January 24, 2009

Wondertime's Up

AdAge reports that Disney has smothered its adorable 3-year-old parenting magazine Wondertime in its crib. Ad revenues grew 20% in 2008, and circulation was around 400,000--very advanced for its age. But apparently, the company doesn't believe in happy endings anymore--or...
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Posted by greg at 9:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2009

Full Stop? Right Start To Close, Taking BabyStyle & Tiny Ride With It

I have to give babystyle credit, they were a trendsetter, even when it came to going out of business. The blog StrollerInfo.com has posted a suspiciously detailed "anonymous tip" reporting that this morning the baby gear retailer Right Start--which bought...
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Posted by greg at 4:03 PM | Comments (0)

DT Freakout Friday: Belgium Edition

Sorry, there's nothing to freak out about here this weekend. Unless you're the one having to deal with my blog server. Or unless you drop the kid off at Belgian daycare. YYYYOOOOWWWW....
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Posted by greg at 2:27 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2009

So What Are Congress And The JPMA Saying About CPSIA?

We're just three weeks away from the CPSIA-induced small business apocalypse. Will Obama save us? Will Congress? Will the JPMA? The short answer to each of those questions is easy: nobody knows! The longer answers: On Tuesday, within hours of...
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Posted by greg at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2009

Family Services Assures Us There Are Worse Things Than Naming Your Kid Adolf Hitler

And I'm pretty sure they don't mean giving your kid an unpersonalized birthday cake. Still, New Jersey's Youth and Family Services agency is not giving the reasons for removing recently discriminated-against birthday boy Adolf Hitler Campbell and his two slightly...
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Posted by greg at 1:18 PM | Comments (0)

January 9, 2009

DTGIFriday Freakout

What alarming, preliminary research are we supposed to use to revamp our failed parenting this week, you ask? Your kid doesn't have a peanut allergy. No one does. They just have over-sensitive yuppie parents. That's the result of a study...
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Posted by greg at 9:45 PM | Comments (5)

January 8, 2009

CPSC Tells Junksellers: CPSIA Is Not The Big One, We're Not Coming For You

The CPSC says the "clarification" issued today about the new CPSIA lead-testing regulations which go into effect Feb. 10. is "Intended for Resellers of Children's Products, Thrift and Consignment Stores." But it's also great news for thrifters, eBay sellers, craigslisters,...
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Posted by greg at 6:25 PM | Comments (2)

BBC Reports That Pink Princess Thing Does Not Change Girls' DNA

So apparently, girls only like pink, and so that's all the "marketeers" give them. How did this come about? No one knows, but the BBC says it has something to do with Hitler and the gays. There's nothing to be...
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Posted by greg at 11:59 AM | Comments (8)

January 6, 2009

She's A Children's Product! Burn Her!

I want to fix the CPSIA, the CPSC's new lead testing law, and save all the various children's product industries from regulation-induced bankruptcy and collapse on February 10th as much as the next guy. But I would like to do...
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Posted by greg at 12:18 AM | Comments (3)

January 5, 2009

Allied Troops Did Not Pull Out Of Rouen In Time

Nearly two months after D-Day, Allied troops entered Rouen, France on August 30th, 1944 to little German resistance and, apparently, to the jubilant embraces of the grateful crowds. At least it was apparent to Ralph Morse who, in the...
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Posted by greg at 8:14 AM | Comments (1)

January 2, 2009

Turns Out Babies Are Born Inflight All The Time

It's only on slow news days that they get worldwide media attention. Here is a roundup of news, background, and data about babies born on airplanes: In 2007, a British woman gave birth at 25 weeks on a flight from...
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Posted by greg at 9:43 PM | Comments (1)

Waitaminnit, That Baby Born On The Northwest Flight Is NOT Canadian

OK, so on New Years Eve, an 8.5 mos pregnant Ugandan woman--and US resident--was on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Boston. By the time flight attendants called for any doctors traveling onboard to help with a medical emergency,...
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Posted by greg at 5:28 PM | Comments (3)

Oddly, Plummeting Milk Prices Doesn't Result In Plummeting Formula Prices

There's apparently a milk glut on, thanks to the depression, and growing stockpiles of powdered milk:The price of powdered skim milk, used in infant formula, dairy products and processed foods, has fallen to roughly 80 cents a pound today from...
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Posted by greg at 5:12 PM | Comments (1)

December 28, 2008

A. "Just Give'em Benadryl."

So you're a pharmaceutical industry executive. And not only has the FDA muscled you into a "voluntary" withdrawal from the lucrative children's over-the-counter cold & flu medicine market. But your leading antihistamine brand is also the default, one-word punchline for...
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Posted by greg at 11:25 PM | Comments (2)

December 26, 2008

DT Freakout Friday: Robots Edition

It's an abbreviated Freakout Friday, which focuses only on the most pressing ways we're ruining our kids, as extrapolated from preliminary research: Should we let robots take care of our children? Because, uh, hello, they already are. That's the ethical...
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Posted by greg at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2008

Day Care Joins List Of Things No One Can Afford Anymore

We interrupt this stream of over-elaborate, handmade doll house posts to bring you this important breaking news: half the parents in the Washington DC area are pulling their kids out of daycare and dropping them at grandma's or the neighbor's...
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Posted by greg at 8:49 AM | Comments (4)

December 19, 2008

DT Freakout Friday: Wasilla Edition

No, I didn't backdate this list of alarming parenting conclusions drawn from preliminary or narrow scientific research; it was just freaking you out so bad last night, you blocked it from your mind: Unmarried fathers who were involved in prenatal...
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Posted by greg at 11:48 PM | Comments (1)

Science: Dinosaurs Were Claws-On Baby Daddies

A team of paleontologists have used an innovative statistical analysis comparing fossil leg bone characteristics to living, primitive birds like emus and rheas to show that male dinosaurs helped incubate eggs and care for their young. The study is published...
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Posted by greg at 10:41 AM | Comments (1)

December 18, 2008

CPSIAm So Screwed! Update: What Can Be Done NOW To Fix The New CPSC Lead Testing Law?

Good news for the small children's manufacturers, handmade toy and clothing makers, etsy crafters, and everyone else about to be driven out of business by the exorbitant cost of the CPSC's expansive lead testing regulations that go into effect next...
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Posted by greg at 10:02 PM | Comments (3)

December 15, 2008

And Now It's Springform For Hitler In Germantown

Let the record show that no one puts a kid's full name on a grocery store birthday cake. And you also know that when little Adolf Hitler Campbell's parents' cake order at the ShopRite was refused, there was no...
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Posted by greg at 9:19 PM | Comments (8)

December 12, 2008

DT Freakout Friday: Watch Your Head! Edition

Let's see what too quickly drawn parenting conclusions the scientists and sociologists and such have to ruin this weekend with, shall we? First up, etsy.com sellers have finally gotten the news of the CPSC's new lead testing bomb that's set...
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Posted by greg at 10:52 PM | Comments (3)

December 10, 2008

Is CPSC's New Lead Regulation Going To Wipe Out The Baby Non-Industrial Complex Next February?

It figures, doesn't it? You wait decades for the Consumer Products Safety Commission to finally get some legislative spine, and what happens? Their brand new lead testing regulations drive every maker of children's products--except for Mattel and Dorel--out of business...
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Posted by greg at 2:04 PM | Comments (24)

December 9, 2008

Chuck E. Cheese: "Something Out Of A Quentin Tarantino Film..."

At the kid's preschool's winter fair over the weekend, I was talking to another parent who had been disturbed by all the shooting games at Chuck E. Cheese. "Well, maybe if they aim at Chuck E. Cheese," I said, just...
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Posted by greg at 8:41 AM | Comments (1)

December 7, 2008

WTF? WTFstralia Arrests Guy For Uploading WTFistani Babyswinging Video

Yeah, so that insane video of that random foreigner guy swinging that baby like a rag doll that was posted to YouTube for a couple of hours? The guy who originally posted it, a liveleak.com user with the name biggles9,...
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Posted by greg at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)

December 5, 2008

DT WTF Friday: Texas Edition

From East Texas, the four top ways not to quiet a 13-month old baby who cries like she's possessed, presented in the wrong, wrong wrong order: 1. Exorcism, amateur 2. Biting the kid back 20 times 3. Smashing the kid's...
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Posted by greg at 12:17 PM | Comments (11)

DT Freakout Friday: No Strollers, No Peace Edition

What's the baby and parenting world coming to? Well for one thing, if you joke about the Obama inauguration's stroller ban to a Washington Post reporter, a hundred irate strangers will email you, calling you a shallow, self-centered parent so...
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Posted by greg at 9:35 AM | Comments (3)

December 4, 2008

It's Hard Out There For A Bratz

You know, people bitch and moan about the out-of-control litigiousness of the American corporate landscape, and particularly intellectual property laws and the stranglehold rabid trial lawyers pursuing frivolous copyright infringement cases have on good old-fashioned creativity. But then you read...
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Posted by greg at 9:48 PM | Comments (10)

November 28, 2008

DT Freakout Friday: Thanks A Lot Edition

Some alarming news and way-too-preliminary research to be thankful for this week: Thanks a lot, FDA, for the giant hit to your credibility about this whole melanine-in-baby-formula thing. I was all prepared to be all, "Bah, melamine-tainted formula is a...
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Posted by greg at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2008

Bear Claws Cat Fight

Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher is being taken to court by his baby mama because the 3-year-old boy comes home with Cinderella pull-ups and Bears Blue toenail polish on. Frankly, I think the woman's crazy; the kid wore nighttime pullups...
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Posted by greg at 11:43 PM | Comments (1)

November 20, 2008

Morigeauing, Geauing, Gone. Canadian Baby Industrial Complex Just Got Smaller

Morigeau Lepine is--whoops, make that was. Morigeau Lepine was an old-line baby furniture manufacturer in Quebec, which had been in business for over sixty years. The family-owned company suddenly closed its factory doors last Friday and laid off its...
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Posted by greg at 8:20 PM | Comments (2)

November 19, 2008

JFK: President Elect, New Dad

I never realized that JFK Jr. was born a few weeks after JFK won the election. Life photographer Al Fenn had a series of crowded candids with the president-elect and new dad in the hallways of Georgetown Hospital in...
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Posted by greg at 11:51 AM | Comments (1)

November 18, 2008

Fake Circumciser's Ad In Turkey

Now I'm sure that WPP/Grey didn't get to be largest ad agency in the world by turning away work. But you cannot convince me that the Grey Healthcare office in Istanbul actually got paid cash money to produce a...
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Posted by greg at 1:44 PM | Comments (1)

November 17, 2008

Twitstorm Erupts After Motrin Ad Mocks Babywearing

So you leave the office Friday from your job as the account exec of the Motrin online account, and you think things are going fine. Then you get in Monday to find out that a mob of Twittering mombloggers has...
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Posted by greg at 12:32 PM | Comments (9)

At-Home MacGyver Helps Fire-Stricken Strangers In OC

A minivan, some scrap wood, some zip ties, a Sharpie, a desire to help, and an at-home parent's keep-it-together-through-the-day expertise is all [sic] Paul Prunty needed to help out a whole neighborhood of people chased from their homes by fire...
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Posted by greg at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2008

Fort Bragg Has A Surge Of Its Own

I know what you did starting last fall, 82nd Airborne. The entire division of the US Army was deployed to Iraq for The Surge last summer, and now it seems that births are up 50 percent at the on-base medical...
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Posted by greg at 8:44 PM | Comments (1)

November 12, 2008

Hey, Neighbor! We Heard You Had A Baby!

The NY Times' Julie Scelfo reports that thanks to Ricki Lake's documentary about having her baby in her bathtub in the West Village, home births are all cool now in the city. And not just among "hippie freaks or religious...
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Posted by greg at 10:25 PM | Comments (2)

November 9, 2008

Obamadorable Photos From The Night Before In Manassas, Virginia

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } P1040550, originally uploaded by nvidutis. The time will probably come when I'll lose interest in...
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Posted by greg at 5:56 PM | Comments (2)

November 7, 2008

HAHAHAHAnnah Montana THAT, Baby! Club Libby Lu Is Closing!

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } 20080823-DSC_9401, originally uploaded by JimSneddon So awesome. Club Libby Lu is closing all its stores....
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Posted by greg at 6:34 PM

November 4, 2008

With Kumar Nowhere In Sight, Harold Heads To The Delivery Room

Really? John Cho had a kid? There seems to have been a couple of mentions that they were expecting in April, but then nothing. Mazel tov to him, his wife, and their new son, who Cho cites as the reason...
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Posted by greg at 11:06 AM | Comments (2)

October 31, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: Spooked Edition

Happy Halloween! Just in case there wasn't enough to be scared about besides gay people getting married on the beach; Communist Muslim Terrorist Presidents winning in a landslide; lamp post-shimmying Phillies fans dropping from the sky; and the paralytic spasms...
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Posted by greg at 7:39 PM | Comments (6)

October 30, 2008

Quirky International Adoption Countries Have Own Complications, Laws

International adoption has been booming of late, and it turns out to be a complex, ever-changing landscape fraught with cultural differences, legal and ethical dilemmas, and emotional trials. So naturally, the best way to understand this phenomenon is through the...
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Posted by greg at 1:22 PM | Comments (1)

October 25, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: Uh, Better Late Than Never? Edition

You know, these days it just seems like there's no shortage of things to freakout over--but here are a few more kid- and parenting-related bits of news and research to ruin your weekend quicker'n a rainstorm at the World Series:...
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Posted by greg at 9:41 PM | Comments (2)

October 22, 2008

WHOA, Is Sarah Palin's Stylist Also Paris Hilton's Stylist?

UPDATE: Lisa Kline says not. Or at least Lisa Kline's publicist does. I spoke with Lisa Kline of Beverly Hills' publicist, who said that, while she wishes she could take the publicity, it's not her Lisa Kline. In fact,...
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Posted by greg at 8:21 PM | Comments (9)

Here's The Tiny, Adorable Scoop On Trig Palin's GOP Shopping Spree

"I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854 So as part of their report on Sarah Palin's $150,000 Neiman Marcus makeover funded by the...
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Posted by greg at 12:18 PM | Comments (5)

October 21, 2008

Palin Comparison

A couple of news stories about Sarah Palin and her family get me thinking a bit about how differently our culture--or at least the media and the people who parrot it--treat men and women in the same job. Politico reports...
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Posted by greg at 9:16 PM | Comments (15)

Chest-Painted Dads For Palin

Sure, Sarah Palin's totally unqualified to be president, but to the meatheads at her rallies, she's still a TUTBPILF. The NYT reports on another surefire place to go to avoid hipster baby names [two words: Maverick Maverick]: "Katie Couric...
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Posted by greg at 12:34 PM | Comments (7)

October 17, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: WTFormula Edition

Here, let me ruin your parenting weekend with worry and annoyances torn from the headlines and the annals of way-too-preliminary research: "HEY MOMS!" Holy crap, Similac's new pack could be the greatest thing since Nabisco Double Stuff Oreo-flavored formula, but...
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Posted by greg at 10:16 PM | Comments (7)

October 10, 2008

DT Freakout Of Town Edition

We're traveling this weekend, landed in Las Vegas late last night, drive-thru In 'n Out, and on to St George, Utah for a little volcano hiking and grandparent time. Posting will be a little light, or at least a little...
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Posted by greg at 3:19 PM | Comments (3)

October 4, 2008

DT Friday Freakout [On Saturday]: One Of Those Days Edition

Yeah yeah, you don't need to tell me that the Friday Freakout is late; it was one of those Fridays. On the bright side, the kid is as giddy as a schoolgirl about going to preschool now. And on the...
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Posted by greg at 5:13 PM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: $700 Billion Dollars Worth Edition

Obviously, any freaking out you want to do over parenting and kid-related research pales in comparison to the seemingly thrown-together bailout of the global financial system. So let's cover that first, since our kids will still be paying for it...
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Posted by greg at 11:39 PM | Comments (4)

September 19, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: Coming Soon Edition

I'm sure this week's Freakout will involve the ever-expanding poisoned Chinese formula crisis; BPA--especially in liquid formula cans, not that you can realistically avoid it completely anyway--the asthma risk associated with kids taking paracetamol--fortunately, we use acetominophen in this country,...
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Posted by greg at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2008

Too Much Pressure

We really like Dr. T. Berry Brazelton's Touchpoints books; they present research findings and what Brazelton looks for in child development in a very approachable, useful way. Now it turns out Brazelton ["and his colleague Dr. Josh Sparrow," gotta plan...
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Posted by greg at 1:10 PM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2008

You Say Football Net, I Say Soccer Net, CPSC Finally Says It's A Freakin' Deathtrap, Get Rid Of It

Almost 200,000 MacGregor and Mitre toy soccer goals of death have been sold in the US since 2002. But now the CPSC has issued a recall, following news that a 21-month-old boy died while trying to climb one. I should...
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Posted by greg at 2:14 PM | Comments (8)

September 5, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: The Vacctivists Aren't Gonna Like This Edition

Somehow in the din of CPSC recall and safety warnings last week, I missed a formal Friday Freakout. But don't worry, here's some news from the worlds of preliminary studies you can freak out over this weekend: The connection between...
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Posted by greg at 11:47 AM | Comments (1)

September 3, 2008

Celebrities Are Cheap Bastards, And Vice Versa

Damn, I have a whole bagful of shhht! with all these names on it, and it still ain't enough:A source [!] close to the Beverly Hills baby store Petit Tresor [!!] tells CelebTV.com [?] exclusively that a gift from Plain...
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Posted by greg at 3:29 PM | Comments (3)

September 2, 2008

Heckuva Job, SFCA! Simplicity Bassinets Of Death Still On Sale--From The "New" Simplicity

The scale of the danger posed by Simplicity's 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 bassinets is becoming clearer: over 900,000 bassinets have been sold with a dangerous design flaw that has led to at least two strangulation deaths in the last year. And...
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Posted by greg at 4:50 PM | Comments (2)

August 29, 2008

Those Don't Sound Like Working Class Names To Me

First off as an Obama man myself, and not knowing anything at all about her before today, I must say Sarah Palin seems like an excellent VP pick for John McCain. Were they to win the election, I would hope...
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Posted by greg at 5:21 PM | Comments (12)

Big Phil & Teds Recall: Better Get That Folding Joint Fixed Chop-Chop!

Hey, is the CPSC muscling in on my Friday Freakout action? Regal Lager, the US distributor of Phil & Teds strollers, has issued a voluntary recall in conjunction with the CPSC covering a whopping 44,000 strollers. They're not a threat...
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Posted by greg at 1:39 PM | Comments (5)

August 28, 2008

After Two Strangulations And Corporate Shrugging, CPSC Orders Retailers Pull Simplicity Co-Sleepers Off Market

Normally when a product is found to cause injury or death, the Consumer Product Safety Commission works with the manufacturer to issue a recall and provide either a fix or a replacement product. But when two kids in the...
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Posted by greg at 11:26 PM | Comments (6)

August 22, 2008

DT Friday Freakout's A Freakout, Except They Call It Le Freakout Edition

I had so much fun poring through the months-long buildup to the recent decision by the French government to ban television channels and programming that targets 0-3 year-olds--or as they're adorably called in French officialdom, "les tous petits." I mean,...
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Posted by greg at 7:30 PM | Comments (1)

August 21, 2008

Liberte! Egalite! Pas De Bebe Tele!

The High Audiovisual Council of France has banned television programs targeting kids under 3 years of age because of the developmental risks posed by exposure of babies to screen media. The ban was precipitated by the 24-hr baby TV networks,...
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Posted by greg at 11:24 AM | Comments (1)

August 20, 2008

Corporal Punishment Study Finds A Large, Reddish Welt On America's Freshly Whooped Ass

And all this time, I've been putting the accent on Bible, when I should've been putting it on Belt. Still, it answers a question that's had me stumped since elementary school in North Carolina. Whipping was every week, right...
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Posted by greg at 2:40 PM | Comments (6)

August 16, 2008

Visionary Obama, Protector Of American Children, Threatens To Ban All Chinese-Made Toys

Finally, a leader who refuses to pander to the giant corporations and foreign demons who threaten the greatness of this Nation! On December 19th, at a campaign appearance in Concord, NH, Senator Barack Obama boldly answered a citizen's question--a question...
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Posted by greg at 1:52 PM | Comments (7)

August 13, 2008

Dear Marketers, Please Keep Ignoring Dads. Please, Please, Please.

So Adweek has a rather lengthy, in-depth article on how consumer products and food companies are totally ignoring men, even though data shows significant increases in the number of men who do things like cook, clean, and shop. I happen...
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Posted by greg at 10:23 PM | Comments (4)

August 8, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: Or Do You Prefer McFreakout Edition?

Here's a host of alarming research and news stories to shake you out of your parenting habits. After all, I'd hate for you to go the whole weekend only worrying about how you can fit a Chinese-style, 500-foot long LED...
[read the full post...]
Posted by greg at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

August 5, 2008

Kung Fu Pander: McCain Threatens To Ban All Chinese-Made Toys

Don't know how I missed this, from an April 2008 Bloomberg report of a John McCain townhall meeting in Youngstown, Ohio:"I have to tell you, if I were president of the United States, the next toy that came into this...
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Posted by greg at 4:51 PM | Comments (25)

NY Mag Should Talk To Their Nanny Before Posting

Why's that newborn baby smiling in that $14 million picture? NY Mag say: "We Call Photoshop on the 'People' Pics of the Brangelina Twins" Here at Daddy Types, we call gas. Meanwhile, if Shiloh challenges your kid to a...
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Posted by greg at 11:28 AM | Comments (6)

July 25, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: Soy Formula In A Plastic Bottle On A Granite Countertop Edition

Where to start ruining your weekend? With a trip to Target to stock up on totally-safe-after-all plastic bottles, or with a trip to Home Depot to get a home radiation testing kit for your granite counter? The NY Times article...
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Posted by greg at 6:38 PM | Comments (1)

DT On Location: And In Local Crazy And/Or Parenting News...

