say The Cutest Things', this kid, I think, wins the prize. Not only does he/she say a four-letter word, he/she seems to know that he/she is saying a four-letter word. Please forgive my language... well, it's not my language, it's theirs:

mommy dosen't like when i say fire truck because i can't talk very good so I usually say fire fuck

Hard to argue with that one, right?

Read more of the funny stuff that pops out of our kids' mouths, four-letter words, five-letter words, or 27-letter words right here. You can also submit your own short-people sayings.

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Babble Talk: Did Mommy Get New Boobies?

Brett Singer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Ah, kids. Yours, other people's, they come up with some doozies. Sometimes it's a word out of context, or making use of their name in a creative way.

And other times, they speak a phrase that can be bursting with meaning:

Holding my new bra my daughter said,"You got new boobies, Mommy?" Jadyn, 3

Now I'm not saying that Jaydn's mommy actually has new boobies, or even that she ever had new boobies. But somewhere Jaydn got the idea that a woman can, in fact, get new boobies. Where did Jaydn get such an idea? Has Jaydn been accompanying daddy to lunch at Hooters? (Note: I have no idea who Jaydn or his parents are, the condition of the boobies of anyone in the family or their friends, and whether or not Daddy eats lunch at the mammary mecca that is Hooters.) If nothing else, the kid has a head start on a truly male vocabulary.

Read more of the funny stuff that pops out of our kids' mouths, be it boobies, bras, or broccoli (hey, it could happen) right here. You can also submit your own child-like chatterings.

Stuff You Never Thought You'd Say -- Winter Edition

Lego Santa Crab Will Frighten Children Into Being Good All Year

Nature Lovers Also Annoyed About Children's Dictionary

Working Parents Smackdown Part 2 – Dads With Jobs vs Moms With Jobs

Brett Singer — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Part 2 of Working Parents Smackdown (read Part 1 here). This time we focus on the workplace:

When men work late, they're just doing their jobs. Women are neglecting their children.

Women are often made to feel guilty about working late, sometimes by their spouses. Men probably are too but it seems like its easier to avoid.

Women who work risk "emasculating" their husbands. "Femininasculating" isn't even a word.

The "Mommy Wars" are definitely a thing. There are no "daddy wars."

If a woman works "outside the home" and has children, people ask "how does she do it?" If a man works, no one ever says "outside the home", and nobody wonders how they do whatever "it" is.

No matter what, mom is the first point of contact for any school issues. That's not to say I have a problem with that but that's what I see happen. This includes general PTA-type matters, actual issues such as coming to pick the kid up due to illness, and of course Mom's Night Out. (Note: I am NOT angling for an invite to Mom's Night Out. I vastly prefer Dad's Night In, especially when there is a football game on.)

These aren't necessarily sexism or something-ism. It's more of an assumption of gender roles. Which is technically sexism. But it doesn't feel quite as insidious as, say, discrimination in the workplace. Of course, these assumptions can easily translate into more dangerous actions in a job setting, such as when a woman is passed over for a promotion because her boss assumes that she will eventually leave her job to have children. So maybe it is the same. I don't know.

I do know that the last time my friends teased me for being a stay at home dad (who, for the record, works) I was able to silence them by saying, "Have fun at the office on Monday, guys." Haven't heard any teasing since then.

Last word: I find it infuriating when anyone gives a woman a hard time for being a primary caregiver. (Although I use the term frequently, "staying home with the kids" is kind of a silly term once the rugrats are old enough to go to school or even daycare.)

Last word number two: Feelings of emasculation are in the brain of the man. That doesn't mean that the feelings are invalid, nor does it mean that there aren't women who can be cruel and try to make their menfolk feel small. But often the issue is in the guy's head. (It was with me; that's a topic for another time.)

Last word number three: I hereby vow to look up the meaning of the word "last".

Image: edmbookstore.com

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Working Parents Smackdown Part 1 - SAHD vs SAHM

Brett Singer — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Definitions:
SAHD = Stay at home dad
SAHM = Stay at home mom

I've been thinking about some of the differences between these two types of parents. (See also Part 2, Dads With Jobs vs Moms With Jobs.)

