Daddy Types: June 2005 Archives

June 2005 Archives

June 30, 2005

NYT Gives Jogging Strollers The Zagat Treatment

The Times has a piece about he opoularity of jogging strollers in which they asked opinions of some jogging parents in Central Park. Snippets of their comments are compiled, Zagat-like, for each of the six rigs. Check it out. Wombs...
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Why We Don't Remember Childhood

A recent study shows that to persist, memories need to be encoded into language. The result: kids aren't able to remember things that predate their ability to put it into language. Cognitive Daily via kottke [update: at 11:43PM one night,...
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June 29, 2005

Gay Baby Crisis? We've Got Just The Thing

We're all about solutions here at Daddy Types. DT reader Andrew sent in this news story: "New Dad Thinks Baby Might Be Gay," which leaves a giant, painful question unanswered: What's the kid gonna wear? Fortunately, I just spotted this...
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Beauty! Quinny Buzz Spotted In Canadian Sears, eh?

DT reader (Another) Greg reports that while it's not listed on the Canadian store site, Sears in Hamilton, Ontario is selling the Quinny Buzz for $449.00 CAD. Now, I don't know where "drove to Canada to buy a stroller;...
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June 28, 2005

Thermospot Baby Thermometers For Dummies

Or rather, for mothers in developing nations who don't have ready access to nurses and traditional mercury thermometers [d'oh, mercury?!!]. The Thermospot was designed by one John Zeal in response to the apparently widespread infant hypothermia problem in many cultures...
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June 27, 2005

Stroller Weights: No Tipping, Please

DT reader Daniel gave a hearty endorsement to the Tipmenot stroller weights, fabric covered, donut-shaped 5 lb. weights which attach to the front wheels of your stroller and prevent reduce the chance of it tipping backwards because of all the...
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Michelle Shocked Playing Joe's Pub, Wed. 6/29 at 3PM

Michelle Shocked is playing three gigs at Joe's Pub Wednesday, including one for kids & families at 3PM. It'll feature her Western swing- and blues-style rendition of Disney classics like "Bare Necessities" and "When You Wish Upon A Star," none...
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Find Out Your Baby's Future Earning Potential At Five Weeks

Pregnant or not? Boy or Girl? Strawberry Shortcake nursery theme or Buzz Lightyear? Harvard or Wellesley? Knifethrower or target girl? If that whole miracle of pregnancy thing isn't unfolding quickly enough for you, if you're the boss, need the info,...
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Maclaren Volo, The Excellent Second Stroller

When we were pondering the Bugaboo, we figured we'd also want a super-lightweight stroller, too, something to just throw on when we headed out the door, or something easy to travel with. We set our eyes on the lightest Maclaren,...
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June 26, 2005

So Tom, What Do You Think About Thimerosal?

Because based on your vast experience with the history of psychiatry, I really want to watch you talk about it Cruise and Lauer on Ritalin [sic], the illustrated version [you can't make it up, via everybody]...
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June 25, 2005

Dallas BBQ 27 West 72nd St (betw CPW & Col.) - NO

The kind of place where it's acceptable to let the kid stew for a while. You'll be through with dinner in like 10 min. anyway....
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Toys R Us Times Square, 1514 Broadway (at 44th St) - YES

Restrooms are in the back corner on the second floor, near the baby gear section, appropriately enough. This place is a freakin' zoo, though, why are you going?...
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Highline Thai Restaurant. 835 Washington St (at W 12th St) - CLOSE ENOUGH

Apparently, it's the kind of place [*sniiiff*] that avoids any smooth, flat surfaces at all in the lower level bathrooms. But if the coat check isn't open, you could probably use that alcove/counter very easily. Bonus: the pool lounge bar...
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God Bless Japan And Its Insanely Patterned Kidswear

Wanting to dress their kids in wild, expensive, pattern-on-pattern clothing ensembles but unable to pronounce Oilily correctly (Hey, neither can I.) Japanese parents have many brand alternatives to turn to. Some of them are so over the top, they make...
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Congratulations, Thimerosal Crackpots! You Made The Times Front Page!

