Strollerderby : finance

Morning News -- Layoffs and Vampires Edition

Brett Singer — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Friday, Friday, Friday! Let's get to it, people.

"Obama to Set Benchmarks in Fight Against Militants." So sayeth the New York Times. What's that conversation like? "Have we found Osama Bin Laden? No? Okay, what else you got?" Another headline from the Times: "Pakistani and Afghan Taliban Unify in Face of U.S. Influx." Oh goody. Sounds fun. Not.

Here in North America, it's layoffs, layoffs and more layoffs -- Google (200 people laid off), the New York Times (100 people laid off and most remaining employees taking a 5 percent pay cut), and the Canadian Broadcasting Company (800 jobs cut, hoping to sell some assets). Google? Really? That's not good.

Speaking of Canada ("C'mon, say 'about' one more time. Please?"), Garth Drabinsky was finally found guilty. Drabinsky was the head of Livent, the producer of the Broadway shows 'Ragtime' and 'Kiss of the Spider Woman.' I admit that I was somewhat giddy to read news of Drabinsky's legal demise; I used to work in theater and was fascinated by the brazen way he left the United States to avoid prosecution. Apparently Garth and his co-hort Myron Gottlieb pulled a Max Bialystock and kept two sets of books -- one fiction, one non. What I've never completely understood about schemes like this is why they keep them both. Wouldn't it make more sense to only keep the fake books? I don't want to give anyone ideas or anything. No word on whether or not Garth is wearing a cardboard belt. (I hope someone gets that reference.) Amazingly, Garth has been appearing on a Canadian reality show called "Triple Sensation" where he and some other people "look for young stars who can sing, act and dance." But not add. That's not needed. Despite Garth's conviction, there will be a season 2. I might need to find that show. (If you want to know the whole saga of Garth, click here.)

If you live in New York and ride public transportation, prepare to pay more. The MTA voted for a big fare increase and cuts in service. Hey, at least it's green.

Speaking of New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has resorted to quoting Popeye the Sailor. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

By the way, if anyone didn't know what I meant when I referred to funny car radio ads, here's an example. Except that this ad is for church. "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!" Seriously. Check it out. Consider this your "Moment of Zen", Daily Show style.

And speaking of Comedy Central: I like Stephen Colbert, but naming a space station after him is stupid. The faux-conservative's fans "stuffed the virtual ballot box with 230,539 write-in votes, overriding the four official choices NASA offered," according to Wired.com. NASA can change their mind, but why did they put themselves in this position? Not exactly rocket scientists over there, are they? Oh. Oh! Never mind.

Finally, a fun little item from Gawker. Students at the Boston Latin School have been spreading rumors that the prestigious institute of pre-higher learning is infested with vampires. According to MTV.com, "The headmaster [had become] concerned that some students' safety might be jeopardized, particularly if they were accused of being members of the undead." (Maybe private school doesn't always offer the best education.) Police were called. Parents were alarmed. But school officials promised that it's not true. Then they turned into bats and flew away. (Note: They didn't really turn into bats. Although the rest of the story, as far as I know, is true.)

Thanks for joining me on Morning News the past two weeks. I'll be handing things back over to Madeline, but will continue to do a daily round-up of newsy goodness at DaddyTips.com. Have a great weekend, don't take any wooden nickels.

Image: SXC

Husband Loses Job, Wife Loses Respect For Him

UPDATE - Josef Fritzl Sentenced To Life In Psychiatric Institution

Oprah Gets It Right On Chris Brown

Soldier Gives Birth At Army Barracks

Heath Ledger's Daughter Gets His Oscar

The Dr. Phil And OctoMom Show

Morning News -- Twitter Makes Nothing But Is Worth Something

Brett Singer — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Thursday! Yesterday I outed myself as one of the millions of Americans who knows zip about college basketball. I guess that's what happens when you go to a Division III school. On the plus side, I received a quality liberal arts education that allows me to do… well, this.

We'll start with something fun -- a Queens man played the lottery using the last three digits of Bernie Madoff's prison number and won $1500. The Daily News points out that this is a "16,000% return on his $9 investment - far more than even Madoff promised his bilked investors." It turns out that 501 other people hit a winner with those same three numbers (0-5-4, if you want to try it out yourself).

Back to the NCAA for a moment: Yahoo! Sports released a report claiming that the University of Connecticut violated recruiting rules in their contact with former player Nate Miles. Lots of people claim that the NCAA's rules are too confusing to follow, but I have an easy solution: hands off. Oh, but what about the shoe companies? They can contact the players. Well, under my plan, they can't. No one can. Amateur is amateur. If you want to play college ball, you can't accept any gifts from anyone at all. Ever. End of story. Of cause, its not that easy, but the solution isn't "make the rules go away", which is what some nudniks are saying.