When it comes to bullet points, I'm a traditionalist: the minimum is three. Unfortunately, this week the Utah media have only been able to come up with two wacked out parents stories. So I made the parenting angle optional....
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Posted by greg at 9:33 AM | Comments (6)

July 14, 2008

Hold That Self-Righteous Mob, Chicago, This Cage-Dad Coverage Sucks

"Nothing about the outside of Ricardo Gonzalez's deep blue Land Rover tells there's a homemade jail inside, where his two young daughters were completely immobilized in tight seats covered with straps, just like an electric chair." Can you ever imagine...
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Posted by greg at 10:20 AM | Comments (17)

July 13, 2008

Hippie Directive: Deliver Plant To Apple Superiors

So how's it going for the hippie farmers who want to teach the world to sing, and furnish it with iPhone 3G's, grow apple trees, and save the honey bees on the snowy White House lawn? [cue Mr. Burns...
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Posted by greg at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)

July 8, 2008

Hippie Farmers, Kid, Camp Out For iPhones, Publicity

I don't see what the mystery is, GearDiary: some hippies have figured out a simple, 4-step plan for saving the earth: 1) Solicit donations and email addresses for a non-existent non-profit with a TBD mission statement ["#1: Draft mission statement...
[read the full post...]
Posted by greg at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)

July 4, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: Mom & Apple Pie Edition

Scientists and researchers are always coming up with something for parents to celebrate. Here are some freakouts as American as gatekeeper moms and McDonald's apple pies: Actually, this one doesn't have to be a freakout. A psychology study by researchers...
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Posted by greg at 10:14 PM | Comments (1)

June 25, 2008

That's Right, The Right Start Is Seeking To Buy Babystyle

An anonymous commenter just left an unconfirmed comment about the future of babystyle, so take it for what it's worth:I heard through the grapevine that The Right Start is supposed to buy Babystyle on July 8th. There is a court...
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Posted by greg at 12:15 AM | Comments (5)

June 17, 2008

Iowa City Bugaboo Daytrips, Anyone?

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Iowa City Flood 6/10/2008, originally uploaded by onanov. DT reader Carl emailed:I was just searching...
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Posted by greg at 9:12 AM | Comments (1)

June 13, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: Food, Or The Lack Thereof Edition

Whew, for a while there, I was wondering if there wasn't going to be anything to freak out about over the weekend. I shouldn't have worried. Because the NY Attorney General delivered by announcing going after two drugstore chains--Rite-Aid and...
[read the full post...]
Posted by greg at 4:33 PM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2008

Don't Call Them Token: Dadbloggers Rap On NPR

Tuesday is normally Mocha Moms day on Tell Me More, NPR's daily talk show with Michel Martin; it's as if The View were just about parenting, and just happened to be black. It's also the kind of chitchat that gets...
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Posted by greg at 10:46 PM | Comments (2)

June 8, 2008

DT Friday Freaked Out: Extra Art Edition

Whoa, Azerbaijani dad-to-be working as a museum guard who should have been talking to someone instead of slashing a painting by one of my favorite artists with his keys:A former Carnegie Museum of Art guard charged with vandalizing a...
[read the full post...]
Posted by greg at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)

June 6, 2008

Freakout Friday: All Week Long Edition

Sheesh, after sitting on some of these alarming findings all week, I am freaked out: Childhood cancer rates are highest in Northeast, study finds. higher by like 7%, too: 179/million vs 166/million average. Must be all that liberal health care...
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Posted by greg at 10:12 AM | Comments (3)

May 30, 2008

The DT Friday Freakout: BPA, Pb, BC, TKO, CA

Just some of the latest stuff you don't need to worry your pretty little head over this weekend--unless you want to be a good parent, that is: A woman in Arkansas is seeking class action status for her federal...
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Posted by greg at 3:25 PM | Comments (2)

May 29, 2008

NYC Pre-K SNAFU WTF?

Except for the part about thousands of parents getting thousands of letters telling them their kids didn't get into any of the programs of their choice, I can't figure out what the hell is going on with the NYC Schools'...
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Posted by greg at 9:06 AM | Comments (3)

May 28, 2008

Yow. Brooklyn Playground Graffiti Is Edgy

In Manhattan, the public playgrounds are full of Tibetan nannies. In Brooklyn, they're full of chalk-scrawled declarations to, "Free Tibet, Bitch!" and "You can smack people with the swing." Try working that into the pre-school application essay. Tot Lot Graffiti...
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Posted by greg at 11:34 PM | Comments (1)

May 27, 2008

Make Way For Ducklings To Not Get Sucked Down The Drain, Smithsonian

Ten little ducklings, swimming in the pool. Because the National Museum of the American Indian thought it'd be cool. Five little ducklings sucked into the drain. Fourth or fifth time? Well, it happened again. Little Aussie children were "standing there...
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Posted by greg at 10:51 AM | Comments (3)

May 14, 2008

Boston Likes Its Local Parent Sites The Way It Likes Its Baseball: Totally Nutless

You gotta give them credit for sticking to the concept; when the Boston Globe created its local parenting website/community, they named it "BoMoms: for moms in Boston & beyond." And damned if it isn't the girliest girl talky girl...
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Posted by greg at 9:09 AM | Comments (9)

May 8, 2008

Virginia Is For Lovers, Staten Island Is For Wives

Congratulations to Congressman Vito Fossella, Republican [surprised?] of Staten Island, on the birth of his daughter. Three years ago. To his mistress. Who bailed him out of a Virginia jail over the weekend after his arrest for drunk driving. Mrs...
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Posted by greg at 12:41 PM | Comments (3)

May 7, 2008

DT Headline Roundup: First, The Bad Ideas Edition

So a family from Northern Ireland goes to Portugal for a little vacation, by the evening, the parents are puking, the kids [ages 6, 2, and 1] are in protective custody, and there's a court appearance set for drunken...
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Posted by greg at 7:43 AM | Comments (0)

May 5, 2008

Hey Baby Gear Makers, JPMA Missing Something Here?

Why is your company still a JPMA member? Because I am a Wharton MBA who's been following the baby/parent industry closely for the last five years, and I really can't figure it out. The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association is...
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Posted by greg at 4:07 PM | Comments (1)

May 1, 2008

JPMA: We Are 100% Behind BPA. Until We're Not.

I totally forgot to post this earlier this week. At first glance, this press release from the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association might seem like one more mindlessly self-serving, knee-jerk response to a damning front page article in the Washington Post...
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Posted by greg at 5:07 PM | Comments (1)

April 27, 2008

WP: BPA Caper Being Blown Wide Open

The Washington Post apparently wants some of that think-of-the-children Pulitzer Pie the Chicago Tribune's been having. They have another front page story on BPA and the health risk it poses to infants and pre-pubescent kids, even at extremely low levels...
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Posted by greg at 1:38 PM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2008

Apt. For Rent: No Pets, No Preggies, No Shorties

What is the world coming to when a yuppie couple expecting their first kid can't rent an apartment in Brooklyn? A stuck-in-Manhattan couple has filed a class-action discrimination lawsuit against Brown Harris Stevens claiming the brokerage refused to show them...
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Posted by greg at 5:01 PM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2008

Hey LA County, Is It Still Co-Sleeping When You Pass Out?

So LA County's Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect [ICAN] wanted some attention for their 2008 Child Death Review Report, and they got it. The front¢er recommendation--the only recommendation, in fact--is that "co-sleeping" is a "potentially lethal act." Of...
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Posted by greg at 5:12 PM | Comments (4)

April 23, 2008

Give Up Yet? 10X Lead Found In Playground Astroturf

If you thought Jimmy Hoffa's corpse was the only thing contaminating that New Jersey soccer field, think again. State environmental officials have found lead levels in artificial turf that are up to 10 times the toxic threshold for dirt&grass. But...
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Posted by greg at 1:46 PM | Comments (2)

April 17, 2008

JPMA Gives BPA Bottle-Making Self A Big Safety Hug

Ah, glad that's all cleared up. The Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association, whose members make the Bisphenol-A-laden baby bottles, and the BPA epoxy-lined formula cans, have created a valuable, informative website, babybottle.org, to reassure anyone who's listening that bottles containing BPA...
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Posted by greg at 5:16 PM | Comments (10)

April 12, 2008

DT Headline Update: The International Breast Milk Project Is Also The Milk Supplier For Prolacta Bioscience

The ABC News report yesterday on the International Breast Milk Project actually didn't lead off with their donations of breast milk to HIV/AIDS orphans in Africa. Instead, it began with a domestic tragedy, the tale of Kim Sciulli, who...
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Posted by greg at 7:29 PM | Comments (9)

DT Headline Roundup: Wait, What? Edition

Things in my inbox and browser tabs that make me go, wait, am I missing something here? From This Week In The British Surveillance State: A local school board in a London suburb used an anti-terrorist surveillance law to surveille...
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Posted by greg at 12:11 AM | Comments (1)

April 7, 2008

DT Headline Roundup: Nude, Wack, Wax Edition

From the accumulated browser tabs of Mr. Daddy T. Frankweiler: "Reading man falls from roof of his moving minivan, runs naked along bypass [has organs-exposing gash in torso, gets tased with no effect, gets wrestled to ground, not yet charged...
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Posted by greg at 2:18 PM | Comments (1)

April 5, 2008

DTQ&A: Scott Pankratz, The Dad Who Crowdsurfed His Daughter To Obama

Alright, you have to admit, AP photographer Alex Brandon's shot of 8-month-old Natalie Pankratz-Osborn surfing across the mob at the Barack Obama rally in Missoula, Montana today is pretty awesome. As an aficionado of presidential imagemaking and as a...
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Posted by greg at 10:25 PM | Comments (5)

April 4, 2008

Club Libby Lu Trains Little Girls For Promising Future In The T&A Restaurant Industry

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } bakersfield_club_libby_lu, originally uploaded by daddytypes. The big news in Bakersfield, California today was apparently national...
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Posted by greg at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)

March 28, 2008

UK Waits Until After Cold Season To Ban Cold Medicine For Babies

It's part of the "special relationship" the US has with the UK: we copy their ubiquitous surveillance state apparatus, and they get our cold medicine ban for kids under two. The BBC reports that The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory...
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Posted by greg at 10:17 AM | Comments (4)

March 26, 2008

The CPSC Is A Series Of Tubes! Even When He Loses, Ted Stevens Wins

A couple of weeks ago, Congress took major, nearly unprecedented steps to strengthen the Consumer Products Safety Commission by increasing its budget, but also by giving it greater punitive and regulatory powers. The CPSC Reform Act tightened safety regulations on...
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Posted by greg at 9:24 PM | Comments (1)

March 25, 2008

DT Link Roundup: PC, ABC, APC, RR, HR Edition

Some headlines and links from the DT browser tabs: One WSJ dad knows he's ruining his 5-yo son's future by not teaching him more about computers. but dammit, we didn't need Webkinz when we were that age; we blew our...
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Posted by greg at 10:22 PM | Comments (1)

March 21, 2008

CA Regs: Pregs Or No Legs, Everyone Parks For Free

A California state legislator from Orange County has introduced a bill that would grant all pregnant women "temporarily disabled" status for the last trimester, plus the first couple of months after giving birth. This would enable them to join the...
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Posted by greg at 1:51 PM | Comments (14)

March 20, 2008

Whoa, Babystyle Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

I'm looking into this, and haven't seen it reported anywhere else yet, but I hear eStyle, inc., the parent company of babystyle, cadeau, and kidstyle, filed for bankruptcy protection today. Stay tuned. [here, I guess because it's been 36...
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Posted by greg at 9:03 PM | Comments (26)

March 16, 2008

It's Just A Plant We Sell Out Of Our Day Care Center

Awesome. Last week, police in Manhattan arrested a pot dealer who also ran a private day care center. Now we don't use either herb or daycare, but this seems like a quantum leap of convenience. Instead of rearranging your entire...
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Posted by greg at 10:15 PM | Comments (0)

I Hope You Know This Will Go Down On Your Permanent Record: UK Police Want DNA From Kindergarteners

Right headline? I couldn't decide between that and "Gattaca! Gattaca! Gattaca!" From the UK Guardian/Observer's pre-crime desk:Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to...
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Posted by greg at 7:18 AM | Comments (2)

February 28, 2008

I'd Like To Thank The Crib Bumper Industrial Complex: CPSC Warns Of Crib Threat From 'Soft Bedding'

Is there someone at the JPMA who gets a bonus every time crib bumpers aren't mentioned in a CPSC alert about the dangers of "soft bedding" in cribs? From the AP: Parents are putting their babies at risk when they...
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Posted by greg at 9:40 AM | Comments (1)

February 27, 2008

Never Mind The Maddox: Cleveland Kindergartner Suspended For Freshening Up His Mohawk

First, they protested the product, so he didn't spike it up. Then they told his mom that mohawks weren't allowed, even though they're not mentioned in the dress code. Now some charter school in Cleveland sent some six-year-old home after...
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Posted by greg at 11:41 AM | Comments (6)

February 22, 2008

Toyetic?? If Yo Gabba Gabba! Is Star Wars, Then I'm Steven Spielberg

Gosh, how much I love Kidscreen, the trade magazine of the children's television industry [tagline: "About reaching children through entertainment"]? I'd love it even if my boys from Yo Gabba Gabba! weren't on the cover [:)] of the big, fat...
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Posted by greg at 10:30 AM | Comments (1)

February 19, 2008

Chicago Tribune Wins Award For Doing CPSC's Job

Congratulations to the journalists of the Chicago Tribune, who just won the 2007 George Polk Award for Consumer Reporting: "The newspaper's accounts of children suffering injury and death from exposure to dangerously designed magnetic building sets, lead-tainted toys and defective...
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Posted by greg at 10:46 AM | Comments (1)

February 13, 2008

"One Pink And One Purple!"

The kid stayed home from preschool today with a fever [Sorry, playdate buddy! We didn't take her temperature until you were here!]. Now she woke up from a nap with a higher fever, and as I went to get her...
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Posted by greg at 5:58 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2008

Make Joints, Not Jihadis: The "I Don't Want To Blow You Up!" Coloring Book

Global war on terror harshing your buzz? Ever thought what it'd be like if, like, all the jihadi Muslims were actually just the figment of some galactic giant's imagination? Or maybe they're, like, atoms on the fingertip of some...
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Posted by greg at 10:35 AM | Comments (3)

February 7, 2008

From The DT Dept. Of Corrections: Stone Cold Derek Lindsay Is A Kick-Ass Dad

I want to clear up any misconceptions that might have arisen from that report last May about Massachusetts martial arts expert and dad Derek Lindsay getting arrested for disorderly conduct at McDonald's after telling his kid to push some...
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Posted by greg at 7:33 AM | Comments (4)

January 30, 2008

Actual Study: Double Dipping IS Like Swapping Spit

The Clemson University molecular biologists who disproved the 5-Second Rule have published the results of the first known scientific study of double dipping. On the question of how many bacteria are actually transferred by double dipping, the scientifically irrefutable answer...
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Posted by greg at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2008

Some Study: Flattery Starts At 4yo

A Chinese-Canadian study published in Developmental Science shows that kids learn to "flatter" around the age of 4. The finding was based on kids in three age groups, 3, 4, and 5, being asked to judge artworks. The 3yo's weren't,...
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Posted by greg at 2:33 PM | Comments (4)

January 24, 2008

Short Trip? Secret Files Show Stasi Attempt To Drive Mom W/ Two Toddlers Crazy

Unbelievable. Wired has a story about using mesh computing to piece together hundreds of tons of shredded files left behind by the East German secret police, the Stasi. After gaining access to her 60-volume [!] file, one former peace activist...
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Posted by greg at 9:46 PM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2008

Oh, Crap: NYT Tests Our Maguro, Finds Freakout Levels Of Mercury

The New York Times had tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants tested for mercury, and they found levels so high, they freaked out the chefs and restaurant owners and everyone else. Samples came from places we go, too:...
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Posted by greg at 10:32 AM | Comments (5)

The Only DT Post On The Death Of Heath Ledger

His response to an interviewer's question about how having a kid changed his life:“You’re forced into, kind of, respecting yourself more,†he said. “You learn more about yourself through your child, I guess. I think you also look at death...
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Posted by greg at 10:09 AM | Comments (3)

January 22, 2008

Acting Didn't Work Out? LA SAHD Amuses Self, No One Else With Phony Classified Ads

You know you're pathetic when even the bloggers look down at you. A Los Angeles at-home dad [who would be a go-to-work dad if his chosen profession was something besides acting] apparently passes the time by placing totally random classified...
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Posted by greg at 12:07 PM | Comments (3)

January 17, 2008

FDA Makes It Official: Stop With The Cold Medicine For Kids Under 2yo

Well, don't say you didn't know it was coming. The FDA issued an official public health announcement today stating that over-the-counter cold medicines and decongestants should not be given to kids under 2 years old. The drugs can cause "serious...
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Posted by greg at 4:34 PM | Comments (4)

January 16, 2008

Clowns 100% Scary: UK Survey Reveals What Kids Already Know

God save the Queen and her National Health System. When the kids were surveyed about what they liked for hospital decorations, 100% said, "NOT CLOWNS." Clowns were "too scary" and freaked even the big kids out. the British magazine Nursing...
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Posted by greg at 10:48 PM | Comments (1)

January 15, 2008

2007 Safety Stories: I Have Some Good News & Some Bad News

First, the good news: Phthalates are still leaching from your kid's vinyl toys, and Bisphenol-A is still leaching from your polycarbonate bottles and the linings of your formula cans! At first, when it was named Worst Science Story of 2007...
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Posted by greg at 11:37 AM | Comments (2)

January 10, 2008

Searing Lactivist News! Nestle Brands Babies In China, Gets Smoked By Children's Book Author

Train your headlights on these tantalizingly ample developments in the lactivists' global battle against the ringleader of Big Formula, Nestlé. Lactivists got to Sean Taylor, the author of When A Monster Is Born, which won gold medal in the 2007...
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Posted by greg at 11:10 AM | Comments (2)

December 26, 2007

Wait, What's Wrong With The CPSC Reauthorization Act??

Somehow I missed this in my pre-Christmas inbox: "Dec. 21, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JPMA SUPPORTS PASSAGE OF CPSC REAUTHORIZATION ACT" If the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association is trumpeting their support for a piece of safety regulation-related legislation, something must...
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Posted by greg at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2007

Saks Children's Book: Happiness Comes From Clothes, Nose Jobs

What have I ever done to Saks, hmm? I mean until their Club Libby Lu started shaking their Baby Paris moneymakers in my face, I never had a bad word in my life for them. And I've been a...
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Posted by greg at 2:38 PM | Comments (0)

DT Window Shopping Roundup: Wooden Bikes, Euro Magazines, Baby Daddy Edition

Some things spotted around the web: Even though they're tacky and kind of insipid--well, the World Wildlife Federation was, the one for bigger kids, from National Geographic, is not that bad--the kid absolutely loves getting her magazines. It's mail! For...
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Posted by greg at 1:37 PM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2007

Dad Beats Son Black & Blue Over Pink Nail Polish

Does anything say "conflicted about one's sense of masculinity" quite like beating the crap out of your seven-year-old son when you find him wearing pink nail polish? Then again, does anything say "likely to get taunted as a kid for...
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Posted by greg at 11:12 AM | Comments (1)

December 13, 2007

Q: Can A Dog Have Helicopter Parents? NYT: Yes

"My dog's name is Diego del Mar de la Joya Montoya, he ruined my mother's white carpet, prepare to die laughing. [Also, my kid's name is Jack, but whatever.]" Who Invited The Dog? [nyt]...
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Posted by greg at 11:06 AM | Comments (1)

December 12, 2007

Parents Treated Best Children's Book Store In Nation, Now Closed, Like Fair-To-Middlin' Library

Oops, I didn't know that "the most outstanding children's bookstore in the nation" was in Washington DC. Old Town Alexandria, actually, where a book-passionate couple with no business sense threw popular events, gave away books at storytime, had Harry Potter...
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Posted by greg at 12:24 AM | Comments (3)

December 7, 2007

DT Q&A: "A Million Little Diapers," By Actor/Playwright/Dad John Mooney

It's Daddy Types editorial policy that there's no quid pro quo for advertising on the site. So when I saw the ad appear on Daddy Types for John F. Mooney's play, "A Million Little Diapers," my interest was piqued. So...
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Posted by greg at 5:50 PM | Comments (0)

December 4, 2007

Wait, What? The Kid's 18. Why Should The Sperm Donor Have To Pay Anything?

I remember a Canadian telling me once that in his country, parents often didn't pay for college because when kids turn 18, they take responsibility for themselves and start paying their own way. The actual existence of such a magical...
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Posted by greg at 11:08 AM | Comments (1)

November 14, 2007

She's A Witch! Spurn Her!

