Adult men now spend more time video-gaming than 12-17-year-olds.

Is it a case of life reflecting art or art reflecting life that has made movies like Old School, Wedding Crashers, and The Hangover so popular? Either way, the stats are in, and the state of manhood is in rapid decline. Which puts women in prime position to take over as the more successful sex.

According to a CNN post, simply titled “Men In Trouble” and written by former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett, one of the most damning statistics on men is the fact that they have gone from earning 60% of the college degrees in 1970 to only 43% in 2006. A host of other statistics documenting the rise of women in the workplace and their overall more ambitious life plans are on display to show how women are taking advantage of the (formerly) dominant sex’s slide into the vagaries of an extended adolescence.  Continue reading »

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A recent poll conducted in Britain found that the majority of parents there think they are blowing it when it comes to raising their kids.

The survey of 2,000 moms and dads found that 54% of parents believe they are not good mothers or fathers, and nearly two-thirds of them feel guilty on a daily basis about how little parenting skill they believe they have.  The most confused group? Parents of teenagers.

In terms of seeking advice, the women in the survey said they were most likely to turn to their friends for parenting help, whereas men said they were more likely to turn to their own mother.

Continue reading »

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Economic woes trigger harsh parenting in some moms, study concludes.

People cope with stress in different ways, and parents are no exception. A new study has found that the current economic recession has triggered a rise in “harsh parenting” methods, such as spanking and yelling.

But what’s particularly interesting is that there’s a genetic component to harsh parenting that has come out of stressful times. Researchers concluded that mothers who carry a certain gene will react more harshly toward their children in times of economic woe. Continue reading »

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A document that provides the security of a million hugs.

Only my 2-year-old son Earl was born in wedlock. My two daughters, now 10 and 6, were sitting in the backseat of the family car when their father and I tied the knot. You can read about our nuptials here, but the short version is that we got married because that was the only way the State of California would cover me, (female) parent of the children they had no problem insuring.

My son, remember, the non-bastard child, is the best sleeper of the brood. He’s also the most cheerful, open to hugging grandparents and babysitters and other children in a way our two girls never were at his age. He loves brushing his teeth, a habit of hygiene that took us years to get his sisters to do voluntarily. Brother Earl eats veggies like a champ.

He’s a good kid, my son. There’s no accounting for the differences between him and his sisters, other than he was born into the security of a documented commitment between his father and me, an agreement that we would form an economic and emotional partnership. My poor girls had to spend the first months or years of life never knowing if, in a legal sense, Daddy was going to come home that night. Continue reading »

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Bad parent or comfortable with his choices?

After years of writing about parenting, I no longer take the bait when it comes to mommy wars issues like breastfeeding and home-birthing, co-sleeping and daycare. I still love knowing what other people do. And I’m always open to new ideas about how to relate to or discipline or bring out the best in my kids (without turning them into aimless children who believe in themselves but can’t make a decision without my approval).

But when someone warns me (through an anonymous comment is always a favorite) that I’m harming my children when I tell them “no” (or when I don’t tell them “no”) or in how I feed them or restrict them or what I say about advertising and the media, I’m not offended. Or the least bit concerned.

In fact, it barely registers. Continue reading »

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Do most parents think spanking is okay?

Most parents spank their kids – I was truly surprised to hear this statement today, via an article in Time.com’s Healthland. Was I naive in thinking that with all our focus on child-centered parenting philosophies and positive discipline, that spanking was solidly out of style?

Not so, says George Holden, a professor of psychology who is now analyzing data on a new study in which he captured video of parents hitting their children — all voluntary participants who agreed to have their daily lives and interactions taped.

His earlier research found that 70 percent of college educated women spank their kids. That data was from the 1990′s, but writer Bonnie Rochman reports for Time that some studies have shown up to 90 percent of parents use corporal punishment.

Some of the examples from Holden’s current study were shocking: for example a woman hitting her toddler and saying “This is to help you remember not to hit your mother.”

“The irony is just amazing,” said Holden.

Are most parents really hitting their kids? What’s happening here?  Continue reading »

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Must be smart and wealthy, if she's spending all that time with Dad.

The good news: this generation of fathers wants to — and often is — spending more time with their kids. Gone for millions are the days of dad being some mysterious figure that the children only see on rare mornings in the kitchen. The bad news, according to a new study, is that, as with mothers, it actually takes more money to spend more time with the kids.

And divorce can throw a huge wrench into a well-laid father-child bond — with lasting effects. Continue reading »

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