Precipitated, I guess, by Robert Kennedy's article in Rolling Stone/Salon, The NY Times waded into the "Thimerosal in vaccines causes autism" quagmire today. And the article leaves me imagining what'd happen if the paper had gone after other polarizing subjects...
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June 24, 2005

New Study: Home Births As Safe Or Safer Than Hospitals

Trading in its old-fashioned, written format, the NYT posted a 1-minute video report on a massive, new study of thousands of home births in the US and Canada. The result: for low-risk women, home births required far fewer medical interventions...
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RE: Your Wife's (&c.) Perineum

Perhaps the most uncomfortable moment in our pre-natal class was when the not-unsympathetic-but-still-all-business nurse instructed a roomful of pairs of strangers that we should include perineal massage like this--she then held her hand up, Heisman-style, and started working her fingers...
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Whoa. Lancet Throws Down Gauntlet for Dad Involvement, Research

Check out this quote from The Lancet announcement of Ramchandani, et al's recent findings on paternal postnatal depression:Fathers know that interaction with their babies is important. More and more young mothers and fathers want to take care of their infants...
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Daddy Types Question Spawns Int'l Male Postnatal Depression Awareness Movement

Since posting a new dad's question about male postpartum depression research and resources earlier in the week, the international medical community has been spurred into action. After studying 12,800 couples over the first few weeks after a birth, they found...
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June 23, 2005

"That is just precious. Kids are so funny and they don't even know it!"

OK, "precious" is not the first word that came to my mind. One toddler's inadvertent R-rated utterance. [via robotwisdom. R-rated? Isn't this what got Last Tango in Paris an X-rating?]...
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Time Magazine: 'No Nuts, Please'

Congratulations go first, to Heather, whose site, dooce.com, was recently named Coolest Motherhood Blog of 2005 by Time magazine, and to DotMoms, who gets a shoutout, too. To all those dad bloggers who didn't win this year, Time's editors remind...
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June 22, 2005

Christian Bale and His Graco SnugRide Car Seat

If you think I'd suggest choosing your baby gear based on which actor is photographed with it, I'd say you have me confused with InStyle magazine [and I'd also say you're something of a chump, let's face it]. No, I'm...
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Madonna Don't Preach

Dina Rabinovitch finally gets her lifelong dream: an interview with Madonna [well, a phoner, anyway]. But--surprise, surprise--the children's authoress and Kabbala water drinker's dodgy and/or canned replies are a huge letdown to an actual Jew. Madonna's children's books, it turns...
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Picky Eaters? Or My Kid The Kale Junkie

The NYT says that toddlers who are picky eaters might suffer some health and growth setbacks as a result. Except when they don't. And if it's encouraged or tolerated at a young age, picky eating habits can contiue to haunt...
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Pre-Natal Classes: Do You Want To Talk About It? No?

While searching around for dads and postpartum depression, I came across this study from Birth (Sept. 2000) which looks at how men approach prenatal classes and how the classes, in turn, affect their perspective on the kid's birth and afterwards....
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So Hypothetically, You Could Put A Man's DNA Into The Egg You Made From Stem Cells?

Hypothetically, yes. And if a gay couple used this technique to have a kid that was genetically related to both of them, stem cell-fighting religious activists' heads would explode with outrage? Hypothetically, yes. Study: Stem Cells Could Develop Into Eggs...
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Helllooo, Ladies!

According to this NPR story--which I heard half of this morning, something about how single mothers are to blame [??]--there are fewer boys being born in the US these days. I'm gonna tell you right now, your sons better not...
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And I Thought It Was Just Me

Someone told me about this report at dinner tonight, and whaddya know, Rebel Dad has it linked on his site (with its freshly renewed domain name. Welcome back, buddy). Starting with every parenting book published in the 1990's and still...
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June 21, 2005

Down With Male PPD: Do You Know Me?