Hundreds of children, especially boys for some reason, are abused, poisoned, abandoned, and even killed in Angola each year because their families think they're witches. But officials attribute the surge in persecutions of children to war — 27 years in...
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Posted by greg at 9:04 PM | Comments (1)

November 9, 2007

Start Pointing! International Adoption Study Shows Kids Learn Nouns First

A team of researchers including Harvard psychologists Jesse Snedeker and Joy Geren published the results of their study of international adoptees, whose English-acquisition technique, they figured, might yield some interesting insights on how kids learn a language. It seems they...
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Posted by greg at 9:01 AM | Comments (1)

What The Heck? Salt Lake Nights And The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby Jeon Hong

A Utah policeman pulled over a speeding car, found a guy driving his wife to the hospital, snapped on the rubber gloves, and delivered the kid himself. Fine. But this makes no sense at all: Young Jeon and his wife,...
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Posted by greg at 12:06 AM | Comments (7)

November 7, 2007

B- C- D-List NYC Schools Cause Grief For Realtors, Parents

With stories of overcrowded preschool open houses that rival anything I've ever heard on the Upper East Side, I've always figured the schools issue in up-and-coming Brooklyn was a ticking time bomb. And with the release of the school report...
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Posted by greg at 9:46 AM | Comments (3)

November 6, 2007

I'm Telling You, Humans, The Robots Are Coming For Our Kids

And when they enslave us, it'll be through cutesy friendliness, not Decepticon-like terror. That'll come later."We expected that after a few hours, the magic was going to fade," Movellan says. "That's what has been found with earlier robots." But, in...
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Posted by greg at 11:41 PM | Comments (3)

November 3, 2007

Strollers In The News: Rancho Bernardo Edition

From Dan's thoughtful City of Sound post about the implications of suburban planning on the California fires, there's this wire service photo of a young couple and their BOB Ironman. The city as destructive system: wildfires, Dresden and the...
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Posted by greg at 9:41 AM | Comments (2)

October 31, 2007

The Car Seat Was Grandpa's Idea

An Edmonton, Alberta engineering consultant took his 3-year-old granddaughter flying with him in his Cessna 172. [That's the little one most people learn to fly in.] It crashed, he and his employee died, but the kid survived, after hanging upside...
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Posted by greg at 10:59 AM | Comments (3)

October 29, 2007

DT Headline Roundup: Cookie, CPSC, Gap For Kids By Kids Edition

Some news big and small from around the browser tabs: Safety Chief is Opposing More Money [nyt] CPSC Chairwoman takes break from strangling agency to remind Congress the agency needs not money, authority, or staff, but more strangling. Simplicity Crib...
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Posted by greg at 11:30 PM | Comments (3)

One Small Latch For Woman...

DT reader Kristin and a couple of other latch-aware folks caught this report by the Associated Press last week: It was an extra special moment for Discovery commander Pamela Melroy and station commander Peggy Whitson, the first women to simultaneously...
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Posted by greg at 9:15 AM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2007

CPSC: Apparently, 1mm Bumbo Baby Seats Aren't Meant For Use On Tables

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } bumbo, originally uploaded by dulcesmommy. You know how Bumbo baby seats totally look like untippable...
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Posted by greg at 5:30 PM | Comments (15)

Dad Has Five Kids' Names, Gay Wizard, Tattooed On Back

You know, I thought the clincher of the story was the UK factory worker dad who spent a year getting his full back tattoo saying, "I’ve always liked Dumbledore – just not in that way." But then I see...
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Posted by greg at 1:56 PM | Comments (2)

October 19, 2007

DT Wonkout: FDA Panel Votes To Ban Cold Medicines For Kids 0-6 [Yes, SIX]

Well it was an awkward day for the infant cold medicine-hoarding MBA's in the house, let me tell you. The FDA's joint advisory commitees for non-prescription drugs and pediatric medicine met today to review and vote on a petition to...
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Posted by greg at 11:13 PM | Comments (10)

NYT: Presidential Candidates Don't Give Damn About Child Care, Whatever That Means

In her NY Times column yesterday, Gail Collins points out that except for a content-free photo-op by Hillary Clinton, exactly none of the presidential candidates of either party will talk about child care in the US. Instead, they talk around...
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Posted by greg at 1:23 PM | Comments (5)

October 12, 2007

DT Headline Roundup: Mustang Rally, Bud & Cracker Barrel Edition

"You wake up on Sunday morning -- you don't expect to see a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old hooting down the street in a car." Unfortunately, dad was not the one who was awake. On the bright side, they stopped...
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Posted by greg at 1:41 PM | Comments (1)

October 11, 2007

DT Currently Hoarding Infant Drops, Overdosing On Dosage Information

So the major drug makers--members of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association--are voluntarily pulling their over-the-counter infant cough & cold medicines from the market rather than be forced by the FDA to pull them [or to put decades-old, grandfathered-in drugs through...
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Posted by greg at 8:15 PM | Comments (12)

October 10, 2007

DT Headline Roundup: Einstein, Pumpkins, Chico Edition

News from around the browser tabs: The Washington Post has a nice takedown of the "educational" baby TV racket. Frankly, after soloing for most of last week, I have a newfound sympathy for any parent who decides to use a...
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Posted by greg at 12:27 AM | Comments (3)

October 9, 2007

JPMA's Statement On The Biggest Crib Recall In History, Annotated

Our Baby Industrial Complex at work. Here's the text of a statement released by the JPMA, with a little extra context:Statement of JPMA Concerning the Simplicity Recall Representatives of the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) have met with Simplicity, Inc....
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Posted by greg at 12:20 PM | Comments (3)

October 8, 2007

Diddy? You Bet He Did.

Out with the Brady Twins, in with the Diddy Triplets. So it turns out P. Diddy's newest latest kid was born four months before his last latest kids, but he only found out for sure this summer when the paternity...
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Posted by greg at 9:33 PM | Comments (0)

Time's Manly Masculine Mating Men Of The Year

Time has a long article on the new generation of fathers. In addition to looking at the changes happening in workplaces and corporate family leave policies, the piece spends an unusual amount of time dwelling on the masculinity of men...
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Posted by greg at 4:05 PM | Comments (3)

October 4, 2007

DT Headline Roundup: Keeping Up Edition

A few quick items to clear out the browser tabs: There's a party in my tummy tuck! Can't quite figure out what the takeaway is on the "Mom Job" post-pregnancy plastic surgery package article in the NYT, but Karen's quote...
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Posted by greg at 9:48 PM | Comments (5)

October 3, 2007

Adorable Indian Children Dress As British Oppressors, Also That Wuss Gandhi

To celebrate Gandhi's birthday and the UN's International Day of Non-Violence yesterday [yeah, I missed it, too], Indian children were dressed up as the leader of India's independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi, and the pith-helmeted troops of The Raj, and...
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Posted by greg at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)

October 2, 2007

Put'em Together And What Have You Got? Block Study Sponsor Is A Disney Licensee

This just in from the Circle of Life Department: From his research linking Baby Einstein videos [by name] to decreased vocabulary development in toddlers to his earlier findings of a link between toddler TV-watching and ADHD, to his book,...
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Posted by greg at 5:32 PM | Comments (3)

TV-Hating Researcher's Block Company-Funded Study: Surprise! Blocks Make Your Kid Smarter

"Lead researcher Dr. Dimitri Christakis works with study blocks. Photo courtesy of Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute" In a recently published study commissioned by a Canadian block company [above foreground], Dr. Dimitri Christakis [above, left] and his colleagues at Seattle...
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Posted by greg at 2:34 PM | Comments (4)

Upstate NY Mom Juggles Blow, Job, And Breastfeeding

Today's episode of Saratoga Street is brought to you by the letters, W, T, and F:Schenectady Police have arrested a Saratoga woman in a prostitution bust and they say that woman, Linda Cook, performed sex acts on two men in...
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Posted by greg at 1:29 PM | Comments (4)

Free Burma Marching Monks Stencil T-Shirt

I needed to practice making the YGG! contest prize--see those stencils on the left?--so I tested a stencil on one of the kid's American Apparel shirts. It's from the blog Saffron Revolution Worldwide, which was an early, active resource...
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Posted by greg at 12:13 PM | Comments (2)

October 1, 2007

DT Headline Roundup: Cold Medicine, Zimbabwe, Sperm Banking & Photostealin'

Part of me feels like I've gotta clear these browser tabs, but part of me feels everyone can read the NY Times on his own: Slow-mo Infant Cold Medicine Ban Rolls On--Slowly: Instigated by pediatrician activists in February and finally...
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Posted by greg at 10:22 PM | Comments (3)

Papa Zao

Should've seen it coming, but I had my eyes closed: K-Fed just got custody of the kids. [via gawker]...
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Posted by greg at 5:24 PM | Comments (3)

September 29, 2007

Slightly Puffy-Looking Dad Cops To Buying Age-Inappropriate Toys For 3-yo

Andrew Adam Newman reports on the front page of the NY Times Business section today that some parents are so distracted by the threat of lead-contaminated toys, they forget the old-fashioned dangers--like toys with many small pieces that can...
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Posted by greg at 8:24 PM | Comments (3)

September 28, 2007

Backpack! Backtrack! This Week In Poisonous Toy News

So many stories about toxic toys, so little time. Even the NY Times wraps up ten different recall and lead incidents into one story these days. To celebrate the World Vinyl Forum, which was in town this week, a consumer...
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Posted by greg at 9:12 AM | Comments (7)

September 27, 2007

Reggio Emilia Preschools Are New York's New Hotness

When I first heard of them a year or so ago, the sense I got that Reggio Emilia preschools were just the less flashy, less rigid, but equally long-established cousin of Montessori. But according to the NY Times' Graham Bowley,...
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Posted by greg at 9:06 AM | Comments (2)

September 25, 2007

CPSC As Busted And Dangerous As A Simplicity Crib

Remember the 1 million Simplicity and Graco [made by Simplicity] cribs recalled last week because the droprail can come undone and create a deadly gap between the crib and the mattress? It turns out the first child to die from...
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Posted by greg at 12:10 AM | Comments (3)

September 20, 2007

BabyPlus Inventor Responds: 'I Am Not A Quack. Also, Buy My Book.'

Dr. Brent Logan, PhD., the self-esteemed neurogeneticist/psychologist, is the inventor of the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System, the only prenatal rhythm sequencer-on-a-beltpack endorsed by both 02138 Magazine: The World of Harvard AND famous pregnancy expert Nicole Richie. Logan invented the system...
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Posted by greg at 8:49 AM | Comments (23)

September 13, 2007

Are You Sitting Down? Because The Toy Industry Wants The CPSC To Bend Over

So last week's shock at a toy industry request for the federal government to set new safety testing standards has definitely worn off, even before Consumerist described the proposal as "an over-hyped batch of self-serving hogwash." DT reader Mark quickly...
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Posted by greg at 11:07 AM | Comments (3)

September 12, 2007

CPSC: Can We Fix It? Not Bloody Likely! "Bob Our Small Parts Guy" Debuts On CSPAN

Un. Be. Lievable. What a train wreck. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee which oversees the Consumer Products Safety Commission is holding a hearing on toy safety, toy recalls, and the utter shambles that is the CPSC and the Toy Industrial Complex's...
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Posted by greg at 1:19 PM | Comments (1)

September 4, 2007

Media Frenzy: More Recalls, More Hollow Industry Reassurance

So when I posted two days ago that there were more Mattel recalls coming down the pike, I didn't think I meant today. But there you have it, the AP is reporting Mattel is recalling 675,000 Barbie accessories for lead...
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Posted by greg at 10:02 PM | Comments (6)

September 1, 2007

CPSC 'Complete Disaster': Bush Administration Sides With Big Everything On Everything

I'm running out of pretend-surprise. The NY Times has a damning article about the Consumer Products Safety Commission, which has been systematically weakened, rendered ineffective, and nearly destroyed by the Bush Administration's appointees, who promised their former employers--manufacturers, corporate...
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Posted by greg at 8:24 PM | Comments (4)

August 31, 2007

Bush Administration Sides With Big Formula On Breastfeeding

I've gotta get the kid out the door for pre-preschool [it started yesterday!], so I haven't even had a chance to read this story on the front page of the Washington Post yet, much less think of an outraged, pretend-surprised...
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Posted by greg at 11:25 AM | Comments (39)

August 28, 2007

Freshman Dad Has 17-mo Roommate, Not A Lot Of Free Time

Mike Schieding's girlfriend got pregnant during junior year [of high school]. If he hadn't found out about Endicott College's campus residential program for single parents, he figures he never would've been able to manage a job, an education and full...
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Posted by greg at 10:59 PM | Comments (3)

August 26, 2007

AdAge: Time To Sell Dads Stuff, Destroy America

Ad Age columnist Lenore Skenazy [really?] says that since what Today's Dads want most is more time with their families, advertisers can sell them all kinds of stuff by promising convenience and time-savings. David Goldsmith, marketing consultant and father of...
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Posted by greg at 7:44 PM | Comments (2)

August 24, 2007

Little Britain Indeed

Sorry, sometimes there are things you just can't not post:EDINBURGH (AFP) - A dwarf performer at the Edinburgh fringe festival had to be rushed to hospital after his penis got stuck to a vacuum cleaner during an act that went...
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Posted by greg at 1:40 PM | Comments (1)

If You See Something, Say Something: OK, How About STFU, Virginia?

I swear, if it weren't for the boiled peanuts and all the Chick-Fil-A's... The Wall Street Journal reports on a Virginia campaign promoting its sexual abuse hotline "designed to encourage people to trust their instincts about possible abuse," which...
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Posted by greg at 9:33 AM | Comments (5)

August 23, 2007

After BPA Blurb, Publicists Reach Out To "Headline Parenting" "Expert"

So while I didn't get on CBS yesterday, I did get a quote in the Washington Post's article about the latest developments in the whole Bisphenol A toxic plastic baby bottle controversy. [I guess that means I'm not TV-hot, only...
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Posted by greg at 3:42 PM | Comments (2)

Forget It, Jake. It's Rajasthan.

90-year-old Rajasthani farmer Nanu Ram Jogi and his wife Saburi, 50, are celebrating the birth of their new daughter, Girija Rajkumari. Girija is Nanu's 21st child. Saburi is his fourth wife. She had originally been married to Nanu's Number One...
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Posted by greg at 8:58 AM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2007

Vanity Fair: Arthur Miller "Deleted" His Down Syndrome Son

I am totally floored. The playwright Arthur Miller had a son with Down Syndrome in 1966 who he never publicly acknowledged and all but wrote out of his life. [What an odd choice of words, under the circumstances.] The boy,...
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Posted by greg at 12:30 AM | Comments (4)

August 13, 2007

Fisher-Price Factory Owner Kills His Lead-Painting Self

So a freelance reporter staged a story about Beijing pork buns being stuffed with soggy cardboard, not pork, and he gets sentenced to a year in prison for, as the Associated Press quotes it, "infringing on the reputation of a...
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Posted by greg at 8:18 AM | Comments (1)

August 10, 2007

Someone Needs To Slap Some Sense Into This 'Gen X' Person

I still remember the first time I posted something on a Saturday night--and another dad commented on it like half an hour later--and being like, dude, this is it: I'm never going to a party without a Moon Bounce ever...
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Posted by greg at 8:24 AM | Comments (4)

August 1, 2007

When I Hear JPMA Supports Safety, I Reach For My EU-Certified Car Seat

Proper use of a car seat is a vital and effective way to protect kids while driving. The lobbying and trade group for the Baby Industrial Complex, the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, says that car seat safety tests are "more...
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Posted by greg at 6:16 PM | Comments (5)

July 26, 2007

BBC: It's Short For Busting Bulgarian Childsmuggling

Yes, it's that time of year, when someone at the BBC decides they'd like to summer in Bulgaria, so they arrange for a story about babysmuggling. This time, the BBC conducted a month-long sting operation that resulted in three...
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Posted by greg at 10:28 PM | Comments (3)

July 24, 2007

Some Anthropologist: No One In The History Of Civilization's Played With His Kids Before, Why Start Now?

According to a paper by Utah State University anthropologist David Lancy, tribespeople on the South Pacific island of Ifaluk "believe there's no point in talking to babies because they're "essentially brainless" until they turn two, so there's no reason for...
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Posted by greg at 7:54 PM | Comments (5)

July 18, 2007

DT Good News/Bad News Roundup

Just some headlines that might be of interest to the daddy types out there. First, the good news: Good News: Sugar cereal companies are all scrambling to look responsible by not advertising too-sugary cereal to little kids. Bad News: They're...
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Posted by greg at 11:27 PM | Comments (1)

Damn Earthquake Cuts Daddy Types Japanese TV Fame Short, Still At 15 Seconds

If only there hadn't been an earthquake and hundreds of injuries and several deaths and a fire in a nuclear power plant and a release of some sort of radiation cloud, my 15-second, on-the-phone interview about discovering the wooden...
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Posted by greg at 4:02 PM | Comments (1)

July 15, 2007

Yet Another Kid Climbs Inside Yet Another Arcade Game

This time it was a girl, 2-year-old Angelia Romero of Middletown, NJ. And this time, local firefighters figured they had to break the glass to get the kid out. This is like the third or fourth time this has happened,...
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Posted by greg at 1:02 PM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2007

Sperm Donors Work, Egg Donors Nurture: Parenting Stereotypes In The Assisted Reproduction Marketplace

Peggy Orenstein, who covers the uterus beat for The New York Times Magazine, has a long, fascinating, and somewhat frustrating article charting the socioemotional landscape of egg donation. It's all worth reading, but Orenstein's account of surfing an egg donor...
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Posted by greg at 1:57 PM | Comments (3)

July 13, 2007

Greenham Anti-Nuclear Demonstration 25th Anniversary Colouring Book

It's a travel day; the kid and I are flying back from Gram's house to our house, and so I was packing the crayons in the plane bag, wondering what the kid'd color on. Fortunately, the UK Guardian's website...
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Posted by greg at 9:48 AM | Comments (4)

June 26, 2007

NYT Reporter Detained At Thomas The Tank Engine Factory

Not a lot of lead hazard-related updates in the acccount of NY Times business reporter David Barboza's recent visit to the Thomas & Friends factory in China. Just the usual stuff about how it's run by a gang of...
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Posted by greg at 1:33 AM | Comments (1)

June 25, 2007

Bewildered Brits Stare At Park Slope Parents

All the editors at BritLit journal Spiked Online asked for was a Those Crazy Americans! article on these so-called Park Slope Parents they'd just read about three weeks ago in the Telegraph. Is that so hard? Instead, Nancy McDermott's critique...
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Posted by greg at 5:47 PM | Comments (0)

What're The Odds? Brit Parents Sign 2yo Daughter Up For MENSA

PROBABILITY QUESTION MENSA is for people who score above the 98th percentile on accredited IQ tests. 98% of people who are eligible don't join. 98% of MENSA members don't join until the're older and have exhausted every other means of...
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Posted by greg at 12:02 PM | Comments (5)

June 14, 2007

Dad Headline Roundup: Don't Hold The Train! Edition

Brand recall: Holy smokes, 1.5 million Thomas The Tank Engine toys are being recalled for lead paint. Wooden railway stuff sold over the last two years. See the CPSC for details [cpsc.gov, via dt reader john] And the Salary.com...
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Posted by greg at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2007

Madre De Dios! Is There Really Only ONE Photo Of The Dancing Sperm Children Of San Juan?

Puerto Rico - Gay rights commotion Set the sperm dance kids in motion. Always the leotards showing, Always the civil unions no-ing, And the sermons flowing. Daddy Yankee streaming, And the natives screaming, "This ain't no island Manhattan, Don't...
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Posted by greg at 9:55 AM | Comments (1)

June 9, 2007

I've Never Seen This Photo

It's by AP photographer Jean-Marc Bouju, who was embedded with the 101st Airborne Didvision. From the AP's press release: The photo was made during a rare moment of humanity in a war zone, Bouju said, when a father who...
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Posted by greg at 6:58 PM | Comments (11)

June 4, 2007

Kid In Tow, Crackhead Mom Plows Volvo Wagon Through DC Streetfair

YOW. A cracked up mom, with a 7-yo kid in the back, plowed a Volvo 740 station wagon through a giant Washington DC street fair Saturday night, injuring up to 40 people, including at least seven kids. The rampage...
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Posted by greg at 10:33 AM | Comments (1)

May 29, 2007

Stone Cold Derek Lindsay Stars In Disorderly Conduct 41: Big Mac Attack

The 4-plex at the beach this weekend was showing Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Shrek 3, and something else I forget, and I'm thinking, how can a summer movie season filled with repetitive, mindless, hypercommercialized, in-your-face sequels ever be entertaining?...
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Posted by greg at 1:49 PM | Comments (6)

Cold, Smelly Fusion: Diapers As Fuel In Japan

Treehugger links to what sounds like a non-story on DigInfo, a Japanese independent news video service. The headline: a Japanese company called Super Faiths has developed a technology for burning disposable diapers as fuel! Before you get your kid's...
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Posted by greg at 9:58 AM | Comments (3)

May 23, 2007

CPSC Henhouse In Need Of New Fox As Baroody Withdraws Nomination

Michael Baroody, VP for the National Association of Manufacturers, has withdrawn his nomination for Chairman of the Consumer Products Safety Commission after it was clear that he would not have enough votes to be confirmed. A similarly conflicted and unpopular...
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Posted by greg at 8:44 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2007

Who Does Number Two Work For? CPSC Nominee Gets Severance Bonus From Manufacturers

How synergytastic! Michael Baroody is leaving his job as the #2 lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers to head the government agency which regulates his clients, the Consumer Product Safety Commission. And just to show there's no hard feelings,...
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Posted by greg at 8:42 AM | Comments (1)

May 7, 2007

Bra Open, Case Closed: DT Is A NIP Fan

So Maggie Gyllenhaal shows a little skin as breastfeeds her baby on the Christopher Street Piers over the weekend? Big freakin' whoop. She's still wearing 99% more clothing than 99% of the people who hung out on that pier over...
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Posted by greg at 9:23 PM | Comments (6)

Billyburg Anti-Hipster Hipster Parents: My New 1st Birthday Party Technique Is Untoppable

Sorry, the polls are now closed. Whatever you or I will ever plan for your or my kid's birthday party can only ever be the third most mind-blowing idea in the history of civilization. Williamburg-hating artist parents Misha Leiner and...
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Posted by greg at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

May 3, 2007

JPMA Says Nothing Wrong With Wal-Mart's Vinyl Bibs Of Death

You know when I started to be unnerved about some kind of safety risk involving the lead in vinyl-coated bibs? When I got a press release from the JPMA titled, "JPMA Notes CPSC Declaration that Vinyl Bibs Are Safe: Inaccuracies...
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Posted by greg at 4:02 PM | Comments (4)

April 30, 2007

Finally, A Can-Do Lobbyist To Cut All That Red Tape At The CPSC

How can the CPSC get rid of all their onerous and needlessly costly safety regulations without a chairman with lengthy experience lobbying for the very companies stuck under the CPSC's thumb? The short answer is, it can't. Since the last...
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Posted by greg at 9:16 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2007

Cop Drops Dad, Dad Drops Baby: Taser-Happy Cop Or Fishy Half-Story?

