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• Babble Talk: Kids Who Bite, and the Parents Who Fear Them

  Kate Tuttle has a son who bites. And throws things. And sometimes scratches. In this Babble essay, she writes about the occasional shame that comes from having a child in an aggressive phase. But she also talks about how it makes her even more aware of her love for her boy, and convinced that the intense feelings he can't control now may become strengths as he grows older. It's a good read. But as I reflected on the emotions Kate covers, I realized there was one she skipped: Fear. Read More... Posted Jul 19 2008, 11:02 AM by Jen Chaney with | with no comments Filed under: boys, babble talk, Bad Parent, Kate Tuttle, biting, Jen Chaney, throwing toys, afraid of kids, aggressive behavior

• Babble Talk: Why Do We Worry About Eating Disorders, But Only for Daughters?

  In this week's Bad Parent essay, Jeanne Sager confesses that she is a recovering bulimic and is petrified that she'll pass on her eating disorder to her daughter. "I worry constantly: Should she have another cookie?" Sager writes. "Should I buy the organic peanut butter or the Skippy that's on sale? Am I letting her get too fat? Am I making her too thin" Any woman living in our size-two-is-best society probably has some body image issues. I know I do. Even those of us who don't take those issues to the level of having an eating disorder worry that we'll pass on unhealthy behavior -- staring in mirrors for too long, obsessing over calories -- to our kids. But here's the thing: I say kids. But really I mean daughters. Read More... Posted Jul 12 2008, 12:25 PM by Jen Chaney with | with no comments Filed under: nutrition, fat kids, eating disorders, babble talk, body image, Jeanne Sager, girls and weight, bulimia, kids' weight, children and weight

• They say: Drinking with your kids makes them less drunk

  Now we've all gotten drunk. Fall down, sloppy, mess-making drunk. My first bad drinking experience involved vodka, straight up, in a garage during a thunderstorm. It ended badly. I had a couple of others, but not too many that included me puking my guts out. But it happens. According to this article from Time magazine, it might happen less if you drink with your kids. Read More... Posted Jun 24 2008, 09:30 AM by Brett Singer with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: kids, drinking, alcohol, behavior, college, Time Magazine, babble talk, alcoholism, Bad Parent, Brett Singer, drunk, they say, binge drinking, permissive, essay

• Babble Talk: When Pregnancy is Unwanted

  No mother wants to admit this, but it's undoubtedly been the case for many of us. We find out we're pregnant and wish we weren't. That's the situation Keri Fisher describes in her essay, "The Not-So-Happy Accident." Even though Keri was already a mother of two, happily married and living a relatively comfortable life -- the ideal circumstances for procreation -- she was distraught when she realized she was four months pregnant with her third child. Read More... Posted Jun 20 2008, 01:57 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: babble talk, unwanted pregnancy, Keri Fisher, surprise pregnancy, Depo-Provera

• Babble Talk: Could Your Child Have Sensory Processing Disorder?

  I am still somewhat new to this whole motherhood thing. So I was not familiar with sensory processing disorder until I read this interesting essay in which writer Vivian Manning-Schaffel explains SPD  -- it's a condition that causes children to over- or under-respond to certain stimuli -- and notes that one in 20 people has this it. My initial reaction? This sounds like another case of overdiagnosing, or possibly placing a convenient label on behavior just because it strays ever-so-slightly outside the norm. But the deeper I read into Manning-Schaffel's piece, the more convinced I was that SPD is a legitimate disorder. Read More... Posted Jun 19 2008, 12:34 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: health, autism, medical issues, babble talk, Vivian Manning-Schaffel, childhood conditions, sensory processing disorder, SPD, overstimulation

• Babble Talk: What Do You Hide From Your Kids?

