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• Man locks daughters in cage while he works

  Can't get a sitter? Put the kids in a cage! That's what Illinois resident Ricardo Gonzalez did. He put his daughters in a cage – yes, a cage – while he drove around and picked up scrap metal. Read More... Posted Jul 17 2008, 10:00 AM by Brett Singer with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: news, dads, fathers, girls, chicago, daughters, bad idea, Brett Singer, cage, ricardo gonzalez

• Woman held captive for out of wedlock birth is finally free

  Just when you think you've heard it all… A 47 year-old woman named Maria Monaco was found locked in a room in a house near Naples, Italy. Her family had kept her there since 1990. Her crime was getting pregnant out of wedlock. The police were acting on an anonymous tip and found Ms. Monaco "in a confused state... Read More... Posted Jun 21 2008, 10:00 AM by Brett Singer with | with no comments Filed under: news, baby, birth, babies, fathers, mothers, religion, family, police, daughters, Italy, wtf, sons, scandal, scary, beliefs, Brett Singer, out of wedlock, Maria Monaco, crazy people, italian, Caribinieri

• Monster dad's daughter is awakened from coma

  It's Friday the 13th, which seems like a good day for a story like this one.  Kerstin Fritzl, the incestuous daughter of Austrian lunatic Josef Fritzl, was awakened from an artificial coma this week. According to Reuters, "Doctors put her into an artificial coma... Read More... Posted Jun 13 2008, 11:00 AM by Brett Singer with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: news, fathers, mothers, incest, daughters, wtf, BBC, photos, bizarre, Brett Singer, austria, josef fritzl, cellar, friday the 13th

• Kitchenista: Say It With Cookies

  There are some emotions that can only be expressed through baked goods. Sure, love and sweets go hand-in-hand -- but there are subtle moods, too, like "sucks to be you; have a pie." Or "Sorry I can be an idiot; eat this cupcake."    Read More... Posted May 29 2008, 10:30 AM by Adrienne Martini with | with no comments Filed under: moms, daughters, cookies, love, kitchenista, pie, blahs

• Dads Pledge Purity for Daughters. Ewwww.

  I don’t know why this phenomenon squicks me out so much: the father-daughter "purity ball." In which girls as young as elementary age and as old as college age spend a night getting dressed up and going dancing with their dads. Dads, on the other hand, take a pledge to, as this NYT article puts it, "cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity." Read More... Posted May 19 2008, 06:03 PM by AmyinMotown with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: fathers, fathers and daughters, daughters, abstinence, teen sex, teenage girls, purity, evangelicals, purity ball

• Satan upset at how he's been portrayed in the media

  Well, not Satan specifically. But kind of. Josef Fritzl, or "Incest dad" as CNN calls him, told his lawyer that he is unhappy at the picture of him that has been painted by worldwide media outlets. Apparently Fritzl told his attorney, "I'm only being portrayed as a monster and not as someone who committed monstrous acts."   Read More... Posted May 08 2008, 06:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: news, fathers, mothers, incest, CNN, daughters, wtf, BBC, bizarre, update, Brett Singer, austria, josef fritzl, cellar

• Parents With the Miley Problem

  If you live under a rock, let me break it down for you: Miley Cyrus did some Vanity Fair photos clad in a bedsheet with rumpled hair. This one comes after we discovered Jamie Lynn Spears is knocked up and Vanessa Hudgens has topless pics on the internet. All of which I suppose has parents tearing out their hair and wondering how to explain these things to their young daughters, the ones who make up the fan bases of these girls. I suggest something like, "Honey, all the girls on television and in the movies are nothing but tramps and harlots, and god help you if you ever do anything like that." Seriously? I guess the concern is that people are afraid their children will find the behaviors of their teen idols "cool" and perhaps emulate it themselves. I can assure you... Read More... Posted May 03 2008, 10:03 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, teens, Vanity Fair, girls, media, daughters, hannah montana, scandal, role models, photos, controversy, miley cyrus, self esteem

• The face of evil: Cellar Dad revealed

  Austrian Police have released a photo of Josef Fritzl, who has now confessed to keeping his daughter, and the children he fathered with her, in the cellar of their home for 24 years. I mean, ouch. The BBC has a bunch of coverage on this story... Read More... Posted Apr 29 2008, 04:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: news, fathers, mothers, incest, CNN, daughters, wtf, BBC, photos, bizarre, Brett Singer, austria, josef fritzl, cellar

