Strollerderby : language

They Say: Bilingual Babies Learn Better

Kate Tuttle — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:01:00 GMT

And not just languages, either. A new study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, compared babies' ability to both process linguisitic information and to correctly anticipate based on new information, a mental process linked to what neuropsychologists call "executive function." Babies rasied in bilingual households performed better than monolingual babies, although the study's lead scientist suggests that the monolingual babies will eventually catch up with their bilingual peers.

Undertaken at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, the research may change attitudes in Europe, where Jacques Mehler, the study's author, says that "parents are wary of giving a bilingual education to their kids and tryto speak only one language." Given the geographical proximity and relative ease of exposing an Italian child to, say, French, it seems almost criminal not to try.

For parents in the US, bilingual education in the home is fairly well accepted, and even kind of de riguer in certain circles (probably half the kids we play with in our Boston-area setting are bilingual), but there lingers a stigma that privileges certain languages over others. Your mother-in-law will brag to all the neighbors if your baby is learning French, for instance, but that kid down the block who speaks Spanish (as well as English) may well be seen as a potential problem for schools and society for her failure to assimilate. And while some innovative school districts have piloted two-way bilingual programs, many other districts have pushed for English-only learning as a means to help students succeed in English (even though these rules tend to raise dropout rates for immigrants and the children of immigrants).

So it's nice to see some scientific confirmation of what parents who speak two languages in the home already know: a mind is made nimbler the more it's exposed to. When it comes to languages and learning, more is more.

More by this author:

Exploited and Discarded? Seeking Protection for Egg Donors

Another Hospital Baby Mix-Up, Now With Added Racism!

Spurred to Action by Natasha Richardson Death, Parents Save Girl

Child Support Suffers in a Recession, Too

Should Schools Be Teaching Parents English?

JeanneSager — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:59:00 GMT

Immigrant parents who don't speak English can't help their kids achieve. That's the premise behind a program that's sending non-English speaking parents into elementary schools to learn alongside their children.

Is this another way of helping kids succeed or another burden immigrant parents have put on American society?

Thanks to funds from Toyota, the programs in seventy-five elementary schools in the country are helping kids - and parents - without pulling one dime from the taxpayers. But if the funds weren't there - and at the moment they can only support so many schools - is it worthwhile for Americans to pay out of pocket to have this program spread?

Ask any teacher, and the answer is a clear yes. Involved parents means better students.

It's important to note, not all illiterate parents are immigrants. Literacy Volunteers of America estimates there are seven hundred seventy-four million people around the world who are illiterate in their own language. Fourteen percent of Americans are illiterate, and approximately half of American immigrants have poor English skills.

The illiterate cost the country $225 billion or more a year in non-productivity in the workplace, crime and unemployment. And immigrant parents want to learn English - they want to help their kids. So maybe the schools are the place to nip some of these problems in the bud? Parents have that added incentive to learn. How about giving it to them?

If nothing else, it might help those who think English should be pushed as a national language.

Image: Orange County Education

They Say: Kids Attached to Mom Make Better Friends

JeanneSager — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:32:00 GMT

Think your kid's too clingy? That might not be such a bad thing.

A new study from the University of Illinois links preschoolers attachment to their mothers with their ability to forge friendships.

In other words? If they're in tight with Mom, they have an enhanced sense of empathy. They're better able to make friends, but also better able to sustain friendships.

Researchers used data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to look at the way more than one thousand kids interacted with their mothers and then with their peers. Following the kids from age three (preschool) on through first grade, they found the kids who had secure relationships with their mothers also had a better grasp on language at age four and a half than their peers.

"When kids feel comfortable talking about their emotions, especially their negative emotions, it increases their social competence with classmates and leads to closer friendships," explains researcher Nancy McElwain of the University of Illinois.

It's hard to assess this one internally - how do you determine whether you and your child have the best relationship? But watching my friends with their children, I see direct evidence of this theory. One friend, in particular, worried that her second child was too firmly attached to her coattails when she sent him off to nursery school. Small for his age, a "mama's boy," he could easily be the picked on kid. And yet, a friendship forged with another little boy in his class is one of the strongest I've seen - especially for two four-year-olds. He's been able, at four, to determine which kids he likes, which kids he doesn't - and already allied himself so closely with his little buddy that the two have an almost intuitive sense of where they fit in one another's lives.

