Archive for March, 2012

A mom sent me a note asking for our help. Her husband has put on 40 pounds in three years. He is always eating and does an occasional workout. She has tried to nicely talk about the subject and he blows it off.  She cooks healthy meals and has healthy snacks around but he’s still making bad choices, and it sounds like inappropriate portion sizes.

So I think she is looking for a way to help him realize he needs to lose weight and take better care of himself without causing World War III!

This mom has come to us in all sincerity looking for help so please offer your best constructive advice without being mean or judgmental.

How can she approach this with her husband so he realizes how much weight he’s put on? How can she help him make better choices or convince him to get with a diet/exercise plan or program?

I think our Guy Regulars can really help with this question. What would be a way your wife could approach you about this and you be receptive to the idea?

Continue reading Mom needs help: How do you motivate husband to lose weight? »

A mom has sent us a very serious issue with which she needs our help. She is at an impasse with her husband about having a child and is worried either way one of the spouses will end up resenting the other.  She sent a very good narrative of what is happening. Please read it carefully and give her your most thoughtful advice.

“My husband and I are going through a particularly rough time because he wants a baby and I do not. We’ve been married for more than 10 years. We have a teenage child who my husband adopted after we married. When we married I always assumed we’d have a child together but the timing never seemed right. By the time I thought we were ready for No. 2, I just couldn’t bear the thought of ’starting over.’ I am certainly still young enough to have more children but since I had our son very young, part of the desire for me is certainly that I will get to live an adult life without the day-to-day responsibilities of having a baby or school-aged for the first …

Continue reading Marriage dilemma: Hubby wants a baby, wife doesn’t »

We always enjoyed our April spring break in Gwinnett County. It usually hit around my birthday and whatever we did seemed like special birthday time with my family. But now in Arizona, our spring break is in March, and I don’t like it. My kids are off this week and it just seems too early.

The kids are finally in a good working groove and you ruin that by taking a week off. It’s also still kind of cold. You can’t really swim unless the pool is heated. (And you know I’m not going to Mexico this week.) Plus, the rest of the year seems so long – you’ve got the rest of March, April and May. When you hit April spring break you know you’re almost there!! You’re in the home stretch.

Some teacher friends in Gwinnett thought a March spring break sounded nice, but I think a good four-day weekend would be better. A little break and save the full week for later.

The universities take March spring breaks so I’m not sure if our school district is following the university …

Continue reading Is March or April better for spring break? »

ABC News reports that 70 percent of the ground beef people are buying in grocery stores contains  “pink slime’ or beef trimmings treated with ammonia.

When it came out several years ago that some fast food restaurants were using “pink slime” in their meat we tried to avoid eating hamburgers out and started cooking them more at home. But now with this new report, what’s a mom to do?

From ABC News:

“Gerald Zirnstein grinds his own hamburger these days. Why? Because this former United States Department of Agriculture scientist and, now, whistleblower, knows that 70 percent of the ground beef we buy at the supermarket contains something he calls “pink slime….”

The “pink slime” is made by gathering waste trimmings, simmering them at low heat so the fat separates easily from the muscle, and spinning the trimmings using a centrifuge to complete the separation. Next, the mixture is sent through pipes where it is sprayed with ammonia gas to kill bacteria. …

Continue reading How do we avoid ‘pink slime’ in our ground beef? »

Jessica Simpson posed nude,  a la Demi Moore, for the cover of ‘Elle’ magazine. (See the cover shot here.)

She’s gotten mixed reviews for the cover. Some say she looks amazing. Some say it’s just a copycat pose and hackneyed. Others are questioning her Christian values.

I’m personally just surprised how slender the rest of her body (arms, thighs, hips) looks. In every single other photo photo she just looks gigantic and pregnant with twins. (Another article I read reports she is pregnant with a girl so I don’t think it’s twins.) One article suggests there was serious airbrushing going on.

So what do you think about the cover? Does she look good? Are you surprised by her appearance? Do you think there was airbrushing compared to other shots of her with her clothes on or is she just choosing unflattering clothes? Do you think the pose is been-there-done-that? Do you think it was brave? Is she trying to prove she’s not heavy – just all tummy and boobs? Would you …

Continue reading What do you think of Jessica Simpson’s nude, pregnant ‘Elle’ cover? »

The state of Texas has issued travel warnings about college students visiting Mexico during spring break.