Speaking of nudniks, somebody bilked Apple out of 9,000 iPod shuffles. What, you couldn't get them to send you a Touch? Piker.

A Chihuahua named Pebbles saved her owner from freezing to death when the two were stranded in the mountains of Wales. Beverley Burkitt is a dwarf, small enough that the little dog could keep her warm until help arrived. I still prefer bigger dogs, but this is a sweet story.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that our "insatiable demand for illegal drugs" is partly to blame for all of the violence happening in Mexico. "I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility." Well, it takes a village.

Democratic Senator Benjamin Cardin would like to help newspapers survive by letting them "restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks." Since many of them are losing money anyway, sure, why not? The bill had no co-sponsors as of Tuesday. BusinessInsider thinks that there are some papers that will survive even without Cardin's bill. Personally, I like newspapers, but I'm forcing myself to read more news online beacuse that's where it's going, whether I like it or not.

Twitter is going to start trying to make actual money, although maybe they shouldn't bother -- despite having no revenue at all so far, the company was recently valued at $250 million, according to Julia Boorstin at CNBC. Potential sources of cash are "the ability to search what people are saying in real time", and since such searches are valuable, the ads placed next to them are also valuable. And Twittter CEO Evan Williams also wants to start "charging companies who use the site to reach customers, helping them better target and communicate." I know it makes me sound like a luddite, but sometimes I hate the new economy. Would somebody please go back to making money by making stuff that people want to buy?

Finally, Monster vs. Aliens opens tomorrow. If you have kids, you'll probably be seeing it. Let us know what you think.

That's all for today -- see you on Friday, folks.

Image: SXC

Husband Loses Job, Wife Loses Respect For Him

UPDATE - Josef Fritzl Sentenced To Life In Psychiatric Institution

Oprah Gets It Right On Chris Brown

Soldier Gives Birth At Army Barracks

Heath Ledger's Daughter Gets His Oscar

The Dr. Phil And OctoMom Show

Morning News - Money Money Money

Brett Singer — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Is anyone else finding themselves increasingly interested in how our financial system works? If there's a bright spot in this terrible economy, it could be that people manage to get slightly more educated about this stuff. Maybe.

For example: will the Treasury's plan to shed toxic assets work? I dunno. Investors seem to like it; the Dow was up after the plan was announced. If I were in high school, I would start a metal band called "Toxic Assets" and make a million damn dollars. Or at least get a gig playing the prom.

A woman in New Jersey was found in a mall in 1994. No I.D. "Jane Doe." They've found out, 15 years later, that she is Elba Leonor Diaz Soccarras. Bizarre.

Another little kid calls 911, saves mom's life. Quick, everyone go to your kids and say, "What did you do today? Well, a 4-year-old saved her mother's life." Because that's a sensible reaction. (Note: don't do this.)

Ruth Madoff, wife of Bernie, may be able to keep most of her Florida mansion out of the hands of creditors. Why? Because Florida law protects up to half an acre of property, and the Madoff manse sits on .54 of an acre. So bilked investors can only go after a .04 acre piece. Got that? It may not matter if prosecutors can make the case to seize all of Ruth's assets, which her lawyers say are protected because they are in her name and not Bernie's. Of course, where did she get the money from? Um, I'm sorry, what was the question? By the way, Mr. Madoff will be staying in jail until he is sentenced. Seems he's a flight risk. Shocking thought, I know.

More Florida fun: there has apparently been an outbreak of kids in chicken suits running through Publix supermarkets. It's a prank. A pretty lame prank, but a prank nonetheless. Incidents like this are an argument to legalize child labor. (I kid. Sort of.)

Woodstock (the music festival, not the bird) turns 40 this summer. Original event co-producer Michael Lang is trying to put on another show. "There would be a lot of legacy bands [performing] – The Who, Santana, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joe Cocker maybe. And it would be people like Steve Earle and Ben Harper. There's certainly room for the (Red Hot) Chili Peppers and Dave Matthews...that would be the shape of the music," Lang said, according to NME. Oh, and a low carbon footprint. Very important. Considering one of the most striking images of the Woodstock film for me is the person picking up all the trash during the closing credits, maybe that is kind of important.

Jeanne Sager pointed out to me that Lang isn't part of the Woodstock festivities that are already happening at the original Bethel Woods site. B.B. King and Buddy Guy are among the planned concerts this summer. Yes, but what is their carbon footprint? Huh? What about that?

Oh, movie news from the weekend I forgot to include yesterday: The "utterly preposterous thriller" Nicolas Cage movie "Knowing" was number one at the box office, beating "I Love You, Man" and "Duplicity." "Race to Witch Mountain" fell to 4th place, "Watchmen" dropped to 5th. You know what's still hanging in there at #10? "Coraline." Good movie, you should see it. Even if it's too scary for your kids, go yourself. No, really.

