1. Prefer to read the news on your iPhone? One writer explains that your kid may not register seeing you on your smart phone as doing something constructive, but they’ll probably notice if you read the paper.
2. Is the internet ruining kids manners? Or is it changing our concept of manners altogether? “I remember in high school learning how to type a proper letter. Kids don’t learn that these days, but how much time do you want your high school student learning about writing proper letters? They can type ‘business letter’ into a search engine and find out everything they need to know.”
Why we don’t need a reality show about extended breastfeeding
In the latest installment of the North American obsession with breastfeeding, TheNew York Post revealed that there’s a new reality television series in the pipes devoted to the world of extended breastfeeding.
Los Angeles production company Collins Avenue is currently developing an entire series about women who choose to nurse infants older than a year. (How much over a year is still in question, although the two examples cited are women who have nursed children 3 and 7.)
Here’s the thing about reality television: as much as its name purports to be about reality, it does a pretty good job of capitalizing on situations that are really hyper-inflated reality. Otherwise, no one would watch it. It would be boring, mundane and probably a lot like everyday life. So one either watches reality shows about unusual people doing semi-quotidian things, regular people doing less-than-quotidian things or unusual people doing unusual things. Read more...
1. It’s official - Tom and Katie have called it quits. Co-parenting with Scientology in the mix? That’s a whole new level of wackiness. “She seems to have been raised in Scientology up to this age, so if the judge comes in and gives custody to Katie Holmes, she can change Suri’s religion.”
3. Jonesing for some breastfeeding solidarity? Stop by this new website, mamasmilkproject.com. It seeks “to pass along women’s hard-earned breastfeeding wisdom and experience and to allow women a space to reflect upon and write about their breastfeeding experiences as an important life experience.” Sharing is caring. Read more...
2. Kids as young as 10 are involved in sexting. According to Kids Helpline, almost 500 young people contacted the service with sexting-related concerns between January and March this year. One in three were between 10 – 14. Disturbing.
3. U.S. hate is taught as part of the Kindergarten curriculum in North Korea, where anti-American phrases adorn posters on classroom walls and “during playtime, children run around beating up mock American soldiers and planes.” Sounds like a very, um, positive learning environment for those formative years.
4. More than 80 kids in Indianapolis were sent to hospitals after taking a dip in a toxic public pool. Apparently a wrong combination of chemicals led to the water becoming a poisonous cocktail. All of a sudden athlete’s foot doesn’t seem like such a biggie. Read more...
Precious Chong blogs about co-parenting alongside her ex and his new fiancee
Looking back, one of the things that scared me the most about leaving my marriage was the thought of dating again. I had a baby. I was pushing 40. I was still breastfeeding.
Call me crazy, but dating and breastfeeding just don’t really mix.
Even when I was younger I was always a sporadic dater. I would go on binges of dating two or three guys and then would go cold turkey, exhausted by the neuroses and/or awkward sex.
Dating in Los Angeles can be like that. Just to give you an idea, the last three men I dated before I met Wes, were all on anti-depressants. All three of them. Not that I have anything against anti-depressants, but come on. Read more...
Trevor is a Milk Junkie and a transgender man with a husband and a baby
Yup, my little guy turned one last week. It seems like just yesterday that I was struggling to latch him on for the first time. He was tired from a long labour and I was inexperienced and so very unsure of myself. Eventually my midwife stepped in and expertly guided his head toward my nipple at just the right moment. We have been through so much together between then and now.
I am a transgender guy. This means that I was born female but transitioned to male by taking testosterone and having a chest surgery that removed most of my breast tissue. When my partner and I decided to start a family, we consulted with my doctors and then I went off my hormones in order to become pregnant.
Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values
It could be my twisted sense of humour, but sometimes the news is just, funny. Here is my round-up of queerly-themed parenting stories that I found both newsworthy and laugh-worthy this week.
1. Turns out, same sex marriages aren’t a threat to the whole institution after all
According to a website run by journalism graduate students at Northwestern University’s Medill school, gay marriages don’t ruin straight ones. Hear this out. It’s almost as though we help straight marriages. States that allow same sex marriages have the lowest divorce rates in the U.S, and same-sex couples divorce at slightly lower rates than straight folks. Read more...
4. How many words should a 2-year-old know? It varies, but there are 25 words that a researcher says all toddlers should know, including dog, milk and cookie. (We assume mom and/or dad are in there, but given that it’s entirely possibly for a 2-year-old not to know any dogs, why is that one of the key words?)
5. One-year-old baby is pretty good on the drums! (And sorry to go all concern troll and judgey, but shouldn’t he have noise-canceling/reducing headphones?
4. Happy Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day! Do you know any math-y girls who should be introduced to the science of engineering? Know anyone who might find engineering interesting?