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• Girls Only: No Boys Born in Growing Number of Towns

  Desperate to have a baby girl? Well you might think about relocating. Or eating more marine animals.  Researchers have discovered several towns where women are only giving birth to girls. The gender balance is totally out of whack and something like a 2 to 1 ratio of boys to girls. Where are these towns of rainbows and ponies and sparkles and all Hannah Montana all the time?   Read More... Posted Jul 30 2008, 03:01 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: NPR, arctic, greenland, living on earth, eating fish, PCBs, towns where only girls are born, girls only, marine life, pesticides in our diet

• Dads Dish on Blogging, Race, Childhood on NPR

  If you're looking for a great perspective on dads and dad blogging, several of my favorite bloggers were featured on a roundtable chat with Michel Martin from NPR's "Tell Me More," offering a glimpse into how dads, too, find connections online. And also how they are helping to dispell a few myths about minority parenting. Keith of African American Dad, for instance, says he wanted to start his blog to help contribute to the idea that black fathers are also involve. Odd that even today there'd be a need for that, but you've got to hear what some asshole left on his site and how he rose above.   Read More... Posted Jun 12 2008, 11:29 AM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: dads, blogging, rice daddies, NPR

• How tough is it to be an only child in China?

  So you think you've got pressure? Try being an only child. Then add to that the fact that your parents can't have any more children – BY LAW. Robert Siegel from NPR spent some time with an only child in China, before the devastating earthquake. The piece goes a long way towards confirming the stereotype of the overworked Asian child and parents who push them to study non-stop. "Like other Chinese high school students, she typically rises at 6:30 a.m., hits the books at 7:30 a.m. and doesn't knock off until 9:30 p.m." Sounds fun. Another component of only-childness is indulging certain desires Read More... Posted May 30 2008, 01:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, news, school, China, NPR, siblings, Brett Singer, only child, earthquake, chinese

• Exercise During Adolescence Decreases Breast Cancer Risk

  Researchers have long advised middle-aged women that regular exercise decreases the risk of breast cancer. But now they’ve discovered that being active beginning at age 12 substantially affects breast cancer risk as well. In a survey of 65,000 women aged 24 to 42, those who had regularly exercised as teens and young adults decreases had a 23 percent lower chance of getting pre-menopausal breast cancer than those who'd been inactive. This is sad news if, like me, your idea of exercise in high school was to walk to 7/11 and buy a loaf of Wonder Bread and a jar of marshmallow Fluff. Read More... Posted May 16 2008, 01:00 PM by Hannah Tennant-Moore with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: exercise, women, breast cancer, NPR, physical activity, risk factors, teenage girls, premenopausal breast cancer, menapause, breast cancer risk

• Should Parents Delay Puberty for Transgender Children?

  In the aftermath of media hype about pregnant transgender man Thomas Beattie—much of which threatened to return the “freak” label to the trans community—NPR has run a fascinating story that explains gender identity disorder from the viewpoint of a family living through it. According to Danielle and Robert (last names were omitted), from the time their son was two-years-old, he insisted on dressing like a girl. Read More... Posted May 15 2008, 02:00 PM by Hannah Tennant-Moore with | with 10 comment(s) Filed under: gender, transgender, testosterone, puberty, NPR, pregnant man, thomas beattie, transition, gender identity disorder, transgender children, estrogen, "is transgender real", biological gender

• Dora: She's a Character

  I don’t know how it happened. One day, my darling daughter was happy with Seame Street, madly in love with Elmo. The next, seemingly as if by decree, she's spouting Spanish and rolling up every stray piece of paper and calling it Map. Yes, like every other two-year-old, the girl had discovered Dora. And I absolutely hate Dora. Nothing against her per se, I just hate cartoons (I know, I am going to have to turn in my GenX membership card, especially since I also loathe, wait for it, the Brady Bunch). But I am hating her a little less now after reading this, part of NPR's fascinating "In Character" series that looks at iconic, albeit fictional, people. A ton of research went into creating Dora. She could have been ... Read More... Posted Apr 14 2008, 04:33 PM by AmyinMotown with | with no comments Filed under: television, nickelodeon, Dora, NPR

• Why Kids Curse

  The other day my 1-year-old called me a douche bag.  I could be mistaken; he may have been just asking for a cookie. Even though we like to pretend Dalton can say seven or so words, all the “words” are indecipherable and they all kind of sound like “douche bag.” If you've ever wondered why your kids are so irresistibly drawn to swearing, here's the answer... Read More... Posted Mar 29 2008, 07:32 AM by Cole Gamble with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: swearing, Cursing, NPR, chidren, bad words, language, parent influence, naughty, douchebag, expletives, george carlin, howstuffworks.com

• NPR to Parents: You're Doing it Wrong

  NPR, that formerly crunchy, granola-y bastion of liberal thought, now wants you to know that the education system is doing its best to overcome the shortcomings of loser parents like you.   Read More... Posted Feb 29 2008, 01:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: NPR, executive function, creative play, Alix Spiegel

• Cookie Monster on NPR

  We're guessing he's the only guest in NPR history to eat his headphones. Posted Feb 20 2008, 12:30 PM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: sesame street, video, NPR, cookie monster

• Moms at War Face Adjustment at Home

  Whatever you think about the war in Iraq, the fact remains that thousands of families have one parent – sometimes even both – serving there. These families face all kinds of hardships that come from having one parent on the other side of the world for a year, or longer, while trying to keep life as normal as possible for the kids at home. A story aired this week on NPR looked at what happens when these mothers get home. After the hyper-alert, constantly frightening atmosphere of life in a war zone, regular old life in the suburbs was what felt strange, the moms told NPR.  Kimber Smith, pictured here, said that her son went through puberty while she was gone. She'd left a little boy and come home to a teen. Read More... Posted Nov 14 2007, 07:07 PM by AmyinMotown with | with no comments Filed under: iraq, war, NPR, soldier moms

• More on the Five Second Rule: Maybe it is Okay After All

  A while back I wrote up a study on the five second rule. You know, the rule where if you drop something as long as it is on the floor for less than five seconds it is still okay to eat. The study I was looking at then suggested that five seconds could be about five seconds too long if your food is touching bad germs. Well thank God (or your preferred deity) for NPR and Tom Regan. Tom found a Connecticut College study that I like much better. This study says that wet foods like apple slices are good after they have been on the floor for 30 seconds and if you have hard food, or candy like Skittles of M&Ms they can stay on the floor for even longer without becoming contaminated. Really what I'm getting out of the study is that candy is much safer to eat than fruit is. Of course, I wouldn't tell my kids that.  Posted Jul 08 2007, 04:14 PM by Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: germs, bacteria, five second rule, Tom Regan, NPR, Connecticut College