More tomorrow, including my review of "Race to Witch Mountain." Try to contain yourself until then.

Image: Yahoo! Finance

Cookie Monster Cupcake

AUDIO - OctoMom 911 Calls Released

4 Year Old Brings Pot To School, School Bans Backpacks

Realities of Discharging Octuplets

UPDATE - Josef Fritzl Sentenced To Life In Psychiatric Institution

The Dr. Phil And OctoMom Show

Letting Kids See Watchmen

4 Year Old Calls 911 - Saves Mom

Morning News - The Obama Bracket

Brett Singer — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Monday Monday… Can't trust that day…

Actually, you kind of can trust Monday. It's fairly reliable in that it always comes after Sunday. I don't think that's what Mama Cass and Co. were talking about, but then again, it was the 60's, so who knows?

Anyone make an NCAA bracket? I did. I know nothing about college basketball, and my picks are proving it, especially in the Midwest Conference. At least there's no money at stake for me. President Obama made one, which is being resoundingly mocked by many. Some were upset that he even took the time to make his picks, which is hilarious if you consider the amount of vacation time that former President Bush took while in office. (I know, it's a cliché, but it happens to be true.) Taking a few minutes to fill out a bracket is a pleasant distraction from the day's events for everyone, Leaders of the Free World included. If people want to complain about Obama's policies, fine, but his bracket? Let it go.

Damn those blasphemy laws -- a Pennsylvania man tried to register a limited liability company called I Choose Hell Productions, LLC but was told he had to pick another name because PA has an anti-blasphemy law on the books preventing such things. The laws were common the 19th century, but this one was enacted in 1977 when someone tried to register God Damn Gun Shop. The ACLU is suing the state. Heh heh. God Damn Gun Shop... (NYT)

A revival of "West Side Story" opened on Broadway with some of the songs translated into Spanish. Interesting idea but I can't imagine that makes the songs better. Frank Scheck of the Hollywood Reporter saw the show and agrees, as did many other critics. (Note: I haven't seen this production. I'll probably stick with the movie.)

The post office is in trouble. They lost almost 400 million dollars last quarter and are offering early retirement to 150,000 employees, in addition to staff cutbacks and location closures. Not enough people mailing letters I guess.

Susan MacDougal (remember her?) can't have the transcript of her own testimony in the Whitewater trial. She was hoping to use it for a novel or screenplay. Whitewater looks pretty damn tame compared to all the nonsense going on these days.

Some governors, including Nevada's Jim Gibbons, are turning down federal money to beef up their unemployment funds because they don't like the 'strings' that are attached. The thing is, those strings disappear when the federal cash runs out. (This according to a New York Times editorial.) Nevada will run out of unemployment money by the end of the year if they don't take the government cheese. (Nose, you don't mind if I cut you off to spite my face, do you? Cool, thanks.) You can't play games like this when people are out of work. And unemployment money gets taken out of your check every week for a reason. You get it back if you're unemployed. Hence the name. So it's not unreasonable for people to expect to receive that money if they lose their jobs. In other Republican Governor news, Alaska's Sarah Palin (perhaps you've heard of her?) is only accepting Federal money for projects that are truly "shovel ready." Alaska Democrats are not happy, saying that she is playing politics with state residents. There's definitely a shovel needed for what's coming out of the mouths of both Republicans and Democrats these days, but it's not the kind you use to fix roads.

Eliot Spitzer is talking smack about Andrew Cuomo. Hey! Here's an idea, Spitzy. Shut up. You have no credibility anymore. Sorry. You screwed up. Apologize and go away. Although maybe you can blog for Huffington Post like Gary "Monkey Business" Hart. ("G'head! Follow me! You won't find anything! Wait, you thought I meant that? I was only kidding! Aw, crap…")

Responding to Sheri's comment: I hadn't heard about what the President said on TV, so I looked it up. Seems that while being interviewed by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show, President Obama said of his bowling skills, "It's like the Special Olympics or something." He apologized to the President of the Special Olympics before the show aired. Comments at ABC News' web site range from "who cares?" to "see? I told you he was an idiot." (I'm paraphrasing.) I can't say I agree with those who say that this is somehow on the same scale as other "gaffes" spoken by Republican politicians, or even "gaffes" from Democrats. Personally, I think the President is a little bit too much of a regular guy, at least in the way that he sometimes speaks in public. It was a dumb joke but hardly the worst thing ever. He also invited Special Olympians to the White House to do some bowling. There's one Special Olympic bowler who has three perfect games to his credit, so maybe he can give the Prez some pointers. By the way, Sarah Palin weighed in on the President's comments, because she's not all about politics like some politicians. This issue really effects Alaska, hence her very public reaction. Also: the President of the Special Olympics is Tim Shriver, Maria's brother, and therefore Ah-nuld's brother-in-law. That has nothing to do with anything except that I think it would be fun to have Arnold Schwarzenegger as your brother-in-law. The Governator, by the way, supports Obama's stimulus plan.

