Bunchland

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...

Warning: This story is very disturbing

New Jersey dad Stuart Chaifetz was “stunned” to hear that his 10-year-old autistic son Akian was getting in trouble at school. Akian, who’d never exhibited any sort of violent behaviour before, was hitting his teacher and aide and having violent outbursts at school. His school, Horace Mann School, is considered to be one of the best schools in the States and one of those independent schools that parents are dying to get their kids into.

Since this behaviour was so uncharacteristic of the boy, his dad set up a meeting with the teachers and school therapists. A behaviourist even tried to create scenarios that would push Akian to his limits in order to see what would set him off. It didn’t work. So what would cause this peaceful boy to lash out?  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. What happens when your 4-year-old celebrate are only celebrating their first real birthday? What are their other birthdays like?

2. It’s Pink Shirt Day! Appropriately, NYT’s Motherlode has a post on loving when your boys defy stereotypes and wear pink, but cringing when your daughter embraces the whole pink and princesses thing.

3. More Pink Shirts: A student-made video, with 1,500 kids sporting pink shirts and singing Lady Gaga, all in the name of anti-bullying, have some parents up in arms. The parents are offended. By the anti-bullying video. Facepalm.

4. Wow, helicopter parents be trippin’. A college professor gives advice on how to raise independent kids, but the real gem of the article is the college prof revealing all the crazy things parents do to their 18-22 year old kids. Calling to ask about a debit charge made at a pizza place at 3am?  Read more...

Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values

When I interviewed queer parenting expert Rachel Epstein, the coordinator of the LGBTQ Parenting Network at the Sherbourne Health Centre last summer, she told me what I had always suspected. “We don’t usually hear about problems at daycare,” Epstein said.

It’s good news, and despite us being the only queer family at our day care centre, it’s been our experience as well. Back in the summer, I didn’t know we were about to lose the kindergarten wait-list gamble we choose for our four-year old. I couldn’t imagine, that after we lost, I would feel part guilt (for depriving Rosa of a JK experience) and part relief (thank you God, public school is delayed another year!)  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. A Swedish study found that newborn babies whose umbilical cords were cut three minutes after they were born instead of right away were less likely to be iron deficient.

2. Some Toronto kids in the Jane-and-Finch-area are trying out squash (the sport) after-school. Awesome. When one of those kids comes to dominate the international squash scene in 10 years or so, we expect a fabulous made-for-CBC movie.

3. KJ Dellantonia at the NYT Motherlode is not down with the new Best Buy ads that mock Santa Claus. We know!! Yeah, we get that some seasonal ads are meant to tug on your heartstrings and some are less subtle in making you buy stuff, but the Best Buy ones are gross. We think we need to write more on this later, but for now, we’re happy that KJ is sticking up for the man in the red suit.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. The family dinner is alive and well.

2. Getting to the bottom of How She Does It — in the UK.

3. Want your 3-year-old to learn to share better? Read him this story from 1818 about a boy who wouldn’t share. “So he went about to every body — Pray give me something to eat, I am very hungry. And every body said, No, we shall give you none, for we do not love cruel, naughty boys.”

4. You know you’re kinda curious about 50 Cent’s young adult novel about bullying.

5. You can get your own My Keepon dancing robot starting next month.

Photo by kmakice via Flickr

What we’re reading today:

1. Wooo summer! Are your kids climbing the walls waiting to be released in some park or  sport field? Make sure they’re getting their one hour of vigorous exercise each day. We recommend a biking towards a place that sells frozen treats.

2. One woman reflects back on her 4th grade bully and what she learned from her. Do you suppose there’s stuff to be learned from being bullied? Surely there are less hurtful ways to learn such things?

3. A warning to our American friends: How you and your kids celebrate the 4th of July can seriously affect them later in life. Be patriotic and have fireworks and all that, but not so much that you’re raising tiny Republicans. (Kidding, we still let Republicans read Bunchland… just not the really intolerant ones)

4. But here’s one dad’s argument in favour of seeing fireworks and celebrating the holiday.  Read more...