Secure in his sense of where he fits in at home, and how much he's loved by his parents, he's been able to transfer that sense of self over to the school building, not bothering to be pulled into the playground politics.

Do you see a difference in how your kids relate to other kids from the way they relate at home? Do you think they're too clingy to you?

Image: LIve Science

Only English Here Says Kansas School

JeanneSager — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:03:00 GMT

Did I miss some crucial Supreme Court ruling, whereby we took free speech from the mouths of minors? A Kansas court judge has OK'd a Catholic school's decision to ban all non-English speech within its walls.

The way he sees it, telling kids they can't speak in any language but English does not create a hostile learning environment. Parents of three kids in the school district disagree - all Hispanic, they want their kids to have the right to speak Spanish within the walls of the building.

What's wrong with that?

Honestly, yes, I think people should make every attempt to speak English in our country - the same way that we should make every attempt in Franch to speak French or in Mexico to speak Spanish. When in Rome and all. . . BUT denying children the chance to speak in their native tongues with friends and siblings on the playground or in the lunchroom (we're not talking about in a classroom) is simply mean-spirited. And, wait for it . . . counter-productive to their education.

You heard me. American kids now take another language in school in an attempt to help our children compete with the multi-lingual residents of just about every other advanced nation on the planet. Parents pay for their kids to have extra language lessons, and they park them in front of the television with Dora or Diego turned to full blast. We are trying to make a bilingual nation, and here is a school smack dab in the middle trying to take away from the group that's already achieved that.

To have children sitting in the lunchroom speaking Spanish with their friends is an incredible resource for this school - it's essentially immersive language education for their classmates. The rest of the kids in the lunchroom are going to be trying to figure out WHAT those kids are saying - in other words, learning from them.

The children who grow up speaking two languages have a gift that will provide them advantages later on in life, when their unique skill sets are demanded in the workplace, when their ability to learn another language makes it easier to learn another . . . and another. It's a gift to be fostered by their teachers, not forced out of them.

If you're getting ready to respond with the standard, "This is America, we speak English here," please, stop. Think about it. As I said, it's preferred that people learn English for the day-to-day operations of American life, and in the classroom where all the kids and teachers are speaking English, that is appropriate (with ~~acceptions~~ exceptions, of course, for the kids who are just learning English).

Let's face it - kids do learn English. Adults are another story, but kids DO learn English - they can't help it, with their friends speaking English, their teachers speaking English, and often the need to translate for their parents. Allowing children to retain their cultural identity does not make them less American, and it won't make this nation - the so-called melting pot - any less American.

If anything, it will make a stronger nation, one better able to compete on a global scale where the language of trade is English and Mandarin and Spanish and . . .

Our forefathers called it freedom of speech because they were granting us the freedom to speak our minds, but in today's global economy, speech begets our kids freedom.

Image: St. Anne Catholic School (the school in question)

Pardon Me, I Think you Dropped an Apostrophe

JeanneSager — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:02:00 GMT

If you're a stickler for sentence structure, steer clear of Birmingham. The second-largest city in England has opted to drop all apostrophes from its street signs, citing the hooks in the air as "confusing and old-fashioned."

So what are Birmingham's primary school teachers to do from now on? Allow their charges to make "its" stand in for "it is" on a moment's notice?

Yes, I'm one of those sticklers, one who is appalled that her daughter will soon be learning to read and write in a world that's gotten lax on language. Do you know why the apostrophe is confusing in Birmingham? I would hazard a guess that it's due to a lack of education in the schools and a lack of sticklers on the streets. Because the best way to make punction confusing is to ignore it.

How am I supposed to teach my daughter to spell when every closing sign says they're open "'til midnite" and the post office posts a notice warning you not to "loose your keys"? I'm not sure if I should tell her we're eating at Joe's (denoting there is one owner, a guy named Joe) or Joes' (where there are two proprietors with a common moniker).

We all make mistakes - especially now that fast fingers over the keyboard have taken much of the thought out of the process. But if the signmakers, who are paid to put their focus on proper sign making, are too confused, so are the people reading them!