Tuesday, Tuesday… I trust that day… Nah, doesn't have the same ring to it. I guess John Phillips knew what he was talking about. See you tomorrow.

Image: WhiteHouse.gov via Washington Post

Morning News - Natasha Richardson Dies (UPDATE - Autopsy Information)

Morning News - March Madness or March Sadness?

Morning News - Cheney, Duct Tape, Outer Space

Open Letter To The Woman Who Pushed Me While I Was Picking Up My Kid

Back to the Third Grade for This 71-Year-Old

They Say: Old School Lice Checks Are All Wrong

UPDATE: Did M.I.A Really Name Her Baby Ickitt?

Why Teens Are Quick to Blame Rihanna

Keep This Kid Away From The Dog

Morning News - iPhone Gets Feature Other Phones Already Have

Brett Singer — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Updating yesterday's Natasha Richardson story: an autopsy reveals that she died of bleeding in the brain and "she might have survived had she received immediate treatment." The thing is, people with this sort of injury typically feel fine at first. So sad.

NBC is launching a show to compete with "American Idol." Simon Cowell probably thinks this is a "horrible" idea. ("Horrible" is one of the words he uses a lot, right?) On "Idol", Alexis Grace went home. She was shocked. Shocked. Why are they always so surprised? I guess you have think you're a major talent to get on TV and sing like that but just once it'd be fun to hear someone say, "Yeah, I suck. It was only a matter of time before I got the boot."

Why is Steve Wozniak on "Dancing With The Stars"? Based on this quote from his website, I guess the reason is because people said he wouldn't be able to do it. I wonder if Apple fans will keep voting for him the way football fans did with Jerry Rice. Woz has definitely been keeping in touch with his audience, accusing "Dancing" producers of rigging the voting in order to goose the ratings, then apologizing, all via his Facebook page. If this keeps up, I might actually have to watch the show.

Speaking of Apple, the new iPhone software will include bleeding edge features like the copying and pasting of text. What's that, your phone has been able to do that for years? Mine too. The iPhone is nifty but certain omitted features prove that Steve Jobs could probably sell water to a drowning Apple fan if it had that logo on it. (Personally, until the iPhone has an actual keyboard, I won't even consider buying one.)

Financial news update: stocks tanked and it wasn't CNBC's fault. Are you happy, Jeff Zucker?

Austrian monster dad Josef Fritzl was sentenced to life in a psych hospital. Life in prison would be better, but even though he could be paroled in 15 years, it's not likely to happen. The speed of the trial was kind of impressive; in the U.S., these things seem to take a lot longer. I'm sure there's a reason for that but I don't know what it is.

And finally, there were a heck of a lot of babies born in 2007. Madeline points out that it wasn't Octomom's fault -- "she only gave birth to one baby that year."

That's all for now. Have a great weekend and we'll see you on Monday.

Image: Woz.org

New Baby Boom

Morning News - March Madness or March Sadness?

Morning News - Cheney, Duct Tape, Outer Space

Jimmy Kimmel And The Octomom

Morning News - Natasha Richardson Dies (UPDATE - Autopsy Information)

Brett Singer — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Starting on a sad note -- Natasha Richardson has died. UPDATE: according to this AP report, an autopsy revealed that "Richardson died from bleeding in her skull caused by the fall she took on a ski slope...The medical examiner ruled her death an accident, and doctors said she might have survived had she received immediate treatment."

She's one of those actresses that everyone seemed to absolutely adore on and off stage. I saw her perform in 'Cabaret' just before the show opened to rave reviews; she was amazing to watch. An appreciation of her life is here.

Pope Benedict XVI has folks up in arms because, speaking about the AIDS epidemic in Africa, he said, "You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem." Cathy Lyn Grossman at USA Today has an intriguing post in their Religion section titled, "Could choosing condoms mean choosing life?" Interesting idea.