Now:

At a party, SAHDs are asked, "What do you do?" SAHMs are not.

If a woman chooses to be a SAHM, she is:
- a lazy throwback
- not fulfilling her potential

If a man chooses to be a SAHD, he is:
- making a sacrifice
- taking a break from work

Men who stay home are doing something great for their wife and children. Women are just, you know, doing what they're supposed to do.

SAHMs are "homemakers." SAHDs are "musicians."

Men who stay home with their kids are special and unique. Women are ordinary and perhaps even bad for their gender.

To sum up: women, whatever you do, you are wrong. If you work, you suck. If you stay home, you suck. Guys: whatever you do, you're OK! Rock on! Write that novel! Play that funky music, SAHD!

I'm exaggerating somewhat, but I'll put it out to the crowd. Am I exaggerating? If so, how much?

Image: theonlymanofthehouse.com

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Should Dads Cosleep?

Miriam Axel-Lute — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:00:00 GMT

Can dads sleep safely with their infants, or should that be left to moms and their "natural protective instincts"? The photo I posted with my report on the British study saying cosleeping doesn't increase risk of SIDS (reposted here) generated some passionate back and forth on this topic in the comments.

On the one hand, the official word from many cosleeping advocates is that it should only be the mom (and only a breastfeeding mom at that, yo). In fact, they even say that a cosleeping baby should not be placed between mom and dad, but between mom and a bedrail. Folks taking this position generally say that breastfeeding mothers are more "tuned in" to their babies, aware of their location, instinctually place them in a safe sleeping position, and wake in tandem with them throughout the night. Ccertainly if you are breastfeeding, one of the points of colseeping is having the breastfeeding mother right there to increase lactation and nursing frequency and duration.

On the other hand, I haven't actually seen any studies of specifically dads and cosleeping, but I've certainly known plenty of dads who describe for themselves perfectly my own experience of being hyper-aware of the presence and location and motion of their infants, even as they sleep. Is it possible that advocates on the defensive against "cosleeping = death" hysteria are being overcautious/biased on this one?

It's worth noting that dads, at least engaged ones, do actually go through hormonal changes themselves as they begin to parent, including modestly increased levels of prolactin, the lactation hormone. (I'd wager this probably also happens for non-bio moms in queer couples.) It's not like we're talking random person off the street here. But it's also not biological motherhood either.

What do you think? Is the only-moms-should-sleep-next-to-baby thing an acknowledgement of basic biology, or just more sexism trying to sneak in under the cloak of science?

Photo by davef3138, via Flickr.

More by this author:

Are You George Michael or Andrew Ridgely?

Kelly Mills — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:04:00 GMT

Peter Hartlaub at the Poop has a great post on the shakedown of competency when the going gets tough for parents. While I bet most couples would say they share the parental responsibilities equally one way or another, there's always that crisis moment--like two flu-struck kids projectile vomiting all over the place--when it becomes clear that one parent could have a very successful solo career while the other one might want to have car racing as a fallback option.

Thus the question: Are you the Andrew Ridgely parent? Or is your partner? Many of the commenters felt that each half of their union had George Michael moments (and by that I am not implying that anyone was arrested for sex in a public restroom, ahem.) A few single parents weighed in and claimed that they were probably Prince, doing every single thing on the album. As an amicably-divorcing mom, I'd say both my kid's dad and I probably saw ourselves as the George Michael, but more likely we were each just one half Milli Vanilli or something.

What about you? Feel free to come up with a band that best characterizes your parenting unit, or lack thereof. Oh c'mon, it's fun...

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Dad Goes Mad on Bigotry for the Children

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:44:00 GMT

There's a proposal on the California ballot that would rewrite the state Constitution to ban gay marriage, because after solving a $20 billion debt and discovering it is still another $4 billion in the red, the state apparently doesn't have more important shit to deal with. But anyway, that's where we are right now in California. In the land of the Hollywood elite and us crazy liberals with our "San Francisco values," we might yet rewrite a document that begins with the right of "pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness" to restrict that very happiness for a select few.