  Kevin Keck has written a funny and poignant essay for Babble called "Daddy's Drawer," in which he recalls the objects he found stashed away in his father's nightstand and how they helped him get acquainted with a secret side of his dad that he never knew existed. Kevin also bravely reveals which of his possessions he'd prefer to keep hidden from his children. (Evidently those items include penis paperweights and pot paraphernalia. Good call, Kevin. Good call.) As contemporary, open-minded parents, all of us like to think we'd share virtually any part of ourselves with our kids. But the truth is, we moms and dads still need to keep certain segments of our personalities, and perhaps certain objects, tucked away from prying fingers and curious eyes. All of which leads up to this fun little question: What do you hide from your kids? Read More... Posted Jun 10 2008, 12:28 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: babble talk, parental secrets, hiding things from the kids, Kevin Keck, mom and dad secrets

• Babble Talk: Not Wanting Sex, in Any City

  We've all heard the classic stories about how young parents don't have sex very often because they're too tired from chasing the kids, making dinner, getting baby ready for bed ... yadda, yadda, yadda. But in this essay, Jeanne Sager raises a new explanation for lower libidos: A desire to simply have one's body left alone. Read More... Posted Jun 03 2008, 12:32 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Sex, babble talk, libido, Jeanne Sager, physical intimacy, sexual desire

• Babble Talk: The Truth About Percentiles

  Yay for Jeanne Sager, who has written a fascinating essay for Babble on a subject I have long wondered about: Those percentile charts that are constantly mentioned each time we take our kids to the pediatrician. Sager's piece notes the anxiety many parents feel when their babies rank on the low end of the spectrum for weight. She even mentions one case in which a mother was told her baby's lack of pounds represented a "failure to thrive." Read More... Posted May 28 2008, 01:32 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: baby weight, babble talk, percentiles, Jeanne Sager, pediatrician, child obesity

• Babble Talk: Hard Drinking Superparent Speaks

  I've always been a big fan of Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, mostly because of the awesome way she uses her boobs, but still -- the writer and mom to three is just hi-freaking-larious. A treasure of the parenting literati. So I was excited to see her 5-minute timeout interview with the good folks here at Babble. Question: When you were writing Naptime, what experience did you find to be the most profound and surprising?  Answer: I think that most people like that I call moms out for being liars.   Read More... Posted May 27 2008, 12:55 PM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: babble talk, baby on bored, stefanie wilder-taylor, 5 minute time out

• Babble Talk: Judging Stay-at-Home Moms

  Author Meg Wolitzer, who recently wrote the novel "The Ten-Year Nap," makes a candid confession in this Babble essay. In the piece, entitled "Baby vs. Career," Wolitzer writes: "For a long time, I think I had been somewhat judgmental about women who stayed at home. I went by the easy assumption that someone who worked was by nature more interesting than someone who didn't." Read More... Posted May 21 2008, 09:02 AM by Jen Chaney with | with 12 comment(s) Filed under: mommy wars, working moms, babble talk, Meg Wolitzer, The Ten-Year Nap, baby vs. career

• Babble Talk: The Worst Food to Feed Your Kids

  Amy Kalafa and Dr. Susan Rubin recently spoke to Babble about their documentary, Two Angry Moms, in which the pair investigate cafeteria junkfood. Some of the offending school lunch offerings the two mentioned by name: Blue slushies, candy and the balanced meal of chicken nuggets and tater tots. Not exactly the nutritionally sound stuff we would hope our kids get every day. All of which got me to thinking about the food we serve our children at home: Do we do better than some of the schools Kalafa and Rubin describe? Read More... Posted May 12 2008, 10:03 AM by Jen Chaney with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: health, nutrition, junk food, diet, babble talk, Amy Kalafa, Two Angry Moms, Dr. Susan Rubin

• Babble Talk: When Mom Moves Back in With Mom and Dad

  Nan Mooney is George Costanza. Okay, she's not really. She doesn't appear to be bald and I seriously doubt she wishes she were an architect named Art Vandelay. But due to unforeseen circumstances, the single mom was forced to move back in with her parents at age 37, with infant in tow. As she writes in this essay, sharing the same space with her parents is hard for many reasons, including those moments when they question her maternal response. Read More... Posted May 06 2008, 09:02 AM by Jen Chaney with | with no comments Filed under: grandparents, babble talk, moving in with parents, cohabiting

• Babble Talk: Boozin' With the Kids

  One essay earlier this week got people fired up about nursing in a moving vehicle. Now comes another hot-button topic: Giving alcohol to children. In an installment of Bad Parent, Gretchen Roberts confesses that she allows her daughters, one of whom is 5, to take the occasional tiny taste of wine. As someone who writes about food and wine, Gretchen sees her pinots and zinfandels as a vital part of life, something to share at the table with the whole family. Read More... Posted May 02 2008, 10:02 AM by Jen Chaney with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: alcohol, babble talk, kids drinking, wine, Bad Parent

