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Strollerderby
How young is too young for braces?
When a dentist recommended that my daughter get a tooth crowned — she was 5 at the time — my first thought was “why? It’s a baby tooth.” I mentioned it and Googled it and the consensus seemed to be that it protected damage to the permanent tooth that would eventually replace it. Okay, makes sense.
I have not been so easily convinced when dentists started talking braces for my girl. She’s 9 now. Were she to get braces, she would not be the youngest person I know who has them. Braces for pre-tweens — that’s “tweens” with a W — are really common. Much to my relief, according to this report on NPR this morning, teeth braces on baby teeth are a bit too common. Continue reading »
Ever wonder how to separate your essentials from the extras in your family budget? CafeMom breaks down what they see as the mission critical expenses.
Included are some obvious things: housing, food, health insurance. And savings.
Which raises the question: in tight times, do you continue to save? If one spouse is unemployed, for example, or you’ve hit a bumpy patch with your business.
CafeMom’s Linda Sharps says yes. She’s right, up to a point.
I hate money. I don’t hate having it on the rare occasion when I do, and it’s the one thing I would probably hate less if I had more of it. But I hate thinking about it, stressing about it, wondering about the best way to manage it, etc.
But financial experts say this attitude is pretty harmful to my kids — that teaching them about money, and how to deal with it, is one of the best things we can do for them to start them on the right path in life. And given that my five-year-old just asked for an allowance, I found this week’s Wall Street Journal article on “15 Money Rules Kids Should Learn” enormously timely.
One of the most interesting ones, which writer Jeff D. Opdyke talks about in his post for The Juggle, Continue reading »
When asked whether they would give credit cards to their teen children, a whopping 71% of parents polled by ABC firmly clenched their wallets tightly and voted, “Hell no!” Fears of rampant American Apparel and Urban Outfitter shopping sprees likely fueled that response, but is it necessarily the right one?
Want to know how families are faring in this economy? Ask them how much the tooth fairy is giving these days.
Researchers claim the “Tooth Fairy Index” usually mirrors the Dow Jones Industrial Average. And in 2010, there are signs of economic revitalization. Continue reading »
A twelve-year-old wrote a letter to the place where her dad was doing odd jobs and Dad ended up with a full-time job.
Andy Hess lost his job in 2008 when the company where he was employed as a painter went out of business. He’d picked up a little work at Oregon Motorcoach, but nothing full-time. Continue reading »
The economy didn’t just hurt 529 plans financially.
After years of big jumps in usership of the state-sponsored piggy banks for higher education, the Wall Street Journal is reporting a drop in the number of parents investing in 529 plans for their kids these days.
So are parents not saving for their kids’ educations? Continue reading »
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