• What the World Needs Now Is Chastity Belts

  Just the other day I was thinking to myself, "Self, the world that my daughter stands to inherit is slowly becoming a more equal one, the sort where she will be judged on the content of her character and not on the plumbing in her pants." Then I woke up and read the news. And, no, it didn't involve Miley Cyrus.   Read More... Posted Apr 29 2008, 02:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: indonesia, abortion, daughters, feminism, burquas, chastity belts, paternalism

• Man kept his daughter in basement for 24 years and got her pregnant 6 times

  Just when you think you've heard it all, there's a story like this one. An Austrian man kept his daughter in the basement of their home for 24 years. During that time, he had a sexual relationship with her that produced " at least six children." The situation was discovered when one of their daughters, now 19, was hospitalized. After a DNA test hospital officials discovered that the man who brought her to the hospital was not only her grandfather, but also her father. Read More... Posted Apr 28 2008, 04:30 PM by Brett Singer with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: news, fathers, mothers, incest, CNN, daughters, wtf, bizarre, Brett Singer, austria

• June Cleaver Can Bite Me

  Those of you who had lovely and supportive relationships with you parents should just skip ahead to the next post. One will be along in a second. However, those who found that life at their childhood home resembled a Hieronymous Bosch painting rather than a Norman Rockwell might find this next piece of information helpful.   Read More... Posted Apr 23 2008, 03:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Mother's Day, problem parents

• Ashlee's Dad Selling Baby Pictures While Ashlee Denies Pregnancy

  Joe Simpson, father of Ashlee and Jessica, has often showed himself to be, shall we say, a bit off (that's him in the photo, looking at his daughter). But never let it be said that the man isn't willing to do anything to make a buck. Read More... Posted Apr 19 2008, 09:30 AM by Brett Singer with | with no comments Filed under: Celebrities, pregnancy, fathers, daughters, ashlee simpson, jessica simpson, rumors, creepy, Brett Singer, pete wentz, Joe Simpson

• What Real Women Look Like

  In college, after 20 odd years of being too fat, I firmly believed that my brain and my body were two separate entities. As one of my housemates put it at the time -- "If I didn't have a body, my brain would get cold." As in "all of this flesh is here to keep the most important part of me from freezing."   Read More... Posted Apr 15 2008, 02:00 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: mothers, girls, daughters, pictures, body image, real women

• Father/Daughter Lovers -- More to the Story

  Turns out, there's more to yesterday's "father and daughter raise their biological daughter and make the rest of us squirm" story.  A recap: father leaves daughter and mother when daughter is only a year old. Father and daughter reunite after 30 years. They fall in love, despite their (1) shared DNA and (2) actual spouses. "We're normal!" they say. "We're consenting adults!" they argue. Yet -- and here's the twist -- apparently, they both weren't adults when this started.   Read More... Posted Apr 08 2008, 02:10 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: fathers, australia, incest, daughters, inbred, unconventional couples

• Should an "Overweight" Beauty Pageant Contestant Be a Role Model for Young Girls?

  Monica Grenfell is horrified. Why? Well, see, this year's Miss England contest has a fairly unique finalist: Chloe Marshall, a size 16 (about a size 14 in U.S. sizes.) Seventeen-year-old Marshall has been quite outspoken about wanting to be "an ambassador for curves" and demonstrate to young girls that it isn't necessary to be a size zero. She says she eats healthy food and exercises regularly. Grenfell, however, is a dietician and she hopes Chloe doesn't win. "It would send an appalling--and very dangerous--message to other young women that it's OK to be fat." She adds that Chloe is a terrible role model and says charmingly, "Who on earth does she think she's kidding? What she's demonstrating isn't bravery but a shocking lack of self-control. Instead of flaunting her figure, Chloe ought to own up to the truth. She is fat and she got that way by over-eating." Nice. Grenfell makes the point that we don't have an anorexia epidemic, we have an obesity epidemic, and that the last thing girls need to hear is that it's okay to be overweight because it puts you at risk for health problems like Type 2 diabetes and heart attacks. Mmm hmm. Well... Read More... Posted Apr 04 2008, 05:02 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 31 comment(s) Filed under: health, teens, girls, media, diversity, beauty pageant, exercise, research, daughters, eating disorders, weight, body image, messages, self esteem, obesity epidemic, chloe marshall

• Adult "Bimbo" Players Mad at Parents

  There's no such thing as bad publicity, right? In the wake of the widespread hand-wringing over the Miss Bimbo game--hand-wringing I partook in as well--there's an article on how regular adult users are peeved because the site is now getting so many hits people can't log in. Aw, poor locked out Bimbos. And let's face it: After watching a few news clips, it's clear the site creators have been intentionally milking the media attention. I mean, they say ridonkulous stuff about how the game promotes good values because you can send your Bimbo to university instead of the more obvious damage control things like, "It's intended for grown-ups," and no one is actually that stupid, are they?  One irate Bimbo user says that only the worst parents ever would actually let their kids play the game, and... Read More... Posted Mar 31 2008, 06:33 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: health, news, disney, teens, barbie, internet, girls, media, bratz, daughters, online, plastic surgery, body image, controversy, preteens, game, diet pills, avatar, miss bimbo

• Your Girls Can Be "Bimbos" Online!