Want to make it all less confusing? Keep putting your pressure on the public - and the schools - to keep punctuating. Or perhaps they'd prefer we check out Birminghams' business center rather than Birmingham's?

Image/Source: MSNBC

Kid Founder of the No-Cussing Club Receives Death Threats

Shannon LC Cate — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT

The son of the authors of Raising G-Rated Kids in an X-rated World has received death threats for encouraging kids to clean up their language. Not just one death threat. Multiple death threats. Fifteen-year old McKay Hatch started his club, which now has over 30,000 members world-wide, in response to his own annoyance at his peers' changing language habits as they grew from elementary school to middle and high school.

Says Hatch:

"The reason it bothered me the most is 'cause it was something they were using every other word, kinda like the word 'the.' They kept using it and using it."

Complete with website and upcoming book, Hatch's club also has a hip-hop video making the Internet rounds. (Watch it below the cut.)

Hatch says he isn't against free speech, and he is forgiving of slips from people who are trying to change their ways. He even offers help in the form of suggested "substitute" swear words like "pickles" and "sassafrass." Yes, this is one brave kid.

The local police and the FBI are involved in an investigation of the death threats. Meanwhile, Hatch declares that the haters--and they are legion, in spite of his club's success--are "just bullies and they want you to be scared. And so I'm not gonna let them win."

Aw shucks kid, go for it!

Uncover Your Nipples! 7 Gems from the Mouths of Nursing Toddlers

Miriam Axel-Lute — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Every mother who has nursed past a year has heard someone's opinion that "Once they're old enough to ask for it, they're too old." This is, from health and evolution standpoints, absurd.

But especially in a culture that's still a little iffy on being made too aware of breastfeeding at all, the fact remains that having a verbal nursing kid can lead to some, ahem, interesting moments. They fall into a few key categories:

Baby Talk: Too Much or Too Little

1. "Num-nums!" "Oobies!" "Boob!" "Nu-nu!" There's no better way to realize that you have, despite your pre-parental protestations, incorporated sickeningly cutesy baby talk into your everyday vocabulary than to have it shouted at you in public and realize you're going to have to respond as if those words were language, and possibly even speak them yourself.

2. "Mama snacks!" "Hello nipple!" "Where's your breast?" Or the gourmet who says "Yum!" whenever he passes by the bras at Target. Some toddlers don't just nurse, they are vocal and articulate nursing enthusiasts. Some times so pointed that it's verbal equivalent of saying "damn the discreet cover-up." Which is fine. Except of course it was your kid's choice, not yours.

Your Words Out of Their Mouths

3. Version A: The politeness backfire. "Ask, nurse, please?" says one kid. "Hi. Milk. Smile," said mine for a while, betraying our attempts to explain what, beyond the technical words, constituted asking nicely.
4. Version B: Crossed wires. One mother reports that after training her son out of bad nursing behavior (oh, the dreaded twiddling) by repeatedly telling him he was all done with that, now he asks to nurse by saying hopefully "All done? All done?" (Bet she gets the "He wants to wean and you're not letting him!" treatment.)

The "Other Side" Confusion

4. "Side! I want side!" I thought it was a funny fluke that my daughter's younger friend picked up on her saying "other side" and began calling nursing "side." But apparently he's far from alone. That doesn't mean that anyone hearing will think it makes any sense though.

Parenting Shortcuts Exposed

5. Many of us have tried the squirting-breastmilk-on-an-oozing-eye trick. Whether or not it works, it gave my daughter the idea that she wanted milk squirted on her every injury. Once she got this in her head, a symbolic waving of a bare nipple across the offended limb was placebo enough to make almost anything instantly all better, so I played along out of laziness. Until, that is, I was on the sidewalk with a kid with a scrape who was screaming "Mommmmy! Milk on my knee! No! Milk on my knee!"

The Mini-Domme

6. "I'm going to open you up!" It's one thing to have a kid determinedly lifting your shirt before you've said it's OK. It's another when it comes with a declaration worthy of a TV surgeon. Of course that's better than . . .