The way everyone is carrying about the Jon Stewart / Jim Cramer kerfuffle (and really, what is it if not a kerfuffle?) you would think that their "feud" actually had some effect on the world at large. Or that more than 2.3 million people actually watched it. I'm not saying that's not a good number, but it's not exactly Earth shaking. Anyway, Jeff Zucker, the head honcho of NBC Universal, is all up in Jon Stewart's grill, saying that Jon is like, being unfair and stuff when he blames the financial crisis on CNBC's reporting. (That's not an exact quote; you can read Zucker's full quote here.) The thing is, that's not really what Stewart was saying. To me, the most important line from the interview he did with Cramer was, "It's not a f**king game, man." Cramer seemed to be telling Stewart that it was perfectly OK to say something under the guise of financial advice that wasn't entirely accurate as long as it was entertaining. Frankly, that pisses me of as well. For Stewart to question the worth of a network's reporting is a good thing, or it should be. Disagreeing with him is fine as well. Sing it with me now -- ain't that America, you and me… Also, if Jeff Zucker wants to yell at someone, it should probably be Cramer. He's the one who turned a bit on The Daily Show into something that has dominated news cycles for several days now.

Continuing with financial news, the Fed is doing more things that I don't entirely understand. This time they're buying "long-term U.S. government debt." (Someday someone will explain to me why anyone would want to buy debt.) This causes many things to happen, including wailing and gnashing of teeth. One possible good outcome of whatever-this-is is that mortgage rates will be vewy, vewy low for now, so if you need one, this is a good time to get it. Also on the good news front: fears of economic deflation have decreased! Why? Because the Consumer Price Index rose by .04%! Whoo-hoo! (Disclaimer: If you are getting your financial news from me, stop. Right. Now.)

Last but not least (if you're into college basketball), the NCAA Tournament, aka March Madness, starts today at noon. You can watch every game online at CBSSports.com, which is good for fans who will be stuck in an office all day. Of course, these people should probably be, you know, working. But who are we to judge?

That's all for today, back on Friday. Quick, fill out your bracket!

Image: Famecrawler

Morning News - Cheney, Duct Tape, Outer Space

GMA Tweets Details On Levi Johnston And Son

Jimmy Kimmel And The Octomom

Oprah Gets It Right On Chris Brown

Natasha Richardson Dead

Morning News - Watchmen, Wiper Fluid and the World Wide Web

Brett Singer — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday! (You need to hear that in the voice of a 1980's era Monster Truck radio ad announcer. That reference either makes sense or it doesn't. Apologies if it doesn't.)

Quick comment: I have to say that when I said I would fill in for Madeline for a few days, the last thing I thought I would be writing about was former President George W. Bush. Not that I mind, but it seems strange. I had an item about him yesterday, and there's one today. I'm not looking for them, believe me.

And now -- the news!

Update from Nerdy Movie Land (which, surprisingly, is not located at my house): 'Watchmen' dropped to second place, losing the top spot to 'Race to Witch Mountain.' Proving... nothing, really. Personally, I want 'Watchmen' to do well so that studio executives keep greenlighting superhero movies. So far it's made about $85 million, which is pretty good for two weeks. Unfortunately, there are reports that many people are walking out of the film before it's over, which doesn't really help with that whole word of mouth thing.

The guy who pretty much invented the World Wide Web – Tim Berners-Lee, not Al Gore – once got scammed online when buying a Christmas present. He's also warning people against "website snooping" and talking about keeping your personal data safe. Good idea, Tim, but if even you got scammed, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Campbell's Soup is not planning to cut their prices. Got that? How is this a headline? Seems that the company feels that prices are low enough, and sales are growing anyway. Hence, no price lowering. I repeat -- why tell anyone this? I prefer the organic stuff, myself, and my kids wouldn't eat soup if they were starving, so it doesn't affect me. But if I did eat Campbell's Soup, hearing this might make me NOT buy it. Just saying.

President Barack Obama wants to block bonus payments to AIG execs, and NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wants to know who is getting the money. This is not going to end anytime soon, methinks.

In other financial news, former White House spokeswoman Dana Perino says that her former boss deserves some of the credit for a recent bounce in the stock market. I didn't realize that being a Presidential flack was a lifetime position.

Lindsay Lohan will NOT, repeat NOT, be arrested. C'mon, you know that makes you happy. Her arrest warrant was recalled and she "enroll in a new alcohol education program." TMZ reports that she had a "personality conflict" with the program she was in before. What does that mean, that she wanted to drink while she was there?

The kids who drank the wiper fluid are OK, which is good. I'm still not clear on why this stuff tastes good. Wouldn't that flavoring have to be an additive of some kind? And if it is, why include it? Is it possible that wiper fluid just tastes sweet naturally? That would be, as my son might say, weird.

And finally, Shannon tells us about a new dinosaur, more specifically "a new species of pliosaur." The photo (above) is just flat out cool. Apparently this particular pliosaur was "more powerful than T Rex, with a head twice its size, a set of 12-inch teeth, and a weight of about 45 tons." Yowsa. Show this one to your kids, unless you think it'll give them nightmares. Heck, it might give me nightmares. Look at those teeth...

That's all for today - more tomorrow...