  Sometimes you see stuff and think, "Is this fer real?" When I read about the Miss Bimbo game, I kept thinking, "Oh, in a minute they'll say the game is for adults." But no, in fact the majority of the 200,000 players are between the ages of 7 and 17. But let me back up: There's a virtual "fashion" game for girls where they get a "Bimbo" and have to navigate her through boob jobs and diets and so on to make her the coolest bimbo of all. Girls can dress their dolls in sexy outfits for clubbing, and are encouraged to keep them waif thin through diet pills and plastic surgery. Niiiice. Most of the accounts I read focused on the weight and cosmetic horrors of the game, but I personally was more disturbed by the fact that... Read More... Posted Mar 25 2008, 07:02 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: health, teens, internet, girls, diet, daughters, online, self-esteem, plastic surgery, eating disorders, weight, sexism, virtual reality, body image, boob job, dolls, computer games, misogyny, sugar daddy, self image

• When the F-word Flies Out of Your Little Girl's Mouth

  No, I'm not talking about that F-word, you know, the one that'll get the FCC all up in your business. It's the other F-word, the one that moms have been modeling for their daughters since the beginning of time: Read More... Posted Mar 25 2008, 01:30 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with no comments Filed under: huffington post, mothers, daughters, eating disorders, body image

• Update On Girl Who Took Bullet For Her Mom

  I'm sorry, but this story just got to me when it came out, so I'm glad to give the update. Some of you might remember that Alexis Goggins threw herself in front of bullets intended for her mother. When the gunman was about to open fire on Seliethia Parker, Alexis cried "Don't hurt my mother!" and ended up with six gunshot wounds, putting her in critical condition and blinding her in one eye. So what's the word on Alexis now?   Read More... Posted Feb 21 2008, 10:38 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: health, crime, guns, daughters, heroes, surgery, shooting, physical therapy, alexis goggins, children and health, update, recovery

• Taking "Tramp" Out of Back-To-School Clothes

  I've actually been struggling with this for years: how and where do you find nice clothes for kids, especially girls, that don't turn them into pint-sized Lolitas? And when they are actually Lolita-age, what then? I dread my 7-year-old daughter Serena growing up, because since I'm not handy with a needle the way Mike is I have to rely on store-bought clothes to cover her in 1.) comfort, 2.) a bit of style, without 3.) exposing her navel. Emily Yoffe at Slate had the same problem, and details the good, the bad, and the oh-so-ugly from a marathon shopping expedition with her 11-year-old daughter. Their verdict? Department stores seemed to yield the best results. Read More... Posted Aug 27 2007, 07:33 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: kids, girls, daughters, back to school clothes

• The End Is Near: "Gilmore Girls" Canceled

  Forgive me if I dip into the "Hitting the Bottle" punch a little too early today, but it is, indeed, a sad day. The "Gilmore Girls" -- which rewrote the TV script on mother-daughter relationships and created without a doubt the coolest, hippest mom on the small screen, is dead. kaput. no more. canceled. From its start in 2000, the "Gilmore Girls" brought something unique to the idea of the TV Family: A strong, single mom who wasn't always after the guy, despite a string of engagements and a marriage, which ended badly. A brainiac daughter who made literature and being smart cool for teens (at least I thought so). A quirky small town that was, in many ways, reminiscent of a more family-friendly "Northern Exposure." "Ed"-lite, if you will. But with kids. But most of all, it brought an easy, convivial charm to parent-child relationships that I know many, many mothers -- and maybe daughters -- coveted. Read More... Posted May 04 2007, 09:30 AM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: television, entertainment, tv, mothers, "gilmore girls", daughters, TV watching

• Ms. Foundation Hosts Final 'Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day'

