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• Man Without Kids Tells Parents 5 Dangerous Things Their Children Should Be Doing

  The lives of children 30 years ago were far riskier and more perilous than the lives of children today. It was almost as if our parents raised us all with a “If it doesn’t kill them it’ll make them stronger” approach. My life for instance was rife with dangerous activities condoned and oftentimes encouraged by my parents like riding my bike behind the DDT truck as it fogged our neighborhood to kill the mosquitoes, swimming in the water at the end of our street after a heavy rain backed up the sewers, and engaging in liaisons with French aristocrats. Today though we live in an age of helicopter parents (for the record I’m classified as an AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter parent) hovering and protecting our children in ways our parents did not; Which is why when I saw the title of Gever Tully’s presentation called, “5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do” my paternal hackles went up in preemptive attack of whatever unsafe activities he was going to suggest I allow my children to engage in. Read More... Posted Jan 08 2008, 04:02 PM by makeitadouble with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: helicopter parenting, common sense, play with fire, TED conference, DMCA, reckless behavior, mollycoddle

• Save the Receipt -- Return Policies are Changing

  People are just jackasses … am I right or am I right? I mean, this article in the L.A. Tiimes illustrating why stores are cracking down on merchandise returns had me panicking for a second. I recently returned a set of towels that shredded after one washing – and after I had tossed the tags, receipts, etc. I figured the new policy they would be talking about would have precluded me from getting my money back. Meanwhile, shitty towels are such a rip-off! But nevermind, I'm off the hook on this one. Apparently the returns policies that the major chains are revising are ones that let you ...   Read More... Posted Dec 27 2007, 08:25 AM by Madeline Holler with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: commerce, retail stores, LA Times, common sense, return policies

• Seven Medical Myths Even You Might Believe

  I have always thought the ban on cell phones in hospitals was total BS. Why in the recovery room, where I was resting after giving birth – hooked up to zero machines and monitored only by a nurse wielding a blood pressure cuff, did I have to suffer the inconvenience and expense of a poorly positioned phone with a short cord that required me to push about about a billion buttons to get an outside line and charge the call to a credit card? Not to mention, all the numbers I wanted to call were stored not in my post-partum brain but in the cell phone I wasn't allowed to turn on! So I read this “Seven Medical Myths” with a great sense of satisfaction.  Read More... Posted Dec 23 2007, 03:47 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: turkey, cell phones, Mythbusters, water, common sense, passive-aggressive, medical myths, brains, shaving, vision

• Child Proves to be Ineffective Deterrent to Car Thief

  When it comes to my sons I am suspicious of everybody and over-protective to a fault; the type of concerned helicopter father who won’t let anyone other than immediate family babysit for them, who gives the stink eye and the Heisman straight-arm to over-zealous cheek-pinching hair-tousling strangers, and who goes so far as to take them out of their car seats even when I’m just putting gas in the car. But just because I don't leave my kids in the car while I go into a store doesn’t mean that there aren’t Dad’s out there who do. Take Stuart Large of Melbourne, Australia for instance. He left his five year old son Noah in the car with the engine running while he strolled into the gas station to buy a newspaper. Read More... Posted Nov 19 2007, 10:45 AM by makeitadouble with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: helicopter parenting, common sense, car thief, LoJack, repo man, bad dad