Photo: Guardian

Superman Comic Sells For Over 300k

Morning News - Cheney, Duct Tape, Outer Space

UPDATE - Austrian Incest Dad Pleads Guilty To Some Charges

Four Reasons Big Families Might Have it Better in This Economy

JeanneSager — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:31:00 GMT

If it costs more to feed a bigger family in good times, doesn't it stand to reason that it would cost more in lean times too? Yes, but it's possible bigger families are better prepared for hard times - because they're used to living on a stricter budget.

Talking with the Chicago Tribune, Don Demaree of the Center for Consumer Credit Counseling says some (not all, he's quick to add) of the larger families have cottoned on long ago to frugality - be it by buying in bulk or finding free entertainment for the family.

So what else do the big families have on those of us with just one or two kids?

1. When they buy in bulk, the family actually uses it all. Some things never expire - we bought all our diapers at Sam's Club. But those blocks of government cheese are likely to turn hard before we plow through them in a house of just three, and a giant bag of chips goes stale before we're down to the crumbs - and there goes our money, down the drain.

2. Built-in entertainment. My grandmother once told me parenting seven was easier than parenting one because there was always someone else for the kids to play with or at least someone else to keep them out of her hair. Which leads me to . . .

3. Built-in babysitters. In big families where the ages range (this obviously won't work for those octuplets!), there's less of a need to hire a babysitter if a parent has to get a second job or Mom has to go back to work.

4. Hand-me-downs. Most of us still have to go out and buy clothes for our kids. Big families do too - but they get a lot more use out of them than the rest of us.

Of course all families have it tough right now. Having a big family might well be harder - because when the breadwinner loses a job, there are a lot more mouths who depended on that bread. But with all the bad news, it's nice to have a little good.

Image: BigFamilies.ca

Georgia Family Has Everything They Own Up on eBay

No Great Outpouring of Support for Struggling New Mom of Quintuplets

Reports: Mom of Surprise Octuplets Already Had 6 Kids

Report Finds Individualistic Culture Harms Kids—Because It Leads to Working Moms

Pulling the Plug on Plural Pregnancies

A Guy’s Take on Stay at Home Moms and Dads (Part 2: The Pros)

Cole Gamble — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Alright, time to get to the good parts about becoming a stay-at-home mommy or daddy:

Childcare is Monstrously Expensive

Our childcare cost over $1,800 a month. For some folks, going to work and paying for child care is nearly a break even proposition. Essentially you work for the privilege to send your kids to childcare so you can work. When you do the numbers you need to consider whether the salary you draw makes it financially worthwhile. And I don't mean if your job pays $5 more a month than child care costs you should go to work. You shouldn't put kids in childcare unless the money you're going to make if significantly greater. Otherwise, why bother?

You are A Consistent Care Provider

At daycares and preschools, staff will come and go. Your child can get easily attached to a teacher and then-poof!-they're gone. You, on the other hand, will always be around (unless there is something you're not telling me). Having that safe sense of consistency helps create a nurturing environment for your kid.

You Won't Miss a "First"

One of the more depressing things about putting kids in childcare is you'll likely miss out on your kids' firsts. The first time your baby laughs. The first steps she takes a step. The first time she tells an off-color joke. There's a pretty decent chance you won't be around when these adorable moments happen.

You Find Work Stressful

There are parents who use staying at home as a good excuse to drop out of the rat race. If your job is making you miserable and you don't see any other opportunities that look better, staying at home can give you the sanity you desperately need.

Raising Your Child is More Fulfilling than Office Work

Once again, this is preferential. As I outlined in the cons section, some adults may feel a loss of satisfaction when they drop out of work. On the other hand, some adults find raising their kid far more gratifying than pushing paper.

And if you can afford it, you may find that staying home reduces your stress level. Many parents decide to stay home after trying unsatisfactorily to balance work and family. The long hours and the feeling of cutting too many corners results in feeling burned out. Staying home will give you more time to spend with your children, maintain your home, and help keep your family life running smoothly.

Epilogue: Nicole's Story

So how did my wife's stay-at-home mommying adventure go? In the end, Nicole discovered the stay-at-home mom thing wasn't for her. She grew too frustrated trying to work on the house or her resume with the kids bouncing off the walls. The kids' attitudes got out of whack as they were not getting the level of socialization, activity and learning they were accustomed to at school. So the kids went back to school and so did Nicole, she's now working on her Master's degree. Since leaving the stay-at-home life behind, Nicole found she actually gets more quality time with the kids because she's no longer as frustrated when she gets to devote a portion of her day to being an adult.

Choosing whether or not to stay at home with the kids is not a matter of how much you love your kids. It's a matter of what works best for your family. Every mother or father must make this choice at some point, and whatever choice you make will undoubtedly be made with what's best for the family in mind.

