Babble

Yeah, I know it's cheap just posting a YouTube video, but it's snowing here in Chicago, and I feel Christmas-y. If there is one four-minute song that can instantly recall everything that Christmas was for me as a kid, that's it. My parents had the classic A Christmas Together by John Denver and the Muppets on an LP, and my sister ...

So while American states are screwing around, spending their anti-tobacco money on hookers and booze, Nova Scotia passed a new law yesterday that will ban smoking in vehicles with children under the age of 19. Not smoking with the children under 19, I mean. Let's say you want to smoke, and you're in a car in Nova Scotia with children ...

Of all the scary things that my kid could get himself into, I think smoking worries me the most. It's so insidious; even with all the crackdowns on smoking in public places and health studies, it still seems like a rather normal part of our culture, not like, say, being a crackhead or a meth head. And I'm sorry, even though I know full ...

The National Association of Head Teachers in the UK has issued a report calling for the National Curriculum tests, the British version of the No Child Left Behind regime, to be scrapped. The group fears that the continuous batteries of tests that have made their students (pupils, as they say) the most tested in the world, are putting undue ...

It's Friday evening, your spouse just got home from work and holy crap you need a drink. But the liquor cabinet is almost dry and there's a foot of snow on the ground. You don't want to go to the store in a blizzard just to buy booze, so what do you do? You improvise! You fixed that broken strap on the diaper bag with a safety pin; ...

Surely you've read a bazillion stories warning about the dangers of kids using MySpace, Facebook, et al, and giving up personal information, exposing themselves to predators, etc, and those fears are founded. Just ask Megan Meier's parents. But at least those sites are popular enough that if you even get a whiff of your kids using them, ...

So your little Scrooge McDuck just wants more and more expensive tech gear for Christmakwanzukkah to toss in his money bin? Well you might as well get him *good* stuff. Michael Rose from The Unofficial Apple Weblog has written a gift guide for kids who love shiny silver and white Apple computers. And don't worry, it's not loaded with ...

Some time in the past six months, my son really got into his books. We've been trying to foist them on him since he could sit up straight, but before he mostly cared about the ones that played music or had pictures of animals. Now he actually "reads" them; not following every word like you or I would (he's only three, I'm ...

How much are you planning to drop on your kids this holiday season? $100? $200? Well if you want them to keep pace with the coolest kids across the pond, you'll have to pony up a lot more than that. Research shows that the average child in the UK now has £1,720 worth of toys in their bedroom, up seven percent from just last year, and ...

When I was a teenager, I was fairly convinced that my mother either had my car bugged, or worked for the FBI, because no matter where I went or who I was with, she knew. I couldn't do anything without it getting back to her, not that I was trying to get away with anything terrible, but it just got to the point where I stopped trying because ...