Traveling to India can only be described as otherworldly. There is something both objectionable and illuminating within each of the more than 1000 photos taken during my visit there in 2010. The profound cultural differences became obvious from the moment I felt the taxi speed away from the airport to a hostel in Old Delhi. …
Why fundraisers keep kids out of trouble
My soccer team sold carnations dyed with green food coloring while Hootie and the Blowfish played Hold My Hand in the rain. Rather than trying to score beer or girls, our St. Patrick’s Day had a purpose. It was our junior year of high school and the flowers were part of a larger fundraising campaign …
Brainwashing your child to not like sucky music
Boy Band or Acid Rock? Fife and Drum or Contemporary Christian? Jam band or Rap? It’s a risky business that music executives know all too well. Leave your child to his or her own device and they’ll be molded by commercial culture and what they perceive “cool” by the crap they learn at school and …
How to keep your baby asleep with breast implants
Here’s a trick that men are woefully inadequate in supplying – a soft breast for your baby’s head. ENTER PILLOWS! Babies naturally want to feel that place of comfort that they know will give them both nurturing and sustenance. By wedging a pillow in just the right spot, your sleeping baby will be lulled into …
Benadryl babies are better on Airplanes
Parents of restless children on airplanes are doing the unthinkable – enjoying their flights! “Benadryl can be helpful when you are taking young children on a plane,” says Dr. Harvey Karp, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block, and The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years …
Don’t criticize your Muslim neighbor – babysit swap
While some parents may see a cultural difference living in the house next door, the bumpkin sees his babysitters. A recent blog post by the wife of a Baptist pastor, Tyanne Perry, criticized her Muslim neighbor “for dirty hands, herb-stained teeth, and the waft of South Asian cuisine …. They have rules they must follow, …
How could anybody call that science?
We recently received a picture of Brandon B Brandon via Facebook. There was no clever joke or ulterior motive – just a cute kid holding a sign asking everyone to spread his image as far and wide as possible in five days. We think it’s a cockeyed project that’s got nothing to do with science. …
How to give a baby a bath
New parents are inundated with the idea they need lots of hardware to ensure the safety of their child. This is especially true in the bathroom, and bathing seems a favorite topic at baby showers, perhaps because adoring family and friends remember the bath time ritual as one of the better parts of parenthood. But …
Why an old-timer thinks about breastfeeding
You won’t believe what this old man thinks about breastfeeding. Nonetheless, the decision comes down to what is best for the parents and the child. There are too many folks who think it’ll be the end of the world if their baby isn’t breastfed. That stigma is unfortunate. In the 1970s, nearly 75% of American …
Baby Mum-Mums are awesome and a rip-off
Baby Mum-Mums represent both the best and the worst thing about being a parent in the modern world. The little packages are convenient, the crackers are benign, babies love them, and they function as an excellent babysitter when you want to do other things. While the little one munches away on the cracker, the only …
Milkbones for babies
You won’t believe how messy eating can be until you see this video. Most parents will discover the joys and pains of baby biscuits during their children’s teething phase. The particular brand we use are somewhere between nasty and miraculous. These instruments of diversion and tools for teething relief keep babies contented for a few …
Can I have sex in front of my kids?
We’re not talking about circus sex theater in front of the kids, but the fact remains there is no proof that intimacy in front of children will scar them for life. Our modern puritanism continues to feed off a Victorian sensibility that the display of nudity and sex around children will confuse them and turn …
Crying baby, sleeping spouse
A benefit in marriage or a committed relationship is the implied responsibility for both to share the burdens. Women have traditionally relied on formalized bondage in marriage to trap men into contributing to child rearing. Today, men have demonstrated they still do less of the child watching and tending than women, and they often defend …
How to get your child to sleep late
There are no wrong ways to sleep in on a Saturday morning. There’s only the prospect of child neglect. For parents, a safe sleeping crib is a magic machine in child-rearing because this legal baby cage isolates the little ball of energy, preventing escape while ensuring the safety of the prisoner. In response, children have …
I never spank my child until now
Before I had children I used a lot of superlatives when talking about how I was going to raise children. I’d never use the television as a babysitter. I’d never feed my baby junk food. I’d never let my baby cry for an hour without responding. It seemed that the more I promised not to …
2014 Oscar Predictions: Teach Your Kids to Like Great Flicks
Children’s learning has nothing to do with taking them to see these movies, which are way outta the league of any child. Nonetheless, teach your kids to like good movies and you’ll teach them to think for themselves. Our predictions will follow this overview of the 2014 Oscar nominations. “Gravity” is gonna get most of …
North Koreans depict the anti-bumpkin
Odd that a country with more poverty, repression and utter backwardness could produce children lacking any and all characteristics of their bumbling ways. The children put forth by communist propaganda seem a strange irony, and we’re even more riveted to these videos by the fact the stakes are so very high for the young ones. …
Battling the Sanctimommy Manifesto and the Festival of Stupid
The suggestion that sleep training will lead to a Prozac dependency later in life is as valid as suggesting that vaccinations lead to autism – dangerous, science-less hogwash. Dr. Darcia Narvaez (aka Doctor Nirvana) purveys the Dangers of Crying It Out in academic settings throughout the United States; she has proven to be a silver-spoon-in-mouth …
‘Amazon Mom Coupon’ promotion leaves dads out
Moms are better than dads. It goes the other way, too, depending on the situation. But where children and marketing are involved, a few dads are making a big stink outta the fact their name has been left off an advertisement. The big stink is about the recently launched marketing program called Amazon Mom Coupons. …
Crying it out will not ruin your child
“But won’t my child feel insecure and abandoned if I let him cry it out?” An emphatic NO! to the softies who think babies hold some sort of long-term grudge or sustain everlasting insecurities as a result of tough love. Nurturing parents allow their children to fail, and these parents apply calculated measures to influence …