Bunchland

What the cool parents are reading today:

1. Yay dangerous, risky playgrounds! Advocates for a more natural and challenging playground want to address the “increasingly sedentary and risk-averse generation of children disconnected from nature,” and so we need playgrounds with rocks and tree stumps and other things kids might fall and scrape their knees on. No, they don’t want the kids to get hurt, but they do want kids to know that they can get hurt and be aware of their surroundings.

2. Some parents actually camped out overnight for a precious spot at a good daycare the way a superfan might for concert tickets. Today’s Parent wants to know what you’ve sacrificed for daycare. Is it a vacation? A new car? A so-so daycare because the good one is just simply too cost prohibitive?

3. Why would a nine-months-pregnant woman want to do a nude photoshoot? Because she can! And she wanted a little adventure.  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. Who’s got toddlers? Did you find that every single cliché of the so-called terrible twos was correct? Jezebel writer Tracy Moore discovered that it was true and then some. Let’s form of club of people who’ve had their laptops destroyed with a cup of milk and/or iPhones shattered by toddlers.

2. A mom-to-be gets feds up with everything a pregnant American woman is supposed to be and decides to rebel. She went to the salon to get her roots touched up. Yes, everyone gave her dirty looks.

3. Babble’s A “Happy” Mom’s Confession reminds us entirely of Holly Hunter in Broadcast News.  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...

What we’re reading today:

1. Know that super pregnant celebrity who’s been pretty heavily criticized for gaining a substantial amount of weight during her pregnancy? Is that normal and she’s just being criticized because it’s an atypical celebrity pregnancy, or should women not put on that much weight?

2. Speaking of weight perceptions, preschoolers think that overweight kids are mean. Looking at Harry Potter bullies Crabbe and Goyle, do kids get these ideas from TV and movies, or do writers get these ideas from kids?

3. Kids are dying after being prescribed codeine post-surgery. What’s going on?

4. What do you do when you’re a big bookworm and your kid just couldn’t care less about reading?

5. We really do hope everything works out for Courtney Love, but what’s with this feud with the Muppets? And attacking genius Jason Segel? Here’s what set her off:  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. Ontario’s getting two pilot birth centres run by midwives. Nice.

2. Would you do anything to keep your kids out of trouble? Would you build an entire flipping nightclub in your basement complete with DJ booth to keep them from going to sketchier venues?

3. In defence of the term “mompreneur”… personally, we don’t get why you wouldn’t just go with “entrepreneur.”

4. New moms, do you suddenly feel a heck of a lot older?

5. Dancing baby:

Photo by santheo via Flickr

What we’re reading today:

1. Want to find your kid’s strengths? Would you try an aptitude test?

2. Daylight Savings this weekend! Here’s how to help your kids adjust — tips from Bunch pal Tracey Ruiz the Sleep Doula!

3. A new Huggies campaign insults dads, presumes that modern-day dads don’t have to do all the parenting stuff that moms do.

4. For the moms out there, since becoming a mom, do you no longer have control over what’s in your purse? Are there now legos? Extra toddler socks and underwear? Snacks?

5. Speaking of changes once you become a mom, what about all the weird things pregnancy does to you? Check out how Hilary Duff handles the hormonal changes she experiences while pregnant:

Photo by Wouter van Doorn via Flickr