7. "Uncover your nipples!" It's not as bad as it sounds, as she usually means it as a contrast to my having drawn the covers up over us in bed for a falling-asleep nurse, but I admit that I'm not-so-secretly hoping this one never leaves the house.

I'm sure I and mothers I heard these from are not alone. What has your nursing Baby Einstein come out with?

(Images were submissions to the Mothering breastfeeding icon contest.)

More by this author:

Related articles:

"Mother" is Just Another Word: Family, Adoption and Language

Shannon LC Cate — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Guest blogger at the New York Times blog, Motherlode, Jenni Levy, muses on the question of how to feel and what to think when she has to identify her child as "adopted" on a life insurance form:

"Most days I feel good about the way we are together. I have become my child’s mother without denying her heritage, without erasing her origins. So...why can’t I just check “adopted child” and move on?

I can’t choose one because it’s a false dichotomy. My daughter is adopted, and she is my child. Both of those are true. I don’t want to deny any part of our relationship, even if it is just to answer a bureaucrat’s unthinking question."

So when is it appropriate to make the distinction between someone's biological or adopted child, as such? We are always hearing about celebrities and their "adopted" children versus "just" their children, and the labeling is all the more glaring when multiple children come into one family both ways (for anyone out there who just came out of a ten-year coma, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for example).

I am a mother by adoption. In fact, there are so many labels qualifying my family I sometimes don't even know where to start. I am one of three mothers of my children, who have a birth mother and two adopted mothers (my partner and I) each. I am white and my daughters are African American. We have open adoptions, which means we extend our sense of family to include their first mothers and other family members.

Most of the time I don't care whether people say my kids were adopted or not. Checking boxes in situations like the one Levy discusses don't bother me much because I have come to have really low expectations of the respect my family receives from those outside its immediate embrace. The labels people assign to family don't usually fit us, and I stopped expecting them to so long ago I don't remember ever feeling differently. We are who we are to each other, call it what you will. Some of what we are to each other doesn't have a word. I say "my partner" for lack of a better term, though its business connotations are too stiff and distant to define the real substance of my marriage. My children's biological mothers are family to me but there's no adequate word in our culture for the woman who gave birth to the children I'm rearing. And I know three mothers is difficult for many people to comprehend, but for our family it is just our life. When we need to distinguish which mother is which, we use clumsy modifiers (none of which are quite right) to help minimize confusion.

(I once read a persusive ethics essay suggesting that only women who give birth should be called the "mothers" of their children -- even if the mother doesn't rear the child. Other parents -- male biological parents, adoptive parents of either gender -- should be refered to as "parents" but not "mothers." I thought that was a fair distinction. If that kind of language were to become common, I'd have less explaining to do about my own family relationships. Of course, this language shift will not happen any time soon, because of the emotional baggage our culture attaches to the word "mother.")

What does bother me is when people use the "adoptive" modifier to imply that there is something extraordinary about the parent. For some crazy reason, there is a strong myth in our culture that by adopting children, parents rescue them from some terrible fate. For example, upon meeting our first child for the first time, a family friend of my avowed atheist partner commended her on doing such a "Christian" thing by adopting. Another said "thank god she wasn't aborted!" as if our adopting her had anything to do with her mother's decision to carry her pregnancy to term. And then there's Saint Angelina, Patron of Adoption, whom we have all seen grace the covers of the magazines in the grocery line.

But ninety-nine percent of the time there is nothing even slightly rescue-related about adoption (including Angelina's). Frankly (and shamefully), my children's mothers did not have access to abortion should they have wanted it. And our children were hardly languishing in the foster system. They came home to us from the hospital as newborns. Furthermore, if I had not adopted my children, someone else would have. The waiting list for a child is nine months to two years long at our adoption agency. And those waiting lists exist everywhere the adoption of healthy infants is concerned (yes, Angelina had to wait, too). The stark truth is, the world has no shortage of people who want to adopt healthy infants -- and even toddlers -- whatever the race, whatever the country of origin. I am not a hero for adopting my children, I'm just a woman who wanted babies, like women who chart their ovulation and pee on sticks and give birth want babies.

