Medical Marijuana For Kids

Most of us teach our kids that medicine is not candy. But at the medical marijuana dispensaries in California, sometimes it is. They sell THC-imbued candies, or “medibles”. They also sell plain old pot, in a variety of exciting flavors. The difference between a dispensary and a Dutch coffeeshop is just that in California, you need a doctor’s note to shop.

This week, the New York Times reports that some Bay Area doctors have begun giving those notes to kids as young as 14. They’re not just treating cancer or AIDS anymore, either. Some of these kids are getting the referrals for ADHD.

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iPhone App Claims to Know What Crying Baby Wants

You may have noticed that some parents seem more in tune to their iPhones than their babies. For those parents, there’s now an app to translate your baby’s cries. Is that kid hungry? Wet? Mad that mom is ignoring her to play yet another round of Freecell on her phone? This app can tell you what you baby really wants.

Or so the promo text goes. The Cry Translator was developed in Spain. It’s creator, Biloop Technologies, claims it is based on extensive “clinical trials”. They also claim it is extremely accurate.

The app purportedly can distinguish between five basic infant cries: hungry, tired, bored, annoyed or stressed. They say Unless one of those is a code word for, “Hey! There’s poop in my pants!” these folks are missing one of the big culprits on, “Stuff That Makes Babies Cry.” Continue reading »

Parents: Time to Land the Helicopters

Time’s cover story this week hails a “new revolution” in parenting. It’s a revolution without a name, a banner or a clear leader, but with a lot of followers. Alternately called “free-range parenting”, “slow parenting”, “simple living” or a dozen other things, it’s the apparently radical idea that parents should just back off and let kids be kids.

Kids get hurt. They flunk tests. They get bullied at school and fall off of swings. That sucks. It sucked for us as children. It only makes sense to want to protect the children we love from life’s pains big and small. But sometimes we go too far.

As parents, we’ve spent the past decade or more living in a sea of messages telling us that all the evils that can befall a child are a) our fault, and b) fixable with the right parental intervention. Continue reading »

North Pole Elves Fight Off Postal Grinches

In a small Alaska town called North Pole, volunteers gather every year to send out thousands of letters from Santa to kids throughout the country. They’ve been doing this every Christmas for the past 54 years. It’s a tradition that’s brought joy to countless little kids.

Apparently this year the U.S. Postal Service is staffed by Grinches. Continue reading »

Sesame Street Launches iPhone App

Your loveable, furry old pal Grover is now waiting tables inside your iPhone.

As part of its 40th birthday celebration, Sesame Street has just launched its first iPhone app. Grover’s Number Special was developed by Sesame Workshop and IDEO Toy Lab. It features some original video footage of the friendly monster, as well as an easy tilt-based game for little people. Continue reading »

Is Your Child An Orchid or a Dandelion?

Most kids grow like dandelions. They bloom everywhere, growing up sturdy and strong in the most desolate neighborhoods or the ritziest.

Others seem to come into the world fragile. They’re sensitive kids who are prone trouble, but also brilliance. The kind who grow up to poets or addicts or both.

In the new issue of Atlantic Monthly, David Dobbs outlines the “orchid hypothesis,” an emerging genetic theory that offers some insight into how, and why, our genetic differences shape how we grow and who we become. Continue reading »

What’s the Best Punishment For Kids?

What do you do when your kids misbehave? A poll by the self-proclaimed “World’s Strictest Parents” on Country Music Television’s new reality show suggests that 80% of parents - or at least 80% of parents who visit  the “World’s Strictest Parents”  website - favor punishing misbehavior in children by removing privileges. Continue reading »

Chemicals in Plastics are “Gender Benders”

Does your son play with dolls? Could just be his charming personality, or it could be something in the water.

A team of  scientists has found that chemicals commonly found in some plastics can make boys more like girls. Continue reading »

EPA Finds Mercury in All Fish

Think you’ve been steering clear of mercury by avoiding tuna? Think again. The EPA released study last week showing mercury and PCBs in all the fish they studied.

The National Lake Fish Tissue Study, conducted over five years and compassing fish from all regions of the United States, found toxins accumulating in all the fish they tested. Just under half of lakes had levels of mercury above the 0.3 ppm the EPA deems safe for humans. Continue reading »

Justice Kennedy Asks High School Journalists To Tidy Up Quotes

Last week, Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, known as one of the court’s staunchest defenders of the First Amendment, gave a talk at a private high school. The fairly routine speech covered topics like the separation of powers and federalism.

After the  a speech at Dalton, a private high school in Manhattan, Justice Kennedy’s office made an unusual request: they wanted to approve the text of any article the high school newspaper published about the event.

The paper went to press with a note saying: “We are not able to cover the recent visit by a Supreme Court justice due to numerous publication constraints.”

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