I've never been much of a fan of reality TV. Putting ordinary people (who are always prettier or meaner or whinier than anyone person I've ever met) in weird circumstances to show what happens just isn't entertaining to me. I've got kids, I deal with weird circumstances ALL DAY LONG!
Apparently, I'm not the only one who isn't crazy about at least one reality TV show. The Washington D.C. based nonprofit group Zero to Three is upset with the new NBC television series "Baby Borrowers". The group's spokesperson told Page Six, "We're concerned about the fact that these babies are being separated from their parents and placed with strangers. On the first episode, the babies were separated for about 12 hours and were clearly in distress. Typically they will cry and cling and search for their parents, which they were doing. They should be with someone they've had the opportunity to get to know."
I'm all for educating teens on child care getting rid of the notion that parenting is one big ball of baby powdery fun, but there ARE better ways than dumping a baby off with complete strangers for a television show. Working at a childcare center, volunteering at a church nursery or preschool, or even babysitting are all good ways to get a small idea of what life as a parent is like.
There is no way I'd ever, ever, ever have agreed to let my babies be on a television show like this, even with a nanny stationed nearby in case she's needed. What exactly is going on with our society that makes babies fair game for a reality series, anyway?
One of the best things about Halloween is the assortment of candy bars the little goblins bring home. I consider it repayment for my costuming efforts as there is always WAY too many for tender tummies to handle, so I help reduce the inventory levels of chocolate covered goodness from the communal treat bowl. ( And, you know, to save the little scamps from cavities. I eat because I love!)
Because of this yearly crash course in chocolatery, I fancied myself somewhat of an expert on the various candy bar brands available until I took this quiz asking you to identify cross-sectioned chocolate bars. Even with multiple choice answers available, I scored a dismal 14 out of 20 which shocked me. Obviously, I need to do more research treat myself a little more often than just Halloween and build up a better understanding of chocolate and caramel and nougat!
Test your candy bar knowledge against your kids and see who is candy king in your house! It's trickier than you'd think!
Do you know what's for dinner? Mom and blogger Stephanie O'Dea does, and chances are she's cooking it in one of her five Crock-Pots. In January of this year, Stephanie made a New Year's resolution that she would cook at least one meal a day using a Crock-Pot. Not only has she stuck to her commitment, she's created a blog to share her experience and her recipes. A Year of CrockPotting (misspelled to catch the Google searches) details her menu hits (Original Crock-Pot Taco Soup) and misses (Overnight Quinoa and Brown Rice Pudding).
Stephanie's resolution recently caught the attention of famous kitchen diva Rachael Ray, where Stephanie got a chance to show her stuff. The show will air July 23rd, where she'll show Ray's viewers how to make Crock-Pot creme brulee. I had the opportunity to talk to Stephanie this week about her experience on the show, as well as her year of Crock-Potting and she had a lot of good stuff to share with ParentDish readers.
"Things are different today," I hear ev'ry mother say Cooking fresh food for a husband's just a drag So she buys an instant cake and she burns her frozen steak And goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper And two help her on her way, get her through her busy day.
-The Rolling Stones "Mother's Little Helper"
Between the proliferation of kid activities, the increased expectation of parental involvement, and the demands of work AND home, today's mothers are being pulled in more directions than ever before. How are modern mommas getting more hours in their day? It's not a pill like the Rolling Stones sang about.
A study by The National Sleep Foundation found that 65% of mothers regularly drink caffeinated beverages to make it through their day. And we're not talking just a cup or two, Sarah Kripal, mother of two from Lincoln, Nebraska admitted, "I need about four energy drinks, three cups of coffee and a six-pack of soda every day." Lindy Smith, a mom of three says, "I usually drink two to three pots of coffee a day. I am sure this is not good for me, but how do you keep up?"
In spite of research that coffee can reduce inflammation and decrease blood sugar levels, caffeine can trigger migraines, heartburn, gastrointestinal problems and put women at an increased risk of miscarriage. And unlike the original Mother's Little Helper, liquid energy requires no prescription is readily available in various sweetened and foamy forms (vanilla lattes are my weakness!) in nearly every city in the nation, making it easy for busy moms to grab a delicious cup of jet-fuel whenever energy levels sag.
No doubt about it, caffeine is a hard habit to break and current lifestyles make it hard to imagine why we'd even try giving up the one thing that helps us squeeze more hours into a day.
If you could request one thing from your employer, what would it be? Permission to work from home? A flexible schedule? On-site childcare? All of the above?
Much of it boils down to what Karen calls "form over function." When employers require that employees sit at their desks from 8 AM to 5 PM every day, are they really cultivating productivity? Karen says no, and I have to agree.