This adoptive-parents-as-heros myth also seems to imply that loving a child not related by blood is more difficult than loving one that sprang from your own loins. This offends me on multiple levels, but most of all because it implies there is something less loveable about my children than about theoretical children that might have been born to me. In fact, my children are, of course, the most loveable children on the planet Earth, and I am lucky beyond lucky that I get to be their parent.

But after five years of reading and writing about adoption, and nearly four years of parenting by adoption, I have all but given up on expecting most people to understand that my family is a family is a family, even with its unusual structure, members without titles or legal ties and its obvious, visible differences from the "norm." I now divide the world into three categories: people who "get" adoption; people who don't get adoption but would like to learn; people who really have no interest in getting it at all. I try only to bother with those who get it or those interested in learning.

You can't teach a form full of boxes much of anything so I will blithely check "adopted child," roll my eyes, and get on with my day.

A Language All Our Own

editors — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:23:00 GMT

When I was teaching eighth grade English, I sometimes had to talk to students about things like, say, not doing their homework. If I was being particularly hard on a student, he or she might respond to me by saying something like, “Ms. Armstrong, why you beastin’? I’ve been mad busy this week. You don’t have to be so o.d. just because I didn’t do one wack assignment.”

Over time, I came to learn and love all (well, most) of my students’ slang words. Some of their terms, like "dique," which is sort of a stand-in for air quotes, have no other equivalent in language and express an idea so perfectly that I wonder how anyone gets on without them.

So, as I was reading CaféMom’s ToddlerBuzz today, the word-nerd in me was very excited to find out that someone had taken on the task of inventing a slang just for parents. Eric Ruhalter, author of The KidDictionary and father of three says, “People who have children in their lives to any degree have a profound need for many words that are not currently found in the dictionary. I am introducing and defining these much needed terms.”

The DailyBuzz blogger, Café Cynthia, offers a sampling of a few of her favorites, such as:

Curdler: A sippy cup with milk in it that's been lost under a piece of furniture for several weeks

Threequels: The three books you read to your kids AFTER you read them "the last book" before bedtime

A.M. Freeze: The early morning hope, upon hearing a stirring infant or toddler, that if you stay perfectly still and quiet they will go back to sleep. (Never in the history of parenting has this worked.)

For only $12.00, you too can own The KidDictionary.

(Image from Israelnewsletter.com)

- Lindsay Armstrong

Lingo-watch: Manimony

Brett Singer — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Somewhat like "mompreneurs", "manimony" is one of these silly, made-up words that some nitwitty journalist hopes will catch on. "Tweens" was OK. "Manscaping" has to go, as does "manimony."

What is it? Well, it's when a woman has to -- horrors! -- pay alimony to a guy. Some think this is soooo unusual that it requires a brand-new addition to the language.

I would like to offer some information to the world at large. It's a little radical, but stay with me. OK? Are you ready? Here we go. Drum roll please...

It's the 21st century.

I know, I know. That was a little intense. I'll give everyone a chance to catch his or her breath, take a sip of water, even a belt of scotch if you need it. Ready? Here's more:

Sometimes women have...jobs.

WHOAH! Slow down!

And sometimes...

(no!)

they even...

(STOP!)

make more money than men.

Captain! The dilithium crystals are wearing out! She canna take no more'a this abuse!

Therefore, in the event of a divorce, it is possible that the woman will pay alimony to the man. This is called equality.
---
Yes, the more traditional arrangement that the wife stays in the home (cave) with the children while the man goes to work (goes hunting in the forest) is still the norm. But not always. And it really shouldn't be a surprise anymore. It is, of course. But it shouldn't be.

image: brainbasedbiz

Words Have Many Meanings, Part 2

Adrienne Martini — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:00:00 GMT

A couple of days ago, I groused about the use of the word "mompreneurs." My issue with this smooshing together of two other perfectly good words is that it makes businesswomen who happen to be mothers sound like they are somehow different than entrepreneurs who are child-free and/or male. Fortunately, someone has explained how a mompreneur is different from anyone else who starts a business.

The difference is that mompreneurs work every minute of every day, squeezing their chosen vocation into the corners around soccer games, taxi duty and sleeping. It also means that you squeeze phone calls around videos and tv shows. Or, if you can't find a convenient time to talk to another person in real time, taking care of most of your business via electronic channels when everyone else in the house is asleep.