There are a lot of questions I'd like answered before getting all up in the Houston Women's Hospital's grill about the tasering and arrest for attempted kidnapping of a new father as he was leaving the hospital the maternity ward...
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Posted by greg at 4:55 PM | Comments (2)

April 10, 2007

Club Libby Lu CEH [Chief Executive Hoochiemama] Posts Comment On Washington Post

DT reader Marya pointed to a recent entry on the Washington Post's On Parenting blog [who knew?] about the mall rat incubator Club Libby Lu. What with all the discussion of head lice, pedophilia, and general skankitude, CLL's CEO...
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Posted by greg at 8:28 AM | Comments (5)

April 7, 2007

Now That's A Take On The Iran-UK Soldier Hostage Story I Hadn't Heard

With her column in the Washington Post explaining the liberalism-led decline of Western Civilization as evidenced by the fact that one of the British navy crew captured by Iran is a mother, Kathleen Parker hit me so hard upside my...
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Posted by greg at 5:24 PM | Comments (4)

March 30, 2007

BuyBuy Baby Bought By Bed Bath & Beyond

What the headline says. Bed Bath & Beyond [NASD: BBBY] announced last week that they had agreed to an all-cash acquisition of buybuy Baby [NADA, baby, they're privately held] for $67 million + $19 million debt retirement. It should be...
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Posted by greg at 7:03 PM | Comments (2)

Fearless Slate Speaks Truth To Day Care Study

Over at Slate, Emily Bazelon unpacks the coverage of that long-term NIH day care study to figure out why all the media types are so down on day care, especially since the real results of the study show that childcare...
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Posted by greg at 8:28 AM | Comments (3)

March 28, 2007

JPMA's Mod Cat Bounce, Or Making $14 The Hard Way

So the JPMA show's coming up next month in Orlando, the last one, since the trade organization ceded the show business to the much bigger Las Vegas rival, the ABC Kids Expo. But even if they're crying on the inside,...
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Posted by greg at 1:27 PM | Comments (4)

March 27, 2007

I'm Gonna Guess His Name Is Oedipus

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune: Minneapolis police say that Detrick D. Jiles [24] told officers that the boy [2], whose name police did not release, had taken the gun from his mother's purse and fired it at Jiles... [Police...
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Posted by greg at 7:59 AM | Comments (0)

March 26, 2007

Now That's A Fire! NIH Study Throws PR Match On Lighter Fluid-Soaked Childcare BBQ

Seriously, Society for Research In Child Development, is there a panel discussion at your Biennial Meeting--which just happens to kick off this week--about the effects on childcare attitudes and policies of issuing press releases for an ongoing, 16-year study that...
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Posted by greg at 11:33 PM | Comments (1)

March 23, 2007

CPSC Issues Recall For 100,000 Dad-Colored Infantino SlingRiders

There's one less option available for combatting against babywearer manboobs. The CPSC has announced a recall for about 100,000 Infantino SlingRider baby carriers. Apparently, the plastic strap adjuster can break and drop your kid on his head. Seriously, it's...
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Posted by greg at 2:25 PM | Comments (1)

March 22, 2007

Unbelievable Headlines! Gay Uncles And Sperm Switcheroos

Which of these stories is more headscratching? I think we need a baffle-off: 1] Is Yoya at risk of losing its core target market?? A gay uncle in the fashion industry [punchline writes self] shops Yoya, the West Village temple...
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Posted by greg at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2007

Opt-Out Myth-Information

That tiny sound you hear, finally, is a tree falling, chopped down and turned into paper that carries news of the longstanding shortcomings in how the media--and hence, policymakers and corporations--completely misframe the issues of moms and the workplace. The...
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Posted by greg at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

March 8, 2007

Dad Spends 22 Extra Nanoseconds With Kids, Relativistically Speaking

Tom Van Baak decided to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einstein's theory of general relativity and the 50th anniversary of Essen's first cesium clock by taking his family on a trip up Mount Rainier, thereby demonstrating the time-dilating effects of...
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Posted by greg at 2:36 PM | Comments (0)

"I Wish They Could See Him With Children [Instead Of With That Tramp He Left Me For]"

Awesome. Here's a campaign commercial from 1993, when Rudy Giuliani was trying to soften his image. A little less Il Duce, a little more Il Papa, if you will. And yes, enough New Yorkers were fooled for Rudy to win...
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Posted by greg at 10:46 AM | Comments (6)

March 7, 2007

Preschool Application Media Kits, Or What NOT To Do With iMovie And All Those Videos You Shot Of The Kid

New York Magazine isn't too worried about the Wall Street Journal's recent attempt to muscle in on their "Kids Cost The Darndest Things" franchise, but they had definitely better keep their eye on the NY Sun. Not only is the...
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Posted by greg at 12:33 PM | Comments (5)

March 6, 2007

Folkpsychological Development In Infants, Also Descartes' Baby Is An Awesome Title For A Book Or A Band

My wife flagged several very interesting studies on how kids' minds work and form and evolve in that looong NY Times Magazine article, "Darwin's God." I haven't gotten through it myself, but she's right; they're pretty fascinating. This one is...
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Posted by greg at 10:46 PM | Comments (1)

March 5, 2007

Soon, Only 500,000 NJ Transit Passengers Will Stand Between You And Your Muji

OK, OK, I should be stoked that Muji just announced their first store will be in the new New York Times Tower, on 40th Street across from Port Authority, and that it will be open in time for Holiday 2007....
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Posted by greg at 8:47 PM | Comments (2)

March 4, 2007

Uh, "Male Activist" Launches Most Oblique Ad Protest Campaign Ever

Last fall, Arnold Worldwide made some dumb ads for Fidelity about dumb dads, and so "male activists" have launched a campaign to protest negative portrayals of dads. Except I only count one "male activist" behind this, syndicated columnist Glenn Sacks....
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Posted by greg at 10:19 PM | Comments (5)

WSJ Scoop: Rich People Spend More Money On Their Kids

Yes, that's the gist of this article in the Wall Street Journal. Over the course of 17 years, parents with more money spend more money raising their kids. Some people even spend up to--wait for it--one million dollars. The...
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Posted by greg at 4:27 PM | Comments (1)

March 2, 2007

More News From The "Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time" Department

You take an ad from an idiot, you suggest live on the air of your cable news program that your female guest come to your office to pose for nude photos. Everyone makes choices that, in retrospect, look a less...
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Posted by greg at 1:22 PM | Comments (2)

February 28, 2007

If Found, Name "Steve"

For some reason, an excited article about new technology for abandoning babies pops up in the major news media every 13-15 months. It's like clockwork. If only birth control or social services protections for the young illegal immigrants from Eastern...
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Posted by greg at 9:52 AM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2007

Club Libby Lodz

Apparently, little girls in Poland may all dress like skanky tramps, but except for an unusually violent hatred of musical instruments, the omnipresent, conservative, heavily Catholic official culture keeps them in line. These tots in PVC don't scare me...
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Posted by greg at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2007

You've Come A Long Way, Brah!

Now that's what I call progress! Just a couple of weeks ago, MomsRising was just another post-feminist attempt to reinvigorate interest in demanding improvements to intractable issues of work-family balance that nevertheless focused exclusively on women and mothers, basically taking...
[read the full post...]
Posted by greg at 8:48 PM | Comments (0)

Gooooooooal! World Cup Sex Produces German Baby Mini-Boom

OK, so the only actual data mentioned in the article is a 10-15% increase in births at the "largest birth clinic in Kassel." The German media is convinced there is a baby boom right now, and that it's related to...
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Posted by greg at 11:04 AM | Comments (1)

Personally, I Blame Monocle For The Sudden Rash Of Prince Pickles Coverage

So the week after Wallpaper*-founder Tyler Brule's new magazine, Monocle runs a 17-page cover story about the Japan Self-Defense Force, the International Herald Tribune has a story about the JSDF's deployment of Prince Pickle, their anime character mascot, to...
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Posted by greg at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2007

Follow-up: Kids In Cages Somewhat Frowned Upon In Ohio

In the end, the Ohio courts did not accept Sharen and Michael Grevelle's interpretation of "strict rules" to improve their 11 adopted special needs kids' behavior. It wasn't the starving them and forcing them to steal food, so much as...
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Posted by greg at 8:53 AM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2007

Natural Cleaning Supplies Popular Among "Science Is Hard! Let's Go Shopping!" Crowd

Prompted by their school's switch to natural cleaning supplies, parents are switching, too...says Don Imus's wife, whose non-profit group tries to get schools to switch to natural cleaning supplies. And science schmience, if ammonia residue on the coffee table...
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Posted by greg at 8:38 AM | Comments (2)

February 10, 2007

Danielynn Has Three Daddies

Obviously, in these difficult times, with so much media frenzy flying to and fro, I felt it was best to wait for the authoritative Banterist Playmobil Re-enactment before broaching the subject of the paternity claims for the 5-month-old Danielynn...
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Posted by greg at 5:34 PM | Comments (0)

February 9, 2007

JPMA Dumps Trade Show, Cites Other Reasons For Continued Existence

Insider T-ball, anyone? After years in the Dallas Expomart or whatever that thing is alongside the highway into town, and a moribund stint in Orlando, the Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association is disbanding their trade show, conceding defeat to the organizers...
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Posted by greg at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

February 8, 2007

Diapers In The News Or, Our Tax Dollars At Work

A lot of Ivy League brain power being expended on the crazy-astronaut-in-a-diaper story this week: the Yale Daily News waxes philosophical about the MAG [Maximum Absorbency Garment], wondering if all the publicity'll create a, uh, trickle-down effect in the...
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Posted by greg at 4:32 PM | Comments (2)

February 7, 2007

Dad Uses Stun Gun To Repel 3-Week-Long Assault By 18-mo Son

A 23-year-old dad in Albany, Oregon [it's not as far inland as I would've thought] was apparently being terrorized for weeks by his 18-month-old son. Weak and powerless and cowed with fear, left with no one to turn to, and...
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Posted by greg at 10:37 PM | Comments (2)

February 6, 2007

Gender Mainstreaming Campaign In Vienna: 1916 Going On 1917

As part of their 2007 Gender Mainstreaming Kampagne, the Vienna City Council has put up signs and icons all over the city to highlight the importance of gender equality. There are emergency exit signs with a female stick figure...
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Posted by greg at 11:48 AM | Comments (2)

February 1, 2007

Moms Rising, Presumably To Get Dads A Beer

Not quite sure what the hook is, but the advocacy organization Moms Rising got a nice profile on CNN Money a little while ago. Moms Rising was started by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner and MoveOn co-founder Joan Blades as part of the...
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Posted by greg at 1:42 PM | Comments (1)

January 30, 2007

Sure Enough, He Said "Women Are Birthing Machines"

The first wire report over the weekend of Japanese Health Minister, 71-year old Hakuo Yanagisawa, calling women "baby-birthing machines" was the Kyodo English service, and though I dug around, I couldn't find the actual Japanese quote anywhere. Was it one...
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Posted by greg at 9:20 AM | Comments (1)

January 26, 2007

Holy Moley, Muji^2 In NYC

I'd gotten several emails about this, seen it on a few blogs, and tried to find an actual announcement/report. Sure enough, it's in WWD. Muji will open two locations in New York City in the latter half of 2007. No...
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Posted by greg at 4:47 PM | Comments (4)

January 22, 2007

What Birthday Party Pressure? Just Outsource, Duh.

A/the handful of non-icefishing Minnesotans have formed Birthdays Without Pressure, an advocacy group designed to bait the media into writing about get parents talking about stressful birthday party oneupsmanship:ST. PAUL, Minn. — Having decided on a ballerina theme for her...
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Posted by greg at 11:23 AM | Comments (1)

Baby-Smugglin' Romas Busted

A trial just got underway in France for 56 people--including 41 buyer/families--charged in a baby smuggling ring. For around $10,000, French Roma/gypsy families who couldn't qualify for adoption because of their itinerant lifestyle, would buy a baby from Bulgarian Roma...
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Posted by greg at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2007

Realtor: We'd Like To Show Your Apartment During The Kid's Nap

This NYT article is ostensibly about the disruptions and inconveniences associated with selling/showing your house--always having to keep it clean, disappearing on an hour's notice, Pottery Barning it up by stashing all your personal mementos and photos. But judging...
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Posted by greg at 5:51 PM | Comments (3)

January 17, 2007

At-Home Harvard Dads Wanted

My bad. This reminded me that 02138, the lifestyle magazine for Harvard alumni, had been looking for Stay-At-Home-Dads who went to Harvard--and ideally, whose spouses went there, too. Not sure if they're still interested, given the, uh-- Anyway, if you...
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Posted by greg at 2:18 PM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2007

Sen. Stevens: 'Parenthood Is A Series Of Fallopian Tubes'

The Washington Post reports that Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has "introduced a bill that would provide eight weeks of paid leave to federally employed women after childbirth and five days of paid leave for new fathers. The bill also would...
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Posted by greg at 4:20 PM | Comments (5)

January 10, 2007

Heyo, ModernTots The Website Now ModernTots The Store

I met Sarah and Bruce, the ModernTots.com folks, in Las Vegas last year at the ABC Kids expo. They were super-cool and surprisingly nice to me, considering the hassle Daddy Types' "Sure, it's custom-tinted, super-dense, has sweet bamboo veneer,...
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Posted by greg at 2:49 PM | Comments (0)

January 8, 2007

DT Car Seat Week: JPMA Responds To Blows Smoke At Consumer Reports Test

Who knew? If you decry a whole industry's safety testing standards--and there are cute little babies involved--people get worked up. Reactions and discussion raged all weekend over Consumer Reports' announcement of its car seat crash test findings. Now the Juvenile...
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Posted by greg at 10:57 AM | Comments (5)

January 4, 2007

Well, Glutes DO Usually Travel In Pairs

So how's the book going, you ask? [hey, thanks!]. Well, until new dad Matt Leinart totally threw off my chapter headings by making out with new mom Britney Spears, it was going great. Totally expected, though, since their kids are...
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Posted by greg at 1:44 PM | Comments (1)

January 1, 2007

A Soldier Dad's Journal To His Son

First Sgt. Charles King didn't take leave for the birth of his first son, Jordan, his fiancee, Dana Canedy writes, because he refused to come home ahead of any of the young soldiers under his command. [He did take two...
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Posted by greg at 5:44 PM | Comments (4)

December 31, 2006

Princess Industrial Complex Drives Feminist Crazy

Too bad for Peggy Orenstein that her looong lament about third-wave feminism's powerlessness and lack of viable response in the face of the Princess Hegemony came out the same day American girls were opening their $3 billion worth of pink...
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Posted by greg at 1:49 PM | Comments (2)

December 29, 2006

All The World's A Playmobil, And We Are Merely Playmobilers

The kid only had one request of Santa this Christmas, but it was highly specific. And challenging: "A digger, and rocks, and sand." The digger would be easy enough, I thought. Even though I got priced out of that...
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Posted by greg at 11:15 AM | Comments (3)

December 19, 2006

This Week In Dog-Baby-Bad Parenting Insanity

Am I the only one who's ready to call BS on recent coverage of bad parent-and-pet stories? I mean, if Gardenia Johansson had better publicists, maybe her story would be that she was just trying to protect her baby's toes...
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Posted by greg at 9:26 AM | Comments (5)

December 15, 2006

Pinhead Takes The Dog Shopping

Gardenia Zakrzewski Johansson was arrested after she took her dog into Nieman Marcus in Scottsdale, AZ, but left her 2-year-old son in the car. She had asked valet Quest Wolfe to keep an eye on her son, who was sleeping...
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Posted by greg at 1:50 PM | Comments (3)

December 12, 2006

Who Gets A Puppy Right After Having A Baby??

Also from Yahoo News, a 6-week-old pit bull puppy gnawed four toes off a 1-month-old baby girl in Louisiana. The kid was in an infant carrier on the floor next to the mattress where the parents were sleeping. The vet...
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Posted by greg at 11:03 AM | Comments (6)

UK IVF Law Changes: Fathers Less Necessary Than Sperm

A government white paper recommending changes to the UK's regulations governing sperm donors is expected to be released Friday. The Daily Mail got all worked up over a leak of the report, which is expected to do away with the...
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Posted by greg at 8:11 AM | Comments (1)

December 11, 2006

"I'm There For You, Son, 80 Perc--Hold On, Let Me Get This"

Parents ignore their kids to do email on their BlackBerries. The kids who are old enough to talk seem to take this personally, even the ones who play pretend Blackberry themselves:One of BlackBerry's biggest defenders, Jim Balsillie, the chairman of...
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Posted by greg at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)

December 6, 2006

RIP James Kim, Very Much A Hero Type

After the great news that his wife and two daughters were found alive and safe after several days, the discovery of James Kim's death is a very sad end to the story of a family who went missing on a...
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Posted by greg at 6:49 PM | Comments (5)

December 4, 2006

ABC News Discovers A Business 2X As Big As The Movies

Barely two days out of the country, and look what I miss. Somehow, the Baby Spa Industrial Complex has avoided detection by ABC News's crack team of reporters until now:Moms and dads across the country can now take their babies...
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Posted by greg at 7:02 PM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2006

South African Man Not Pregnant, Just Lazy, Stupid

Seems a Johannesburg man figured if he just had a certificate from a doctor, he could take a week off of work. So he grabbed one at the OB's office. 'Pregnant' man fined in SA court [bbc via tmn]...
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Posted by greg at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2006

Update: Barney Caves & Pays, Does Not Admit To Being Evil

Remember how Barney's lawyers had been hounding a guy for years, trying to make him take his clearly legal parody offline? Well, they won't be bothering him anymore. The EFF sued them, and they agreed to back down and pay...
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Posted by greg at 12:53 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2006

We're Supernannies From The Government, And We're Here To Help, Mum

So apparently Tony Blair convened a "Parenting Stakeholders" seminar at 10 Downing Street yesterday, and all I can find is a 100 references to the government's need to provide more reality TV-like parenting advice. Which would make sense in a...
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Posted by greg at 8:21 AM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2006

Hey, Reverend! I Hear Tango Drives A Bugaboo!

