Strollerderby : help

Palin: Women Who Don't Support Other Women Go to Hell

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:49:00 GMT

It's not a good sign when a potential president fouls up a famous quote, particularly when she's reading it off of a piece of paper and when she picked it up from a Starbucks cup earlier that morning. At a California rally yesterday, Sarah Palin told an enthusiastic crowd, "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't support other women."

She was misquoting Madeline Albright, who once said, "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't help other women." In this case, "help" and "support" may be polar opposites.

Palin goes on to wonder how "a comment like I just made, how it will be turned into whatever it will be turned into tomorrow in the newspaper." Well, I'm going to let you, the people, turn that comment into whatever you turn that comment into after you watch this video.

Photo: mlive.com

National Organization for Women President Endorses Palin

Brad and Angelina Open Children's Clinic in Ethiopia

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:30:00 GMT

If only all fame and fortune were channeled into the common good....

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated $2 million to start a center in Ethiopia for children with AIDS and tuberculosis. About 900,000 children in Ethiopia have been orphaned because of AIDS, and the country has the seventh highest rate of tuberculosis in the world. Though curable, tuberculosis continues to ravage the population in large part due to inadequate treatment.

The center will be named after Brad and Anelina’s adopted daughter, Zahara. “It is our hope that when Zahara is older, she will take responsibility for the clinic and continue its mission,” Pitt said.

This statement gave me pause. While raising one’s children to be activists and humanitarians is certainly laudable, Zahara is three years-old. This is sort of a hefty weight to place on her shoulders. If I heard a father of a three-year-old saying it was his hope that his daughter would grow up to be, say, a leading litigator at a big law firm, I would inwardly groan. On the other hand, I wish all rich parents encouraged their children to use their inheritance to be philanthropists.

What do you think? Is it okay to pigeonhole one's children into a certain line of work if that work is widely beneficial?

Photo: pursepage.com

The Best Parenting Advice EVER

Kelly Mills — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:13:00 GMT

A while back I went to a baby shower, and the host had everyone write down their best advice on parenting for the expectant couple in an album. When it was my turn to come up with some pearls, I paused. The truth was that the very best pieces of advice were rarely about whether or not to co-sleep or use a pacifier (um, for the baby, yo) or wait an extra year for kindergarten, though those are topics of much anxiety for parents. And the top words of wisdom I got almost never came from books or the doctor or even my closest people. Parenting is funny that way. You depend on the kindness of strangers for very general and life-saving stuff.

Now one of my closest friends is about to have a baby any day now (on her own, too---she got tired of waiting for a suitable life partner and knew she wanted kids) and I thought I'd again ask people I don't know for something helpful. Here's the best advice I got. Then you offer what worked for you, and we can share it with my friend.

1. It gets easier. When my baby was six weeks old and I was almost googling orphanages, I made a bleary trek to the grocery store. I must have looked like holy crap, because a woman I'd never met whispered to me: "It gets easier." "When?" I asked desparately, my eyes filling with tears. She thought for a moment, and said, "Two months. Then again at six months. Then again at a year..." She was right.

2. Along those lines, new parents should cry as much as they want. Now is not the time for stoicism. Basically the job of the new parent is to keep the baby and themselves alive, and that means you sleep whenever you can, you eat whatever you want, you drink tons of water, you live in a messy house, and you cry as much as you like. All of these work best when you have sympathetic people around, and the weeping thing lets people know you need help. I got this gem when I was in the emergency room three days postpartum with a horrible bladder infection. I began sobbing, and the nurse told me not to cry. From the curtained bed next to mine, a woman yelled, "Don't you tell her that! Honey, cry as much as you want. When I had a newborn I wept constantly." I don't even know what she looks like, but that woman was an angel.

3. Kids behave badly when they are going through a developmental phase. I tell everyone this, and I don't even know where I got it, but it's the best thing I know. Just when my child has been the devil for a month and a half and I'm sure I have really screwed up because I am raising a monster, she abruptly changes back into her sweet self and has some new skill to show for it. Crawling, walking, talking, social skills, reading...All were preceded by hell.

4. You probably won't know what to do until it happens. Plan all you want for how you'll teach your child to stand up to bullies, and then watch as your kid turns out to be more likely to pick on others. Choose a preschool when your kid is an infant, then realize your particular child is probably going to do better in a small home-based daycare. Vow to never use a pacifier. End up using a pacifier. Hey, most of what we do is on the fly, so it's best to just be flexible.

5. Lead by example, especially when you screw up. Because you will, you'll probably yell or realize you have been ignoring your kid or say something unkind and wish you could take it back. But think of this: Your kid is on a baseball team. They are a sucky player, they refuse to pracice, and then they drop the ball during a key moment. Do you tell them, "You stink, you aren't fit to be a player, you are screwing up baseball forever"? I sure hope not. Instead, you tell them to just do their best, to move on and have fun. Some of my finest moments have come after I messed up royally and lost it with my kid. I say I'm sorry, I practice doing it differently, I learn from it, and I just move on and do my best.

That last one I learned from my kid. Hey, now please, hit me with your best stuff.

Some parenting lessons from Michael Phelp's mom

Dads dish on blogging, race, childhood

Help me pick a Mother's Day gift (still)

Brett Singer — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:30:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone that weighed in here about what would make a good mother's day gift for the wife. Since I still haven't gotten anything, I thought I'd keep asking.

Lots of options out there, of course, including this one that Redsy mentioned. Here are a couple of others:

One that I stumbled onto was CowParade, which sells penguin-themed merchandise. HA! Gotcha! It's all cows. (Fooled you, didn't I? Yes, I need a nap.)