So the difference is that "entrepreneurs" don't have to juggle schedules, watch kids and obsess about face time with everyone while "mompreneurs" spend 24/7 wearing a different hat every second of every day? How is this different from what other working mothers face? Or am I missing something?

Words Have Many Meanings

Adrienne Martini — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Reuters, bless them, just ran a feature on "Mompreneurs," which featured folks like Skip*Hop's Ellen Diamant and Dapple's Dana Rubinstein and Tamar Rosenthal. The rant that follows isn't about them but is, instead, inspired by the way the coverage is framed.

Here's the primary question: have you ever heard of a "Dadpreneur?" No? You know why? Because business people who aren't mothers are simply called entrepreneurs. Men with kids are still entrepreneurs, even if they invent a stroller, diaper bag or baby-related device. But if you have the temerity to have a baby and start your own business, then you are only a "mompreneur," which is somehow different and just a little bit lesser-than.

Thankfully, you're not a "mommypreneur." You can, however, be a "mommyblogger," which is different from a regular old blogger because the writer in question talks about her kids rather than Grand Theft Auto 4 or Iron Man.

Here's a thought -- rather than simply label something "mommy-" whenever a mother happens to start doing something all of the other cool kids are, let's just let it keep it's old name. An entrepreneur still faces the same risks, no matter how many children she might have.

illo credit: www.canadianmommies.com

5 Disturbing Parentisms

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:06:00 GMT

Long gone are the days when parents can yell out "If you don't get in this car, I'm going to whupp you!!" in the parking lot with impugnity, and good riddance!

And even though "you're getting the switch!" is no longer socially acceptable, violent language can still be heard in even the most attached of households. As a generation, we may hover and over-parent, but sometimes language reveals other darker things. Here are five things parents have been known to say when under pressure to get their kids to behave:

1. "I'll skin you alive!"

2. "I'll beat you to a bloody pulp!"

3. "I'll make you wish you were never born!"

4. "I'm going to kick your little monkey butt!" (thank you, Juno)

5. "I'll give you something to cry about!"

Some parents probably still say plenty of these things, but it's still surprising to hear. The other day, I found myself yelling "Get up here or I'll tan your hide!" Tan your hide? I've never raised a hand to my kids and never will. Where does all this subterranean rage come from ?

Why Kids Curse

Cole Gamble — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:32:00 GMT

The other day my 1-year-old called me a douche bag. I could be mistaken; he may have been just asking for a cookie. Even though we like to pretend Dalton can say seven or so words, all the “words” are indecipherable and they all kind of sound like “douche bag.”

According to NPR, your kids curse because of—and here comes the big reveal—you. Yep, big “duh” factor. You might say, “nay, my good man, my young master and young miss acquired no such articles of offense from I. It twas from those scurvy-riddled urchins with which my successors associate.” Well, I'm sorry to tell you, as you nervously finger your cravat, they might learn bad words from the kids at school, but your kids taught just as much as they were schooled. They're getting the @#*!s and &%$*!s from you, unless your kid has a nightly date with Cinemax After Dark while you're asleep in bed.

I don't think parents should stop swearing. Personally, I am afraid of anyone who doesn't swear. Not only is swearing a much needed pressure-release button, but to have a passion for swearing is to foster an unconditional love for the language we speak, warts and all. There is a poetry and endless invention to swearing especially when the speaker creates those delectable hybrids by combining expletives together in whimsical, almost Seussian arrangements. Words among my favorites are: (I know the sponsors are watching so, forgive me, but I'll clean this up) “male genitalia/head” and “sexual congress/face” or really exotic smash-ups like “excrement/sexual congress/sexual congress with fecal matter/nose.”

If you are a little more curious about the etymology of the swear, there's a fine article over at howstuffworks.com. There I found out dirty words generally fall into two categories: deistic (related to religion) or visceral (related to the body and it's function). On second thought, maybe you don't want to research your favorite swears. A great swear is like a great joke, it kind of kills it when you have to explain it.

No, I don't think children should be invited to the entire buffet of hard R swear words. That should be another one of those consolation prizes for getting older, like getting a driver's license, drinking alcohol and earning the right to neglect to vote. One day, many years from now, I hope one of my children will come to me and say, “Listen dad, I don't give a shit.” And I will put a hand on their shoulder and tell them “congratulations, my child, you are now grown.”