What happens when your 18-month-old post is one of the top Google results for And Tango Makes Three, the children's book about the true story of two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who hatch and raise an egg...
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Posted by greg at 5:39 PM | Comments (6)

NYT: Straight Men Losing Lock On "Slightly More Than A Sperm Donor" Market

Not sure if it's a trend or just an interesting reconfiguration of the family, combined with a largely undefined notion of gay fatherhood, but The New York Times Magazine has a looong article about how some lesbian couples are kids...
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Posted by greg at 4:26 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2006

Mothering Mag Gives Aid & Comfort To Breastfeeding Hippie Who Threatened Our Freedom [Airlines]

First, a correction: The plane had 9 rows, not 13. The flight number was DL6160, but it's a codeshare with Freedom Airlines [!]. But to those who've complained about my hippie terrorist characterization: the kid's name is River, so that...
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Posted by greg at 2:33 PM | Comments (0)

Delta: Let's Throw Nursing Momma From The Plane

A Santa Fe family has filed a complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission after they were kicked off a Delta Airlines flight from Burlington to NYC when the mom refused to use a blanket to nurse her 22-month-old...
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Posted by greg at 10:41 AM | Comments (6)

November 16, 2006

Opt-Out Revolution Writer Finally Pays Attention, Still Misses Point

It was like the Mommy War equivalent of shooting Archduke Ferdinand. A 2003 NY Times Magazine article about "The Opt-Out Revolution," where some MBA wives with MBA husbands decided not to go back to work after having kids, set off...
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Posted by greg at 8:35 PM | Comments (1)

Apartment Therapy Now Also Nursery Therapy

Congratulations to Maxwell the Apartment Therapy guy and his wife Sara Kate, for scoring a big NY Times article [!] on how they successfully completed the renovation [!!] on their 265 sf apartment [!!!] before the baby [!!!!] came. The...
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Posted by greg at 11:10 AM | Comments (9)

November 15, 2006

Ah, Jolly Good, Then. The Parenting Endgame Of UK Cradle-to-Grave Surveillance Comes Into View

Well, color me enlightened. And forgive my ignorance-fuelled disapproval from afar of the UK government's plan to create a massive database to track children, their behavio(u)r, and their caregivers from birth. If only you had explained at the outset, Lord...
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Posted by greg at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2006

EXCLUSIVE: INTERNATIONAL BREASTFEEDING ICON SMACKDOWN

EXCLUSIVE!!! JUST HOURS AFTER DADDYTYPES REPORTED ON THE NEW MOTHERING MAGAZINE INTERNATIONAL BREASTFEEDING ICON [IBI], A CONTROVERSY IS ALREADY BREWING. ACCORDING TO THE DRUDGE REPORT, MATT DAIGLE'S WINNING IBI DESIGN WAS COPIED FOR A PHOTO IN MARIE-CLAIRE MAGAZINE OF ABC...
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Posted by greg at 8:26 AM | Comments (1)

November 13, 2006

Daddy Type Wins Breastfeeding Icon Design Contest

While it's my third favorite icon designwise, I have to admit, at-home dad Matt Daigle's design did have a couple of advantages over my top choices: For one thing, it was actually submitted to Mothering Magazine's international breastfeeding icon design...
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Posted by greg at 4:49 PM | Comments (1)

November 2, 2006

Celebrity Dad Is Funny, Makes Finals In New Yorker Contest

Whoa, check that out. Eric Sagalyn from MoreDiapers.com is a finalist in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest this week. Usually it just breaks my heart to reach that last page, but whaddya, know, Eric's actually funny. I think he...
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Posted by greg at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

Canadian Adoption Mess: Dad Wants To Keep His Kid, Money

There was a story a few months back about the US's confusing and misleading patchwork of laws covering a biological father's rights when the mother puts a kid up for adoption. And since Canada like totally copies us every time,...
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Posted by greg at 11:11 AM | Comments (2)

October 26, 2006

More Black/White Twins Born To Bi-Racial Parents

Stories about multi-racial couples having one-white/one-black twins used to be a rarity in the news. But now they're as common as kids stuck in vending machines. Also ubiquitous: lame "Ebony & Ivory" references. No Kidding! They're Twins! [nypost via gawker]...
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Posted by greg at 10:11 AM | Comments (1)

Wring Out Your Dead: Bodies Bank Big Baby Biz Bucks

The alliterative headline thing only goes so far. Forbes published its list of the top-earning dead celebrities this week, and while everyone else goes on about the significance of Kurt Cobain displacing Elvis for the top spot [$50 million vs...
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Posted by greg at 9:04 AM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2006

Local Media Cheers As Another Small Boy Climbs Into Vending Machine

Seriously, people, this has to stop. And if not, can we just make it a flickr photogroup and be done with it? Toddler Gets Trapped Inside Vending Machine [aol news via dt reader jmo]...
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Posted by greg at 3:51 PM | Comments (2)

October 24, 2006

Scientists: Something About Cell Phones And Sperm Counts

Yeah, I'm not really following this: Guys who are on their cell phones for four hours a day or more have dramatically reduced sperm counts. Which head are they holding that thing against? The findings are preliminary and unclear [duh],...
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Posted by greg at 10:39 AM | Comments (1)

October 23, 2006

Two Words, Pal: Carlos Leon

The father of Madonna's newly adopted son said yesterday he didn't realize that the arrangement meant the boy would no longer be part of his family. "If we were told that she wants to take the baby as her own...
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Posted by greg at 9:07 AM | Comments (5)

October 19, 2006

US Study: Moms & Dads Both Spending More Time With Kids

Research by a team of University of Maryland sociologists and demographers shows that compared to 40 years ago, parents across the board are spending more time with their kids. Even when they work outside the home, moms spend more time...
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Posted by greg at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2006

Libertée, Egalitée, Maternitée

Vivent les poitrines de la République! Marianne, breastfeeder of the nation, by Daumier [via musee d'orsay] What with all the guaranteed maternity leave, subsidized childcare--including government-subsidized daycare or tax credits for nannies--government bonus payments for having multiple children, and...
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Posted by greg at 11:39 PM | Comments (4)

October 10, 2006

Holy Crap. Mom Attacks Baby Daddy. With Baby.

Some crazy mom in Erie, Pennsylvania smacked her baby daddy upside the head with her 4-week-old baby, causing a skull fracture and some internal bleeding. On the baby, that is. The Erie Times-News is on the story:...[baby daddy Deangelo] Troop,...
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Posted by greg at 5:21 PM | Comments (6)

Vibe's Cookie To Not Be Called Oreo

Because Jay Z got upset when it was gonna be called Phat Baby, and Kimora got all up in their teething grill when they suggested Baby Diddy, Vibe's new parenting magazine will be called Prodigy. Prodigy will be delivered first...
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Posted by greg at 12:24 PM | Comments (1)

Bold Predictions: US To Be "Major Player In Global Economy" in 2043. Also, Gerber 300MM Baby's Name: Juan

Never mind that it's actually just a sweepstakes, and that the name will be drawn from a pot--a melting pot, if you will. But whenever a reporter asks a purportedly serious demographer where Gerber's 300 Millionth American will be born...
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Posted by greg at 9:59 AM | Comments (0)

Train A Brit Up The Way He Should Go, Then He'll Want CCTV For His Kid's Crib

The UK's Future Foundation published its latest study, "The Changing Face of Parenting," last week, and most of the attention was on vague, headline-friendly phrases like "super-parents" and "lifestyle choice" and the "professionalisation of parenting." The conclusion that jumped out...
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Posted by greg at 8:12 AM | Comments (0)

October 5, 2006

Next Up On FOXNews: 85% Of Dads Obsessed With 'Sexpot Dolls/Characters?'

Last week I received a press release about a new study on parental skanktoy fatigue:...an overwhelming majority of mothers believe that many dolls available for young girls today are too provocative. The research says these mothers would like to see...
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Posted by greg at 2:50 PM | Comments (1)

October 4, 2006

#300MM: Obscure, Inacurrate Algorithm Makes Sweet Publicity Hook For Baby Food Company

Gerber staked an early claim to the 300 millionth American hoopla, and is holding some sort of contest or promotion with big prizes for someone. I have no idea, but I'm sure Google will help you. They're basing the whole...
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Posted by greg at 10:53 AM | Comments (3)

October 2, 2006

Think Of The Children And Their Cent Pk Vu

Discussion of real estate among the playdate set is because they're New Yorkers, hello. Anxiety about real estate, however, is attributed primarily to the parents:Julie Friedman, a senior associate broker at Bellmarc, described clients who are the parents of three...
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Posted by greg at 9:54 AM | Comments (2)

September 27, 2006

This Week In Precocious Children News

4-year old sure plays a mean pinball set of drums. [youtube via eric] 3-year old London boy buy-it-now!s a pink car on eBay. Had it been a less Barbie shade of pink, his dad wouldn't have minded. [chi sun-times...
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Posted by greg at 9:15 PM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2006

This Week In Killer Teddy Bear News

Remember, kids, "RELEASE OF ANY TEDDY BEARS into fish hatchery water IS NOT PERMITTED." [emphasis in the original] Teddy Bear Massacres Fish [boingboing]...
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Posted by greg at 2:12 PM | Comments (0)

NY Mag Gets The Nanny-Spying Money Quote

Congratulations [sic] to the nanny narc-ing blog for helping turn New York Magazine onto the whole Babysitter Surveillance Industrial Complex this week. And they get Rhyder McClure [real name], the founder of the New York Nanny Cam Company [installation: $1200],...
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Posted by greg at 1:15 PM | Comments (2)

September 24, 2006

Brio's New Target Market [Hint: Starts With Gr-, Ends With -ups]

Indulge me a bit of MBA geekdom, but ever since that high chair turned up, I was kind of intrigued why Brio, which has been known for over 100 years primarily as a wooden toy company--and especially as a...
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Posted by greg at 5:30 PM | Comments (1)

September 22, 2006

The Times Square, They Are A-Changing: Uproar Over Slightly Visible Breast

People have such short memories. Time was when the whole economy of Times Square centered on catching a glimpse of a breast in some "out of the way" place. Now, a mom from Brooklyn is claiming Toys R Us employees...
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Posted by greg at 9:11 PM | Comments (8)

September 20, 2006

Alright, Alright, Croc Hunter's Daughter Made Me Cry

I guess it's good to remember that most kids would love to have a clown for a father. At least until they go to high school. The kids, I mean, not the clowns. And being named after the dog doesn't...
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Posted by greg at 4:15 PM | Comments (3)

September 19, 2006

Papa Don't Lynch: I Wanna Keep Mein Kampf

Yeow. When they found out their 19-yo daughter's baby daddy is black, the Nicholas Kampfs tied her up and threw her into the car, so they could drive her to New York. Because I guess it's easier to get a...
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Posted by greg at 4:20 PM | Comments (3)

September 17, 2006

Ultrasound Makes Indian Female Infanticide So Much Easier

Not a story for the faint of heart, this Reuters report on a Punjabi female fetus abortion clinic running under the guise of a maternity hospital is written in the rather sensationalistic style of the Indian newspapers. The takeaway, though,...
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Posted by greg at 8:20 PM | Comments (1)

September 14, 2006

Woz's House Has Cave, Murals For The Kids

More news from the Stuff I Won't Be Buying Dept.: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's house in Los Gatos, CA, was bought by some developers who did some extensive remodelling. But they left most of Woz's additions for his kids intact....
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Posted by greg at 9:22 PM | Comments (2)

September 12, 2006

Time Warner Sells Out; Token Dadblogger Keeps It Real

Gawker has the all-employee email announcement that Time, Inc. is selling off a bunch of their "niche" magazine titles, and by "niche," they mean magazines with a rate base of 2.2 million or less:The Parenting Group is also for sale....
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Posted by greg at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

September 8, 2006

High Reality TV Producer Alert In Effect For Madison Avenue Tomorrow

Love the concept of a street fair, but hate the idea of generic tube socks and having to shuffle along with of all those, you know, people [or "those people", the italics really work either way]? Join Cookie Magazine and...
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Posted by greg at 12:07 PM | Comments (1)

September 5, 2006

1,400 Chinese Nannies Can't Be Wrong, or NY Magazine Has This Country By The Parenting Shorthairs

And by "this country," I mean "Connecticut." The NY Times wades into the whole Chinese Nannies For The Children Of The Overclass thing a bit late, but don't worry, they've got a new angle: Chinese Au Pairs. See? Completely different....
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Posted by greg at 4:19 PM | Comments (0)

Carbon Neutral Diapers, Now In Cloth, Too

Carbon Clear has been offering a carbon and greenhouse emissions offset for disposable diapers for a while now, inspired by the birth of company founder Mark Chadwick's daughter. Treehugger reports that Carbon Clear has just expanded to include cloth diaper...
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Posted by greg at 11:56 AM | Comments (5)

September 4, 2006

When What We Love And Who We Love Are At Odds

Whatever his animal conservation and awareness accomplishments, Steve Irwin's clownlike persona and the unfathomably unpredictable circumstances of his death make him a poor posterboy for discussing the issue of whether to continue extreme behavior after you have a kid. [And...
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Posted by greg at 4:12 PM | Comments (30)

Baby-Dangling Croc Hunter Killed In Freak Stingray Accident

TV personality and wild animal wrangler Steve Irwin, shown here in 2004 dangling his plump, 1-month-old, chicken-sized son during a Crocodile feeding show at his animal park, has died while diving on camera, off the coast of Australia. He...
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Posted by greg at 11:37 AM | Comments (9)

September 1, 2006

Daddy Types Eye On Breasts

They're important enough to get our undivided attention, so here's news from the breastfeeding front: Lactation rooms, company-supplied breast pumps, "sorry about the background noise" comments during conference calls, it's all good news for working moms who want to...
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Posted by greg at 2:12 PM | Comments (1)

Outraged Yet? Links From All Over

Over at BoingBoing, Xeni's all freaked out. You'd think she'd never seen a fully illustrated, nothing-left-out, 1971 Danish sex-ed book for preschoolers by Per Holm Knudsen before. [attention t-workers: that first link starts with an illustration from the book;...
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Posted by greg at 12:02 PM | Comments (2)

August 31, 2006

UK Child Database: The Worst Form Of Government Intrusion, Including All The Rest

Honestly, I don't know what's more whacked out over there in England: the fact that they're actually serious about starting a single massive database with details on every child in the country, which will be available for use by hundreds...
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Posted by greg at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)

'Flat Daddy' Cutouts For National Guard Families

Wow. I-- wow. Soldiers in Maine's National Guard who've been deployed to Iraq keep in regular, almost constant touch with their families through email, satellite phones, and even video conferencing. On top of that, their families receive life-sized photo...
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Posted by greg at 6:02 PM | Comments (7)

August 30, 2006

Two Trojans, And They Still Get Pregnant

USC Heisman Trophy winner and new Arizona Cardinals QB Matt Leinart and his former [at least] girlfriend, USC basketball playing Junior Brynn Cameron are reportedly expecting a child in November. Leinart described Cameron as his girlfriend in 2005, but he...
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Posted by greg at 11:24 PM | Comments (1)

August 28, 2006

Children Bilingual The Language Structures Intermix

Also, linguists their children as subjects use. Children's way with words sparks research [physorg.com via robotwisdom]...
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Posted by greg at 7:32 PM | Comments (6)

August 16, 2006

Evil Flying NCAA Monkeys: You're Not On Kansas' Squad Anymore, Daddy

ESPN.com columnist and DT reader Dan Shanoff [hey, Dan!] forwarded this story which is apparently burning up the bandwidth over there: defensive tackle Eric Butler has filed a Title IX discrimination suit against the NCAA after he was repeatedly denied...
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Posted by greg at 12:17 AM | Comments (2)

August 15, 2006

Elmo's World News Tonight

The Wide Elmo's World of Shorts. The Weekly Elmo's World News. Elmo's World According To Garp. It's An Elmo's World After All. OK, I'll stop now: They're not loving Elmo on the West Coast. In the LA Times, Joel...
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Posted by greg at 3:40 PM | Comments (2)

Slightly Tangential Links Roundup

Live by the Us Weekly, Die by the Us Weekly: For all the people patterning their family life after Chris Robinson and Kate Hudson: sorry, but you'll need to separate now and fob the kid off on a series...
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Posted by greg at 2:48 PM | Comments (0)

Tonight? Tonight? L'Chaim

Maybe it's just me, but even if I was breastfeeding too long, I don't think it'd help to have my rabbi describe my breasts as "an attractive cafeteria rather than a scintillating piece of flesh." Kosher Coupling by Shmuley Boteach:...
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Posted by greg at 1:20 PM | Comments (5)

Moms Are From East Hampton, Dads Are From Quogue

"In the luxe and relaxed setting only a beach house can afford, the afternoon will feature celebrities, stylists, editors, and writers perusing the best in Mom & Baby." There are car services for folks coming from Manhattan; children's attendants and...
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Posted by greg at 12:05 PM | Comments (2)

August 9, 2006

Pediatricians: Replace Shopping Carts Of Death Concussion

The American Academy of Pediatricians is calling for new safety regulations and designs for shopping carts because of all the injuries they say occur with the current 70-year-old design. [Nice of you to chime in now, Docs. What took you...
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Posted by greg at 3:52 PM | Comments (5)

August 8, 2006

It's Raining Breast Milk During World Breastfeeding Week

In case you didn't notice, it was World Breastfeeding Week last week. And if you go over to Celebrity Baby Blog, right now, it's just bursting with a buxom bevy of breastfeeding-related posts. They really took aim and let...
[read the full post...]
Posted by greg at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

August 4, 2006

Scientists To Aussie Bums: Put Up AND Shut Up

A recent University of Melbourne study of new dads who work outside the home while their new mom partners do most all the "housework" and baby care, and who, while taking twice as much leisure time as their partners, still...
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Posted by greg at 2:41 PM | Comments (0)

August 3, 2006

We Interrupt This Britney-Free Zone For This Important Announcement From The Newark Bears

Britney Spears arguably the Madonna of this generation has brought the issue of baby safety to the forefront of the American conscious. The Newark Bears know that the Pop Diva's public mishaps are far from intentional. It is her celebrity...
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Posted by greg at 5:50 PM | Comments (0)

The Baby Roasting In Wal-Mart Parking Lot Google Map

So some woman in Florida accidentally locks her baby in the van in a Wal-Mart parking lot, begs the shopping cart guy for help, he says talk to the manager. Eventually the manager says something along the lines of, "Hey,...
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Posted by greg at 3:26 PM | Comments (6)

August 1, 2006

Non-Scientists: Whiny Parents Get People Riled Up

Students of journalism in the UK and US have proved that long articles by parents flouting their selfishness and repeatedly calling themselves "brave" for admitting how bored they are with their kids will elicit much heated, indignant response from readers....
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Posted by greg at 12:38 PM | Comments (1)

Scientists: Fatherhood Makes You Smarter

Studies of the prefrontal cortex structure of first-time and experienced marmoset parents show that "Fatherhood produces changes in very high-cognitive-level areas" said Yvesgenia Kozorovitskiy of Princeton University. It's important to remember, though, that this information is coming from people...
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Posted by greg at 12:04 PM | Comments (1)

Scientists: Beautiful Parents Have More Daughters

It's not that simple, of course, as lead researcher Dr Satoshi Kanazawa explains: "Beautiful parents have more daughters than ugly parents, because physical attractiveness is heritable and because daughters benefit from attractiveness more than sons." Other recent papers from Dr....
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Posted by greg at 11:49 AM | Comments (2)

July 30, 2006

BabyTalk Shoves Breastfeeding Agenda In Innocent Infant's Mouth

When are the nursing nazis at BabyTalk Magazine going to get the message? New parents have enough stress in their life without having to worry that their newborn infant might be inadvertently exposed to a naked, engorged breast in the...
[read the full post...]
Posted by greg at 11:56 PM | Comments (16)

July 28, 2006

After Luncheon, Arsonist Beats Out Four Others To Win Parent Of The Year

I don't really care one way or the other if one of this year's Parents of The Year, Nabil and Nargues Khalil, is a convicted arsonist. What most interests me is how the revelation exposes the total self-serving BS PR...
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Posted by greg at 1:23 PM | Comments (1)

July 26, 2006

Welcome To The Gesell Dome

More gearhead-y goodness from Ann Hulbert's Raising America, this time from the 1930's and early 40's, when Dr. Arnold Gesell was at his zenith, dispensing systematic, scientifical-sounding childcare advice from his Clinic of Child Development at Yale. Gesell's greatest contribution...
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Posted by greg at 7:19 PM | Comments (2)

Whew. You Can Still Be Rich And Stupid.

I was just in Las Vegas, and so I have a hard time believing there was a connection between income and IQ. But apparently, there is. Some recent studies of twins and adopted kids that also factored in family socioeconomic...
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Posted by greg at 9:37 AM | Comments (1)

July 25, 2006

Next Up: Are Women Evolutionarily Suited For Math?

Since Britney Spears' flaunted her manny in the nation's face, the Washington Post felt compelled to ask the tough questions: are male humans genetically capable of picking up kids from preschool? Fortunately, the answer can be found just across the...
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Posted by greg at 12:26 AM | Comments (3)

July 19, 2006

Mothering Magazine's International Breastfeeding Symbol Contest

Mothering Magazine is upset, and they're not going to take it anymore:The image of a baby bottle on an airport sign announcing the location of a "parents lounge" infuriated us and got us thinking: Isn’Äôt there an international symbol...
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Posted by greg at 12:38 AM | Comments (9)

July 17, 2006

Safety: Beware Of Falling Televisions

Let your kid watch whatever you want, but just make sure the TV is anchored to the wall. According to a single Houston-area hospital's statistics, front-heavy TV's have fallen on toddlers 11 times in the last year, causing five deaths...
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Posted by greg at 1:40 PM | Comments (1)

July 14, 2006

Stealing A Baby's Identity Seems Pretty Easy

OK, so the story's a couple of years old now, as is little Andrew, who's probably gotten into plenty of trouble with the credit card companies all by himself now, but still. This story about a 5-month-old baby having his...
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Posted by greg at 11:08 AM | Comments (1)

July 10, 2006

Utah Anthro Prof Has Tenure, Develops Baby-Parade Theory

By analyzing the way chicks dig a guy with a baby, and comparing it to the parenting technique of the sloth in Ice Age, then performing a regression analysis on the title of a ten-year-old book on how Japanese men...
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Posted by greg at 5:32 PM | Comments (2)

July 7, 2006

CEO's Nanny Drives A Phil & Ted's

Well, the crisis in childcare continues apace. USA Today reports that even some CEO's are feeling the pinch as the cost of quality childcare spirals out of control. Seems that nanny agencies who specialize in placing background-checked, multilingual nannies with...
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Posted by greg at 10:51 AM | Comments (5)

June 30, 2006

Ouch. Time Looks At Educational Toys - In 1964

Just when you think this generation's somehow actually different...while researching our new magnifying glass stool, I came across this Time magazine article from 1964 about ambitious parents and the boom of "so-called educational toys":Advanced placement begins in the nursery, say...
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Posted by greg at 6:32 PM | Comments (0)

On Loving Your Gay Baby

Andy at Towleroad spotted this ad on the subway today. It's from a new campaign by the Ali Forney Center, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth homeless services center. Apparently the documentary Paris is Burning...
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Posted by greg at 3:56 PM | Comments (0)

Loong, Hard At-Home Dad Article From Esquire

Every time I read an in-depth article about the travails of family life with two little kids, especially when it's about a family barely scraping by where the dad's an ex-Marine who's taking care of the kids while struggling to...
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Posted by greg at 3:12 PM | Comments (1)

June 28, 2006

UK Gov't Database To Get All Up In Your Kid's Biznazz

I've never been able to jibe Britain's obsession with installing closed-circuit cameras everywhere with any notion of freedom and non-authoritarian government, but apparently most of HM The Queen's subjects are quite able to hold onto the illusion, thank you very...
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Posted by greg at 12:28 PM | Comments (3)

June 21, 2006

Longboarding: "For Gnarly Dads Only"

First off, Happy Go Skateboarding Day. You have at least two hours left to celebrate. Second, there's no mention of LATCH adapters for them, but from this article in the coolhunting trend rag known as USA Today, it sounds...
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Posted by greg at 9:34 PM | Comments (2)

June 19, 2006

More Token Dad Stories From All Over

I feel like I really dropped the ball by choosing last week--the one week when every news organization feels obligated to have a dad story--to go on vacation. Here are a few I've come across. If you spotted a notable...
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Posted by greg at 8:49 AM | Comments (7)

What The Bookstore Clerk Really Thinks Of Kids

Minnesota Nice in a nutshell: smiling, polite, slightly passive aggressive but mute on the surface, but seething with unaddressed, unexpressed rage underneath. Moira Manion, a Minneapolis writer/bookstore clerk did a commentary on Marketplace about toddlers whose parents allow them to...
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Posted by greg at 8:25 AM | Comments (5)

June 18, 2006

Newshour-Themed Birthday Party For St. Paul 3yo

The birthday boy can identify senators on sight and calls Jim Lehrer "Jimmy Jimmy BoBo." This is what happens when you watch TV during dinner, people. 'Jimmy Jimmy BoBo' Lehrer Makes Birthday Party Newsworthy [washington post via waxy] And...
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Posted by greg at 10:24 PM | Comments (1)

Happy Dadblog's Day!

