Dude! Have you seen my dad?

All parents, at one time or another, have had visions of losing their kid.

That nightmare became reality for one dad who left his baby in a grocery store parking lot and drove away.

As Jezebel reports, after shopping at a Kentucky Kroger a dad loaded his groceries and two kids into the car and drove home. No problem there, right? Wrong. He has three kids.  Turns out, he’d left his 6-month-old in the shopping cart.

Oops. Continue reading »

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Yes, parenting is complicated, but don't play the parent martyr.

Becoming a mother had the single biggest impact on relating to my friends. Suddenly I became extremely close to those who already had children because of the simple fact that they could nod knowingly when I bitched about my lack of sleep, breastfeeding or how difficult it is to even get out of the house to go to the grocery store … and oh, let’s not talk about the grocery store because what a nightmare.

See? I already bored you, and if you’re reading this you probably even have kids.

Conversely, after having kids you can lose touch with those childless friends who are still living that swinging single lifestyle. Either because you’re annoyed that you no longer have anything in common with them or because they’re sick of hearing you yammer on about your parenthood.

However, if you have longtime friendships that have survived you having children or if you just barely had children and are struggling to maintain valuable friendships, here are some things you should never say to friends, according to Jillian Mackenzie over at Shine Yahoo. Mackenzie doesn’t have kids but most of her friends do so she knows what she’s talking about. Continue reading »

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Briles says he wanted to "toughen up" his son.

It was supposed to see a fun sightseeing cruise along the coast of Orange County last Sunday, but customers got more than they bargained for when an angry father allegedly tossed his son overboard.

Several shocked people witnessed Sloane Briles, 35, hitting his son several times and then threatening to throw the boy overboard if he didn’t stop crying.

“The crowd on the boat became very angry at the father for hitting the kid and extremely angry when he threw him overboard,” sheriff’s spokesman, Jim Amormino, told KTLA.

Police believe Briles had been drinking when he, his girlfriend and two sons from a previous marriage went on the cruise around Newport Harbor on a boat carrying 85 people. Briles argued with his girlfriend and then the son. That’s when staff members on the tour boat witnessed Briles tell his crying 7-year-old he needed to toughen up and threw the boy in the water five feet below. Continue reading »

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It's the circle of life, man.

It’s the circle of life.

You start off thinking your dad hung the moon. He can do anything and he knows everything.

Eventually the father-son relationship evolves into something more complicated. He’s the ogre that makes the slave son (you) do chores and then he’s the idiot who imitates the waiter at the fancy restaurant, much to your embarrassment.

As the Huffington Post reports, “With time, our dads evolve into actual human beings instead of the capital D “Dad” images we have of them in our heads, and College Humor has put together a pretty amazing ode to that process.

Thanks to the Huffington Post for pointing me to College Humor: Continue reading »

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Valuable lesson or parenting gone wrong?

Right now thousands of Verizon landline workers are staging a massive strike that stretches across several states. They’re protesting cutbacks as a result of declining business. But, while their intentions may be good, a few of those picketing appear to be going about things the wrong way.

A video posted on YouTube yesterday shows an alleged Verizon picketer – who apparently brought his daughter along – going insane at what looks like employees trying to cross the picket line in a Verizon truck.

The video shows the man and his daughter, who looks to be 11 or 12, dressed alike, holding signs. As the truck pulls up he walks up to block the driver from moving and his daughter, who is probably scared out of her mind, follows him. That’s when he launches into a profanity-laced speech calling the men in the truck “losers,“ ”scumbags,“ and ”scabs,”.

Throughout the short video, the daughter can be seen standing just feet away taking it all in. Oh man, she looks so uncomfortable. I understand the father is probably trying to teach his daughter a valuable lesson about standing up for what she believes in, but I’m not really sure pushing her in front of a truck and screaming curse words is the way to go about it. What do you think?  Valuable lesson or a case of parenting gone wrong?

(CONTENT WARNING for graphic language):

Continue reading »

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Nerds RULE!

I grew up in a town that really valued its athletes.  Okay, so it wasn’t all Friday Night Lights and stuff.  It wasn’t Texas.  But still, it was stereotypically lame in that jocks/athletes were the cool kids and the real studious academics were, well, they were nerds. Teachers were notoriously pressured to give star athletes passing grads so they could still play in the big game. You know, crap like that.

I hate that.  I hate that athletics are the cool thing to do and joining up with the audio visual club is a role Anthony Michael hall perfected in all the excellent 80′s romantic comedies.

You won’t catch me urging my son to try out for the football team.  Screw that.  In fact, that scares the hell out of me.  What with all the head and neck injuries and kids dying on fields from over-exertion.  Ain’t but a precious few kids making a career out of football, anyway.  Continue reading »

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My sweet husband and our daughter Violet on one of their walks.

My husband and I have this running joke about him walking around with our daughter in the Bjorn. Specifically, the fact that women are constantly ogling. Seriously.

He’d start strapping Violet to his chest for one of their walks and tell me “I’m off to pick up chicks now!”

“Okay!  Be home before dinner!” I’d respond.

The ladies love him.  The ladies have always loved him, he spent a decade in a band with a guitar strapped to his chest.  I daresay that’s how he suckered me in.  But exchange that guitar for a baby and the ladies go crazier than they ever did when he was on stage.   I’m talking, double-takes, sidling up to him and asking how old his daughter is, the whole nine yards.

I don’t blame them. I think dudes wearing babies are way hot. Okay, I mean, you couldn’t like, put a Bjorn or a sling on, oh, say Nosferatu and the ladies automatically swoon. But there’s something about a guy who isn’t ashamed to babywear that gets me a little hot and bothered.

Most of the women I talked to agree. Continue reading »

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