Names can be a tricky thing; expecting parents agonize over choosing just the right name for their new bundle of joy. But the name dilemma isn't over once you bring the baby home -- sure, you've named the BABY, but now the renaming of the parents begins. I don't mean the choice between being Mommy or Mama or Mamacita -- I mean the much more sensitive issue of what your children's friends, and your friends' children, will call call you.
The basic name dilemma is first name versus last -- are you Jane or Mrs. Smith to the tots in your playgroup? And then there's the more complicated last name issue -- what if your last name and your child's last name aren't the same? Are you Mrs. Child's Last Name or Mrs. Your Last Name?
And why does it matter?
New York Times etiquette expert Philip Galanes thinks it shouldn't; in response to a query about a friend who insists that children call adults Mrs. Child's Last Name, rather than using the mother's actual last name, because that's the "proper" thing to do, he says, "Next time you meet one of your friend's children - preferably with his Stepford mother in tow - insist he call you Jules, J-Bird or another nickname that's as inappropriate for a 9-year-old to use as you can bear to suggest. It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes just one sensible adult to bring down a regime that calls people by the wrong names for the sake of 'proper manners.'"
I disagree with Galanes. I think any parent who is encouraging her child to address adults in a respectful manner is doing them a favor. We constantly hear about parents who are NOT teaching good manners -- why attack the parent who is? And why encourage inappropriate behavior as a response?
What do your kids call the other grown ups? Do you ask other parents how they want to be addressed, or just go with the Mr. and Mrs. Child's Last Name shorthand?
The name "Chanel" is synonymous with elegance, simplicity, and wealth. After all, it was Coco Chanel who introduced the world to the little black dress, a wardrobe staple no woman's closet should be without. And her Chanel No. 5 has stood the test of time (aided no doubt by Marilyn Monroe's statement that it was the only thing she wore to bed) remains one of best known perfumes in the world even today, eighty-seven years after its creation.
And because anything adorned with those intertwined C's can take many years to afford (as even on Ebay, Chanel suits are out of the price range of most people) Chanel shoppers tend to be women, not teenage girls.
However, that didn't stop Chanel from choosing 18-year-old Emma Watson, the actress who plays Hermione in the Harry Potter series, to be the next face of Chanel. The dewy-faced teenager has signed a two year contract with the fashion house said to be worth $6 million, which is almost criminal considering she'll also be given Chanel clothing to wear at functions.
I'm still several decades away from being able to afford Chanel and while I understand they may be trying to appeal to a younger generation, it seems strange to have someone not even old enough to vote or drink represent the brand.
In a time when American schools seem to be failing students in so many ways, celebrating the students who finish and graduate would appear to be a good thing. After all, as parents we all know that positive reinforcement is the key to raising successful kids. So what's wrong with congratulating kids who graduate with parties and proms and awards?
Nothing really, if we're talking about college graduation, or high school. But do kids finishing eighth grade really need to graduate?
Educators are saying no.
An article in today's New York Times looks at how eighth grade graduation has gone berserk, with students partying it up in fancy dresses and limousines. Andre Cowling, principal of Harvard Elementary, one of Chicago's worst performing schools, say that eighth grade graduation is "a big business event: everyone has on a new outfit, manicures, pedicures, the hair. And then," he said, "kids go to 5, 10 parties in the neighborhood, in hotels."
But it's not just the pampering and party hopping that causes concern; it's the sense that graduating from eighth grade is somehow the end of your education. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama puts it this way: "Now hold on a second - this is just eighth grade. So, let's not go over the top. Let's not have a huge party. Let's just give them a handshake.
"You're supposed to graduate from eighth grade."
Educators blame parents for the hoopla, saying that every year the bar is raised higher, with moms and dad hiring party planners and sending out elaborate invitations for dinner cruises and other over-the-top festivities.
What say you: is finishing the eighth grade an excuse for a big blow-out or is a handshake enough?
Education has become decidedly less stuffy since schools and administrators have realized there are others ways for students to demonstrate mastery of a topic besides just writing a report on it. Kids now do things like writing a play about Benjamin Franklin, making a diorama of marsh creatures, and recreating a famous landmark out of Popsicle sticks. (ASK ME HOW I KNOW!)
So it makes sense that it might be time to give physical education class an overhaul as well. A new curriculum adopted by hundreds of elementary schools in more than a dozen states recognizes that not all kids are natural athletes or will be interested in playing team sports. (Did YOU ever play dodge ball outside gym class?)
Instead, individual, no traditional physical activities like rock climbing, skateboarding, unicycle riding, yoga, and even Dance Dance Revolution get kids up and moving without demoralizing by making them the last one picked for a team sport. My sons gym teacher introduced the kids to cup stacking, which required quick reflexes and incredible eye-hand co-ordination and the kids were crazy about it and it allowed kids who weren't the fastest or strongest a chance to shine.
"Most of my class doesn't want PE to end," said Ashleigh Parish a fifth grader who is learning to skateboard at school. I can't think of a more ringing endorsement than having kids actually ENJOYING gym class and wanting to do the activities in their free time.