  It's the end of an era.  The Ms. Foundation sponsored its first "Take Our Daughters to Work Day" in 1993 and will host the last this year. Though the Foundation is hopeful the day will continue on and has handed it over to a small human resources consulting firm, there are skeptics who fear this might be the end of what has become a wonderful tradition in many companies. Of the legacies left by the 'Daughters and Sons to Work' days, perhaps none is more significant than the memories of so many kids who finally got to see what their parents do all day. I remember touring my Dad's engineering company when I was about 16.  He proudly showed me around the technical tunnel making equipment and introduced me to all his colleagues.  I don't remember any interest in Engineering being sparked, but I loved the sense of continuity and pride he showed in his work.  And that has stayed with me.   Posted Apr 27 2007, 01:01 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: mothers, working moms, daughters, career moms, Take Daughters to Work Day, Ms. Foundation

• Bratz Dolls Make Barbie Look Reasonable

  A marketing study was released recently that showed that mothers were looking to toymakers to make more wholesome and conservative toys for our little girls. While, I agree with the results, a study done by AG Properties (Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake etc.) is most likely skewed. (Keep in mind, they also only interviewed mothers, not fathers.) Mir (from Woulda Coulda Shoulda) wrote a fantastic piece on BlogHer called "Sorry, sweetie... Mommy thinks that doll's too skanky". Mir writes about how she had decided long before she had kids that her children would never own a Barbie, and now she is faced with dolls that make Barbie look wholesome. Look, we all know Barbie is slutty. I know my Barbie got around. She was always making out with Ken and the Donny Osmond doll that my friend Alison had. I can't even imagine what kind of nastiness these Bratz dolls would get up to, especially now that we have some Misfits action figures (yes, I have a Jerry Only Ken doll). I was in Target with my niece two weeks ago and she said "My Mommy and Daddy say I can't play with Bratz dolls because they wear too much makeup." I say well played brother. The five year old knows they are inappropriate without having to discuss sleaziness. Anyway, Mir's post stirred up quite the conversation over on BlogHer. Do Bratz dolls get you riled up too?   Posted Apr 16 2007, 11:36 AM by Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, toys, Bratz dolls, Mir, Woulda Coulda Shoulda, BlogHer, daughters, slutty dolls, WCS

• Rutgers Women's Basketball Coach to Don Imus: Would You Want Your Daughter Called That?

  Don Imus' now infamous radio remarks about the Rutger's Women's Basketball Team ("nappy-headed ho's") have caused a stir even by his famously racist and misogynistic standards.  No stranger to controversy and degrading commentary in order to boost radio ratings, Mr. Imus as of yesterday was suspended for two weeks for his remarks.  I'm doubtful this will satisfy the many people no longer amused by bigotry as humor, including bloggers MotherTalkers and corporate sponsors Bigelow Tea and Procter and Gamble who have suspended their ads on his show. Rutger's Women's Basketball Team Coach C. Vivian Stringer spoke eloquently on the subject when she asked whether Imus would like his own daughter to be called such names.  She added that "It's time for everybody to reflect on what is going on. Oh, it's time, ladies and gentlemen, it's been time." Don Imus has gone too far this time.  Posted Apr 11 2007, 11:57 AM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: daughters, Rutgers Women's Basketball Team, Don Imus, name-calling, C. Vivian Stringer

• Siren Thong Song Thwarts Girls Development

  A few days after my daughter was born a friend called, "Just remember what Chris Rock said: Your job is to keep her off the pole." Great. Thanks. It wasn't enough to worry about breastfeeding problems; I also had to worry about my newborn's career choice and whether it would involve brass poles, dim lights and too revealing clothes -- or none at all. Turns out my friend and Chris have a point. Today's girls grow up in a sexualized atmosphere that is stunting their development -- both intellectually and sexually. Though anyone who's ever seen a music video might say, "Duh?" -- it's still an eye opener to hear it from scientists. Sex pressure leads to depression, eating disorders, poor academic performance, shaving your head and generally acting like a moron. Read More... Posted Feb 20 2007, 05:44 PM by Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: celebrity, Sex, fathers, shaved heads, media, advertising, fathers and daughters, media influence, daughters, sexuality, children's health

• My Hymen Belongs To Daddy

  I guess my theme for the day is virginity. That and being squicked out. I don't  even know what to say about the concept of purity balls, but this piece in Glamour pretty much sums it up: little girls get all dressed up with their daddies and go to a nice prom-like dance, where pledges are signed committing father and daughter to the preservation of her womanly flower. (retch) Some of these loving (CREEPY!) fathers even give their daughters jewelry, rings, even, to cement the deal. That's right, it's a fully realized marketing campaign, complete with swag.  Read More... Posted Feb 12 2007, 12:22 PM by Patti with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: Sex, teens, teenagers, fathers, fathers and daughters, abstinence-education, daughters