Mommy rage. If you’ve never felt it, you can probably skip this article. But if you’ve ever been gripped by the uncontrollable urge to throw a full-scale tantrum of your own in response to a power struggle with a three-year-old, read on.

Dear Sugar, who makes me cry with some regularity, has written a stunning column in response to a mom grappling with her own mommy rages. It’s normal to feel this way, is the message. The trick is to forgive yourself and then do whatever it takes to be the mom you want to be. You know, the one who doesn’t actually implode and scream at her kids.

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My daughter has long hair, which she loves, 99% of the time. But that other 1% is probably her least favorite part of the day. When it’s time for detangling, she runs, bargains, pleads, procrastinates, flat out refuses, and does just about anything she can to escape the misery of having her hair de-knotted.

I can relate. As a long haired kid, I used to dodge the brush so aggressively my mom just gave up and let me walk around ratty. Being on the delivery end of this kind of pain is one of my least favorite things about being a parent, just like being on the receiving end of it was one of my least favorite memories of being a little girl: The confinement (“If you move away from me, you’ll just make it worse.”)  The yank on my scalp, always inevitable but somehow still shocking every time. And knowing that tug of discovery was only the beginning of the tedious teasing-apart process to come. A bad knot could take days. Is it any wonder girls rail against this with all their might?

Which is why I fell in love with “Don’t Brush My Hair in Knots”. That, and the fact that the RAGING three year old girl in this video could well be the antidote to every shy, ingratiating, flirting, pandering princess your daughter holds in high esteem.

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Anyone who says the health care system isn’t broke never said that to the face of a young child who lost his mother. Marcelas Owens, whose mother died of pulmonary hypertension, is taking his message straight to congress.

“The health care system is broken, and it caused my mother’s death,” Marcelas said in an interview on MSNBC.

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Recently, in response to a story about a British judge who wanted Sikh boys to be able to bring a knife — the kirpan, an important article of faith for Sikhs — to school, a commenter asked “Do you ever worry about kids grabbing other kid’s pencils and stabbing each other?”  Given that I still have a black scar on my arm from when I was stabbed with a pencil (admittedly, by a sister rather than a classmate), I would have to say yes.  And now there is even more reason to be concerned about implements of literary and physical torture: an 11-year-old boy from New Hartford, NY has been charged with, among other things, criminal possession of a weapon — a pencil.

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In Gainsville, Florida, it’s illegal to hit your child with a slice of pizza, no matter how insanely mad she makes you.

A 38-year-old man asked his daughter to get off the computer.  She apparently didn’t like his tone — nor his choice of (racist, sexist) words, so — like many kids her age — the girl fired off a few remarks of her own.

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When you see a stranger treating their child badly, do you intervene? And what do you do?

I’ve been sitting on this post for awhile, just for lack of time and inspiration, and it happens, it’s ended up being timely.

I have a four year old who is full of sass, unafraid to speak her mind, and going through a major, major limits-testing phase. Without going into detail, suffice it to say there was a scrum in the car this afternoon over a flat refusal to put on shoes Continue reading »

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