There are people who run marathons (26.2 miles without even the incentive of a rabid wolf behind you!) who are pretty crazy/amazing. And then there are parents of multiples who are pretty crazy/amazing themselves. One baby was enough to bring me to my knees begging for sleep, how the world do mothers of more than one keep their sanity?!
And sometimes, those two groups collide. Jenny Masche is the mother of SIX babies: Savannah, Cole, Grant, Molli, Bailey, and Blake. After surviving months of bed-rest and cardiac arrest after the birth of the babies, Masche vowed to run a marathon by the time the babies turned one.
On May 31, less than two weeks before the sextuplets' first birthday, Jenny entered the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego and finished the race with her husband at her side.
"There was no way I was getting out of that," Bryan Masche told Meredith Vieira on the TODAY show. "I couldn't let Jenny run the race after heart failure and sextuplets and a year later be on the sidelines cheering her on."
And the question every mother of even ONE squalling little baby wants to know: When in the world did she find the time to train for a marathon?
"They're good sleepers," the humble mom told Vieira. "As soon as I put them down at 7 o'clock at night, I'd literally throw my running shoes on and my friend and I would go and run for like two hours."
I think there's a lot more to it than having good sleepers! I had my good sleeping babies one at a time and still found it a challenge to find the time to take a shower some days!
There are some celebrity parents who seem to trot out their children for the cameras whenever their career needs a boost (Denise Richards, I'm looking at you!) and others whose babies are as familiar as our own because of the relentless stalking of the paparazzi with long lenses (like Britney Spears and the Jolie-Pitts.) And then there the are celebrity parents who are so refreshingly normal it's easy to forget they are parents at all.
Tiger Woods and his wife Elin are part of the elite category of celebrities who have managed to avoid the spotlight and to keep their adorable baby girl far from it.
Baby Sam was sighted in a rare public appearance to support her daddy at this year's U. S. Open, which he managed to win after a stressful sudden-death playoff against Rocco Mediate.
Even the controversy Tiger garnered during the tournament was brought on by showing a good work ethic. Playing in spite of a knee injury, he modeled that sometimes you have to go to work even though you don't want to or don't feel the best. And just today the golf great announced that he would have to take off the rest of the 2008 season due to another knee surgery and the recuperation it will require, making the Open win even more amazing.
Woods had credited his current golf win to his tiny daughter saying, "There's no way I could have gotten through this without Sam being there ... just watching her grow, walking, running now, it's been just the greatest thing in the world." Here's hoping that sweet little face will prove healing for him again in this next round of treatments.
It seemed like a nice gesture: three seniors at Cobble Hill school in Brooklyn baked a cake and brought it in to share with their teachers. Unfortunately, the cake was laced with laxatives and two teachers wound up in the hospital; now the three students are in police custody, facing charges of assault.
The 17-year-old students have also been suspended from school and banned from their graduation ceremony. One is a straight-A cheerleader, and none are the kind of kids that are usually tagged as troublemakers.
"I was very close to these students and I'm very sad," said one victim, a school social worker who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It's very hard when you give so much of your heart and soul to your kids and someone hurts you like that."
Teacher Danilo Dungca said that he took one bite of the cake and immediately knew something was wrong. "It tasted like someone sprayed hairspray in my mouth. I spit it out," he said. "That's when my lips and my tongue went numb." Dungca went directly to the emergency room. Another teacher, Tom Mancuso, wound up in the ER later that same day, complaining of breathing problems that doctors told him were consistent with insecticide poisoning. Three other staff members reported feeling ill after eating the cake.
What is most disturbing about this story is the reaction of students at the high school. "Nobody's died from a laxative," said one student who is a friend of one of the pranksters. "He thought it was funny. I thought it was funny, too."
British TV presenter Ian Clayton is sharing a heartbreakingly painful story in court in an attempt to protect more families from the tragedy that occurred to his two years ago.
While vacationing in Wales, Clayton rented a canoe to take his eight-year-old twins on a day trip. When their vessel capsized and the fast-moving water swept the family downstream, the father was faced with a Sophie's Choice situation: should he save the son he could see being quickly taken downstream or stay with the overturned canoe and look for the daughter that might still be trapped under it?
The agonized father decided to go for the child being swept out of sight, in spite of the boy's brave directive to "Save my sister first." He managed to get the boy out of the water and to the safety of the riverbank, but it was too late for his daughter, Billie.
When testifying at the inquest against the canoe company being investigated for renting the boats without giving proper warning or training to customers, it's clear the grieving father is still heartbroken. "'It is such a tragedy and people say that tragedy gets better with time. But it doesn't. The pain is still the same today, two years and two months after."
Just as every parent suspects, having to make a choice like that is something that haunts a person even as they sleep.