• Babble Talk: A Vehicle for Nursing

  We've all done some regrettable things in our cars: Putting on lipstick when we should be watching the road, speeding, voluntarily listening to Hootie and the Blowfish. But taking baby out of the carseat and breastfeeding in a moving vehicle takes things to a new level. Vicki Glembocki bravely confessed to doing just that in a Bad Parent essay that appeared on Babble earlier this week. Read More... Posted Apr 30 2008, 10:58 AM by Jen Chaney with | with 10 comment(s) Filed under: breastfeeding, nursing, babble talk, Bad Parent

• Babble Talk: Top 50 Sesame Street Vids ... Ever

  If you're looking to kill an entire afternoon with the best stroll down memory lane you could ever wish for, or maybe if you're just looking to impart a small slice of your childhood to your own children, do we have something for you today: The complete Babble list of the Top 50 Sesame Street videos. Ever. From the seminal rubber duckie song to Richard Pryer's beloved take on the alphabet to a sexually aggresive letter "U," our very own Gwynne has compiled the best of what? 40 years of children's programming. And to top it all off, she nailed the Top 10. Nailed it but good.   Read More... Posted Apr 25 2008, 06:28 PM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Babble, sesame street, babble talk, cookie monster, memory lane

• Babble Talk: One Might Not Be the Loneliest Number

  Jeanne Sager has written a lovely essay for Babble about the pleasure -- and relief -- that comes from deciding to have just one child. "Parents of multiple children always act like they know something I don't," she writes. "Their eyes take on a look of pity when I say, 'Jillian's my one and only.' Apparently women are supposed to want babies. When they're done popping out the first one, they're supposed to be working on the second. I guess I didn't get the memo." I suspect there are plenty of women and men who also failed to be cc'd (or bcc'd) on that same memo. Read More... Posted Apr 23 2008, 11:02 AM by Jen Chaney with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: babble talk, one child, Jeanne Sager, personal essay, only child

• Babble Talk: Fey, Poehler on Having My Baby

  Although they discussed everything from the upcoming Baby Mama movie, their own preschool interviews, off-beat baby names and the joys of water birthing and pregnancy sex, Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler and 30 Rock's Tina Fey apparently forgot to mention during a recent Babble interview they both already agreed -- and put it in writing! -- that they'd have my baby, together. Huh. (Sure, it was late when we had this talk outside their joint apartment and the cops later arrived and one of us -- I won't say who -- was arrested, but whatever, we had a deal!) Oh well, maybe they're just waiting to tell the world at the movie premiere.   Read More... Posted Apr 22 2008, 05:01 PM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with no comments Filed under: babble talk, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Baby Mama

• BabbleTalk: When Violence is a Good Thing

  In this week's Bad Parent essay, Heather Kuldell 'fesses up to watching mixed martial arts with her five-year-old son. To her credit, she has conflicting feelings about her child's Chuck Liddell obsession. But even more to her credit, she managed to turn a violent act on television into a teaching moment for her son. Read More... Posted Apr 18 2008, 12:32 PM by Jen Chaney with | with no comments Filed under: babble talk, Bad Parent, mixed martial arts, violence on television, Karate Kid

• Babble Talk: Wine While Pregnant? Oui, Oui.

  After reading Rachelle Atkins' Dispatches essay on France and its parenting practices, I so want to move there. While she admits that the daycare situation isn't as specatacular as it's cracked up to be (though still far more affordable than what most Americans pay for childcare), she raves about the kid-inclusive lifestyle. But that's not the most important thing in the story. To me, the most significant point comes in paragraph five: "For plenty of French women, the notion of going without wine, cheese, cigarettes or caffeine for nine months is as crazy as saying a French man must go through forty years of marriage without taking a mistress." That's right: Pregnant French women slurp wine and chew on soft cheeses with no shame or guilt! If I may borrow a phrase from the comic genius Yakov Smirnoff (who is not French, but just go with it): "What a country!" Read More... Posted Apr 15 2008, 01:32 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, alcohol, fetal alcohol syndrome, babble talk, wine, France

