Bunch Family

What the cool parents are reading today:

1. Hey remember when you had to transition your kid from a crib to a big-kid bed? Ulgh, that’s fun right?

2. One woman contrasts the story of her birth, with a drugged up mom who was given a shot of estrogen so she wouldn’t lactate, versus her own crunchier motherhood full of birthing tubs and breastfeeding. (This is another take on the Elisabeth Badinter philosophy)

3. McDonalds is now putting yogurt in their Happy Meals and have slashed fries down to a mini 100 calorie size. Do these changes make you more inclined to take your kids to McDonalds?

4. How do you help your kid reach a healthy body weight without making them self-conscious about it?

5. Speaking of healthy eating habits, sometimes you just got to make your kid eat all their vegetables, no matter how unimpressed they are:  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. Alicia Silverstone knows that many of us don’t agree with her mama bird-baby bird feeding technique and she doesn’t care. “People have been feeding their kids that way for thousands for years. It’s a weaning process,” Silverstone told the audience at a Clueless Q&A. Firstly, there was a Cluessless Q&A with Silverstone and director Amy Heckerling?! Secondly, yeah, there are weirder things.

2. It doesn’t make any sense that same-sex partners would have been denied insurance benefits, but thankfully, a judge has ruled that to deny those benefits would be discrimination.

3. Yet another controversial book from France! Feminist author Elisabeth Badinter says that modern progressive parenting is anti-feminist. One of her gripes: breastfeeding. “Advocating on-demand breast-feeding for as long as the child wants it effectively deprives a mother of her time,” she writes in The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women.  Read more...

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

Our daughters are joyfully riding the wave of a well-meaning but definite over-abundance of Disney Princess gifts they got for Christmas.

Part of the infestation includes a very big, very pink Disney Princess story book, the complete princess series, in point of fact, which comes with an infinite number of stickers that are now scattered all over our house.

The book is not all horrible, it’s just mostly horrible. Mulan is a brave hero who goes to war, and Belle from Beauty and the Beast gets trapped when she goes off to rescue her dad. (By which I mean, Mulan and Belle are less bad than the other stories.)  Read more...

New documentary “challenges the media’s limited portrayal of what it means to be a powerful woman.”

Scary quote from the trailer: “Little boys and little girls, when they’re 7 years old, an equal number want to be president of the United States when they grow up; but then you ask the same question when they’re 15 and you see this massive gap emerging.”

Don’t let your girls give up their power!

How do you like your girl power?

Debuting on the newspaper comic strip circuit in 1941, crime-fighting, catsuit-wearing Miss Fury has the honour of being the first female superhero. She was followed by Wonder Woman six months later, and since then, superheroines from Catwoman to Aquagirl have made their marks in the world of comics as well. Trina Robbins, who edited the collection of Miss Fury reprints, discusses the role of women in comics, and that got us thinking about strong, smart female characters in general. And reminded us how anticipatory we are for Brave. (You’ve watched the awesome Brave trailer, right?)

Here are some of our favourites:

1. The Unprincessy Princess

Elizabeth from The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch (1980)

 Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. This mom gives her autistic son marijuana. She says it soothes her son’s gastrointestinal pain and decreases violent outbursts. She says based on hatemail, she won’t be up for Mother of the Year anytime soon, but hear her out.

2. Jezebel’s started a “Daddy Issues” series and this essay, from a dad whose 5-year-old daughter is obsessed with jockeys and horse racing, is just too sweet.

3. This Demotivation poster is spot on. Apparently it’s not for sale, but it should probably be hung in every library and independent bookstore. Via BoingBoing

4.What not to ask a pregnant woman: “Were you trying?” Any other contenders?

5. Redoing your kid’s room? Do you have a budget that rivals college tuition?

Image via Demotivation

Bright young women

It’s the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Yeah, a lot has happened in those 100 years — the right to vote, the right to stand for election, the right to choose, the right not to be treated like some Sterling Cooper secretary, but it’s not enough. If you haven’t seen the excellent Dame Judy Dench-Daniel Craig video, take a look:

But you don’t have to be James Bond to make a point about equal rights. Here are some of our girl heroes doing their thing and being awesome:

1. Watoto from the Nile — A trio of sisters who were sick of Lil Wayne having such disrespect for women. So they wrote a song asking Lil Wayne why he think it’s OK to say what he says.  Read more...