babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Have you seen the new African-American Barbies? I haven’t. But according to this Broadsheet post, the dolls are generating much discussion from parents of all races.
See, the dolls, unlike Barbies of old, are designed to reflect the way black women actually look, versus the old Barbies which were exactly the same as the white ones but made out of dark brown plastic and topped with the same long, straight hair in black instead of blonde. Doll designer Stacy McBride-Irby drew inspiration from her own young daughters for the dolls, which have wider noses and fuller lips.
Some parents think the dolls don’t go far enough, especially in terms of hair. Continue reading »
It’s literally blobs of color scattered across pages, and yet Leo Lionni’s Little Blue and Little Yellow is still being taught in classrooms fifty years on.
It’s an introduction to color mixing – both literal and figurative. Continue reading »
Follow a three-year-old around for a day, and you might feel like you’ve run a marathon. But should tots this tiny be running competitive races themselves? The New York Times is reporting a surprising new trend among parents with small children: triathlons for young children.
“What do you think about triathlons for three-year-olds?” I asked my husband, an experienced runner.
“What? Ridiculous.”
“Ri-donk-ulous,” my six-year-old agreed. “What’s a triathlon?”
When I was a child, “Officer Friendly” came annually to visit our (95% white) school. He (it was always a “he”) gave us basic safety tips, when we were a bit older, offered anti-drug lessons and sometimes passed out treats. But always, always, we were told that Continue reading »
The latest in the “most livable places” news, Family Circle magazine has named ten towns of between 15,000 and 150,000 people as the best places of their size to raise a family. Continue reading »
Can a school principal ask her staff to report how often the black kids are getting in trouble? What about calling for a report of how many Hispanic troublemakers are sitting in the classrooms?
Parents say Claudia Moore-Hamilton was crossing a racial line when she asked her teachers to fill out a questionnaire regarding racial make-up of their students in relation to behavior problems. Continue reading »
You know Princess Tiana, the latest member of Disney’s highly profitable “royal family“? The big news is that she is the first African-American member of the Princess club (or whatever you call them — sorry, I have boys and they’re not into this stuff). The character is the star of the upcoming Disney film “The Princess and the Frog“. Disney, I imagine, would like nothing more than to be embraced by the African-American community. According to a recent New York Times article, that hasn’t been the result so far. Continue reading »
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
2