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?
Behold! You have entered Wonderland: a weekly round-up of news and events and occurrences occurring in this topsy-turvy world of ours. In the coming months and years, I’ll focus on whatever news happens to strike my fancy. Given that Wonderland does, after all, live on…
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…
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…
A friend of mine –let’s call her Julie—faced the following dilemma: she had organized a night out with her best friends, the first time they could all get together, without kids, in months. Her friends all being busy mothers, organizing that particular night took a…
I’m interested to hear what you guys think about Barbies. I don’t have a daughter, but I was a girl—a girl besotted with the world of Barbie.
As we walk to the playground, Henry yells to his friend, “Let’s race!” And they do. Down sidewalks that are bulging and splitting from the tree roots underneath, two semi-coordinated boys flail their legs downhill, shouting with glee. Behind them, I cringe, and wonder who’s…
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…
Way back in 1997, the Clinton administration approved a program called State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. SCHIP is a partnership between federal and state governments that provides health insurance to children whose families make too much for Medicaid but too little for private…
You might think this parenting-news gig is pretty sweet, but let me tell you, it’s a weekly exercise in horror. Want to know what my afternoon was like? Head over to Google News and search for the words “parents” or “child.” The 364,000 items that…
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!…
Good news! Science has finally discovered the hidden benefits of ice cream. Eating high fat dairy products, scientists say, can boost your fertility. The health link is to full-fat dairy in general, not specifically to ice cream, but apparently it’s the most attention-grabbing choice of…
Well, hello! This week, yet another four-year-old boy hit on his teacher. When will those filthy-minded preschoolers learn to keep their grubby hands to themselves? The boy reportedly “rubbed his face” in the aide’s chest area. He was summarily suspended, and his parents were informed…
Last week I dared to take the I-will-take-no-stance stance, as I composed a please-let-me-offend-no-one, after-all-both-sides-have-a-point post. I’ve since recovered from my bout with objectivity, and I’m ready to judge someone, anyone. Like fat kids! Those underage slobs. I… I can’t. I can’t even joke, when…
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…
Normally I enjoy nothing more than a good, rousing bout of judging. I put on my oversized judgment cap– it’s fur-lined!– and I recline in my judging chair, which has this swivelly headrest so I can shake my head in disgust for hours without suffering…
A mother and her son were booted off a plane after a flight attendant became upset when the 19-month-old kept saying “Bye, bye plane” as the aircraft prepared for liftoff. … “‘It’s called Baby Benadryl,’” Penland said the attendant told her, suggesting she give her…
Due to the fact that this week Alice’s eyes are dried up like bloodshot little cranberries, I — and by that I mean me, who occasionally goes by the name “Mrs. Kennedy” — am going to do my best to fill in for her today…
If you want to argue that gay marriage is unholy, go right ahead; if
you want to disallow same-sex unions in your church, you have that
right. I got married in front of a judge, so my marriage is pretty
unholy as well.
You’ve already eliminated spinach from your diet, as well as peanut butter. You can’t even read Peter Pan to your child without gagging. And now there are even more food recalls. It appears, my Internet friends, that there is absolutely no safe foodstuff left in…