I thought I had invented the tickle monster, but apparently there are others out there roaming the streets and parks of America. Well, not so much in parks anymore, after a judge issued an order barring lawyer Charles R. Douglas from entering Miner Park in Glen Carbon, Illinois. He was charged with four misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct for asking parents in the park if he could tickle their children.
The fifty-eight-year-old says that he has played the "tickle monster" game with children for years and enjoys hearing them laugh. It's "a joking thing that I do," he said of the game, adding that he never touches a child without the parent's permission. Douglas is understandably upset about the matter and calls the charges "the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen."
As I said, I play the tickle monster game with my kids and they always enjoy it. I suppose I do to, even though I get tuckered out long before the kids tire of the game. And while I wouldn't think of asking a parent I didn't know for permission to tickle their child, I can also believe that Douglas' intentions were perfectly honorable and that he was simply a middle-aged gentleman looking to have some childish fun.
Don't mess with the material mom. I think we all know the consequences of that. But what about when you're her daughter? Lourdes is probably just as headstrong as her mommy and may even like to follow in her mother's big footsteps someday. Says Madonna, though, Lourdes is forbidden from acting.
Nevertheless, the acting bug has allegedly bitten little Lola. Many celebrity kids either attempt or succeed at following in their famous parents' footsteps, especially when it comes to acting. And many of those celebrity parents have said they don't want their kids acting or being in the profession at all. The stress, the drama, the lies of the media and the unbelievable pressure to be perfect are too much, they feel, for their kids to go through (yet they continue to do it).
Madonna is no exception. She is a mom, after all, and she wants to protect her family. According to a "source" Madge has banned her daughter, 11, from being in a new movie and has nixed Lola being involved in the craft until she finishes high school. I wonder how she feels about Lourdes going to college--Madonna dropped out, and it didn't seem to bother her career aspirations in the slightest!
Ok, who knows if this is really true, but it's certainly cute. According to Victoria Beckham herself, she cooks for her family. Many moms accomplish this task, but I'd wager few are as busy as Posh Spice, who spends her time running her fashion lines of jeans and clothes as well as modeling and being a fashion plate in general. Posh also recently released yet another fragrance she's been promoting.
Posh, who is vegetarian (perhaps that is how she keeps her trim figure?) says she makes a good mincemeat pie though. Posh also says she cooks dinner every Sunday for her family, which consists of husband David--international soccer star and megahottie--and three sons, Romeo, Cruz and Brooklyn. The menu includes Yorkshire pudding and Dora the Explorer cakes--I'm guessing those are David's favorite???
Victoria was under recent speculation that she might be adding to her family but has done her best to quell those rumors by wearing tight fitting clothes and telling everyone she is too busy to consider another child at this time. Part of the reason she is so busy is spending some time suing magazines for claiming she takes dieting pills. Maybe she just doesn't like mincemeat pies!
Labor day weekend, along with the usual suspects (a bunch of families from my son's preschool, plus a few additions from kindergarten and first grade), I took my older two kids camping at Mount Hamilton, the tallest mountain in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and home to the Lick Observatory. The location was selected because of a star party taking place Saturday night hosted by the Halls Valley Astronomical Group.
The long weekend coincided with a new moon, so the night sky was nice and dark. After dinner, we wrapped our flashlights in red cellophane and headed up the hill to where local astronomy enthusiasts had set up their telescopes. These might have been amateurs, but their telescopes were anything but. Motorized and computerized, they were big devices that brought the heavens right down into the campground. The highlight of the night was being able to see Jupiter along with four of its moons, all in a row. Club members were more than happy to explain what the kids were seeing and answer any questions they had.
You may not be close enough to attend one of the Halls Valley club's star parties, but they're not the only group that invites the public to see the stars through their telescopes on a regular basis. Sky and Telescope magazine has a searchable directory of clubs and organizations around the country, along with some tips and advice on getting started on your own. Even without a high-powered telescope, there's a lot to see in the night sky, so get outside and look up!
Yes, you read that right. A little early for Halloween, sure, but this is one of those stories too weird--and creepy--to not be true. A Greater Manchester man who police and family thought was dead re-entered their lives after his son spotted him on television. The man, John Delaney, was believed to have died in April of 2000. Police accidentally misidentified a body as his and his family had a funeral for him, cremating the body of what they believed to be the patriarch in 2003.