From the AJC story:

“While acknowledging that the Mexican government has made ‘great strides in battling the cartels,” Steve McCraw, Texas public safety director, said violence and criminal activity “represent a significant safety threat, even in resort areas.’ “

“Mexico called the alert from its U.S. neighbor “outrageous.” Rodolfo Lopez Negrete, chief operating officer of the Mexico Tourism Board, told Reuters that 22.7 million tourists visited his country last year and few were in areas known to be violent. ‘This warning is exceptionally aggressive,’ Lopez Negrete said.”

“The number of Americans killed in Mexico increased to 120 last year, from 35 in 2007, according to the U.S. State Department. Mexico reported 47,515 people killed in narcotics-related violence between Dec. 1, 2006 and Sept. 30, 2011, with 12,903 narcotics-related homicides in …

Continue reading Spring break in Mexico? A border-state perspective »

Apparently in many states, including Georgia, blood tests are no longer required before you get married. (Based on what I found online, it looks like they were eliminated in Georgia in 2003.) A columnist for The Huffington Post marriage section argues that not only should couples be required to have blood tests before they get married, they should also attend each other’s doctors appointments throughout their lives together.

From The Huffington Post:

“You and your fiancé should educate yourselves about each other’s health and start going to the doctor together when you decide to get married. It doesn’t have to be weird — he can leave the room before a pelvic exam and she can go read a magazine in the waiting room when it’s time for him to bend over and cough. You don’t have to step onto the scale in front of him EVER if you don’t want to. If one of you is willing to switch doctors, I highly recommend doing so. It makes life easier when you can schedule bi-annual or …

Continue reading Should couples attend medical appointments together? »

We have reached the point where my almost 11-year-old will need to start shaving this spring/summer. As soon as it gets hot enough for sleevless shirts, we have to make a move. So the question is: What’s the best kind of razor for an 11-year-old girl to use?

When I first started shaving, my mom bought me an electric razor. While I believe it’s probably safer, it didn’t work for me. The problem was the hair was so soft and fine the razor wouldn’t even cut it. So I hate to invest in an electric razor that you couldn’t return when it didn’t work.

So what do you think? What did your daughter or son use when they first started shaving? Have electric razors improved in the last 30 years? Is there a particular brand of women’s razor that seems safer? What do you recommend?

Continue reading What’s the best razor for a tween girl? »

An economics study has found that women who had better access to birth control pills in the 1970s were earning 8 percent more than those who didn’t by the time they reached age 50.

From the Atlantic Wire:

“The trio of researchers from the Universities of Michigan and Virginia found in a study from last December that women aged 18 to 21 who lived in states with better legal access to oral contraceptives in 1970 had hourly wages that were 8 percent higher than peers in less pill-friendly states by the time they reached their late forties….”

“In short, women on the pill are better able to get degrees, choose their occupation, and enter (and leave) the workforce when they want, which in turn gives them better footing with men in terms of commanding wages. “Our estimates imply that the pill can account for 10 percent of the convergence [of] the gender gap in the 1980s and 30 percent in the 1990s,” write the researchers. At 80 cents to each $1 a man earns in 2009, that …

Continue reading Study: Women with access to the Pill earned higher wages »

(Please do NOT try this at home!)

My friend shared this You Tube video of a trend called “Baby Yoga,” where a baby is swung all around a woman’s body by its arms. It is so shocking that is looks like it’s a doll and not a real baby. I can’t imagine doing this to a real baby.

You MUST watch the video to discuss.

The caption with the video describes “baby yoga” as:

“DAHAB, EGYPT – UNDATED: MILLIONS of people around the world were left stunned when a video of Lena Fokina doing ‘baby yoga’ broke on the internet. The 51-year-old Russian was filmed spinning and flipping babies above her head and behind her back in such an outlandish fashion that several websites banned the footage for glorifying what to many would be considered child abuse. In fact, the moves were so shocking that most conceded they were being performed on a doll as no sane person would consider them acceptable. However, we tracked Lena down to a seminar called “Parenting the Deliberate Way” in …

Continue reading ‘Baby yoga:’ Safe and beneficial or possibly child abuse? »