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• Unassisted Birth -- Help Me Out

  When I read stories about women who opt to give birth at home allllll by themselves -- no help from a midwife or a doctor or a staff of nurses -- I think to myself, "can you blame them?" I know, I know, a lot of you are thinking these people are just trying to be heroes or adhere to some kind of radical hippie code that shuns any relationship with established authority. Or you think they're narcissistic idiots who put their own childbirth dreams above the health and safety of an innocent child. Homebirth moms get that kind of talk too.  But I think all that's wrong. Quite wrong. Pregnant women in the U.S. are in this totally weird position ...   Read More... Posted Jan 09 2008, 05:46 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 11 comment(s) Filed under: hospitals, homebirth, dangerous, midwives, DIY, child birth, hospital, c-section, midwifery, Modern parenting, midwife, home birth, natural child birth, hospital birth, home, bleeding, diylife, natural alternatives, hospitalization, unassisted childbirth, caesarean section

• Are Modern Parents the "New Victorians"?

  Are modern parents forsaking nightlife and dinner parties for Venti Chai Tea Lattes and long walks with bebe in a Bugaboo stroller?  Or is pregnant and anorexic (a la Nicole Richie) the new healthy? Gawker weighs the possibility that the young, beautiful, parenting, sometime celebrity urban parents are worshipful of hearth and home like New Victorians. Apparently, some (non celeb) types are trying to grow up, cook some healthy food and put aside the party for some serious childrearing.  So what do you think? Are young parents today more home-oriented than prior generations? Posted Jul 14 2007, 12:59 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with no comments Filed under: Modern parenting, venti chai tea latte, victorians, heath ledger, michelle williams

• Bugaboo Tells You Where To Go, and It's Soooo Pretty

  Bugaboo makes one purty-ass stroller, and they'll tell you what to do with it in a New! Modern! Different! Artsy! way. Enter Bugaboo Daytrips, a site that gives you culture-lovin' walking tours of some of the world's nicest places. Of course each tour is illustrated by a contemporary artist, because this isn't your everyday boring old map. You can click on the numbers on the map to see photos and a compelling description of each location along the way, then download a map to take with you on your journey. It's all so lush and modern and fabulous, I feel like I oughta wear nicer shoes just to browse the site. So far my only complaint is that the clean look makes this puppy a little tricky to navigate at times. And we'll hope the walking tours don't have the same problem. I strolled around Portland for a while--online, of course (it's not like I get to go on vacation or anything, she says bitterly) and it was nice. Then I decided to check out San Francisco, since I'm familiar with what we arrogantly refer to as, "the City." Golden Gate Park without lots of homeless people? How did they manage that? But I will confess, even as a longtime local, I did not know we had gnomes. Next time I'm doing the tour in UK English, so I can read about all the pretty colours.   Posted Jun 28 2007, 11:33 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Modern parenting, bugaboo, kid activities

• Wee Wonderfuls: Full of Great Ideas for Kids Rooms

  Here on StrollerDerby, we talk a lot about kids rooms, toy-cluttered houses, and what to do about them.  So when I stumbled across Wee Wonderfuls, a fabulous website, personal blog and craft store by Hillary Lang, I knew I had to share it.  You can shop for a  "Stitchette" embroidery pattern or a "Put Together Kit" (Big Footed Bunny, Robot Boy, and more!) to spruce up your kid's room, or you can just admire Hillary's superb taste in everything from crafts, to art, to home decor (she did one whole wall of her newborn daughter's room in vintage doll quilts - you've got to see it!), and gather ideas for your next decorating project.  One look at her son's and daughter's vintage-meets-modern, calming, gorgeous rooms and you'll want to start all over again with paint samples and hours spent looking for just the right lamp on Ebay.  Don't say I didn't warn you!    Posted Jun 18 2007, 12:03 PM by Alisyn with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Modern parenting, vintage, kids rooms, hillary lang, wee wonderfuls, home decorating

• Modern Parents Are No Fun!

  Many of us are guilty of trying to convince our kids to do mundane things by promising them that they're really fun—even when they're not.  Math is fun!  Fitness is fun!  Safety is fun!  We know that these things aren't really fun so why do we insist on telling our kids that they are?  Well, in a hilarious essay, Dashka Slater tells us that this isn't the only thing driving her crazy these days. She finds it equally disturbing and possibly even more sinister that there is a new trend: telling parents that things children genuinely find fun are, in fact, good for them.  What has the world come to that parents have to be told that having fun is actually Good For Children?  Slater tells of visiting her local science museum and seeing a sign next to the puppet assuring parents that, however pointless it may seem, playing with puppets will actually make their children smarter. Like Slater, I worry for the parents who need to be told that pretending to be a lion is a worthwhile activity for a 4-year-old, but apparently they exist in sufficient numbers to warrant their own sign.  Slater's dream is to reunite the word "fun" with its original meaning: something children do for their own pleasure while their parents sit around on park benches and complain about having to nag them all the time. I'm with her!  Anyone else on board?    Posted Apr 10 2007, 03:08 PM by MetroDad with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: fun time with kids, Modern parenting, Dashka Slater

• "From The Hips": New Guide For Pregnant, New Moms in the Age Of Celebrity Culture and Post-Post-Feminism

  I have not yet had the pleasure of reading "From the Hips,"  by NYC authors (and Babble's Parental Advisory columnists) Rebecca Odes and Ceridwen Morris (due out May 22), but from what I've gathered, it is a book that has been a long time coming. As far as I know, "From the Hips" is the first book of it's kind: the first pregnancy/childbirth/parenting guide to address the sexualization of pregnancy in our society; how our celebrity-obsessed media reflects our desire to be physically "perfect" without addressing the  stress that arises from such pressure; and how playground cliques, mommy wars, and the judgment of others can lead parents, moms especially, down a self-destructive road of self-doubt, insecurity, and hopelessness.  "From the Hips" promises: "This book is about both sides of the story: the warm, fuzzy baby blanket and the poop that gets swept underneath." Read More... Posted Apr 09 2007, 07:14 PM by Alisyn with | with no comments Filed under: literature, celebrity parenting, Modern parenting, from the hips