Delaney had actually suffered a head injury and been admitted to a hospital days later. He suffered amnesia and was unable to give medical professionals his name. He was transferred to a home and stayed there for eight years before his son identified him while watching a show about missing people.
The son, John Renehan, said that while his father had been cremated, he "knew" the man he saw on television was his father. And he was right. Goes to show you have to trust your instincts sometimes. Now the family is happily reunited in what is truly an amazing story for the books. Sadly, the body of the person who was believed to be Delaney and subsequently cremated, has yet to be identified.
Many of you will be saddened to hear this, or at least slightly nostalgic. Bill Melendez, who voiced the Peanuts character Snoopy, has died. Melendez, who was also in charge of most of the animation, was ninety-one! He is survived by his wife of sixty-eight years and two children.
The mustachioed man may not have been known by many in person, but we all knew the voice of our beloved Snoopy. Whether portraying the Red Baron or Charlie Brown's best friend (besides Linus), Snoopy was honestly the most adult of the Peanuts characters. He also lent his talents to the Met Life insurance company.
Melendez was a true talent, being both Oscar-nominated and an Emmy winner. He was set to celebrate his ninety-second birthday in November. He is responsible for animating A Charlie Brown Christmas, and my personal favorite cartoon ever, It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
As helicopter parents are starting to discover, doing everything for kids stunts their ability to function and leads to the development of college students who aimlessly wander through grocery stores thoughtlessly leaving carts in the middle of aisles whenever something shiny (or beery) catches their eye, driving harried mothers, just trying to grab some milk and bread and get on with their lives, to use their own carts to smash clear a path while their children watch in slack-jawed horror a safe distance away. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
One way to combat this sad scenario is to get kids comfortable in the kitchen at an early age. Making brownies and cookies are a fun introduction to the magic of baking, but sadly, you can't live on baked goods alone. (But oh, how I have tried!)
An easy way to get children acquainted with cooking on a stove top is to start by showing them how to prepare a simple dish. Scrambled eggs are easy enough for even preschoolers to make with a little adult assistance. Cracking eggs, whisking, seasoning, and using a spatula to help stir the final product as it cooks (with shredded cheese or other fun add-ons if you're feeling fancy, like diced ham or crumbles of leftover bacon!) gives youngsters experience making a protein-filled dish that will serve them well for future brunches or lean years.
Personalized pancakes are much more fun than plain old round ones and are nearly as easy to make. Using a spoon, trickle batter from a box mix (or try this homemade baking mix that can increased to make as many pancakes as you have hungry mouths in your house: 1 cup flour, 1 TB sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. salt. In another bowl, whisk together 1 egg, 1 cup milk, 2 TB oil and add to dry mixture. Stir until smooth.) onto a hot griddle with a spoon to form the initial of someone you'll be feeding, only make the letter BACKWARDS. (Your helper might have to practice on a piece of paper and use it as a guide to make sure they get it right.) When the bottom side of the letter starts to brown, use a soup ladle to pour batter OVER the letter, covering the it up and making what appears to be a regular pancake. Bake until the batter bubbles, then turn and flip to cook the other side.
Applesauce tastes best when it's fresh from the stove, and when apples are in season, it's way cheaper too! Helpers can use an apple slicer/corer (if you don't have one, this inexpensive kitchen gadget makes slicing an apple child's play and is available at most grocery and discount stores) to section 4 medium size apples. Older kids can practice peeling the skin off the slices and then cutting the slices into chunks. Parents should use their best judgment with younger kids, who could chop the apple into chunks with a butter knife if supervised. Place apple pieces into a saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup of sugar and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Cool and serve alongside the special scrambled eggs and personalized pancakes and rest easy that when YOUR kids are college kids, they'll know EXACTLY what they need in a grocery store to make themselves a meal!
With my first pregnancy, everything was done by the book. My OBGYNs were staunchly against inducing until a full two weeks after my due date. They were also against scheduling a C-section barring there was no medical reason to do so. In other words, they viewed pregnancy and birth as a natural thing that should happen when good and ready, not something that needed to be scheduled in time for a tennis match or dinner plans (theirs or mine).