• Babble Talk: Weighing in on Candy Spelling

  f you saw Candy Spelling's essay on Joan Crawford, which appeared yesterday on Babble.com, you probably immediately clicked in search of the answer to the question: "What's she say about her daughter's book?" Candy Spelling, wife of late TV drama king Aaron Spelling, ostensibly wrote the piece about the damage done to Joan Crawford's reputation by her daughter's memoir -- and the subsequent movie adaptation -- Mommie Dearest. Spelling bemoans the fact that Instead of thinking "Oscar winner" when we hear Crawford's name, we now think, "No wire hangers ever!" But of course the subtext to all this is Spelling's own heartbreak over her daughter Tori ("Donna Martin graduates!") and her recent book, sTori Spelling, which delves into all the ritzy-gritty details of her childhood and life as a star of "Beverly Hills, 90210." Read More... Posted Apr 11 2008, 11:32 AM by Jen Chaney with | with no comments Filed under: Celebrities, tori spelling, babble talk, joan crawford, memoirs, sTori Telling, Candy Spelling, Mommie Dearest

• Babble Talk: Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

  Pamela Paul has an essay on Babble today that analyzes the merits of teaching our babies sign language. In the piece, excerpted from Paul's book, "Parenting Inc.," she finds that there isn't anything wrong with showing infants how to communicate with their hands. But she also discovers that it may not be as overwhelmingly beneficial as the initial studies by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, founders of the Baby Signs Institute, suggested. "Parents who sign to their children are also talking to them — and no study can prove that talking alone didn't lead to later verbal advances," Paul writes. Read More... Posted Apr 08 2008, 05:32 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: babble talk, Pamela Paul, baby sign language, signing, Parenting Inc., Baby Signs Institute

• Babble Talk: New and Welcome Addition!

  Just a quick note of congratulations to one of Babble's -- and the blogoworld's -- best and most literary parenthood writers on a most recent and wonderful discovery. Head on over to Straight from the Bottle to share the good news. Congrats Rebecca! Can't wait to read about the adventures of the new one as well. Posted Feb 11 2008, 02:02 PM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: babble talk

• Babble Talk: Mom Likes You Best

  Keri Fisher confesses her current preference for her older child who can hang with her at Starbucks, while the little one doesn’t get café culture just yet. In Playing Favorites, Fisher provides evidence that she isn’t the only one out there who has a soft spot for one kid over the other; and whether parents hide their favoritism or not, it is in fact quite common. How about it Babble readers, do you have a favorite? Do they know it? - April Peveteaux Posted Jan 24 2008, 04:00 PM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: babble talk, siblings, Bad Parent, Keri Fisher, favoritism

• Babble Talk: My Body, My Pump

  Kate Tuttle writes about her experience as an exclusive breast feeder, albeit with the bottle in Breast-Free Breastfeeding. Judging by the comments from all of you, this happy medium of pumping exclusively does seem to make a lot of you, well, happy. Whether you’re a breast or formula kind of gal the reigning sentiment seems to be, whatever works for you sister! However, Tuttle’s piece also struck a nerve on the topic of hyper-sexualizing breasts in our society. Inevitable? Or manageable? And a few commentators shared your ‘extreme pumping’ stories for our entertainment. Apparently some of you are not letting a little thing like pumping get in the way of road trips to Coachella. Impressive ladies. Very impressive. - April Peveteaux Posted Jan 16 2008, 12:31 PM by editors with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: bottle feeding, formula, babble talk, breast feeding in public, Kate Tuttle, Breast-free Breastfeeding

• Babble Talk: Ricki Lake

  With the national release of her documentary The Business of Being Born, Ricki Lake is getting a new round of reviews (from glowing praise to immature "ewww..."s) and scandalized coverage (she's naked! in a bathtub! giving birth!). We spoke to Ricki and her director back when the film was making the festival circuit -- check out the Babble interview here.  Posted Jan 11 2008, 05:44 PM by editors with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: films, babble talk, ricki lake, filmmaking, filming birth

