Archive for July, 2010

My husband didn’t go to my 10-year reunion because he was out of town on business so this will be the first chance for me to introduce my husband to old friends and boys that I made out with in high school.

I say made out with because I didn’t have sex in high school. However, for the sake of this discussion I think the question should include boys you may have fooled around heavily with or had sex with in high school.

I personally think unless it was someone you really dated for a long time, you just completely ignore that you kissed or fooled around with the person and just introduce the person as a friend. (I have the same rule on Facebook. Everyone is just a friend. No past.)

Now I might would whisper to Michael before or after meeting the person, “Hey I kissed that guy.”

On a related issue, you often hear about old classmates getting together after the reunion.

We have several friends (divorced and single) that got together with people they either knew …

Continue reading Reunion etiquette: Do you introduce hubby to boys you kissed? »

As it is very hot outside, I’m thinking it’s a good time to take the kids to a matinee but which one to spend your hard-earned money on?

“Despicable me” got a B plus in the AJC but the AP writer didn’t like it very much. One of my friends reported on Facebook that her kids did like it so I think it’s an option. But do we really need to pay for the 3-D?

Now Walsh would promise to clean the bathroom for a year if I took him to see “The Last Airbender” but I think from the ads it seems too violent. I was surprised to find out it’s only rated PG. They’ve been watching “The Last Airbender” cartoon series (which is actually called “Avatar”) on Netflix but it’s pretty tough to watch with them. So I’m looking for some motherly insight on the violence and tolerability of the subject matter.

And finally there’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” The Boston Herald gave it a B and calls it the American Harry Potter. The review is meaner than the grade would indicate.

So tell me …

Continue reading ‘Airbender,’ ‘Despicable Me,’ or ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’: Which movie is worth your dough? »

Continue reading Reporter needs your help: Summer too short? »

I was reading Entertainment Weekly’s recap of Sunday night’s “Kate Plus 8” when I came across a very interesting parenting concept – punitive parenting.

Reviewer Ken Tucker was describing how Kate was having some farmers and the kids build a chicken coop so they could produce their own eggs. But of course things went awry.

Tucker says: “What started as a nice family project turned into a punitive exercise, as do so many things involving Kate’s parenting.”

“’Showing the kids the area of the coop that will be ‘filled with chicken poop to be scooped,’ she announced to her brood, ‘Whoever disobeys will be assigned with this chore!’ ”

I do feel like things that I think will be fun often turn into a forced march with my kids and then you get ugly about it. For example, I have been having to force Walsh to go swimming lately.  Most kids would kill to go swimming and this kid doesn’t want to. It starts out me happily saying “Ok we’re going swimming.” Two kids on board but not Walsh. …

Continue reading Are you a punitive parent? »

Recess coaches are the latest trends at some schools across the country. They are playtime professionals that schools hire to take the problems (such as bullying, fighting or just not playing) out of recess and help the kids learn to play cooperatively.

From the AP story:

“Jill Vialet started Playworks, then called Sports4Kids, in 1996 after meeting with a beleaguered principal bemoaning the problems of recess. She said that at schools with recess coaches, teachers report reclaiming instructional time that was previously lost to working out kids’ problems. In addition, playing cooperatively and, in some cases, earning leadership roles as “junior coaches,” builds a sense of community among students.”

” ‘The return is a much better place to learn,’ Vialet said.”

“The idea of putting recess in the hands of professionals, however, has drawn criticism from those who feel that childhood today is in danger of being micromanaged by adults. Learning to play cooperatively is an …

Continue reading Are ‘recess coaches’ good or micromanaging kids? »

A new study found that one in three children with dangerously high cholesterol is missed by current screening recommendations.

For children ages 2-19, a normal level of LDL cholesterol is under 130 mg/dL.

To identify which children to screen, pediatricians generally rely on identifying parents or grandparents who have very high cholesterol and/or heart disease. However, those guidelines developed in the 1990s, when about 25 percent of kids qualified for screening, may not be good enough anymore.

William Neal, MD, professor of pediatrics at West Virginia University, Morgantown, and  his colleagues decided to give blood cholesterol tests to every fifth grader in West Virginia.

From WebMD:

“Surprisingly, more than 70% of the 20,266 kids who were screened would have qualified for routine cholesterol screening, according to current National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) guidelines. But even more surprising was how many kids had high cholesterol even though they would not …

Continue reading Should your child be screened for high cholesterol? »

Continue reading Are you smelling like a lady in a heat wave? »

My 20th High School reunion is rapidly approaching so I went shopping on Sunday to look for a dress.

You walk a fine line when choosing a dress for an event like your 20th high school reunion. You want to look good – like you’ve held up well through the last 20 years and through giving birth. But you also don’t want to look like you’re trying too hard or trying to look younger than you are.

One of our regulars, New Mom, was a classmate of mine in high school and is attending the reunion as well. Over the weekend, she emailed me a photo of her dress, and it is perfect. Short and fun, but also classy. It will show off her figure but does not look like she’s trying to be a teenager.

So with New Mom’s dress in mind, I headed off to the mall.

On a trip to the mall last week, I had seen a fuchsia colored v-neck, column dress with some beading that I really liked. (It kind of reminded me of a flapper’s dress – light see-through material over a slip.) I didn’t try it on that day …

Continue reading 20th High School Reunion: Hot mama or mom trying too hard? »

Is “Twilight Eclipse” actually abstinence porn? Is it promoting that girls marry young and start their families young?

That is what one professor said recently in a USA Today article  that was discussing what type of example Bella sets for girls.

From USA Today:

“Christine Seifert, a communications professor at Westminster College in Salt Lake City who has studied Twilight online message boards and fan fiction sites, says that the saga is strongly Mormon in tone and that a subset of Mormon culture prefers that girls marry young and start families. She says the abstinence message is so strong it could be labeled ‘abstinence porn,’ designed to convince teens that sexual self-denial is actually sexy. Will it work?”

“The author of the Twilight books, Stephenie Meyer, is a devout Mormon who says about Bella on her website: “’ never meant for her fictional choices to be a model for anyone else’s real-life choices.’ “

“Kristy Campbell of Marin County, Calif., a …

Continue reading Is ‘Twilight’ ‘abstinence porn’ and promoting young marriage? »

We’ve talked about kids dying in hot cars before (and it is so upsetting)  but with temperatures expected to hit 100, we can all use a reminder not to forget the kids in the backseat! (Check out this photo gallery of summer heat safety tips.)

It’s so scary because it truly could happen to anyone! And researchers who track the number of deaths are especially concerned this year because June’s numbers were higher than normal (18 in June as of June 28.). July is usually the worst month for deaths of children left in hot cars but since June’s numbers were so high they are worried it will be a record-setting year.

Jan Null, an adjunct professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University, began tracking the data in the late 1990s when laws started requiring babies to face backward in their carseats in the backseat. That is apparently when parents started to forget more often.

Null’s San Francisco State University had a very interesting Web site with all kinds of …

Continue reading Heat Wave: Don’t forget the kids in the car! »