This time around, nearly twenty months later, I received a slightly different tune. My child is due relatively near Halloween (my father's birthday and my favorite day of the year). I'd inquired if the two-week rule still applied as I thought there would be a slight possibility my child could be born on Halloween. My OBGYN wanted to know if I wanted to schedule an induction. She noted that a woman had recently done so because of childcare issues--she had to have the baby at a certain time in order to find someone to watch her other child.
So the message was a little different this time around. Have we gotten so busy and our lives so scheduled that we need to induce our labors in order to fit into them? Sure, no one likes the thought of not knowing when the baby will arrive--you could be in the middle of a subway ride or something--but isn't that half the fun and excitement, too? Some would say that fun and excitement have their place, but not when it comes to having a baby. They want to know exactly when and where (usually they've got the why and how figured out).
What about you? Would you or did you schedule an induction for something other than medical reasons or that it was two weeks past your due date? If so, why?
A new trend is on the rise among those about to get married, and it ain't whether or not to wear a sleeveless gown. More often, those signing prenuptial agreements are including health-related clauses in their lists of musts and must nots. What used to be about money, frankly, and protection of assets, has moved to the body. For example, if a wife gets fat, her husband has the right to divorce her or perhaps leave her penniless. Let's just hope she doesn't like ice cream too much. Smoking is also finding its way into the agreements as is a due date for pregnancy (like there's much control over that one!).
Health concerns are certainly more on our minds these days as we try to swim our way out of a nation of obesity and rising healthcare costs driven by insurance companies who care more about making money for their top brass than actually helping the nation's citizens take care of themselves. Hence, it would seem natural that health concerns would be a large part of the conversation when two people decide to spend the rest of their lives together.
I suppose I could have forced my husband to be to sign a prenup stating he would remain vegetarian and raise our kids to be such, but I'm flexible and a little bit of a softy. I suppose he could have banned soft cheeses from our fridge or taken me to court. But we didn't. Maybe I could have said I wanted to have a baby by the time I was 30 or he was outta there. Know what would have happened? I'd be single and still have no kids (I am 33 and expecting number two, but didn't have number one until I was 32).
Are these people crazy to be suggesting such prenups, and worse to be agreeing to them, or are they right on the money given the way the modern world works?
Starting school can feel a little like starting a new job. There's a new environment, new materials, new tasks, a new "boss," and maybe most importantly to kids, new friends. Back-to-school can be a stressful time of year for kids, and parents know a little encouragement goes a long way.
Over at PBSParents, the Supersisters have a great idea for not only dealing with your own youngster's nervous energy, but spreading a little kindness as well. They snuck out early on the first day of school and wrote inspirational messages in sidewalk chalk for school kids to read as they headed to school. "Have a awesome day," read one. "You are fantastic," said another. Supersister Jen reports that the messages were a hit, and I have to imagine that even tweens and teens who were "too cool" to react had to be bolstered by such such positive prose.
If you think that you might want to spread a little cheer on your first day of school, head out early to get your messages written well ahead of time (and to make sure you aren't late for the first day of school!). If you don't live in a walkable neighborhood, you could also get your school's permission to put the messages on the school's sidewalks and playground instead. If you do, Supersisters want you to share your words of kindness with them through their Flickr pool.
Wired Magazine is offering up a list of ten films that will help you raise your kids as geeks. First on the list is Star Wars, one of the most significant space movies in history. What geek in the seventies didn't dream of being Luke Skywalker and saving the universe from the evil Darth Vader? Of course, Star Wars is more romantic fantasy than hard science fiction.
If you want your kids grounded a little more in the science part of SF, skip down a few entries to War Games where Matthew Broderick uses his IMSAI computer to hack into a military supercomputer and very nearly starts World War III. Or, last on the list, the Back to the Future series where Michael J. Fox travels through time in a DeLorean.
There are a couple of essential (in my opinion) films that were left off the list but mentioned in the comments -- The Princess Bride and Labyrinth (sure, they're both fantasies, but they offer adventure and positive lessons that will serve any geek well.) Are there any others you'd add to the list as being essential viewing?