• Babble Talk: Just Say No to Lithium for Toddlers

  If you didn’t catch the Front Line documentary, The Medicated Child last night on PBS you can also watch it online, and I highly recommend that every parent make a date with this frighteningly informative documentary. Gwynne Watkins interviewed filmmaker Marcela Gaviria in Babble’s 5-Minute Time Out, who explores this new phenomenon that has put six million American children on psychiatric drugs; most of which have never been tested on children.   For all of our children’s sake, I wish this doc could be shown at the hospital along with the lessons on breast-feeding and burping. My husband and I struggled through the show last night, sickened by the destruction of a seemingly happy and energetic kindergartener who is now a young man besieged with too many physical tics and emotional problems to keep track of in an hour-long special, all of them the result of experimental drug cocktails. Read More... Posted Jan 09 2008, 04:01 PM by editors with | with no comments Filed under: PBS, babble talk, ADHD, 5-Minute Time Out, Gwynne Watkins, Michelle Gaviria, Front Line, bipolar disorder in children

• Babble Talk: Pushed Too Far on the Playground

  Is it a new phenomenon or have parents always been this scary? Linda J. Williamson writes about her playground learning curve in Rules of the Game where she bemoans her lack of clarity on the right reaction to the mini-bullies of the yard, while wondering if she’s the only parent paying attention when things start turning all Lord of the Flies. The driving force behind Williamson’s confusion is the fear of what those other parents might do or say to her if she steps in to discipline the kid who is torturing her toddler. Being afraid of other parents and their judgment/aggression/antisocial behavior seems to start in Lamaze class and continue until your baby is a post-grad. While Williamson doesn’t give us the answers as to why we find ourselves intimidated into smiling and even forcing a, “Hee hee, aren’t they spirited?” as the wild kids run roughshod over the ones who are just there to get a little swing time, she does offer some hard-learned lessons we can all adhere to in times of playground ambiguity. Still, an intense afternoon on the playground can make a level-headed parent wonder why more parents aren’t going nuclear and bringing out the spanking option, like our own Cole Gamble in this week’s Bad Parent. - April Peveteaux Posted Jan 03 2008, 04:00 PM by editors with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: spanking, babble talk, Cole Gamble, rules of the game, playground etiquette, linda j. williamson

• Babble is Taking You Shopping: Holiday Gift Guide 2007

  If anyone on your Christmas, Hannukkah or Kwanzaa list has kids, is a kid or knows some kids, then we recommend you hop on over to the Babble Holiday Gift Guide.  Today we're featuring infant and toddler clothes, but keep checking back: we'll be updating three times a week through December, to bring you our favorite DVDs, green gifts, toys, gadgets, expectant parent gifts, handmade things, stocking stuffers, grandparent gifts, children's books, luxury items and charities of the year. Plus we'll have free giveaways! It's like Oprah's favorite things, with less shrieking!  Everything on our list has been personally tested by the Babble editors, most of it is quite affordable and all of it is irresistable. Happy shopping! Posted Nov 23 2007, 11:58 AM by Gwynne Watkins with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: christmas, babble talk, gift guide, holiday gift ideas, hannukkah

• Babble Talk: Is Single Parenting Just Another Lifestyle Choice?

  My first thought when I spot a single mom is, ‘Thank god that’s not me.’ Because this whole baby raising thing - it’s freaking hard. Jean Railla explores the issue in Fatherless Brooklyn, an essay about single, middle-class women making the choice to have a child without the benefit of a partner. Differentiating between women who make the choice, and women who find themselves alone as a result of divorce, abandonment or accident; Railla goes inside the world of a Brooklyn woman who chose insemination when she realized the marriage part of this thing may not happen in time, if ever.   I don’t think anyone who hasn’t already lived with a demanding, non-verbal tiny person, can appreciate how unbelievably trying raising a child can be; even when you have a willing and able partner. So when I hear about more and more women purposely making the choice to have a baby on their own, well, Read More... Posted Nov 05 2007, 12:44 PM by aprilpeveteaux with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: insemination, single parenting, babble talk, Fatherless Brooklyn

• Babble Talk: Should Opposite-Sex Siblings Share a Bedroom?

  When I read Alison Lowenstein's Bad Parent offering here at Babble, His and Hers, I was a little surprised. Her kids are 4 years old and 18 months. They share a room. So what if they're of the opposite sex? Is this an issue, really? See, from my point of view, it's not. Two of my kids shared a room for two years beginning when they were 3 1/2 (girl) and 7 1/2 (boy). It was no big deal. They played together, sang songs together. In the morning I could hear them chatting as they awoke. Is this really an issue? Read More... Posted Oct 29 2007, 02:33 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: babble talk, siblings, Alison Lowenstein, sharing rooms, bedrooms