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Strollerderby
The folks at WalletPop UK, noting that a survey commissioned by the Optimum Population Trust indicates that nearly a third of people in the UK would support a cap on the number of kids a couple can have, took a look at the financial implications of family size. Their conclusion? Although kids are expensive and do cost the taxpayers money, they do pay that back when they become adults and begin paying taxes. Furthermore, the author notes that at some point in the future, the current crop of parents will be grandparents (Get off my lawn!) and we will need those kids to support us and care for us.
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When a newly pregnant 27-year-old in Staffordshire County, U.K., called to report a dangerous driver, she never expected to be reported to social services for being an unfit mother.
But a few days after speaking to a policewoman in her doorway about a driver who almost ran her over, Mary Cooke received a letter from the county council’s children’s services informing her that her unborn child may be referred for services.
Why? Because of peeling wallpaper, stripped floors and unfinished paint jobs in the house. Continue reading »
180 alert!
Less than a year ago, parents were buried under an avalanche of studies that concluded kids don’t make you happy. In fact, these studies showed that people raising kids reported lower levels of happiness — life satisfaction, marital satisfaction, and mental well-being — than their childless counterparts.
Oh, and that lower level of happiness? Never. Goes. Away.
Okay, but now out of the U.K., the Journal of Happiness Studies reports that not only do kids not lower their parents’ level of happiness, they actually raise it — a little bit with the first kid. Even more with the second. And (I’m looking at you, Baby Earl!) significantly more with the third!
There’s a catch, though. Continue reading »
It’s an impossible situation: Your one-year-old baby is sick with a severe and progressive disease that leaves him without any quality of life, so sick that even his doctors recommend removing him from life support, sick enough that you can actually begin to imagine that letting him go is the right thing to do.
Or maybe not.
Pregnant women are often made to feel like they need to spend nine months in a bubble to keep their unborn baby safe, but this is ridiculous.
UK shopper Janet Lehain was shocked when a deli server at her local grocery denied her request for unpasteurized cheddar cheese. Continue reading »
Marian Goodall is a disabled 61-year-old grandmother who lives with her son’s family, but not everyone is so happy to pitch in and help.
Her 10-year-old granddaughter recently tired of her “annoying” grandma’s moaning and requests to “make her a drink” and thought of a clever way to hand off the responsibility to someone else: She put Grandma up for sale on eBay. Continue reading »
Some midwives in the U.K. are looking for handcrafted boobs. Ideally, they’d like soft, supple ones that are easy to see and fun to look at. Well what breasts aren’t?
But keep your shirts on. They want fake boobs (sit down, Ms. Anderson, they want single wool ones in fun, surprising colors) and lots of them.
The knitted breasts are used to teach young mothers how to breastfeed. Apparently, plastic dummies have a “sticky sensation to them,” which is less than ideal. 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 
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