Bunchland

What the cool parents are reading today:

1. Remember that mom who was sent to jail for putting down her father’s address instead of her own so that she could get her daughters into a better school? Kelley Williams-Bolar is half-way through her sentence and giving a lot of speeches.

2. Does your baby need music classes? New research suggests that “music training can foster babies’ emotional development and communication skills,” so you’d better enroll that 6-month-old in classes. What, you think it’s enough that they’ve learned to hold their head up at that age?

3. If you’re a mom, do you feel like you’re got about seven things on the go at all time? Moms are all about the multi-tasking.

4. Did you know that in Denmark, your baby name has to be approved by the government? Here are some other baby name rules from around the world. You can bet there aren’t a lot of Tyrannosaurus Rexes across the Atlantic.  Read more...

What the cool parents are reading today:

1. Do you and your kid have complementary temperaments? A stubborn kid and a stubborn parents makes for a lot of clashes, but a stubborn kid with a super easy going parent isn’t necessarily any better.

2. Love and admiration for Hillary Clinton grows with an anti-bullying PSA that addresses the bullies rather than the victims. She says, “If you’re the bully, if you’re bullying someone else, please take a hard look at your actions and the pain you’ve caused.”

3. “The overall net effect of having kids is positive.” Congrats parents! Though it might not seem like it when  you step on a piece of lego, two new studies show that people with kids might be happier than their childless peers.  Read more...

Kids grow up too fast these days!

Lotte Time Lapse: Birth to 12 years in 2 min. 45. from Frans Hofmeester on Vimeo.

Filmmaker Frans Hofmeester filmed his daughter Lotte once a week from the day she was born until she turned 12 and turned the shots into this short film. Watch Lotte grow up in less than three minutes! We’re wondering if she’ll still let him film her once a week if/once she reaches the more difficult, rebellious teenage years.

Image via Vimeo

When it comes to baby body care, pure doesn’t always mean simple

Brace yourself – the most influential and terrifying industry is about to get its well manicured hands on our babies.

One Manhattan-based mom and doctor recently told the New York Times she spends about $150 per month on baby body products for her 3-year-old twins. “I spend more on my kids than I do on myself, it’s worth it to me to get something pure for them,” said Dr. Amy Shah Nagarajan, a 38-year-old specialist in integrative medicine. She’s always used chemical-free products for herself and doesn’t see why she shouldn’t treat her kids to the same luxuries.

D. Nagarajan isn’t alone when it comes to dropping serious bills on beauty products for her youngens. Zoe Schaeffer, an LA-based mom and blogger said she spends $150 – 200 per month on natural products for her three kids, aged 3 months – 4 years. Huh.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. It used to be that we thought babies and toddlers always live in the present; not so! They remember much more than we think they do.

2. There’s been a lot of talk recently about healthy pregnancies and how much an expecting mother should eat, so here are some guidelines as to what you should be eating.

3. The teacher bias against girls in math. Teachers! Come on! What about the female math teachers? Can we all make a pact that we’ll try and spread the “girls can do math and science” notion as often as we can?

4. Did you hear about that stillborn baby who wasn’t so stillborn? Oh. My. Gosh. The baby was born three months premature, was immediately declared stillborn and the mom didn’t even get to hold her since the baby was immediately sent to the morgue. When mother and father went to visit her in the morgue to say their hello-goodbyes, the baby stirred and cried. The baby, Luz Milagros, is getting stronger and the parents are suing the hospital.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. New play date trend: signing a waiver. Are people threatening legal action action play dates gone wrong? Can we add sub-clauses re: reasonable, expected childhood injuries like scraped knees from skateboarding?

2. You know how toddlers are so irresistibly cute and you can’t get mad at them but you have no trouble yelling at their older siblings if they’ve misbehaved? Yeah, science shows babies loose their cuteness at 4.5-years-old. If any genius 3-year-olds are reading this, live it up while you can! You can’t rely on your adorableness to get you out of trouble forever.

3. Parents are going to have to shell out a little more money on Easter eggs this year. Europe is low on eggs. Between Norway’s butter shortage and the current egg crisis, it’s like the world is trying to deny Europe rich desserts. Egg production has dropped about 10-15 percent since the EU’s new requirements for bigger, better cages for egg-laying hens. Eh, maybe this is the Western privilege coming out, but raising egg prices and making them slightly less easy to come by doesn’t seem like the worst idea…  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. After two miscarriages, a woman thinks back to the Spanish fortune teller who told her she’d have a daughter.

2. Speaking of having a girl, we have more of them when times are tough.

3. Are you ever naked around your kids? At what point do you have to cover up?

4. Moms — do you feel like politicians ever listen to you and your concerns? Looks like maybe they’ll start doing just that.

5. And for all the aspiring skater kids out there, check out this first-ever 1080 landed by a 12-year-old:

Friday: Family business meetings, Mama’s boys and the 5-year-old comedian.

Photo by Ruth L via Flickr