Anatomically Correct: Do You Tell Your Kids the Right Words for their Private Parts?

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:39:00 GMT

Whatever your opinion about what little girls and boys are made of, this is proof positive that many of our small people once armed with the proper (or improper) names for their boy or girl equipment, loooove to yell them out (especially if Grandma or a new friend is sitting nearby). It's interesting to consider the variants on good parenting.

One good parent's bottle is another good parent's breast... one's homeschool is another person's private school. But here's a funny thing: How do you know what age to tell your kids the proper names for their private parts? Or is it better to leave off all the science and just surrender to gentle and more socially acceptable approximations?

Even if you use cute-isms like "down there" or "flower," kids of a certain age will always manage to infuse the word with enough giggling meaning that most people will ascertain what exactly is being discussed. In general, I'm a believer in supplying children with the right tools for understanding themselves and this includes the correct words for their private parts.

But sometimes I regret this, when the evening's giggle-athon begins around dinner time and they laughingly announce loudly that their sibling is a "vagina-head."

Could We Lose These Parenting Terms In 2008?

Kelly Mills — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:33:00 GMT

The annual list of terms that deserve to be banned just came out, and I think it falls a litle short on the parenting lingo. When the mom and pop terms first appear, they maybe seem funny or twisted or innocuous or entertaining or whatever. Then they appear more and more, until finally you start to think if one more person refers to, say, "MILFs" you might have to barf--especially if it's in the "MILPH" sense. (Note to mommys making lingerie calendars--don't try and reclaim these terms in a faux-empowerment way, please.) They get overused and nauseating and when MSNBC uses them in a headline, you know the whole thing has so jumped the shark. It's over. Done. Let's erase the term from the lexicon and move on.

My nominees for this year's overused parenting terms: "baby-daddy" and "yummy mummy". Baby-daddy just got used here: "Jamie Lynn's baby-daddy a 'lying, cheating dog'." Sigh. Kill me now.Maybe you haven't seen "yummy mummy" as much as I have, because I have to troll both British and U.S. papers for parenting stories, but believe me, this U.K.-originated one is supposed to be a softer version of MILF, it's used regularly, and I didn't like it to begin with. So for 2008, let's start with a clean slate and replace these with something better, something you'll have to come up with because I don't invent language, I just bag on it. And nominate anything else you'd like to see stricken from the record for good.

Strollerderby : language

They Say: Bilingual Babies Learn Better

Should Schools Be Teaching Parents English?

Only English Here Says Kansas School

School Helps Child Escape Dad for the Big City

Michigan Court Must Hear Lesbian Custody Dispute

When Should the School Call the Parents?

They Say: Kids Attached to Mom Make Better Friends

Grey's Anatomy Tackles Mother Vs. Baby Issue

Little Girls Really Do Marry Their Daddies

Smackdown: I Need a Time Out!

Is it Time to Give up on Athletes as Child Role Models?

Only English Here Says Kansas School

Should Schools Teach Kids Fiscal Responsibility?

Elementary School Essay Lands Dad in Jail

White Firefighter Reunited with Black Baby He Saved Forty Years Ago

Teacher Taped Kids Mouths Shut

Florida Principal Says "No Gay-Straight Club for You!"

Pardon Me, I Think you Dropped an Apostrophe

Cough Cover: Because We Can't Possibly Make Them Use a Tissue

Green Expert Says: Limit Kids to Two

Paging NY State Education: It Snows There

Scholastic: Honoring the Mommy Bloggers

Kid Founder of the No-Cussing Club Receives Death Threats

Uncover Your Nipples! 7 Gems from the Mouths of Nursing Toddlers

"Mother" is Just Another Word: Family, Adoption and Language

A Language All Our Own

Lingo-watch: Manimony

Words Have Many Meanings, Part 2

Words Have Many Meanings

5 Disturbing Parentisms

Why Kids Curse

Anatomically Correct: Do You Tell Your Kids the Right Words for their Private Parts?

Could We Lose These Parenting Terms In 2008?