Stumped Over the End-of-School Teacher Gift?

I had a big uh oh moment this morning around 8:30. My daughter was chattering away about the last day of school when it hit me: it’s the last day of school! And I didn’t buy her teacher a thing!

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. And I LIKE this teacher. So I called a woman who’s always got my back. She was maid of honor at my wedding. Oh, yeah, and she’s a third grade teacher.

And here, Babble readers, is the word on what to buy, straight from the teacher’s mouth: Continue reading »

Dads Getting Shafted on Father’s Day?

Geoff Williams thinks dads get the shaft on Father’s Day. Maybe he needs to come check out my house.

Williams bemoaned his package of boxer shorts and flip light for reading at night in a Parenting essay featured on CNN this week, comparing them rather unfavorably to the cherry tree and match bird bath he’d picked out for his wife for Mother’s Day. Continue reading »

Hey Kid, Open Your D*$M Present

Part of being a parent is attending a LOT of kiddie birthday parties. And when I tell you things have changed, I don’t just mean the size of the affairs.

When did kids stop opening presents during their parties? Continue reading »

Book of the Week: Pat the Money

If you’re still looking for a graduation gift for what’s been coined the “Oh Sh%t” class of college graduates, look no further than Pat the Money, by Dianne Wachtell. Using the same pastel pink and Tiffany blue color scheme and baby-friendly flip and touch pages as the beloved Pat the Bunny, Wachtell has crafted the cleverest of picture book spoofs; your grads will laugh with terror and recognition. Oh, to go back to toddlerhood story time! Continue reading »

Would Your Green Toddler Forgo Unwrapping Presents?

At first blush, Echoage, a service that aims to allow eco-minded parents and kids to tame the excesses of birthday giving by encouraging guests to give cash online, to be split 50-50 between a cause and one big gift, would seem to made for me.

Continue reading »

Dads to Get Even Less on Father’s Day

As stereotypes, lame greeting card jokes and numerous stand-up comedy routines have insisted over the years, dads are the Rodney Dangerfields of the parenting realm. Relative to moms, they (allegedly) get no respect, no respect at all.

If that generalization is true, it may seem even more true come Father’s Day 2009 when, apparently, dads should expect a festively wrapped box of nothing from their loved ones. Okay, maybe not nothing. Continue reading »