Medical Marijuana For Kids

Most of us teach our kids that medicine is not candy. But at the medical marijuana dispensaries in California, sometimes it is. They sell THC-imbued candies, or “medibles”. They also sell plain old pot, in a variety of exciting flavors. The difference between a dispensary and a Dutch coffeeshop is just that in California, you need a doctor’s note to shop.

This week, the New York Times reports that some Bay Area doctors have begun giving those notes to kids as young as 14. They’re not just treating cancer or AIDS anymore, either. Some of these kids are getting the referrals for ADHD.

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Division of Labor - What Does It Look Like in Your House?

My husband and I have a very clear division of labor in our marriage:  He calls the cable company whenever there’s a problem.  I don’t.  That rule was created about three years ago, after an hour long phone call with a service rep that left my with a nearly permanent eye-twitch.

Other than that, we’ve got a pretty flexible system for dividing household chores based on strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and the number of hours in the day.  Since I’m a stay-home parent, much of the household work falls to me, but the man knows his way around a vacuum cleaner and is not afraid to use it.  Gadgets we split:  Computers fall to me, iPods to him.  And the dishes are simply the responsibility of the last one up every night.

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Abducted Child? Call This Guy

It was a “Not Without My Daughter” kind of weekend. Not in a life-imitating-art kind of way. I just happened to read read two articles in different publications and was reminded me of that early ’90s Sally Field movie that got people looking suspiciously at any family with parents of different nationalities.

In both pieces, a child has been taken from home in the U.S. to live with a biological father abroad. How the mothers worked to return the child to the U.S. couldn’t have been more different. Both situations are pretty unimaginable, but child abduction typically is, right? Continue reading »

Morning News - R. Kelly Is Back

Anyone who thought that R. Kelly would never work again after being accused of doing nasty things to underage girls — you would be wrong. He’s back and in a big way, playing Madison Square Garden. He was found not guilty. Maybe that helps. Continue reading »

Anxious? You May Have Been Born That Way

What with all the massively unsettling stuff going on in the world right now — recession, foreclosures, unemployment, and war, to name a few — it’s small wonder we’re not all running around with raging anxiety disorders. But there’s increasing evidence that true, debilitating anxiety, the kind that severely limits your life, is something that people are predisposed to, or not, from birth.

This fascinating, long article in the New York Times Magazine from yesterday describes how Harvard psychology professor Jerome Kagan followed subjects from babyhood through adulthood. He found that babies that were highly reactive to novelty — that is, that responded unhappily to new things — were much more likely to have anxiety disorder as teens and adults.

If that was your baby, though, don’t despair: Continue reading »

Solving the School Lunch Cooking Problem

We all know that part of the problem with school lunches is that they are often unhealthy. One reason for that is because the schools are sometimes unwilling, or unable, to cook.

I just read an interesting article in the New York Times that outlines the issues some schools are facing when trying to serve students healthier food. Continue reading »

Expert: Instead of Timeouts, Just Say ‘Yes’

Alfie Kohn thinks you shouldn’t punish your kids. He also thinks you shouldn’t reward them. By doing so, you’re teaching them that you love them only when they behave and demonstrate new skills. So, no timeouts and, also, no gold stars.

But kids, right? They can’t be trusted to raise themselves. So why is this Kohn guy trying to get parents to be so permissive, to let them run around wild and turn into narcississtic, rule-ignoring embarrassments who won’t show up to work on time … if at all?

Kohn, responding to the criticism of his New York Times piece in which he said kids interpret timeouts as conditional love, explains in the Times blog Motherlode what parents can do to teach their kids the ways of the world without using timeouts or praise. Continue reading »

Childcare Challenge of Broadway

Daycare’s pretty much a bust in the U.S. It’s expensive, difficult to vet and not terribly flexible. Also? It’s like you have to know someone who knows someone to find out about lots of the good, affordable options.

Forget about it if you need any kind of flexibility, too.

For women who are tempted to leave their careers — or even take a break from them — childcare is a huge reason. That’s certainly true for actors, according to this article in the NY Times. Veteran actor Sharon Wheatley, who writes a parenting column for an industry newspaper, has this to say about babies and Broadway:

“The minute you say, ‘I’m having a kid,’ I swear to God, people hear, ‘I’m getting out of the business.’ ” Continue reading »