When is it okay to lie to children?
“The Easter Bunny’s not real, right?” How do you handle these kinds of questions with your children? Do you think some kinds of lies are okay to tell?
“The Easter Bunny’s not real, right?” How do you handle these kinds of questions with your children? Do you think some kinds of lies are okay to tell?
In September of 2006, Randy Pausch, a professor of computer sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is, plainly speaking, the worst kind to get: survival rates are extremely low, and the end usually comes within months of diagnosis. So…
The other day, my husband expressed his concern that Henry is, at the tender age of 5 and a few months, a computer semi-illiterate. Surprising as this may be for the child of two parents who are on the computer almost all the time, Henry…
The New York Times this week profiled Billy Wolfe, a high school sophomore who has been the target of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of his classmates. Three years ago, for whatever mysterious, cruel reason, the school bullies determined that he was unacceptable….
A California appellate judge ruled that according to state law, homeschooling is illegal. Californian homeschoolers everywhere are surprised to hear that they’ve been flouting the law since the 1950s, but that, at least according to Judge H. Walter Croskey, is the case. Needless to say,…
The New York Times magazine this week covered the single-sex public education movement. Of course single-sex education is nothing new—just ask parochial and private school students. But as stories crop up of how our school system fails boys and girls, the idea of segregating students…
The New York Times, that bastion of meaningful news, published a story yesterday on how cosmetic companies and retailers are targeting six- to nine-year-old girls. Salons for little girls are springing up around the country, apparently, with parents hosting “beauty primping parties” for daughters and…
Well! Hey! You sure do have some, you know, opinions about circumcision! Don’t you! Wow! And there’s nothing wrong with that. Please don’t hurt me. And now, let’s back away slowly from all controversial parenting topics, shall we? New topic for the week: kids! Can’t…
It’s the day after Valentine’s Day, and I’m thinking about circumcision. I assure you this is a coincidence. So! Those of us who have birthed baby boys are faced with the inevitable question: to snip or leave intact? In most of the world, the majority…
I’ve been thinking about the practice of redshirting: postponing your child’s entrance into kindergarten to give him or her an academic or social edge. I’m not considering it for my son, mind you: we were spared that decision, because Henry just missed the cut-off date…
Ladies! Has your monthly time been a period of shame and hiding? Well! It turns out that menstrual blood is much more than womanly offscourings. Hide no longer, and rejoice in that precious Red Gold spilling forth from your parts. Let me explain, before you…
Women’s Day magazine and AOL Body (is that a thing, AOL Body? A place people go?) conducted a poll, you guys! A poll! It was on the Inarnet, I think it’s called, and women were asked, would they rather have Jennifer Aniston’s body or a…
The birth rate has soared while the abortion rate has taken a sharp downward turn. That sounds like good news. Is it? First, the abortion rate. Both the pro-life and pro-choice advocates are pleased that the number of U.S. abortions have reached their lowest rate…
I have to confess that whenever I consider writing about the presidential campaign, I get nervous. I’m worried that my ignorance will show itself, that I’ll get some detail terribly wrong and my readers will sniff, “Excuse me, Ms. Bradley, but if you read a…
Happy new year! And oh, Wonderland readers, I mean that literally. I demand that you have a happy new year. But how? Here are a few news tidbits that will, I hope, help you find your answers. Have a happy marriage It turns out that…
Ah, 2007. Remember that year? With the thing, and the guy? Over there? It seems like yesterday, I tell you. In honor of the past year, and also that my brain is still so addlepated from the holiday festivities that I can barely tie my…
As a child I was terrified of Santa. I had nightmares: a red-gloved hand clawing at my window, glass breaking downstairs while I hid under my bed. Who wouldn’t be scared of this creepy, omniscient stranger who was judging, ever judging? At the mall, he…
Are you a full-time working mom? If so, good news: you are not filled with regret. Congratulations! As reported in this BBC article, “Mothers ‘are happier’ having job”, a UK research group studied almost 4,000 couples over the course of seven years. The survey yielded…
The teen birth rate has risen for the first time in 14 years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On average the percentage jumped 3 percent from 2005 to 2006; the rise was highest in black teens—a whopping five percent. As…
As you may have heard, the League of Maternal Justice put a breastfeeding video up on YouTube, and the video was taken down. Not just flagged, like so many “inappropriate” videos are. Taken down. The video was a tender slideshow of babies nursing. Such filth!…