A DT reader and new dad writes in with the following:Over the last few days I have to my surprise/chagrin/horror sunk into a depression and I was wondering if you had ever heard of other men experiencing what is traditionally...
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June 20, 2005

GoGo Kidz Travelmate: Airport Wheelies For Your Car Seat?

For all the hubbub in the media about equal parenting and dads changing diapers, taking leave, and getting more involved, you almost never hear about moms grabbing the car seat and hauling it around the airport. And that's fine. I'm...
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Kids Wanting To Meet Their Sperm Donating-'Dads'

And not just the Nobel-prize winning ones, either. The Chicago Tribune reports that as the first generations of anonymous sperm-donor babies reach adulthood, they're expressing unexpected interest in identifying--and contacting--their 'genetic dads.' The phenomenon has brought some changes to the...
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News From The Front: The Bugaboo Cupholder Wars

Yes, it's true, America saved Europe's butt in WWII; if it weren't for us*, they'd be speaking German in Holland right now.** And how do they repay us? By leaving the cupholders off their irresistable strollers? Danke schoen, indeed.*** Never...
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P. Daddy Loves His Baby Mammas, Hates Givin'em Money

As he explains in a post-hearing outburst to a NY Daily News gossip columnist, P. Diddy is a very involved baby daddy, and he still loves his baby mammas, even as one of them wins a $250K/yr child support judgment...
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Alpha Mom, Beta Publicist

Isabel Kallman and I probably have about one thought in common. At first blush, I probably would've thought a six-page profile in New York Magazine about me, my media empire, and my vast tracts of parenting expertise was a good...
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June 19, 2005

Sans-Serif? Sans-Any Sense of Decency or Responsibility!

If you've been hanging out at the mall a lot and wondering just what the heck has gotten into kids these days, because they're so out of control and their parents never seem to care, and this country's goin' to...
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Happy Father's Day

to all you dads, new dads, and dads-to-be out there. and a special shout to the military dads who are far from their families, and to the baby daddies who're fighting with their baby mommas, and to the dads in...
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June 17, 2005

Baby Bidets Will Take A While (I Hope You Can Hold It)

Presumably, by using plain, old toilet paper and not buying--or even making--baby wipes, you could save enough money to get a sweet, sweet bidet-equipped changing table. And after seeing the two options below, I'd have a hard time choosing; they're...
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IKEA Names

In the Pottery Barn Kids catalog baby name comments, Kaz wondered about people naming their kids after IKEA furniture. That reminded me of an article I saw last year about how IKEA comes up with their product names. Whether you...
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NYT Dad Goes Crazy For Nikon D50 Digital SLR Camera

Yeow, David Pogue, the NYT's tech guy, has gone monkey-crazy for the new Nikon D50 digital SLR camera, which offers "the same spectacular photos as the bestselling D70S--at a list-price of $750 (or as we call it around here, 1.03...
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One Father's Day Gift Idea: The Idaho Makeover

Don't know how I missed this one. My brother snapped this advertisement from North & Co., a fine local establishment specializing in "Quality & Tradition," in Sun Valley's town paper, the Idaho Mountain Express. The Father's Day offer: "Is...
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Home Workshop-made Baby Wipes

As Make's blog post notes, there are all kinds of sites that tell you how to make your own baby wipes by cutting a roll of paper towels and saturating it with a homebrew of solution. But when they give...
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I guess the lesson here is: use Craigslist

If you're going to run off with your kid instead of dropping her back at her mother's, don't try and raise money on the road by selling stuff on ebay. Cuz they'll getcha. Internet auction site helps track down suspected...
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June 16, 2005

We're From The Government, And We're Here To Help Cover Up A Giant Immunization Scandal

