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Strollerderby
The mother of an 11-year-old asked CNN’s online nutrition expert whether it’s OK to put her active 11-year-old daughter on a diet. The daughter, who plays sports year round, is all for it.
That’s just weird.
The mother describes the daughter as muscular — “she only looks only about 20 pounds over.” And Mom’s ready to cut out sweetened drinks and white bread and sugary snacks. But is that enough, she wants to know? Is it too much?
The doctor doesn’t exactly tell the mom “no.” But I think she should. Let me explain: Continue reading »
This review of the movie “Ramona and Beezus” almost makes me want to pack up my two girls and head to the theater today. Almost.
But I won’t. Ever since seeing the trailer a few months ago, I made the solemn vow that I wouldn’t let Hollywood intrude on some of my favorite memories of childhood reading. Continue reading »
A recent study shows that a small majority of parents want to pull money out of their wallets and light it on fire. Not literally. But lighting money on fire would at least save a trip to Walgreens.
In a poll of nearly 1,500 parents, 53 percent said they would be interested in at-home genetic tests for their kids. These parents said they’d like to know whether their children are at an increased, average or low-risk for developing certain cancers and other diseases so that they might work on preventing them. But here’s the problem: those at-home tests? Totally bogus results. Continue reading »
How’s this for a reversal?
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is set to issue a new set of guidelines intended to make it easier — easier! — for women who have already undergone a c-section to give birth vaginally.
ACOG’s new guidelines say that normal birth (meaning vaginal) is safe for most women who have had prior Cesarean sections, as long as the incision was low and horizontal — the typical cut for c-section births.
Women’s health advocates praise the new guidelines, especially in light of the evidence that VBACs are safe. Some 60 to 80 percent of women with a prior c-section who are allowed a trial of labor in subsequent pregnancies have successful VBACs. Continue reading »
Maybe it’s because I have two daughters, or because my parents, who came from pretty girl-heavy families, had two daughters. Or maybe it’s because cultural preferences for one sex (historically male, of course) have always gotten on my nerves. I don’t know why, exactly, but I have a hard time sympathizing with women who pine for daughters.
I mean, I get that there were dreams as kids about all kinds of things, but dreams were made to be dashed or broken or something. So even though Rachel Coyne quite nicely lays out her own long history of daughter-wanting, I just can’t feel her pain.
In her piece, “The Universe Owes Me a Daughter,” Coyne writes in Open Salon: Continue reading »
I’ll admit it. My kids don’t get enough poetry. It’s pretty much my fault, because even though I’m an avid reader and writer and lover of language, I don’t like much of the poetry that’s geared toward kids. Shel Silverstein, sure, but sometimes “Hug-o-war” just doesn’t cut it.
So I found Robert Pinsky’s column on Slate about the best poetry for kids fantastic. He makes a good argument for giving some old works a go. And even better? You can download podcasts of him reading the poems. Continue reading »
I know the current thinking with raising kids is that parents have to meet the kids where they’re at, support them in their interests, help them navigate the world. This means not forcing a son to play football when he’d rather swim or dance or read. This means letting the girls wear pink and play in high heels, no matter how much you swore you’d never let that happen.
What all of this doesn’t mean, however, is that families have to compromise their values. Moms and dads don’t have to ignore their gut instincts. Every whim of the child doesn’t have to be met with a new uniform, required shoes and a year’s commitment to lessons. Telling a child “no” is well within the realm of good parenting.
Or am I just being old-fashioned? A mother wrote in to MomLogic asking for advice. Continue reading »
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