Did you know that in Iceland, Father's Day is called "the day after Independence Day?" and it's usually celebrated by nursing a hangover and waiting for the tinnitus from last night's Icelandic death-metal concert to wear off? Meanwhile, in the...
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Posted by greg at 9:26 PM | Comments (1)

June 11, 2006

Family Values My Butt: UC Study Shows Working Class Parents Get Screwed

Considering that the study appears to be largely an exercise in awareness-raising, it was really disheartening to see how little coverage "One Sick Child Away From Being Fired: When 'Opting Out' Isn't an Option" got in the media when it...
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Posted by greg at 10:36 PM | Comments (3)

June 8, 2006

Dads Who Know, Use Facebook Are More Confident, Involved

A study that confirms my own personal perspective? It MUST be true! Rebel Dad has a good writeup of a BabyCenter-sponsored survey that shows new generations of dads [they actually use Boomer, Gen X and Gen Y as the breakdowns]...
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Posted by greg at 1:21 PM | Comments (0)

June 7, 2006

Dan Zane Rallies Brooklyn Arena Protestors Before Naptime

A protest concert/fundraiser by Dan Zanes for the group, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, was as good a reason as any for a NY Observer reporter to train her bemused, investigative eye on the Brooklyn baby scene. The group is raising...
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Posted by greg at 6:58 AM | Comments (0)

June 5, 2006

Harlem's Immigrant Problem

mom pushing stroller: "the twins just got into every school from the park to the river. Where should we send them, Alan?" dad carrying a single bottle: "Sarah, forget preschool. With an IQ of 150, let's fast track them...
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Posted by greg at 10:42 AM | Comments (1)

June 1, 2006

Govt: Dads Care, Matter Now

The CDC's National Center on Health Statistics released the latest results of the National Survey of Family Growth [NSFG], which is notable because it's the first round of the study to include men. So, uh, thanks, I guess. The data...
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Posted by greg at 2:03 AM | Comments (4)

May 30, 2006

It's Kids-a-Poppin' In Boston

There must be something in the mineral water in Wellesley, because according to the Boston Globe Magazine, the richies there are poppin' out babies by the Suburban-ful. Apparently, it's either a competitve thing, a "no Ivy tuition worries here, pal"...
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Posted by greg at 10:38 AM | Comments (3)

May 25, 2006

So I Met Some Celebrity Parents Recently

In my recent travels, I've had the chance to meet some new parents who also happen to be celebrities. We chatted about babies, strollers, traveling with children, the blog, etc. Very nice. Both times, I told them that now that...
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Posted by greg at 3:11 PM | Comments (4)

May 18, 2006

Right, Then! I'm Uninteresting To Conservatives In The UK!

So Boy George's neighbor is named Tom Leonard, and he's a columnist for the Daily Telegraph who writes on the topic of fatherhood. A couple of weeks back, he took to explaining the problem with daddyblogs: In a nootshell, 'e...
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Posted by greg at 11:33 PM | Comments (10)

May 15, 2006

It's Wall-to-Wall Hipster Parents In The Bay Area

There are enough parents in the Bay Area who a) want to dress their kids cool/in black/like themselves, b) want an Oeuf but don't want to shell out $800 for a crib, and c) tell themselves their Passat Jetta [sorry,...
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Posted by greg at 7:38 AM | Comments (8)

May 12, 2006

Reissuing The Moderno: The Rocker That Made Yrjˆ Kukkapuro A Household Name

In 1960, Professor Yrjˆ Kukkapuro, the Finnish designer and academic, introduced what would become one of his most famous works: the Moderno rocker. It was the centerpiece of a clean, unassuming, ergonomic, and classically Scandinavian line of chairs that were...
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Posted by greg at 7:52 AM | Comments (5)

May 9, 2006

"This is the dark side of pandas..."

And just in time for Mother's Day. In a show of fascinating science reporting, zinger quotes, and spectacular deployment of literary devices, Natalie Angier writes in the NY Times about how mothers in the animal kingdom can turn out to...
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Posted by greg at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)

From De Islands: De Etymology Of "Baby Daddy"

The terms "baby mama" and "baby daddy," it turns out, originated in Jamaica in the 1960's and migrated to the US via song lyrics. Once they were popularized in hip hop lyrics in the late 90's, the terms lost most...
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Posted by greg at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

May 4, 2006

OK, I Am Totally Cool With Frilly Pink Outfits. This Time

The NYT has a story and an audio slide show about a ballet class in Queens for little girls with cerebral palsy. It was founded a few years ago by Joann Ferrara, a physical therapist with Associated Therapies, who paired...
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Posted by greg at 11:25 PM | Comments (3)

Congratulations To Jack White For Daughter, Consistency

Jack White, of the White Stripes Whites, and his wife Karen Elson had their daughter. And they named her Scarlett. See, it had to be a red name? But Ruby was never an option? because Jack used to date Renee...
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Posted by greg at 2:48 PM | Comments (2)

May 2, 2006

Rich Dick

Just goes to show, money can't buy class. Here's a blind item that Gawker pulled from today's NY Post:Which billionaire buyout buccaneer called his 3-year-old son to the dinner table the other night and had him repeat to the guests...
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Posted by greg at 3:18 PM | Comments (5)

Men Besides Tony Randall Have Biological Clock After All. [And He's Dead.]

After so many centuries living next to the French, you'd figure the British would have managed to deal with their sense of inadequacy in the wooing and babymaking department, but nooo. A study into the causes of the UK's dropping...
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Posted by greg at 10:24 AM | Comments (3)

April 26, 2006

How Is A Manhattan Preschool-Age Child Different From A Washer/Dryer?

A; Good old-fashioned bribes can still get a washer/dryer in. The influx of young families and rising real estate prices has spurred demand, but many buildings in the city still forbid private washer/dryers. Avoids the allegedly dire threat of "sudsing,...
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Posted by greg at 1:08 AM | Comments (2)

April 25, 2006

Read It For The Articles? Cookie Or Playboy

"I am a bunny. My name is Nicole. I love in a big hollow tree." Take the New York Observer's quiz and see if you can guess which magazine these ten quotes came from: Cookie or Playboy. For the...
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Posted by greg at 4:59 PM | Comments (4)

April 18, 2006

Toddlers Dazzle Sony Researchers By Playing With Robot

What is it with Japanese robotics scientists, don't they ever interact with actual children? When Sony stuck one of its little humanoid-shaped QRIO robots in a San Diego day care center, the kids--all under two years old--interacted and "bonded" with...
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Posted by greg at 9:37 PM | Comments (2)

April 13, 2006

Give Back The Van: Missouri Couple Fakes Sextuplets For Loot

Two lessons to learn from the Missouri couple who claimed they were having sextuplets--hell, they claimed they had them, but had to put them in hiding in a NICU somewhere because some crazed family member wanted to kill them: When...
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Posted by greg at 8:59 AM | Comments (1)

April 12, 2006

Yonkers Junkie Gets Five Years For Boiling Kids

The baby daddy who punished his two kids (actually, one was from a previous baby daddy) by locking them in the bathroom with the hot water running--where they were basically scalded-and-drowned to death while the dad passed out after shooting...
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Posted by greg at 11:58 AM | Comments (5)

March 28, 2006

It Took $8 Worth Of Quarters To Win Him Back

A 3-year-old kid climbed up the chute and got himself stuck in one of those "grab a toy with a claw" games at a Godfather's Pizza in Minnesota. The kid didn't seem to mind, and I guess the parents...
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Posted by greg at 1:16 PM | Comments (5)

March 27, 2006

Coming Soon To A Wal-Mart Diaper Near You

A notebook of illustrated poems by the 12-year old John Lennon will be auctioned on 19 April. This picture of a walrus from a verse by Lewis Carroll shows definitively that Lennon knew what a walrus was decades before...
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Posted by greg at 6:01 PM | Comments (1)

March 22, 2006

"Any Kids?" "Not That I Know Of."

When they're considered at all, it turns out fathers are little more than speed bumps to be driven over and ignored on the way to a smooth and uncontestable adoption. That's more or less my takeaway from the NY Times'...
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Posted by greg at 4:51 PM | Comments (8)

March 20, 2006

Study: Whiny Berkeley Kids Grow Up To Be Conservatives

I know what you're thinking: "Wha wha wha??? The whiny ones in Berkeley turn out to be conservative???" Maybe they're grading on a curve, I don't know. But a UC Berkeley sociology professor, who's on the business end of a...
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Posted by greg at 10:14 PM | Comments (8)

Well, If Her Majesty Approves...

You know how your friends who went to Lycee Francaise, even the American ones--who am I kidding? especially the American ones--would have that bilingual message on their answering machine, and you were all, "Dude, I get it. You speak French."?...
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Posted by greg at 10:15 AM | Comments (2)

March 13, 2006

More UWS Apartment Madness, This Time With A Baby

Again, there's something about this couple and their new baby and their Upper West Side apartment-hunting antics--a sublet to get into the neighborhood, months of open houses and failed bids for "Jr 4's," i.e. 1BR with enough alcove space for...
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Posted by greg at 10:21 AM | Comments (1)

March 11, 2006

Funny, I Thought Everyone Wanted To Live In The Brady Bunch House

From the NYT:Psychologists who study interactions between people and environments say that buyers often unknowingly seek out spaces that are physically evocative of childhood havens. And the aha! feeling that a person experiences upon walking into a space can often...
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Posted by greg at 4:22 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2006

This Week In UWS SAHD's In The News...

"What's incredibly interesting about this story is the light it sheds on the psychological impact of this amazing real estate market on New Yorkers," said Ian Van Tuyl, a 39-year-old writer and stay-at-home father who, with his wife, paid $126,000...
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Posted by greg at 7:23 AM | Comments (2)

March 6, 2006

Da' Coyotes

Coyotes have moved into Chicago. Apparently drawn from the outer fringe suburbs by plentiful food sources, the urban coyote population is up by 3000% in the last ten years. Top on the coyotes' menu: the booming population of wild babies...
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Posted by greg at 3:12 PM | Comments (1)

March 3, 2006

Panda Kindergarten Actually Designed For Hook Ups

There was an article recently about how much US zoos were paying to rent pandas from China. [Short answer: a-freakin'-lot.] Now there's this Reuters video story of a "panda kindergarten" full of adorable panda cubs frolicking in a snowy playground....
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Posted by greg at 3:47 PM | Comments (0)

Fast Company Brings You: The BabySuit

Another installment from the "wait, haven't I been reading this article for the last ten years, too?" department: this time a classic bubble-era fluff-piece on how all us businessfolk are ignoring demographics at our own peril!. ["there are no...
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Posted by greg at 12:15 PM | Comments (2)

NYT: Preschool Application Essay Is The New LSAT

Remember back in the good old days when all it took to get your twins into the 92nd St Y's preschool was $1 million and a letter of recommendation from Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill, your boss's boss's boss's boss? Well,...
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Posted by greg at 9:37 AM | Comments (1)

February 23, 2006

Japanese Reporter Pimps Out Breastfeeding Cat

Still trying to triangulate this one to figure out who's weirder: a) the breastfeeding cat b) the child-free women who let it latch on on camera c) the female reporter who's pimping the cat out around the country d) the...
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Posted by greg at 1:34 PM | Comments (3)

NYT: Dogs A Lot Like Children For Some

According to the NY Times, the generation that created the gifted and talented kid has also created the gifted and talented dog. And while children rebel against expectations by doing drugs, joining bands, and making unflattering family-centered documentaries, dogs react...
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Posted by greg at 8:22 AM | Comments (1)

February 21, 2006

Baby Boom Contributes To Hamptons Summer Rental War?

Uh, I guess I'm not going to dispel the notion that I'm writing for an elitist demographic this week... According to one realtor talking to the NY Post, one of the reasons there's a run on good summer rentals in...
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Posted by greg at 5:40 PM | Comments (2)

"We're On A Mission From Dan Snyder"

Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder also owns 12% of Six Flags, the money-losing theme park company, and after a proxy fight, he finally gave management the boot and installed his boy Mark Shapiro, who'd previously been in charge of programming...
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Posted by greg at 7:21 AM | Comments (1)

February 10, 2006

You're A Wonder, Wonder Woman

The woman edits a zine called The Mother that sounds like parenting advice rounded up at Lilith Fair and on Paradise Island, and she nurses her 8-year-old daughter. Clearly, what some man might think is totally beside the point...
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Posted by greg at 12:36 AM | Comments (9)

February 9, 2006

Tanzanian Woman: A Dingo Fed My Bay-bay!

Baby feeds on dog's milk [yahoo via dt reader arlopop]...
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Posted by greg at 12:06 PM | Comments (1)

February 8, 2006

This Just In: IKEA Continues To Spread

DT reader JJ sent this in, from The Onion Radio. My favorite part is that the story is "brought to you by Chili's": Ikea Claims Another 10,000 Lifestyles [theonion.com]...
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Posted by greg at 3:28 PM | Comments (0)

Think Of The Children???

"THE birth of the world's sexiest baby is still two or more months away..." [nypost] As DT reader Matt points out, this is the GROSSEST LEDE EVER....
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Posted by greg at 10:45 AM | Comments (1)

February 7, 2006

This Is Less Funny After Episode II

See, The Onion thought they were so smart and funny, but now we know that all the kids on the Death Star are Jango Fett clones, so this isn't realistic at all. Hah. Death Star To Open Day Care Center...
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Posted by greg at 1:29 PM | Comments (2)

Bronx Zoo: No More Elephants, Just These

Whenever we're in DC, we'll take a walk over to the National Zoo, and it's frankly depressing. The kid loves it, of course [although the hippo freaks her out, so we have a deal not to see him. The pygmy...
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Posted by greg at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)

February 2, 2006

Advertiser Dogpile at Cookie's Place!!

David Netto must be steamed. According to this article at Salon, the Ooba bassinet has gone from "Coming soon" to "Coming Sign Of The Conumerist Children Apocalypse" in less than a month. Here's my favorite exchange, with Dr James Twitchell,...
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Posted by greg at 2:37 PM | Comments (2)

February 1, 2006

It's Getting Hard To Keep Up With The Chinese Nanny Trend

From the news, you'd think the planes to France are full of unemployed nannies. as everyone in Manhattan gets in line for an upgrade to the hot, new $100,000 Mandarin-speaking model. There was that Jan. 16 BBC story I linked...
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Posted by greg at 10:02 AM | Comments (2)

January 29, 2006

Unlike Everyone Else, The Great Zucchini Is No Phony

You know how sometimes you see a guy with an absolutely appalling combover, and you play out in our head how you--a complete stranger--are gonna do the guy a HUGE favor by walking straight up to him and saying, "Look,...
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Posted by greg at 4:07 PM | Comments (4)

January 28, 2006

Wow, Baby Universe Bought PoshTots.com for $12 Million

The Richmond-based PoshTots caters to--now let me see if I can remember their explanation correctly--rich, bored pregnant women on bedrest with laptops, is that right? Well, clearly, it's a growth market, and it's attractive enough to the decidedly more middlebrow...
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Posted by greg at 10:34 PM | Comments (1)

January 23, 2006

Disney: From Now On, Only Fatherless Characters

Snow White, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Jasmine, Belle, Nemo, Pocahontas. Where were the moms? Bambi had a mom, and look what happened to her. For decades, children and parents have been bombarded with stories and role models put out...
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Posted by greg at 10:37 AM | Comments (4)

January 22, 2006

Congratulations, Josh Homme: She's An Homme, Baby

Queens of The Stone Age frontman and Brody Dalle had a baby girl last week; her name is Camille. Which works out well because this was posted on the QOTSA message boards a month ago:...after I asked if he knows...
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Posted by greg at 8:19 AM | Comments (1)

January 19, 2006

NY'ers: Wo Yao Yige Chinese Nanny

So Mandarin-speaking nannies are the new hotness in the US, according to the BBC, as parents try to give their kids an early start on the language of their future overlords [or, if you're a nationalistic optimist, their future...
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Posted by greg at 3:32 PM | Comments (3)

January 16, 2006

Expensive Rear-Facing Strollers Impair Child's Shoplifting

According to this headline from the UK's Daily Record, pushing your kid around in a rear-facing stroller can significantly delay his taking. Fortunately, the only strollers that have this rear-facing seat option--Bugaboos, a BebeConfort, and the Quinny Buzz--are for rich...
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Posted by greg at 1:47 PM | Comments (6)

January 13, 2006

The Swedish Play. For Babies.

Ibsen it ain't. Sounds more like Mummenschantz, but it's apparently working in Sweden. "B aby Drama" is a play for 6-12 month-old babies, and it's already sold out it's run in Stockholm.The hour-long play shows the cycle of parenthood, birth...
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Posted by greg at 1:40 PM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2006

Home Cookie-ing: Take Four Chefs, Add One Oeuf...

From the headline, I thought it'd be about renovating a Brooklyn brownstone with your in-laws, but the article in the NYT today mostly talks about a scrappy, anti-materialist, upstart magazine for parents called Cookie. ]Has anyone heard of it? Apparently...
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Posted by greg at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)

Activist Judge Condemns Unborn To Hell[ish Commute]

A Godless, activist judge has ruled that a fetus is not a person--for purposes of using the carpool lane, anyway. While fetuses and blow-up dolls are being oppressed, . Who do the liberals running our coutry consider a "person"? Hookers,...
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Posted by greg at 10:05 AM | Comments (6)

January 5, 2006

Train Your Kids To Eat Right, They'll Practically Take Care Of Themselves

A Bay Area dad and stepmother left two boys, ages 5 and 10 home alone while they flew to Las Vegas for New Year's. Apparently, the dad had asked Grandma to babysit, but she said she was too busy. Not...
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Posted by greg at 1:38 PM | Comments (3)

Flash: Bragging Parents Are Annoying

The NYT breaks the scandal today that bragging about one's child is an annoying pasttime of too-competitive upper-middle-class parents. It involves bumper stickers and soccer field taunts. But if you're a first-time dad, is it ok? Or is that just...
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Posted by greg at 8:18 AM | Comments (5)

January 4, 2006

'Dodgy Dads' Found And Tagged In UK?

Where are the balloon-throwing idiots dressed up like Batman when you need them? In an attempt to show that his love of stupid coinages will not be overshadowed by his penchant for inflammatory ideas, a new government minister in the...
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Posted by greg at 3:43 PM | Comments (0)

January 3, 2006

So If Your Daughter's A Lesbian, And Your Name's Dick, Then What?

According to British researchers, parents' voting patterns are linked to the gender of their children. By looking at people who switched their votes from liberal to conservative and vice versa, they found that the more girls you have, the more...
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Posted by greg at 12:20 PM | Comments (3)

January 2, 2006

Pandas: The Science [And The Religion] Of Cuteness

The NYT has a looong article on the science of cuteness, from Hello Kitty to pandas to babies to baby penguins to...baby pandas. Turns out cuteness is used by human babies to stay alive; by those at the top of...
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Posted by greg at 9:54 PM | Comments (0)

December 27, 2005

Limbo Doctrine In Limbo

Apparently, limbo is about to be banished from Catholic doctrine quicker than a baby who dies without being baptized is banished from Heaven. The NY Times has a rather flippant article on how the Church is trading in centuries of...
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Posted by greg at 6:25 PM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2005

Art: Juergen Teller, New Dad

I'm always interested to see what happens to an artist's work when he has a kid. Partly because the new presence ususally makes himself or herself felt in unexpected ways, but mostly because good artists are usually very attuned...
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Posted by greg at 1:41 AM | Comments (2)

December 15, 2005

Bill Maher Steals Dad's Cab In A Snowstorm

I'm sure the woman who sent this in to the NY Daily News gossip column thought she was standing up for the man in the story. But let's face facts: no man--even a man with a baby and a stroller...
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Posted by greg at 1:56 PM | Comments (1)

One Embryo: 100 Swiss Francs.

The Swiss National Bank recently announced the winners of the design competition for the new Swiss Franc notes. The most obvious feature--even more eyecatching than the skull on the 1,000 or the HIV virus on the 200--is the weeks-old...
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Posted by greg at 9:13 AM | Comments (2)

December 9, 2005

Why Does A Female Monkey "Fancy A Cooking Pot"?

Just in time for Christmas, a new study reveals that baby vervets [yeah, I didn't know either, and I go to the zoo a dozen times a week. It's a monkey.] prefer gender coded toys "Just like most human boys...
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Posted by greg at 8:12 AM | Comments (1)

December 8, 2005

Imagine All The People Getting The Hell Outta My Way

I had to go from the West Side to a meeting downtown, so the kid and I headed over to the B train at 72nd Street. B is for BIG mistake. Turns out someone had been shot on the corner...
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Posted by greg at 9:14 PM | Comments (2)

December 7, 2005

San Francisco To Become Paradise For Coffee Shop Whiners?