Thimerosal, ever heard of it? A preservative containing mercury compounds that was used in vaccines in the US until 2003, including some of the most commonly administered immunizations given to infants and children: Hep B, Haemophilus Influenza B, and diptheria-tetanus-pertussis...
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Boston Globe: "Dads are no longer the 'assistant parent'"

According to this Boston Globe headline, new generation of dads is apparently staying at the office longer, and handing the parenting chores over to Mom, where they belong. No more of this, "let me take over," and "here, let...
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Supernanny Superannoying

One thing the family vacation afforded us was a few minutes of Supernanny, a show about paralyzed parents standing in doorways while their children are disciplined by a surly-burly British woman. It's enough to make you want to scream at...
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Whose Nanny?

It's the happy shiny flipside of passive-aggressively treating your nanny like a housekeeper: "affluent parents facing growing demands on their time" are expanding the nanny's portfolio to include managing their own travel and events planning, remodeling, even putting the slides...
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June 14, 2005

They Don't Make NICU's Like They Used To, Fortunately

The Times had two stories recently that look back at old-school pediatrics; it's enough to make you want to hug your neo-natalogist, that's for sure. Sunday was the story of Dr. Martin A. Couney, aka The Incubator Doctor of Coney...
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Due Date For New Bugaboo Cameleon and Gecko: 'Sometime in September'

DT reader Michael just posted this in the comments on the new grey-market Micralite. Sounds like the era of importing your own Bugaboo Cameleon from Europe is coming to a close: "For what it's worth for anyone else dealing with...
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June 13, 2005

HoopDogz: Teach Your Child The Two Commandments

I have to say, I've been an admirer of Veggie Tales for a while--it's well-done and not stealth (usually), and independently produced, and it certainly raised the bar for religiously themed programming. [Remember all that hokey Hey Davey claymation from...
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Pottery Barn Kids Kids Names

I know people who've outfitted their entire nurseries in one fell swoop at Pottery Barn Kids. My sister-in-law, meanwhile, was just noticing the kids names used in monograms in the Summer 2005 PBK catalog that she was flipping through, and...
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Traveling with spotty web access. Talk Amongst Yourselves

Just one thing I did notice while we've been traveling on a family vacation: how your kids behave on a plane is almost secondary to how you behave on a plane w/r/t your kids. If you act like a petulant,...
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June 10, 2005

Have You Ever Heard of The Wiggles? heh

Those Australians are such dreamers, always pursuing some wacky, creative idea. Take these four friends [I believe they're called "mates" down there] who were studying to become preschool teachers when they decided to make something for kids, maybe a CD...
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Even The Gays Hate The Gays With Kids

The ever-friendly (and still child-free) Andy Towle points to a Gay City News columnist who complains that changing demographics are putting the kibbosh on Fire Island's traditional debauche: And there are too many blasted kids! Toddlers seem to have now...
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Baby DNA Kit: "The Ultimate Keepsake"

Because--except for locks of hair, umbilical cord stumps, cord blood, and the sheen of drool that now coats every surface of your house--there's never been a way to sample or store your baby's DNA "for your peace of mind" and...
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It's Montessori Time 6/11 at Kid O

I am a couple of days late in posting about this, sorry. Kid O, the west village shop which is one of the rare non-Montessori schools to offer the system's pedagogically gorgeous educational toys, is hosting Montessori seminars Saturday 6/11...
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June 9, 2005

Maxi-Cosi Cabrio Isofix (Yes, It's The Same As LATCH)

News from the Mount Olympus of the Baby Industrial Complex: Maxi Cosi will start selling the Cabrio, it's Stage 0 carseat [that's EU-talk for 0-8kg, or 0-9 months or so, although the Cabrio is actually designed for up to 13kg,...
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Cold Playback: One Dad's Delivery Room Portable Audio Solution

Sure, you could make your delivery room playlist together, but I pity the fool who's rocking, oblivious in his white iPod headphones while someone is screaming at him, justifiably incensed, begging for some ice chips. No, the delivery room is...
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June 8, 2005