Go Back to Part 1: the Cons of Staying Home

More by this author:

Banana Dildos and the 10 Worst Toys and Gifts This Christmas (part 1)

Skinny Jeans for Little Boys?

Desert Island Disks – Kid Music Edition

Gangsta’ Muppets: 12 of the Best Kids Show/Rap Mash-Ups

The Worst Baby Products Ever (Part I)

10 Things You May Not Know About Pregnancy (and might shock you)

The 26 Most Disturbing Kids Movies Ever

A Guy’s Take on Stay at Home Moms and Dads (Part 1: The Cons)

Cole Gamble — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Recently my wife went back to school and finished up a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She was thrilled. I was thrilled. Even the damn pets were thrilled. The party, however, ended abruptly when Nicole realized she was, with her still hot from the oven degree in hand, entering the most hostile job market in generations. That’s when she introduced an intriguing proposition. “Hey, how about I keep the kids at home for awhile? If I can’t get a job now, I might as well take them out of child care and be a stay-at-home mom.” This was coming from a woman who started her college career on an education degree track, but then realized she didn’t like kids. This was different though. These were our kids, and your own kids are always infinitely lovelier than other peoples’ kids.

Throughout Nicole’s stay-at-home adventure, we’ve learned a lot about her personality, our kids’ personalities and the realities of staying at home with kids. Here are some of the lessons we learned, starting with the cons. In part two we’ll cover the pros and at the end I’ll let you in on what eventually happened to Nicole and how staying at home (I've heard SAH parent is the term for those in the know) has worked out for her.

The Cons:

Loneliness

Workplaces feed you daily social interaction with adults that we probably all take for granted. Once their daily routine revolves around the kid(s), many stay-at-home parents find themselves isolated. Some turn their child into their best friend, which at times puts the child in a peculiar situation as mommy or daddy gradually engages Jr. in too grown-up talk.

Loss of Identity via Loss of Career

I personally try not to define myself by my work (there are just too many more important aspects of personality), but I cannot deny all of us in the workplace to some degree merge our work into our self-esteem and identity. When you break that source of identity off, you can definitely feel that loss. People also crave the positive feedback one gets from the workplace and approbation is not something you usually get out of a screaming toddler or diaper full of crap.

Hard to Get Back to Work

Many parents find it’s tough to rejoin the job market after a sustained sabbatical.

You Can’t Provide the Activity and Socializing a Good Day Care/Preschool Can:

Hey, you’re a super stay-at-home parent. You go above and beyond the call of duty; you’re a total parenting rock star. Nonetheless, you still can’t compete with a child care program when it comes to activities and socializing. Good programs jam pack your child’s day with fun and educational projects. Also, you can’t underestimate the value of exposing your child to their peers on a daily basis. Interacting with other kids is essential for a child’s emotional and intellectual development. Yes, you can get them out of the house and around kids at the park, but you probably can’t offer them a whole class of kids working, playing and learning together every day.

Loss of Income

Yep, you do save money on child care when you keep the kids at home, but more likely than not that saved money isn’t as much as the income you lose by extracting yourself from work.

How About Losing 1 Million Dollars?

That's the amount economists say the stay-at-home parent who relinquishes a career may lose about $1 million over the years., when you factor in benefits and pensions. Yee-ouch!

Housework and Child Care Can Be Boring and Frustrating

Okay, hold your tomatoes, don’t throw them just yet. I’m not saying parenthood is boring, I’m just saying the diaper changing and tackling endless loads of laundry can be tedious and wearisome. A lot of this is about personality. I know women (and guys) who gain a great deal of satisfaction from mopping the floor and wiping noses. But just because other parents enjoy it doesn’t mean you must as well. You have to be honest with yourself.

Okay, enough doom and gloom. Let’s move on to the positives of staying home.

Click here for PART 2: The Pros.

More by this author:

Banana Dildos and the 10 Worst Toys and Gifts This Christmas (part 1)

Gangsta’ Muppets: 12 of the Best Kids Show/Rap Mash-Ups

The Worst Baby Products Ever (Part I)

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Ailing Companies as Bad Children

Brett Singer — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:00:00 GMT

I always thought there was some childish behavior happening in the world of high finance. New York Magazine confirms my suspicions.

They also help to simplify an issue using pictures, which helps me out. A sample:

Bear Stearns is the little pyro—the kid who was always playing with matches. He could harm not only himself, but burns his own house down, and indeed, he could have burned down the entire neighborhood. The Fed stepped in not to protect him but the rest of the block.

See the "source" link below for Lehman Brothers ("the little kid pulling the tail of a dog") and AIG ("the kid who accidentally stumbles into a biotech- warfare lab … finds all these unlabeled vials…").