Seems that San Francisco is a hard city to live in for young middle class families, so they're all planning on moving (or at least half of them, according to one study). If you're one of those cranky bastards whose...
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Posted by greg at 7:55 PM | Comments (1)

December 1, 2005

For Unto Us A Sean Is Given

Just when you thought the K-Fed family couldn't get any wronger, Britney had to go and dress the kid's nursery up like The Nativity. At first, I worried that little Sean's swaddling clothes weren't flushable gDiapers, but who cares now?...
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Posted by greg at 9:28 PM | Comments (1)

NYC Overrun By Immigrants...Little Immigrants From Heaven

According to the NYT, the under-5 population of Manhattan increased 26 percent between 2000 and 2004. SHOCKING. The most likely explanation, they say, is not Mexicans in East Harlem [seriously], but high-income families who don't "disappear into Brooklyn and New...
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Posted by greg at 8:31 AM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2005

Jacqueline The Caribbean Nanny Lives In A Windowless Studio On 2

While I'm not ingratiating myself with many of my Upper East Side neighbors, I might as well point to this ad, which ran in Sunday's NYT Magazine. Its elitism is as transparently stupid as those Bridgemarket Food Emporium ads that...
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Posted by greg at 3:10 PM | Comments (2)

November 21, 2005

Things I'm Surprised I'm Thankful For: NY Magazine

1)The Look BookSometimes, when my husband works late, Iíll bring the girls over the next day. We do a feeding there in his office. He runs a hedge fund...Her hands were full, so I doubt she did little air quotes...
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Posted by greg at 12:09 PM | Comments (9)

November 16, 2005

Sounds Like Someone Took That 'Zero Population' Module In Third Grade Seriously

Ahh, the 1970's. It took either 6,970 years [counting from Adam] or 3 million years [countiing from Paranthropus robustus] for human beings to develop a society advanced, self-aware, sophisticated, and free enough for an idiot like Les Knight to even...
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Posted by greg at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2005

Shaken Up

I was listening to the radio the other night on the way to the gym. Turned out to be "Married to the Military," a documentary from American Radioworks about the challenges of life in a military town, Fayetteville, NC, home...
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Posted by greg at 11:51 PM | Comments (2)

Other Daddies Typing, Vol X.3 - Etc

Here's the info stuff from the blog round-up: So parents [Swedish dads, New York moms] taking their kids into prison with them? wtf? [bloggingbaby] Beth of Blogging Baby flew solo with the kid and did just fine, thanks. She had...
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Posted by greg at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2005

Sorry, Moms, The Mob Has Spoken

So after the story dominated local newscasts last night [?!?], Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn gave a stern talking to to the moms quoted in yesterday's NY Times article about the Scone Nazi and his "inside voices" sign for...
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Posted by greg at 10:52 PM | Comments (5)

Waiting for Beckett, or Congratulations, Conan O'Brien!

In the year 2000, I bet Conan had no idea that in five years, he and his wife Liza would name their second kid Beckett. Well, life's funny that way. Beckett was born last night in NYC. He's 8.25 lbs...
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Posted by greg at 8:11 PM | Comments (0)

Man Buys India's 3-year-old Marathoner For 800 Rupees

So a 3-year-old boy in India regularly runs marathon-length distances, but if I read this story right, the Indian government is upset because his "mentor" may be harming his health, but they're fine with the fact that his mother sold...
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Posted by greg at 9:15 AM | Comments (1)

November 9, 2005

Baby Gangland Warfare Erupts in Chicago Restaurants

When I got an email a few days ago forwarded from a NYT reporter seeking examples of kids in restaurants, I dutifully sent along some anecdotes of the kid's meltdown at the conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Tokyo. But until...
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Posted by greg at 11:29 AM | Comments (23)

Gatea, Bosque, Gatea! Colombian Baby Marathon

600 kids were expected for Cali, Colombia's first "MaratÛn de Gateadores," [aka Crawlers Marathon] a couple of weeks ago, but according to the municipal health ministry 1,122 showed up. The human equivalent of a frogjumping contest, the races pitted kids...
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Posted by greg at 8:15 AM | Comments (2)

UK National Toddler Curriculum: 'No Latin Until Age 3 '

The British government is proposing a national curriculum for kids ages "naught to five." I looked that up; it means zero. Obviously, I was not the beneficiary of a nationally standardized curriculum which every type of professional caregiver was responsible...
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Posted by greg at 6:59 AM | Comments (2)

November 8, 2005

Move Over, Bun, There's A Cookie In The Oven

Set to hit newsstands next week, the NY Times has a preview of Cookie, which was presumably delivered to their office by the conscripted children of Conde Nast employees. As editor Pilar Guzman explains, Cookie is a new type of...
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Posted by greg at 10:22 AM | Comments (7)

Things I've Never Seen: Cats, Les Miz, Yoga Mamas

After not seeing Cats or Les Miz for a few years, every year that I still didn't see it became more significant. Not seeing it came to feel like an accomplishment; if I ever saw them now, it'd be quite...
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Posted by greg at 12:02 AM | Comments (4)

November 7, 2005

NYT: When Does Paternity Start?

If you're for a man's right to be involved in the decisions about using or donating embryos, then you should probably support a man's involvement in the decision to continue or end a pregnancy, right? That's the logic of some...
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Posted by greg at 8:34 PM | Comments (0)

November 6, 2005

Me, I'm Just Happy They Got The URL Right

Now that he's famous from LAX to LA Harbor, I hope celebrity dad-to-be Dan Paik doesn't forget us little people. Paik is well-known in Manhattan Beach as "the guy who loves his Bugaboo even though the kid's not coming until...
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Posted by greg at 2:57 PM | Comments (10)

November 4, 2005

Boy, 15, Traces DNA, Finds Sperm Donor Dad's Last Name (Fortunately Not Gallo)

If he inherited his precociousness from his dad, well, then it was only a matter of time. A 15 year-old British kid was conceived using anonymous donor sperm. He submitted his own DNA to a genetic genealogy database, which eventually...
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Posted by greg at 9:26 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2005

Is Your Name Michael Diamond? Why, Yes, Yes It Is.

From downtown Manhattan, Tribeca. My style is wild, and you know that it still is. Stroller schlepping, and youíre doing the bump Shake your rumpFrom today's Gawker Stalker:I spotted Mike D of the Beastie Boys today (10/28) at 1:10pm on...
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Posted by greg at 4:38 PM | Comments (1)

Anti-Child Types: The Magazine Article For Non-Dads

It's been a while since Amy Sohn's flamethrowing column in NY Magazine singed anything around here. This week she has a short, sweet article about how hard dating is for people who know they don't want kids. One anti-kid woman...
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Posted by greg at 12:54 PM | Comments (1)

October 28, 2005

The Househusband's Tale (In The Guardian)

Jon Absalom decided to put his career on hold to take care of his kid--to become a househusband, a word like 'lorry' and 'arse,' which I hope stays over there. [Besides, it always reminds me of The Housemartins, why not...
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Posted by greg at 8:42 AM | Comments (1)

October 26, 2005

Dad Type: Caging Children 'Next Hot Trend'

Because with endorsements like this, the stock price will be going THRU DA ROOF! Dad: Caging Children 'Necessary' [foxnews via Ivan] Actually, read the original Cleveland Plain Dealer piece is slightly more sympathetic and even more depressing. These feeble-minded people...
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Posted by greg at 8:55 AM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2005

Indiana Man Leaves 4-mo In Car, But Can Explain

So a dad from Michigan City, Indiana, William Kersey, borrows a car, which is reported abandoned on a Chesteron cul de sac Saturday night, 'round 11, with the door open, the dome light on, and a 4-month-old baby inside. Two...
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Posted by greg at 12:28 PM | Comments (1)

October 18, 2005

FLASH: David Copperfield To Impregnate Girl

Of course, that his plan involves not having sex with her and not even touching her is news to no one. Apparently, he first perfected this positively mystifying no-sex, no-touch technique during his years-long engagement to Claudia Schiffer. David...
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Posted by greg at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2005

So I Can Deduct Preschool Tuition As A Business Expense?

The newest world of business networking is therefore not the golf course, the power breakfast or the alumni reunion. It is the schoolhouse. As much as country clubs once did, schools - especially private day schools - are bringing together...
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Posted by greg at 9:46 PM | Comments (2)

October 14, 2005

Meanwhile, In Mr. Kate Moss News,

Kate Moss's baby daddy Jefferson Hack is apparently taking care of the kid (Lila Grace just turned three while Mom's been in rehab) and seeking sole custody. A media guy himself (he co-founded Dazed & Confused magazine), when Page Six...
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Posted by greg at 5:16 PM | Comments (0)

October 12, 2005

I Didn't Know There Were Any J-People In Arkansas

I thought they were all in NYC and San Francisco. At least that's where the two J-families WE know live. But congratulations to Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar down near Little Rock, who just had their 16th kid, a girl,...
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Posted by greg at 9:18 PM | Comments (12)

October 11, 2005

Diaper Free & Psychically Scarred? Blame The Media

There is something in the air, and it ain't the smell of diapers. The NY Times has an op-ed from Prof. Meredith Small about going diaper-free. She boldly confronts the true source of the hypothetical psychological trauma that EC kids...
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Posted by greg at 9:27 PM | Comments (15)

October 7, 2005

NYC Under Threat From Stroller-Pushing Terrorists?

If you see a menacing, Geraldo-looking guy pushing a stroller on the subway, CALL THE COPS IMMEDIATELY. IT IS NOT GERALDO. HE DOESN'T TAKE THE SUBWAY; HE HAS A BENTLEY AND A DRIVER. On the other hand, if you see...
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Posted by greg at 11:42 AM | Comments (1)

October 5, 2005

At-Home Dads Multiplying Like Rabbits?

Rebel Dad, who's something of an expert on this kind of thing [statistics and government policy ARE the favorite sports in Washington, DC, after all] has parsed some Census Bureau statistics and is feeling pretty darn good. I'll let him...
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Posted by greg at 9:20 PM | Comments (0)

Zuckerman: Famous, Prick, Fires US News Staffers On Maternity Leave

God Bless America, land of the free-will employment. The country where media moguls can escape the profit-sapping oppression of governmentally mandated employment protection regimes in their home country, and where they can be totally at liberty to fire employees who...
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Posted by greg at 8:04 PM | Comments (2)

October 4, 2005

Remember That NYC Baby-Stabbing?

It gets better/worse. Turns out the stabber and his roommates in the mental home traded some words over--well, I'll let him explain:ìLately, they been getting on my nerves,î he said of ìOassieî and ìBilly.î ìTheyíd been hounding me to clean...
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Posted by greg at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)

October 1, 2005

WWZD: What Would Zahara Do?

Coincidence?? Fox News Exclusive Friday: Angelina Jolie's kids--the most influential nippers in the world--singlehandedly launching hot trends in hairstyles, fashion, and third world adoption. Just look at this: Zahara has apparently turned the until-now utterly obscure "Baby Bjorn" into...
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Posted by greg at 9:54 AM | Comments (4)

September 30, 2005

NYC Needs Its Infant Dumpsters Back

How could we let this happen? A child was abandoned and forced to walk around a Queens street barefoot for who knows how long? If only the infant dumpster plan that Rudy Giuliani introduced in the mid-90's hadn't been...
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Posted by greg at 12:11 AM | Comments (1)

September 20, 2005

Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Way In

I'm not sure if it's comforting to know that there are stupid lawsuits prompt stupid reactions in the UK, too, but I do know that they don't pay as well. The dad who got hit in the face with the...
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Posted by greg at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2005

From This Week's New Yorker

From this week's New Yorker magazine comes this cartoon by William Haefeli. You can purchase prints, shirts, even note cards with it, at cartoonbank.com. [via chipdaddy and rebeldad]...
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Posted by greg at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2005

Xtreemie Born To Brain-Dead Mother Dies Of Infection

That pregnant, brain-dead woman in Virginia whose husband struggled to keep her body alive until their baby was viable, who gave birth to a girl in August just as the cancer was ravaging her body? The kid just died. Infection....
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Posted by greg at 11:48 PM | Comments (3)

September 8, 2005

Yikes! Crazyman Stabs Baby On UUWS

A "bearded and bespectacled madman" from the neighborhood nuthouse attacked a 10-month old baby. in her stroller. with a knife. repeatedly. On the street. 171st St. Washington Heights. In broad daylight. While the kid was being pushed by her 20-year...
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Posted by greg at 11:38 AM | Comments (5)

September 6, 2005

Yikes, 6-Yr-Old Leads 6 Other KidsTo Shelter

The youngest was 5-months old, but there was a 14-month-old and four 2- and 3-year olds, too. Turns out when the evacuation chopper arrived on the roof of their New Orleans apartment building, the parents were told to put the...
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Posted by greg at 6:09 PM | Comments (2)

September 4, 2005

Chuck E. Cheese Wants YOU!

Apparently, part of the entertainment for birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese is a promotional video produced by the Department of Defense showing happy, shiny soldiers in Iraq handing out candy to happy, shiny children and standing around happy, shiny...
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Posted by greg at 10:27 PM

September 1, 2005

Excruciating Report From Inside The Superdome

"We pee on the floor. We are like animals," Taffany Smith, 25, said as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. In her right hand she carried a half-full bottle of formula provided by rescuers. Baby supplies are running low; one...
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Posted by greg at 5:29 PM | Comments (0)

UPDATED: What To Do [Besides Take 'Katrina' Off The Name List?]

It's a question I've been asking myself the last couple of days, especially as I decide whether to post about this or that toy or deluxe nursery furniture. Cooper at Been There and some other bloggers are getting busy, meanwhile,...
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Posted by greg at 3:43 PM | Comments (9)

August 31, 2005

Which One Of You Drove The $6,000 Crib?

DT readers should recognize this kind of article. Knight Ridder reported last month that a lot of the modernist designs appearing in the kid's furniture market these days are being driven by designer/parents who are fed up with the same...
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Posted by greg at 9:09 PM | Comments (2)

Brit Dad Stays Home A Week, Survives To Write About It

Columnist Damian Whitworth turns in a level-headed report of what would otherwise be the premise of an eye-rolling reality tv show: he stayed home for a week with his 2-year-old son. Some things that jump out: So 'new dads' are...
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Posted by greg at 7:52 AM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2005

Slate On The Hot Topics: Circumcision & Delivery Rooms

Slate's columnists weigh in on two topics that have lit up the ol' weblog here the last few days. First, normally, I'd rather have the tip of my penis cut off than agree with Christopher Hitchens on anything, but when...
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Posted by greg at 9:59 PM | Comments (5)

August 28, 2005

'Take the Baby from Your Wife, Now'

A breastfeeding mother was arrested mid-feed, allegedly roughed up, and made to spend the night in jail, even after other officers confirmed to her that the situation was an error, a case of mistaken identity. Sounds bad, I know but...
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Posted by greg at 1:51 PM | Comments (2)

August 26, 2005

Center Fielders Of The World, Unite!

Nice to see I'm not alone in playa-hating at Snoop Dogg's style of coaching his son's little league football team. I mean not only did he buy the kid a starting quarterback spot, he bought the whole league (AND sent...
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Posted by greg at 10:11 PM | Comments (1)

August 20, 2005

As If Surrogacy Isn't Difficult Enough...

Imagine the surrogacy nurse, your prime contact at the fertility clinic--who's called "the mother whisperer," she's so good helping her patient/clients through the difficult emotional landscape of having another woman carry their embryos to term--gets arrested for the murder of...
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Posted by greg at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)

August 19, 2005

Watch Out, Angelina's In An Adopting Mood

Given her months of Lara Croft training, no baby is beyond her reach, so watch out. Angelina Jolie Coming For Your Baby [theonion.com, via dt reader Michael]...
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Posted by greg at 4:20 PM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2005

Coach Snoop Rocks LA's Little League Football World

A couple of years ago, a dad named Snoop Dogg got involved coaching his sons' little league football team in Los Angeles. The team got new uniforms, a thumpin' bus, and a lot of attention. Now, Snoop has broken from...
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Posted by greg at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)

Art: Stephen Hendee For Kids

A few months back, NY Mag did a feature on the apartment of friend-of-many-friends and art world gadabout Yvonne Force, her husband Leo Villareal. They put an awesome crystalline wall sculpture by Stephen Hendee over their kid's crib. [note...
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Posted by greg at 9:40 AM | Comments (5)

August 16, 2005

"Is This A Baby Neighborhood?"

"[Rob] Huge. [Jodie] We know so many people nowóthe deli, hi Miles, the laundry, hi Miles. [Miles puts on his Mickey Mouse ears.] All the stores have baby sections now. The Indian restaurant has little baby T-shirts in the window."...
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Posted by greg at 10:10 AM | Comments (1)

August 14, 2005

Making The NICU More Baby-Friendly

The NYT Magazine profiles the efforts of Harvard child developmental psychologist Heidelise Als to help premature babies by making the NICU more supportive of kids' brain development, not just their phsyical survival. What that involves: making the NICU more womb-like,...
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Posted by greg at 9:26 AM | Comments (2)

August 11, 2005

British Study: The Kid Is Not My Son?

According to news reports of a new study of DNA paternity testing in the UK, nearly 4% of men turn out not to be genetically related to the kid they think is theirs. Trouble is, that 4% number is a...
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Posted by greg at 9:50 AM | Comments (0)

August 8, 2005

Magazine Industry To Dads: Take Your Balls And Go Home

"Baby Mags Experience a Boomlet" [Mediaweek, via DT reader Christy]:...Moms moms moms moms baby magazine boom moms moms moms women women moms spending lifechange moms moms advertising moms moms busy moms financial services moms work moms moms moms baby automotive...
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Posted by greg at 11:09 AM | Comments (3)

August 7, 2005

Art: Aleksandra Mir's "The Most Beautiful Thing Today"

Every once in a while, I'll see a piece of art that I want to post, but then I think, "Nah..." Well, Aleksandra Mir's doing a project--just a little bulletin board, really--at White Columns, an alternative space in the West...
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Posted by greg at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)

August 4, 2005

Taking A New Look At Breasts

First, did you know it's World Breastfeeding Week? Neither did I. Second, an Australian study of mothers who breastfeed their kids past the age of two really like it, and so do the kids. [Um, but isn't that because the...
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Posted by greg at 10:42 AM | Comments (7)

August 1, 2005

Put Down That Cookie.

ACK! THE BABY OR THE FURS? Don't choose, now keep both! 10 QUICK CLEANING TIPS According to a Conde Nast source who's no doubt already nursing several eating disorders of her own, when the editors showed the debut issue...
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Posted by greg at 9:14 PM | Comments (7)

July 30, 2005

Honey, I Scalded The Kids In My 'Drug-Induced Stupor'

Sheesh. Two kids, ages 3 and 1, died after apparently being submerged in a scalding, overflowing bathtub in Yonkers. The mother's charged with negligence and the baby daddy of the youngest one is on the hook for manslaughter. Police say...
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Posted by greg at 10:08 AM | Comments (5)

"I was like, 'Yo, look, a baby.' "

A Brooklyn woman on a 4AM cigarette run found an abandoned baby hanging in a gift bag on a fence. She took it to her neighbor's house to feed it, but was all bummed when the ambulance got there too...
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Posted by greg at 9:23 AM | Comments (1)

July 24, 2005

BoBos In Purgatory, or "What's That Guy In First Class Typing About?"

Based on this feeble "Flying with kids? Ack!" Dave Barry impression, NYT conservative columnist David Brooks should stick to spinning his musings from the checkout line at Whole Foods into all-encompassing social theories: It is an iron rule of plane...
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Posted by greg at 8:25 PM | Comments (3)

July 22, 2005

I Stand Corrected. RFID Prevents Babynapping in NC Hospital

It seems like just yesterday when I was questioning the efficacy of RFID-embedded pajamas to prevent what the technology solution providers were calling an "epidemic" of child kidnappings by "convicted sex offenders." Well, color ME embarassed. Turns out just last...
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Posted by greg at 8:09 AM | Comments (6)

July 15, 2005

Irony Alive, Well On Upper West Side

The collapse left a storefront-size hole in the block, like the gap of a missing tooth. The scaffolding out front was bent and broken. A massive ventilation unit leaned uneasily atop the pile. Neighbors kept saying how as many as...
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Posted by greg at 9:13 AM | Comments (5)

The Real UWS Miracle: The Nanny's Been With The Family For 7 Years

So not only does nanny Brunilda Tirado, shield her charge from falling Upper West Side grocery stores, she's been with the family for three kids and seven years? Wow. Seconds before the crash, Tirado had been scratching lottery tickets at...
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Posted by greg at 9:00 AM | Comments (0)

NYC Building Collapses on Mountain Buggy, Baby

When I heard a 7-month-old baby had been pulled from the debris of a building collapse yesterday on upper Broadway, I (and my wife, who went to Columbia for grad school) shuddered. Then, um, I wondered what kind of stroller...
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Posted by greg at 8:12 AM | Comments (8)

July 14, 2005

NYT: Umm, Thank Your Grandma

The NY Times reports on the increasing [?] phenomenon of grandparents "getting more involved" in their grandchildren's lives than was the norm in previous generations. And by "getting involved," they mean, "writing big checks" for things like tuitions, camp, houses......
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Posted by greg at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)

July 7, 2005

Breastfeed Or The Terrorists Will Have Won

Reading this, I would say the answer is 'maybe, but we really don't know. But it sure pisses off the retailers, doesn't it?' Is black-market baby formula financing terror? [csmonitor.com via DT reader Erich]...
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Posted by greg at 1:23 PM | Comments (0)

July 5, 2005

Why Men Have Nipples. Seriously.