"The best way to increase awareness of embryo adoption is controversy"

One supersized controversy with a side of controversy and a tall glass of controversy coming right up! Forget tomayto tomahto, and pick sides in the embryo adoption/embryo donation nomenclature battle. Why does it matter? Ask Barbara Walters if anyone knew...
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New VW Passat Wagon: Nowhere Today, Everywhere Tomorrow

Remember this day well, dear readers. Because you'll be telling your kids about it someday, and they won't believe you. "That," you'll say, "was the day when VW Passat Wagons only existed in pictures on the Internet, a day before...
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What Not To Get Him For Father's Day: A Daddy Type T-shirt

Yow, I don't know if it's all the nerds from Gizmodo or what, but all the daddy type t-shirts blew out of here in the last three days. I reordered, but it's not guaranteed that they'll arrive before Father's Day,...
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Chris Martin's Picks: Music To Give Birth By

Even though she's now a total groupie, following the band around on tour, Apple has apparently not heard her dad's new album. Answering a shameless reporter's question, Chris Martin replied, "She prefers an Icelandic band called Sigur Ros to Coldplay....
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Paternal Instinct, or Gay Surrogacy Adoption: The Movie

The Times has a warm, fuzzy review of documentary filmmaker Murray Nossel's latest work, Paternal Instinct, which follows a gay couple of ten years in NYC and the Maine woman who helps them have a child through surrogate adoption. Nossel...
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June 7, 2005

Rosie O'Donnell Not A Breast Man

News from the People's Popular Breast Liberation Front Of Judea: According to someone who attended yesterday's nurse-in at ABC's Columbus Avenue studio complex, The View continues trying to grow its audience 150 angry breastfeeders at a time by unleashing more...
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ABC: No One Wants To See Breasts (Except on Desperate Housewives, Sundays at 9PM Eastern, on ABC)

When Barbara Walters kvetched to her posse on The View about having to see a woman breastfeeding on the plane, some other Viewster was like, "Ew, I'm so embarassed when I have to nurse," and the rest go, "Yay, she...
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June 6, 2005

Cool Baby Store Names?

So Luke & Loz are in Sydney and are expecting their first kid in September. Never mind the kid's name, that's no big deal. But Luke emailed asking for suggestions or advice on naming the kids store they're planning to...
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June 5, 2005

Herman Miller 10% Off Thru 6/18, Including New Eames Rockers

Herman Miller recently reissued the classic Eames Rocker (RAR) with a high-impact molded plastic shell instead of the original fiberglass. It retails for $525, and RetroModern.com usually discounts it to $379, but from June 4-18, they're offering another 10% off...
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Citibabes: Making a Difference, Changing Lives

There are so many incredible, worthy institutions whose tireless efforts helping children and moms in need happen far from the spotlight of the fickle media. Take, for example, the United Nations, that ramshackle little non-profit with the ambitious name on...
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June 4, 2005

What's A Transitional Object, You Ask?

It could be a blankie, a bear, a towel, a bottle of Jack, whatever a kid needs to get herself to sleep, the anchor that helps ease the development of her distinct sense of self apart from her parents. According...
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Penn Jillette Names Daughter Moxie

Moxie, what do you think of Moxie? And what about the middle name? If there are any readers named Crimefighter, feel free to chime in. [update: make that CrimeFighter. My bad. "Teller had no comment on the new arrival." heh]...
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June 3, 2005

Note To Preschool PR Directors: You Don't Want To Expel The Angry Writer's Kid

The day that Yale report on off-the-charts preschool expulsions came out, author/dad Neal Pollack and his wife got the call from their kid's school that they needed a meeting. The 2-year-old just got the boot from the school, and now...
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Baby Names For, By Architects

Who knew? Archinect is one of the leading sites for architecture news, schools, resources, interviews, critical blah blah blah, you name it. So when they're not bitching about the low salaries, long hours, spotlight-hogging starchitect bosses and Daniel Libeskind's glasses,...
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Father's Day Wish Suggestion List?