Why?

For the children, of course.

That's actually on the anti-gay marriage campaign -- save marriage and protect the children. I've seen a few of the anti-gay marriage commercials now, and the one that really irks me is about a girl who comes home from school to tell her mom about what she learned: "That a prince can marry a prince, and I can marry a princess!" The mom's eyes go wide, and a homely, balding guy comes on the screen to intone: "Think it can't happen? Think again!"

Well, think it doesn't happen already? Think again.

What the hell kind of lesson are we teaching our children by not teaching them about a large and valued segment of society? It's almost as if the line of thinking is that by denying someone basic rights, like marriage, they're going to go away altogether and oh sweet jesus the easter pig, thank god we don't have to talk about gay people anymore!

Please.

Look, if you're going to make this campaign about protecting children, let's at the very least protect them from ignorance. Are we afraid of talking in school about what goes on down the block? In the end, this isn't a proposition about what we teach in school -- it's a proposition that restricts rights for some people while granting them to others. But if you insist on making it about education, fat homely man, imagine what school books will look like in 30 years when your grandchildren flip to the chapter on gay rights and ask which side of history you were on?

But I digress from what I really wanted to do with this post, which was to share a great essay from my friend Danny Evans, author of Dad Gone Mad and former SD cohort. He really nailed the opposition to the "for the children" aspect of this hideous anti-gay crusade.

"An editorial I read the other day said Prop. 8 must be passed for the sake of the children – a precious, impressionable lot who will suffer immeasurably by having parents of the same gender. I scoffed at that. Where is the outrage about the children who suffer as a result of divorce, infidelity, abuse, and other “crimes” perpetrated by heterosexual couples? Are we to believe that even those kids are better off than those who would be raised by two loving parents who happen to have the same plumbing? Seriously, California. Give me a fucking break."

Indeed.

Please, go check it out. And if you live in California, please -- vote Ellen.

[Photo: slapupsidethehead.com]

British TV journo turns down big bucks for baby pics

Brett Singer — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:34:00 GMT

Natasha Kaplinsky, a British television journalist (is that an oxymoron? The television journalist part, not the British thing) recently turned down an offer of £500,000 from "several celebrity magazines" for photos of her newborn babe, according to Mail Online. At current exchange rates, that's… wait… carry the one… one hundred billion U.S. dollars, right? (It's not, but it's still a lot of money.)

"A source has revealed that the glamorous journalist is hoping to spend some time enjoying being a new mum before revealing the child's face to the world."

My question is, why not tell the "celebrity magazines" that they'll just have to wait? Maybe they wouldn't. Or she just didn't want to deal with them at all, which is fair. She doesn't need the money I suppose – she is probably well paid, and her husband is an investment banker. Wait, in this economy, maybe she should take that offer after all…

Famecrawler has been all over this story; see below for links.

Source/Image: dailymail.co.uk

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When Dads Attack: Nude Boy Chased Out Of Daughter's Room With Pipe

SunnyChanel — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:31:00 GMT

Imagine this scenario, you hear odd sounds coming from your 15-year-old daughter’s bedroom at four a.m. You go to her room to investigate and what do you see? A naked boy, a stranger, standing on her bed. Is your first instinct to grab a pipe and hit him over the head? Probably, but few actually would act on those impulses. But a shocked father in Deltona, Florida did just that. As he swung the metal pipe at the youth, he chased him out of his daughter's room, through the kitchen, living room and then out into the street. He then called 9-1-1. Authorizes stated that the extremely surprised father had no idea that his daughter had a boyfriend or that he’d been sneaking into his teen’s room for over a year.

The 15-year-old boy, who didn't escape the pipe unscathed, had to get staples for a head wound and the father was charged with aggravated battery on a child and had to place a $10,000 bond. My question is, is there anyway I can just skip my own daughter’s teenage years? Color me scared.

Via AP

Photo from inmagine.com