"Sometimes I dream that I saved Billie instead. I will never know if I made the right decision."
I can handle being called an overprotective, hand-wringing, worrywart basket case. What I don't think I could ever handle would be to find myself in a situation like this. Even imagining it is too painful.
If you were around during the 70's somne of the names that were mentioned with frequency in the sports world included: Pelé, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Bruce Jenner, John McEnroe, Billie Jean King, and Chris Evert. But for young girls there was a trio of girl greatness: Nadia Comaneci, Dorothy Hamill, and Tracy Austin.
Tracy Austin didn't have a signature haircut like Hamill, just pigtails with ribbons just like the rest of us. And since she was raised in California, she didn't have the exotic accent of Comaneci. What she did have a generous sprinkling of freckles and braces on her teeth sparkled in the sun just like an ordinary American girl, which made her very relatable.
However, on the tennis court, there was nothing ordinary about Tracy! In 1977, just twenty-eight days after her 14th birthday, Austin became the youngest player to ever win a professional tournament. Two years after that feat she went on to become the youngest U.S. Open champion and the player who broke Chris Evert's amazing 125 game winning streak on clay.
The applause over the first black presidential candidate in the history of the United States had barely died down when FOX News made the bizarre decision to use the subtitle "Obama's baby mama" as the subtitle to footage of the candidate's wife aired during a segment discussing conservative attacks on Michelle Obama.
While it's true that Michelle Obama is the mama to Barack's babies, "baby mama" is a Jamaican Creole slang term for a woman who is not married to her child's father. The term has been used frequently in hip hop songs and the vernacular of people trying to be hip.
I've never been much of a fan of reality TV. Putting ordinary people (who are always prettier or meaner or whinier than anyone person I've ever met) in weird circumstances to show what happens just isn't entertaining to me. I've got kids, I deal with weird circumstances ALL DAY LONG!
One of the best things about Halloween is the assortment of candy bars the little goblins bring home. I consider it repayment for my costuming efforts as there is always WAY too many for tender tummies to handle, so I help reduce the inventory levels of chocolate covered goodness from the communal treat bowl. ( And, you know, to save the little scamps from cavities. I eat because I love!)
Do you know what's for dinner? Mom and blogger Stephanie O'Dea does, and chances are she's cooking it in one of her five Crock-Pots. In January of this year, Stephanie made a New Year's resolution that she would cook at least one meal a day using a Crock-Pot. Not only has she stuck to her commitment, she's created a blog to share her experience and her recipes. 
"Things are different today,"
Names can be a tricky thing; expecting parents agonize over choosing just the right name for their new bundle of joy. But the name dilemma isn't over once you bring the baby home -- sure, you've named the BABY, but now the renaming of the parents begins. I don't mean the choice between being Mommy or Mama or Mamacita -- I mean the much more sensitive issue of what your children's friends, and your friends' children, will call call you.
The name "Chanel" is synonymous with elegance, simplicity, and wealth. After all, it was Coco Chanel who introduced the world to 
In a time when American schools seem to be failing students in so many ways, celebrating the students who finish and graduate would appear to be a good thing. After all, as parents we all know that positive reinforcement is the key to raising successful kids. So what's wrong with congratulating kids who graduate with parties and proms and awards?
Education has become decidedly less stuffy since schools and administrators have realized there are others ways for students to demonstrate mastery of a topic besides just writing a report on it. Kids now do things like writing a play about Benjamin Franklin, making a diorama of marsh creatures, and recreating a famous landmark out of Popsicle sticks. (ASK ME HOW I KNOW!) 
There are people who run marathons (26.2 miles without even the incentive of a rabid wolf behind you!) who are pretty crazy/amazing. And then there are parents of multiples who are pretty crazy/amazing themselves. One baby was enough to bring me to my knees begging for sleep, how the world do mothers of more than one keep their sanity?!
There are some celebrity parents who seem to trot out their children for the cameras whenever their career needs a boost (Denise Richards, I'm looking at you!) and others whose babies are as familiar as our own because of the relentless stalking of the paparazzi with long lenses (like Britney Spears and the Jolie-Pitts.) And then there the are celebrity parents who are so refreshingly normal it's easy to forget they are parents at all. 
It seemed like a nice gesture: three seniors at Cobble Hill school in Brooklyn baked a cake and brought it in to share with their teachers. Unfortunately, 
British TV presenter Ian Clayton is sharing a heartbreakingly painful story in court in an attempt to protect more families from the tragedy that occurred to his two years ago. 
If you were around during the 70's somne of the names that were mentioned with frequency in the sports world included: Pelé, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Bruce Jenner, John McEnroe, Billie Jean King, and Chris Evert. But for young girls there was a trio of girl greatness: 
The applause over the first black presidential candidate in the history of the United States had barely died down when FOX News made the bizarre decision to use the subtitle 