I was going to do another Father's Day Gift Suggestions list, but frankly, all I want is eight more hours a day to use as I see fit. Anyone out there have ideas? Dads-to-be and baby daddies are welcome. Colin?...
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Colin Farrell Shows Off His Stroller Savvy

Any hard-partyin' Irish baby daddy man-ho can push a stroller. But how many men can heft a stroller and a kid--without ashing on him--all while delivering an Oscar-worthy impersonation of mid-90's tennis champ Patrick Rafter? That's what I thought....
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The Peanut, by Danny Gregory: The Cruise

In this chapter of The Peanut, writer/illustrator Danny Gregory's serialized saga of impending fatherhood, he and his wife Patti meet their new OB and go on a Christmas cruise with their extended Jewish family. No Chinese food is mentioned, but...
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I-Care Bear: The Another Cell Phone for Babies

The Taiwanese company Guidetek Technology has released its cell phone for 3-year-olds, the I-Care. It has four parent-programmable buttons, one on each paw. It seems to have fewer features than the Firefly, the other Cell Phone For Kids, but the...
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Yes, We Deliver

One of the best things about living in NYC is that you can get almost anything you want delivered to your home. And that includes babies. The NY Times reports that the small midwife community in the city is keeping...
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June 2, 2005

Whole Foods, 250 Seventh Avenue at W 24th St - YES

The restrooms are between the freezer and dairy sections, but they're in an employee-only zone. What that means: customers must have an employee escort, who'll cheerily wait outside the bathroom for you. No pressure....
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What's In Sheep's Meadow: Xplory, Quinny Zapp, Bugaboos--and Skiphop

I took the kid to the park yesterday (my wife's been away for a conference, and I've been flying solo), and we played in Sheep's Meadow, which, on a weekday afternoon, should be renamed Baby's Meadow. The kid didn't freak...
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The Orbit Infant System: For When James Bond Has A Kid

Bugaboo, Xplory, Zapp... There's so much out-of-the-box stroller thinking going on these days, I wonder if anyone's left in the box. The latest example: the upcoming Orbit Infant System, an amazing, high-tech carrier/car seat stroller which'd be more at home...
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FYI: Your 'daddy type' T-shirt Will Be Mailed In A Plain White Envelope

Alex Kuczynski is paid cash money to go to stores and write about them for The New York Times. This makes her the most hated woman among women in the city. She was recently creeped out by the skeevy photos...
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The Nobel Sperm Bank: "No Happy Ending"

Slate's David Plotz first wrote about the Repository for Germinal Choice online. It was a sperm bank founded to propagate the genes of Nobel Prize winners, serving the creme de la creme de la creme, if you will, to demanding...
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June 1, 2005

What's Up With All The Snaps? McSweeney's and My Mom Want To Know

I got a call a few weeks ago from my mother. She didn't say "hello," she said, "I've got it figured out. There are too many snaps." Umm... She'd just finished changing the kid's cousin's diaper, and she was fed...
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O'Pair, The "More Socially Acceptable" Alternative To Child Leashing

You'd think that, what with Army mom Lynndie England's massive product shot, there's never been a greater awareness of the versatility of leashing. So I was a little shocked to see O'Pair described as "a more socially acceptable and safe...
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Reupholster Your Bjorn: 'Naturally The Camo Is For Dads,'

I may not have the quote quite right, but I think it was Churchill who said the Bjorn is the worst baby carrier we have, except for all the rest. If you're wedded to the Bjorn, but you have real...
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New Native Baby Sling Carrier: Hacker Tested, Rocker Approved

Rusty, Perl hacker, guru of the tech-culture-news site Kuro5hin.org, and new dad, has this to say about the New Native Baby Carrier, which ex-Pavement singer Stephen Malkmus was sporting at a recent NYC art opening:The Stephen Malkmus-approved New Native don't-call-it-a-sling...
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