For pretty much everyone, Labor Day signifies the last day of summer. Never mind that most kids go back to school either the week before or after Labor Day, which many feel like is the real end of summer. Never mind that the actual end of summer is sometime in late September. To many, this year, Labor Day represents a few things quite different than a last hurrah for summertime activities. Many will hit the beaches or pools one last time before they close for the year, and many will have one last barbecue or picnic with family and friends before resigning themselves to school schedules. Many, however, will lament not being able to do much of anything because of the failing economy and soaring gas prices.
I don't really know anyone who went anywhere real for summer vacation this year. They made good use of the park and local activities, and they spent some quality time with said family and friends (which is great) but most are really looking toward the normalcy of the regular old school year, when they don't have to disappoint their kids by saying they're not going anywhere.
Or, are they? Now is the time to get out of town if you're going to do so. Many airlines are having specials. Gas has finally lowered a tad (although it's still well over $3.50 a gallon in most places). The kids are more stir crazy than ever, especially knowing school is right around the corner. Maybe now is the time to pop into the minivan and hit the road--wherever it may take you. Hey, maybe you don't even know where you'll end up (that's always a scary thought when traveling with kids). If you do hit the road this Labor Day, just keep in mind that everyone else may have the same idea. Some people are traveling anyway, regardless of cost or inconvenience. Some of them saved a lot of money by not traveling the rest of the summer. But all of them chose not to pass up this last chance to do something this summer.
An Australian school who recently banned cartwheels may be reversing its decision. Both parents and children protested after cartwheels, somersaults and other gymnastics were banned during recess.
According to the school, safety was at the the heart of the decision to ban the "acrobatics." Now officials of the Queensland education system are saying they are willing to be flexible and work toward a balance. Gymnastics were given a risk rating of 2 by the school. Parents became upset when other sports such as soccer, tennis and the ever-popular cricket were also rated with a 2 but allowed to continue.
Was the school trying to do the right thing to protect its students, or did they take things too far? Ever had anything like this happen at your child's school? If so, what was your stance?
Chances are, if you weren't saving money hiding under a rock this summer you heard, perhaps one time too many, about the values and virtues of the 'staycation.' A staycation is exactly what it sounds like--a 'vacation' where you and your family stay at home. And, more often than not, a staycation is also how it sounds--boring!
Americans spent a lot of time watching the Dow plummet and the prices of gas jump through the roof. Just because they're back down to $3.69 a gallon does not mean things are going well. Still, many families got too stir crazy to sit around their houses all summer. Just try keeping the kids in the house during summer vacation, when they're supposed to not have to worry about anything but having fun and enjoying the long days and nights that make it great to be a kid. Sure, you don't have to travel to enjoy those things, but it does help to get out of the house. After all, the house is generally filled with chores and the projects no one ever gets around to because they're hard or boring or both.
In direct response to the staycation, I know a lot of families who did their best to get the heck out of dodge. They became very creative when it came to outings and spending. In fact, some of them had the trips of their lives. they visited parks. They saw relatives. They engaged in discovering places that were within a three- to five-hour drive from home. And, of course, during all of this they spent quality time together. Some of them said to heck with it and took the longer trips anyway, visiting foreign lands or at the very least, Florida. They were clearly tired of hearing about the merits of the staycation.
What did you do? Did you say to heck with it all and packed the kids in the car for that Griswold family vacation anyway, or did you suck it up, stay at home and watch the paint dry?
I thought I had invented the tickle monster, but apparently there are others out there roaming the streets and parks of America. Well, not so much in parks anymore, after a judge issued an order barring lawyer Charles R. Douglas from entering Miner Park in Glen Carbon, Illinois. He was charged with four misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct for asking parents in the park if he could tickle their children.
Labor day weekend, along with the usual suspects (a bunch of families from my son's preschool, plus a few additions from kindergarten and first grade), I took my older two kids camping at 
Starting school can feel a little like starting a new job. There's a new environment, new materials, new tasks, a new "boss," and maybe most importantly to kids, new friends. Back-to-school can be a stressful time of year for kids, and parents know a little encouragement goes a long way. 
Wired Magazine is offering up 