Anyway, they're selling special Mother's Day Figurines that look kind of cute. One problem -- buying a woman anything associated with cows, unless you live on a dairy farm, is probably a bad idea. (In fact, even if you live on a dairy farm it's probably a bad idea.) I'm going to nix this one right off the bat.

A couple of commenters suggested etsy.com. This is a site that sells handmade stuff, sort of a crafty-ebay (crafteBay? nah.) This shop, mangotreejewelry, was recommended. The items look relatively inexpensive, and fairly nice. Here are a couple of examples:

- Green Cluster Earrings, $21

- The Tassel Necklace, $36

The price is certainly right. Not sure what the shipping costs are, and they don't say that they guarantee delivery by Mother's Day, although they also don't say that they don't. So it's probably worth checking first.

So -- what do you think? Yea or nay?

images: mangotreejewelry on etsy.com

Help me pick a Mother's Day gift (please)

Brett Singer — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Reminder: Mother's Day is Sunday, May 11^th. And while I sympathize with Redsy, and even agree to a certain extent, I'm not stupid enough to even try to ignore Mom's Special Day.

That said, I'm out of gift ideas. So I'm asking you, the readers, to help me out. I'll post some items and you give me a "yea" or "nay" in the comments (even a simple "y" or "n" will do.) If you have any items you'd like me to consider gifting, leave that in the comments as well.

First up: Supermom Pajamas. (These would be for my wife.) Because "no one deserves superhero status more than Mom." My gut reaction is that these are a little bit too much like underoos.

So - is $39-49 enough to spend on a gift for the mother of my children? And if so, will the New York Post headline on Monday, May 12^th read "Man Found Strangled With Starry Blue PJ Pants"? Or is this sleepwear just too cute for words?

image: PajamaGram

Pregcellent: Babies Do Come With (Hilarious) Instructions!

Kelly Mills — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:31:00 GMT

As a new parent, the whole baby thing can be overwhelming, to say the least. There's this idea we should just know how to do stuff naturally, like breastfeeding or interpreting the baby's cries correctly with little or no instruction. But of course, it isn't that instinctive. The lucky moms and dads have good relatives and friends to share parenting pearls with, and of course there's tons of books on the subject as well. But other people can get annoying with the constant advice, and the books are by and large dull as bleaugh.

That's why I think nothing is quite as good at breaking down what to do and what not to do as this site, in simple "yes" and "no" terms. I laughed for a loooong time at this. The helpful photos instantly tell you how to do so many of the essential infant things. My favorite is probably the one on bonding, but they are all pretty damn good. Like the diaper change one...Chortle snicker.

Free Money!

Madeline Holler — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:28:00 GMT

Congressional leaders and the White House hammered out an agreement for a plan to send cold, hard cash to millions of American families sometime this year. The free money, which amounts to billions of dollars, is an effort to stimulate the economy and get American taxpayers to start shopping again.

Some details:

Individuals who pay income taxes would get up to $600, working couples $1,200 and those with children an additional $300 per child under the agreement. Workers who make at least $3,000 but don't pay taxes would get $300 rebates.

But there is a limit.

The rebates would phase out gradually for individuals whose income exceeds $75,000 and couples with incomes above $150,000, aides said. Individuals with incomes up to $87,000 and couples up to $174,000 would get partial rebates. The caps are higher for those with children.

Many experts attribute this recession/"recession" to a crashing housing market and imploding mortgage industry. So the leaders are trying to rig a fix in that area too, as a part of today's stimulus plan.

To address the mortgage crisis, the package also raises the limits on Federal Housing Administration loans and home mortgages that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can purchase to as high as $725,000 in high-cost areas. Those are considerable boosts over the current FHA limit of $362,000 and the $417,000 cap for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's loan purchases.

Back to the free money. Under these terms, are you getting any? What are you going to buy? Or are you just paying off bills? Can you make it until June, which is the earliest, many suspect, the money could possibly be distributed?

Best of Famecrawler: Good Help is Hard to Find

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:10:00 GMT

Post by Bad Kitty

Victoria and David Beckham, here with 4 year old son Romeo and Victoria's incredibly expensive handbag, are having some domestic troubles. That is, "domestics" trouble -- their two nannies just quit in a huff. I hope you're sitting down, because this will be shocking: it seems that Victoria can take a tone at times. And she expected them to be her hand maidens, doing dishes, laundry, cooking, and probably whatever else came into that so stylish head, like going to fetch a blow up doll to fool the paparazzi. I know. The shaking just stopped for me, too.

Puhleez. I call candyass on the nannies. They knew what they were getting, and they knew what they had. The girls were with the Beckhams for a while, six months for one, a year for the other. It's not like Victoria woke up last Monday and said, "Those nannies need a firm grip. I'm really going to put them through their paces, starting now."

Even if the world (including those nannies before they started the jobs) didn't have the benefit of a 24/7 chronicle of the Beckham's every move, just look at them. You can smell the air of dissatisfied nouveau riche emanating from them. They want things a certain way, they paid damn good money to get their faintest desire, and they will have it, so stop sniffling and get cracking!

I have to respect that Victoria, she's a woman who knows her mind. She's famous, loaded and doing Becks whenever she wants because of it -- that's her talent. She might be a pain to work for, but the woman is an inspiration for the rest of us.

Source: Celebs and Bubs

Other fun to be had over at the FC today:

Crossing Mahoney
Grandparents are lovely
Celebrity hawt watch