Check out this safety manual from the 1950s. It takes safety to an extreme. Like guts spilled everywhere extreme. Like no matter what you do, you’re going to die extreme.
Considering this is what our parents’ (or grandparents) generation was raised with – we think they turned out pretty ok, considering.
It’s Victoria Day in Canada: the day where, all across the country, neighbour motivates neighbour to shake off old cobwebs, clean up the old leaves and make their garden beautiful once again.
But we know. You’ve got kids. You’re busy. Your house is a mess.
We’ve found some super easy garden ideas you can do with the kids – with stuff you likely have lying around your messy home anyway. (Psst: These ideas will work for a balcony too!)
Make Wind Chimes Out of Painted Tin Cans
Raid your recycling bin and up-cycle tin cans to make your garden sound and look beautiful. For how-to-instructions, go here.
Got some old shoes around the house you haven’t gotten around to donating (or, if they’re in really bad shape, chucking out) – turn them into flower pots! Drill holes in the bottom for drainage – and for added colours, let the kids paint them. Read more...
Before going back to finish school a few years ago, I spent the summer at home with my girls – aged one and three at the time. It was one of the best summers of my life. We lived at the wadding pool, played in our sprinkler – and took long, slow walks on shaded streets in our neighbourhood.
Everyday we picnicked on our green blanket. Putting them in day care and returning to school that September was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
On May 17th, 1992, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from their International Classification of Disease.
Now on, May 17th, activists from around the world mobilize to draw attention to homophobia and transphobia – so that everyone from policy makers, to the media to the general public will pay attention to the cause. And it truly is a global phenomena – with op-eds appearing in the media, and actions happening just about everywhere in the world.
Fight the homophobia web virus- rights for queer and trans folk have come a long way in our country – but read online comments on sites such as Facebook or YouTube and it’s an entirely different story. Nohomophobes.com reports that the word “faggot” can appear up to 250,000 times a week on Twitter. Want to do something about it? Go to homophobiaday.org for tips on cyber actions – such as declaring your Facebook page homophobia free.
I sometimes feel like I am living in two worlds. The whole “work-home balance” thing is more like a teeter-totter. I shift back and forth between work and home, investing my resources where they are most needed. When a deadline looms or I have to travel, my resources are dedicated to work.
The week before this year’s Spring Bird Festival, my resources were firmly invested at home. After several days of fever, five-year-old Ray found that he could not walk. We spent seven hours in the emergency room for acute viral myositis.
Stay with me, Mami. “
I squeezed Ray’s hand, as we lay together in the narrow hospital bed. As he slowly drifted to sleep, I listened to the sounds of the pediatric ward of the ER. It was 1 a.m. and all around me parents were comforting their children, speaking to doctors, doing all they could to ensure their kid’s recovery and health. Read more...
There was much nasty propaganda deployed in the battle against the suffragette movement. And, it seems when illustrators ran out of ideas for how to draw buck-toothed, red-faced, screaming, women they turned to – cats.
Cats represented the domestic sphere, and thus symbolized women. They were portrayed as stupid and incompetent in an attempt to portray suffragists in the same light. See if it worked.
Summer’s on its way, and it’s time to protect your family’s skin from Mr. Sunshine.
Cause the Tan Mom look is so 2000-and-never.
Even though the product has “baby” in the name, Aveeno Baby Sun is also the perfect solution for mom and dad (and we always support anything that satisfies the needs of the whole family = less bottles to carry around in the purse, people!)
AVEENO® Baby is the #1 Pediatrician Recommended Brand, with proven efficacy, gentle and natural ingredients. Aveeno Baby Sensitive Skin SPF 50 Sun Formulated with ACTIVE NATURALS® Oat Extract and mineral ingredients (Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide), this sunscreen is a more natural option than many others.
Have you ever tried your baby’s sunscreen on yourself?
Homeward Bound is a four-year program, which, due to support from an industry council, guarantees that graduates find work withincomesof around $40,000 upon completion.
The program breaks down many of the barriers, which prevent single women from making it: free housing, child care and recreational programs for kids, counselling for women (many of whom are survivors of domestic abuse and homelessness) along with training and post-secondary education in a marketable skill. And it’s not just the women and their families who benefit. According to research by a Boston consulting group, for every dollar that’s invested in Homeward Bound, society gains four dollars back. Read more...
Mothers are, frankly speaking, pretty mean to other mothers. Social networks make it more apparent. It stems from that whole “women are so mean to other women” phenomenon, but this is where it hits hard and hits home: Motherhood.
Yesterday on Facebook (of course) a friend who recently adopted a baby asked for suggestions for fun things to engage a six-month-old. Someone suggested Baby Einstein videos, calling them “moving board books,” and told a cute anecdote about his granddaughter swinging on a baby chair watching them.
I added to his recommendation with my own. The Baby Einstein videos (and the board books and toys) were for me, as a mother, a lifesaver. I’m not shilling for them, nor would I ever claim they’d hold the same value for everyone. But they surely “worked” for Georgia and I.
The comment immediately following my endorsement had a horrified, “No videos!!!!” and went on to insist that instead the new mom should instead be engaging the baby by “talking to him,” turning lights on and off, turning water on and off and engaging the baby in the most banal of errands with full narrative description. Read more...
Now researchers at Duke University say they’ve figured out how to make invisibility cloaks using regular 3D printers. So, like, if you invest $1300 in a 3D printer from Staples, next Halloween you’ll have the best costume ever, right?
[The technology] involves fashioning a material with different sized holes based on an algorithm which fools microwave beams into not registering the presence of an opaque object placed at the center of the material. … Assistant research professor of electrical and computer engineering Yaroslav Urzhumov and others working on the technology believe someday soon they will be able to deflect higher wavelengths, including visible light.
Technology. A generation ago moms had to hand wash their baby’s diapers, now we feel righteous if we toss cloth diapers into a machine and click “sanitize.”
Maybe in the future, a certain kind of parent will brag that they can take care of their crying baby without relying on app for that.
It was first developed in 2009 – and sold for $29.99 back then. These days, it’s dropped to $4.99. The app works by recording your baby’s cries for 10 seconds and then “translating” them, telling you what your baby needs.
And right now, according to some customer reviews (one of which is headlined “useless crap”) it’s possible a parent’s gut instincts work better than any technology.
The ad shows a young girl playing video games with her dog in a room full of all kinds of toys, ranging from baseball bats to musical instruments to dolls.
She isn’t covered in head to toe pink and purple, instead she wears a neutral outfit that just says ‘kid’. In other words, she appears to be a multi-dimensional human being. Welcome to 1982.