No word yet on what sort of child Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are.

Source/image: NYMag (originally bigpicture)

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Dora the Conservative

Brett Singer — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:15:00 GMT

Every now and then Republicans do something to remind the world why anyone would ever want to vote for them. Also, sometimes elected officials sound like children's television characters.

What the hell am I talking about?

CNN reports that, "House conservatives urged Congress on Tuesday to 'take a breath' and consider other alternatives before rushing to pass a $700 billion plan to bail out Wall Street, a measure the White House says must pass by the end of the week."

Some Republicans are saying, hey. Guys. Let's look at things a little bit more closely before we commit close to one TRILLION dollars (insert Dr. Evil finger here) and potentially make a bad problem even worse.

That advice… it sounds familiar… where have I heard it before?

Oh! That's right. Dora The Explorer. She likes to "stop and think" when things start moving too fast. Hmmm…

Source: CNN, image: commonsensemedia, plus Photoshop

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They say: keep your money under your mattress

Brett Singer — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:00:00 GMT

That's not exactly what they say, since a fair amount of your deposits are federally insured. Of course, if things get really bad, that won't matter, but we're not going there.

In this worse-than-even-I-thought economy, its important to do whatever you can to protect the assets you have. What does this have to do with parenting? Well, do you want to leave the little buggers anything to pay for that nice old-age home you may end up in? (Don't answer that if today was the day junior decided to arch his back and kick you in the family jewels while you tried to do something horrible to him, like put him in the stroller and take him out to buy a bagel. Not that this has ever happened to me. Really.)

Yahoo! Finance has some tips for weathering the current economic storm and the advice is deeper than the Bush Administration's, "Don't worry, be happy" plan. Here are some excerpts:

- Check that your deposits are insured: "The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guarantees deposits up to $100,000 per person. If you have to hold more than that, spread it across multiple banks. As a taxpayer you are paying for this insurance. Use it." In other words, if you have a lot of cash in one bank, put it in different banks. Sounds like a scheme from a Coen Brothers movie to me, but it's not. The majority of us won't have that problem (more than $100,000 in savings? Nice work if you can get it), but it's also important to check on your brokerage accounts. "The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) guarantees you at places like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, E-Trade and the like up to $500,000, including $100,000 worth of cash…Note: The SIPC is only there to make sure you get your shares and bonds back if a brokerage fails. It does not, obviously, guarantee those investments' value."

-   "Don't panic": The article says that, "pundits want to seem really wise by putting on serious expressions and saying things like 'we don't know how this thing is going to play out,' and 'the situation could get a lot worse'. Bah. Guess what? We never know how things are going to play out. And the situation could get a lot better too." It's a glass-half-empty-or-half-full thing. I tend to think that you just need to look at what you have carefully, and if you do have assets that need managing, hope that you have a good financial advisor.
-   Taxes: This is pretty clear: "you can forget about any talk of tax breaks." One of the criticisms of Obama has been that he's going to raise your taxes, while McCain will lower them. As far as I know, only Congress can change tax rates, and it seems unlikely that even the most conservative of conservatives (which John McCain isn't, or didn't used to be) would be able to justify a tax cut of any significance in the current climate. I'm also curious to hear what the candidates will say about what's happening in the economy. Without being partisan, I don't think either one of them is prepared to do much of anything to fix it anytime soon for the simple reason that it's an incredibly difficult problem to solve. To paraphrase Aaron Neville, I don't know much, but I know people need money and jobs; that's the wa-a-ay they pay their rent and buy things. 25,000 people are going to be out of work now that Lehman Brothers is going under. Hewlett-Packard is cutting almost that many jobs as a result of their merger with Electronic Data Systems. I don't know much, but I know that's a bad thing.
-   Refinance your mortgage: this one was the most interesting to me, since I hadn't thought of it and it actually applies to a lot of people. "The panic on Wall Street just caused a collapse in the interest rate on long-term US Treasury bonds, as lots of investors rushed there for safety. And that usually leads to a fall in long-term mortgage rates." The part of that I understood is "a fall in long-term mortgage rates." Lower mortgage rate = lower monthly payments = more money to keep under your mattress. It's the new math.

Note: none of this should be construed as actual financial advice; I know only slightly more about economics than I do about particle physics, and I'm just quoting from a source that I haven't vetted. That said, there's some food for thought here.

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Image: hells-handmaiden.com, from The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy

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A Guy’s Take on Stay at Home Moms and Dads (Part 2: The Pros)

A Guy’s Take on Stay at Home Moms and Dads (Part 1: The Cons)

Ailing Companies as Bad Children

Dora the Conservative

Awww…a baby otter… (when the going gets tough, the tough go and look at pictures of baby animals)

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