After an exhaustive assessment of fathers' childrearing involvement in cultures around the world, the British charity Fathers Direct recently made a startling discovery: men's nipples are there, not only for twisting in pool fights, but for sucking by a crying...
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Posted by greg at 3:00 PM | Comments (1)

July 1, 2005

Industrial Designers Awards: More Than Rectal Thermometers, Much More

Very interesting. Here are some other kid-related winners from the Business Week-sponsored Industrial Design Excellence Awards: Gerber SippySnacker, "a reinvention of the iconic sippy cup that, for the first time, combines a spill-proof cup and snack holder." Note: also named...
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Posted by greg at 11:49 AM | Comments (9)

June 30, 2005

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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Posted by greg at 1:17 AM | Comments (4)

June 24, 2005

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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Posted by greg at 12:28 PM | Comments (1)

June 22, 2005

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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Posted by greg at 1:26 AM | Comments (6)

June 20, 2005

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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Posted by greg at 5:54 PM | Comments (1)

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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Posted by greg at 2:10 PM | Comments (0)

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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Posted by greg at 9:50 AM | Comments (14)

June 17, 2005

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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Posted by greg at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2005

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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Posted by greg at 11:26 AM | Comments (8)

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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Posted by greg at 7:58 AM | Comments (4)

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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Posted by greg at 9:22 PM | Comments (5)

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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Posted by greg at 6:36 PM | Comments (7)

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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Posted by greg at 10:02 AM | Comments (12)

June 5, 2005

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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Posted by greg at 7:02 AM | Comments (3)

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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Posted by greg at 11:00 PM | Comments (9)

May 27, 2005

Moving To The Suburbs: Apparently, It's "Those Damn Kids!" Week At Daddy Types

The NYT has a long article about families making the big decision to move out of the city--on accounta the kids, and includes a lot of seemingly helpful practical tips: don't move on a whim; find the town--or the street--first,...
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Posted by greg at 4:42 PM | Comments (3)

May 25, 2005

Preschool Expulsions: Maybe It's Not Those Damn Kids

Smart people are starting to unpack that Yale study showing that pre-schools expel kids at a rate 3x higher than higher grades. The result: maybe preschool itself is the problem. Of course, the theories put forward in this NYT article...
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Posted by greg at 9:42 AM | Comments (4)

May 24, 2005

Those Damn Kids Ruining Berlin Holocaust Memorial

Berlin just opened its Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a gridded field of dark grey stone pillars of varying heights designed by the American architect Peter Eisenman. The abstracted, maze-like memorial is supposed to evoke feelings of disorientation...
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Posted by greg at 9:20 PM | Comments (3)

May 23, 2005

WSJ: Kids Flying In First Class

The Weekend Journal has a story on the increasing number of children flying in first class, and the opportunities and conflicts this causes for airlines and their most loyal, most profitable customers: business travelers and elite frequent flyers. Of course,...
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Posted by greg at 12:01 PM | Comments (4)

May 18, 2005

Daddy Showers: What Happens In Memphis Stays In Memphis

Not anymore. I just received this request for help from a parenting magazine writer. If you or your buddy fits the bill, I'm sure she'd appreciate hearing from you. Email mediahelp@daddytypes.com, and it'll automatically forward to her:I am doing a...
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Posted by greg at 7:58 AM | Comments (7)

May 17, 2005

FLASH! National Preschool Hoodlum Epidemic

According to a just-released study by the Yale University Child Study Center, preschool-age kids are being expelled at an alarmingly high rate, up to 3x as frequently as K12-age kids. The causes or reasons aren't clear, or rather, they're not...
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Posted by greg at 8:35 PM | Comments (2)

May 3, 2005

That's why they call it "reproduction"

From the frontlines of East Village parenthood, Katherine Stewart confesses to being shocked, shocked that her kid isn't unique: turns out every other Sophia, Ava, and Maya in town does baby yoga, too. The moral: don't name her Sophia because...
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Posted by greg at 2:58 PM | Comments (10)

That's One Ugly Child In The NYT

You already read about how parents pay less attention to their ugly kids, so the NY Times article won't be totally new (although it does have some previously unreported details of the study). I just thought the ugly kid in...
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Posted by greg at 10:09 AM | Comments (1)

May 2, 2005

Classic: NY Baby Afraid Of Grass

Jen from Gothamist gives a heads up on one Manhattan dad's attempt to acquaint his son with the wonders of nature, as reported in The NY Times Metropolitan Diary:On a recent weekend, I took Lukas, my 11-month-old son, to the...
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Posted by greg at 10:51 AM | Comments (8)

April 29, 2005

Red State Parenting: Umm, Conflicted?

These two stories ran side by side in the print version of my hometown paper, the Raleigh News & Observer this morning [reg. req.]: According to the expert opinion--purely academic, you understand--of the 54-year old professor who examined the evidence...
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Posted by greg at 11:33 AM | Comments (3)

April 21, 2005

A Playmate For Little Aryan

Awww, now isn't that cute? No, in fact, it's not. A couple in BF Australia says they didn't know what the Nazi flag meant when they hoisted it in their yard, but their 4-month-old daughter Breanna "enjoyed watching the brightly...
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Posted by greg at 2:36 PM | Comments (8)

April 16, 2005

You're not ugly, Honey. You just have a bad haircut and dirty clothes.

You probably already know by now that parents pay less attention to their uglier children. That's the latest finding of grocery cart safety expert [sic] Dr Andrew Harrell, Director of the University of Alberta's Long, Dark Winters With Nothing Else...
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Posted by greg at 11:46 AM | Comments (6)

April 13, 2005

Congratulations, You Can Breastfeed!

Well, not you. Babytalk won a National Magazine Award for service journalism for their lengthy August 2004 article, "You Can Breastfeed!" by Kristin OíCallaghan. With a title like that, you wouldn't expect too much advice directed to dads, and you...
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Posted by greg at 7:05 PM | Comments (1)

April 8, 2005

USA Today, Canada Tomorrow

Times have changed our kids are getting worse they won't obey their parents they just want to fart & curse Should we blame the government? Or blame society? Or should we blame the images on TV? So much media, so...
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Posted by greg at 11:32 AM | Comments (9)

Thug Mugs Bug Baby

What the--? An Upper West Side mom and her 3-month-old son Jackson were mugged in broad daylight, at gunpoint, in the center of Central Park? (10AM, near the Bandshell) The guy waves a gun in the kid's face and takes...
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Posted by greg at 8:37 AM | Comments (3)

April 7, 2005

Grandpa, Don't Preach

In a continuation of French Day here at Daddy Types, Grandpa John Ritchie says, "Rocco is certainly picking up a lot of French. He speaks it all the time at home because Lourdes is fluent. They talk to each other...
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Posted by greg at 12:00 PM | Comments (2)

April 4, 2005

YF UK Magazine Far Less Interesting Than Its Acronym

Your Family is a new magazine for new parents published by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Richard Morrison's analysis of it in the Times of London has an all-too familiar ring to it:So there is...
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Posted by greg at 5:30 PM | Comments (0)

Target Gets Approval of Seal

YOW, Baby Chic 101 really works over Heidi Klum and her baby step-daddy/baby daddy-to-be Seal...for shopping at Target: "Heidi is shown holding Target baby clothing (I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth), and various...
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Posted by greg at 12:21 PM | Comments (7)

April 3, 2005

A Cinderella Story

I can't tell you if they have changing tables in the men's room at the ESPN Zone in Disneyland's Downtown Disney, but they do have babies in the ladies' room. At least one. From the LAT: "This seemed to be...
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Posted by greg at 9:33 AM | Comments (0)

April 2, 2005

Camping Out For Preschool Slots

Is it just me, or does an elaborate system of prep courses and consultants, a stress-inducing interview and screening process, and five figure tuition for pre-school sound kinda nice right now? Parents wait all night in freezing weather to enroll...
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Posted by greg at 9:25 AM | Comments (0)

March 31, 2005

Parent Companies, The NYT Is Onto You

The New York Times reports on how the baby market's best design and innovation is coming from parent companies. There are a few brands--Oeuf and Argington, for example--that have been on DT already. One surprise (to me, anyway): Baby Gear...
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Posted by greg at 11:24 AM | Comments (2)

March 30, 2005

Baby Mammoth, Anyone?

There's a Japanese magazine for kids that supposedly rocks--hard--called Mammoth. It was started by Lucas Badtke-Berkow, the founder of Tokion. While it definitely targets (hip Japanese) moms, it sounds more substantial than just a Wallpaper*-y design mag. I mention it...
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Posted by greg at 1:46 PM | Comments (4)

March 24, 2005

Born To Shop? How About Give Birth To Shop

Does this story sound familiar? "There's so much product out there that they want to get the right things for their child, and they want all of it. "Increasingly, new parents have the money, the confidence and the inclination to...
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Posted by greg at 3:42 PM | Comments (1)

March 23, 2005

Je VouDRAIS ParLER Au SALLE de bain

Hate to tell you, but according to Carnegie Mellon researcher Erik Thiessen, the exhausting sing-songy voice you use with kids--after consulting their Lame-Name-o-Tron, scientists called it Parentese-- helps them learn language more quickly. Specifically, it helps them identify word boundaries...
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Posted by greg at 10:53 AM | Comments (2)

March 22, 2005

CPSC: Any Problems With That Swing? Graco: I Don't Recall.

Man, I was a naive chump. As we were outfitting the kid's nursery, there were a couple of criteria we didn't even consider: would the furniture we bought kill our baby? Would it maim her or break her limbs? Hal...
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Posted by greg at 5:28 PM | Comments (1)

"Him? Oh, That's Just My Grad Student"

Everyone in LA needs an entourage. If you don't have a film crew following you around, hire some bodyguards and constantly pick up the tab for some sycophantic friends. If that doesn't work, there's always starving anthropology students. Researchers at...
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Posted by greg at 10:10 AM | Comments (7)

March 21, 2005

Competitive Birthday Party-Throwing

It's as bad as you feared, even worse. However much you thought of spending for your kid's birthday party, whatever elaborate entertainment you thought of hiring, it's not enough to outdo some other parent of your kid's friends. There'll always...
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Posted by greg at 4:13 PM | Comments (3)

March 18, 2005

No Baby Parking At The Wrong Gallery

I always used to tell our artist friends, Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, that they'd make great dads; but now I have to wonder a bit. The Berlin-based duo was recently in NYC to create a very elaborate installation...
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Posted by greg at 12:27 AM | Comments (1)

Plot To Kidnap Letterman's Kid, Nanny, Foiled

Kelly A. Frank, a 43-year old painter in Montana was arrested for plotting to kidnap David Letterman's son and the kid's nanny. Apparently, Frank kept a key to Letterman's ranch after doing some work for him, and he planned to...
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Posted by greg at 12:11 AM | Comments (1)

March 16, 2005

Brits Bonkers for Babybots

What is it about the United Kingdom and robot babies? A group of Welsh politicians took robot babies into town in order to get some first-hand experience on the challenges of traveling and shopping with a kid. Fortunately, some reporters...
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Posted by greg at 8:43 PM | Comments (1)

British Crack Babybots

Teens in the UK are being sent home for two nights with robot dolls programmed to simulate drug addiction and fetal alcohol syndrome in order to teach them TO STAY OFF DRUGS--at least while they're pregnant. The robots are preemie-sized,...
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Posted by greg at 8:31 PM | Comments (2)

March 10, 2005

Yeah, I'd be pretty critical, too

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution: Girl, 3, shot by playmate is critical Apparently, the girl, Antysia McClinton, was shot in the face by her 4-year old friend. They found a small-caliber gun lying around the house. Since my preferred solution--you...
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Posted by greg at 1:06 PM | Comments (41)

March 8, 2005

Best of New York's Best of New York

A couple of highlights from the newest Best of New York listings: Best Kid's Clothing: Sons & Daughters, Inc., 35 Avenue A. Cool stuff you won't automatically see on every other kid at the day spa [I don't know what...
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Posted by greg at 2:29 PM | Comments (2)

March 2, 2005

Mind The Bollocks

At least around the kids. Glen Matlock, the fifth Sex Pistol (he wrote the big songs, but was replaced by Sid Vicious) and now a father of two, is (*^&*in' pissed-- er, rather upset--about all these people swearing in the...
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Posted by greg at 8:27 AM | Comments (7)

February 23, 2005

Now Let's Talk About A Jack Spade Stroller

Congratulations to Andy and Kate Spade, who, after years of pushing baby gear on others, can now push it for themselves. Frances Beatrix Spade was born on Feb. 18. While they're obviously busy for the next couple of months, I...
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Posted by greg at 11:59 AM | Comments (2)

February 19, 2005

Hollywood Parent Parody [?] in Italian Vogue

When I saw a Bugaboo on the cover of Italian Vogue at the newsstand a couple of weeks ago, I had to check it out. It took me a few pages to realize there was a reason I couldn't readily...
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Posted by greg at 10:42 AM | Comments (1)

February 16, 2005

Sodium Polyacrylate: It's Not Just For Diapers Anymore

Sodium polyacrylate is the the superabsorbent polymer (SAP) in disposable diapers, but it has a host of other uses as well (in addition to drying out the leak in my old Mercedes' footwell): Fuel-Dri Tank Dewatering System, available from Hammonds:...
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Posted by greg at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2005

You Gotta Fight. For Your Right. To...Stay Up All Night Rocking A Baby To Sleep

This one comes via Rebeldad, who has highlighted some potential bureaucratic whittling away at the Family Medical Leave Act, the only federal law which provides dads with job protection if they take time off--unpaid time off, even [cue Euro and...
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Posted by greg at 7:43 PM | Comments (3)

February 8, 2005

Could You Call It A Field Trip?

The Board of Education's proposal to start the 2005-6 school year on August 29th is seriously harshing the buzz of San Francisco parents who were planning to take their kids to Burning Man. School year's early start burns parents [sfgate,...
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Posted by greg at 1:21 PM | Comments (1)

February 7, 2005

Trend Convergence: Gen X Dads Reporter on Rebel Dad Radio

You young punks don't know how easy you have it. Back in my day, we had to go to a newspaper website and read an article to find out about Gen X dads. All this fiddle faddle about podcasting--why, in...
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Posted by greg at 10:56 PM | Comments (0)

This Still Doesn't Explain Paris Hilton. Or DOES It?

Or Bennington College. According to recent research in the UK, the wealthier the parents, the smarter the children. OK, that might be a tad inaccurate or simplistic. The study found that:A five-year-old whose parents earn more than £67,500* has reading...
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Posted by greg at 2:16 PM | Comments (8)

February 2, 2005

War Daddy

War daddyhood is in the eye of the beholder, so definitions vary wildly. Recruiting experts, fans, and coaches all agree that they don't come along too often. When a war daddy does arrive, he must combine elite ability with extraordinary...
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Posted by greg at 8:56 PM | Comments (3)

February 1, 2005

TSG's Bad Dad of The Week

Florida dad Douglas Dycus has been arrested and charged with felonious abuse for using a stun gun to break up a wrestling match between his two sons. The fight, you see, was delaying the whole family. The 14-year-old victim's name...
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Posted by greg at 6:39 PM | Comments (4)

Baby on Board: Sophia, SSN 048-88-9320

From the TMI Department by way of boingboing comes Stick Family Robinson, a customized collection of stick figure stickers for your car that allows you to telegraph the makeup and personal information for your entire family to the entire world....
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Posted by greg at 8:24 AM | Comments (4)

January 31, 2005

Dooce Is The Miramax Of The Bloggies

How else to explain her multiple Bloggie nominations AND the perfectly timed marketing campaign--a NYT Style secion coverstory on parent blogs starring Heather and Leta? [Right now I'm making a rocking hand-to-ear phone pantomime and mouthing the words, "let's do...
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Posted by greg at 12:54 PM | Comments (6)

January 30, 2005

Discrimination's Discrimination, Except They Call It LE Discrimination

Just in case you were tempted to move there by recent posts that made Canada look like the parents' paradise, where everyone just shuttled back and forth between hockey games, lavishly subsidized child care, and endless free surgeries, be sure...
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Posted by greg at 10:39 PM | Comments (9)

January 29, 2005

All, For The Ladies

Doing something I almost never do--read a parenting magazine, Child in this case--and I barely get past the table of contents before I regretted it. There's a cutey cute cartoon advertisement for All laundry detergent where a guy is pulling...
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Posted by greg at 11:43 PM | Comments (5)

January 25, 2005

Fertility Tourism

According to this front page report in the NY Times, the high cost of infertility treatments in the US--especially egg donor programs and in vitro fertilization--are driving increasing numbers of Americans to find foreign clinics. One South African doctor pitches...
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Posted by greg at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)

January 17, 2005

Boston Globe on Gen X Dads

These guys dub themselves "Dads in the Dark," though they see their group as far from unenlightened. They grab paternity leaves and reject overtime even when they could use the money. They are as adept at sculpting Play-Doh as they...
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Posted by greg at 3:56 PM | Comments (0)

Remember 'Desperate Househusbands'?

A while back the NYT ran a story so transparent in its origins and so goofy-biased in its portrayal of suburban at-home dads, it was laughable. At least to us cityfolk. Dads in the suburbs, meanwhile, were pretty damn pissed....
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Posted by greg at 1:01 PM | Comments (0)

Pataki Proposes Baby Daddy Tax Credit for NY

Since the site has been getting a lot of visitors from their message boards, I was poking around S2S, Sister 2 Sister Magazine over the weekend. A lot of the discussion is about how a baby mama can get her...
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Posted by greg at 8:50 AM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2005

Art Auction For A Kid With Leukemia

Some friends have organized this at a friend's gallery, and quite a few wonderful artist friends have donated work. On Mon. Jan 31 from 6-10pm, at Passerby, there will be a silent auction to raise money for treatment of Amina...
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Posted by greg at 8:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2005

Dad Ads: They're Really For The Ladies

Ads with bumbling dads in them have gotten under the toupees of more than a few at-home dads out there, but according to Fox News, gee, you're being kinda sensitive about it, dude, and besides, those ads aren't meant for...
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Posted by greg at 1:06 PM | Comments (6)

January 10, 2005

A Boy Named Tsunami

In India, Lakshmi Roy put his family, including his 8-months pregnant wife, on his bike and pedaled them to higher ground to escape the tsunami. His wife then went into labor and delivered the baby three weeks early. Some wiseacre...
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Posted by greg at 1:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 7, 2005

Time Out New York Kids

I stopped reading Time Out New York a while back when I realized it was just reminding me of all the things I was missing because I was 1) out of town, 2) too busy, or 3) doing something else...
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Posted by greg at 9:29 AM | Comments (1)

January 4, 2005

Cookie: The Magazine For Conspicuous Parenting

While I was out yesterday, Fairchild, the publisher of W Magazine, was reported to be preparing the launch of Cookie, a combination of Child and Lucky magazines "aimed at parents who plan to spend a fair amount of money styling...
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Posted by greg at 10:56 PM | Comments (2)

December 30, 2004

NYT: Champion Of The Hip Parents Rights Movement

Two articles on the same topic in a week? Is this an editing disconnect? Or a brave stand for the rights of oppressed parents yearning to be to free hip again? In the New York Times, David Handelman has a...
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Posted by greg at 9:51 AM | Comments (4)

December 26, 2004

Hip Family Hotels, or Paris on $1,500/Night

So you're a hipster worried that your jetsetting, boutique hotel-hopping days are over? Afraid that all your vacations are belong to Mouse? Well relaaax. According to Jennifer Conlin's report in the New York Times, there's a new crop of hip...
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Posted by greg at 11:35 AM | Comments (3)

FDA: Vioxx is fine, but mall ultrasounds? Watch out

While apparently asleep at the wheel while big drug companies' billion-dollar pain-killers turn out to cause heart attacks or whatever, the FDA has not been shy to go after "facilities with captivating names such as Fetal Fotos, Peek-a-Boo, Womb with...
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Posted by greg at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)

December 22, 2004

Desperate Househusbands

In the unspoken rules of suburbia, mothers broker the play dates with an exacting calculus, weeks and even months in advance. For some moms, socializing with each other while their offspring crawl around is as essential as whether or not...
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Posted by greg at 7:41 AM | Comments (1)

December 21, 2004

Bingo. Hey, Where's Our Pithy Moniker??

The women get Domestic Divas, Mini-me Moms, etc. etc. and what do men get? Called fat, uptight, and homophobic. I thought you were trying to sell us something, Euro RSCG..."What our study has revealed is that there isn't just a...
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Posted by greg at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

Do You Know A Yummy Mummy?

Somehow, I doubt you do. Typically, when someone's trying to persuade you of something, they mention their qualifications or past accomplishments. Hold that thought:"Last summer we introduced America to the 'metrosexual,'" says Marian Salzman, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer of...
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Posted by greg at 10:04 PM | Comments (2)

December 17, 2004

Why Not Show Your Support?

Buy this bracelet for $5, and show your support for the Lance Armstrong Get The Ex-Wife Who Nursed You Through Cancer To Take The Three Young Children While You Run Around With Sheryl Crow Foundation. Seriously, people....
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Posted by greg at 10:46 AM | Comments (31)

December 16, 2004

This is why you don't have a 13th floor in your building

The nanny had just taken the 10-month old boy out of the car. Woman jumps off 13th floor, killing baby [Jerusalem Post]...
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Posted by greg at 4:41 PM | Comments (0)

Dude Looks Like A Grandson

Sorry, saw that easily half of the Google News posts were about Steve Tyler becoming a grandfather, not Liv Tyler and her husband having their baby, who they named Milo. Details at Celebrity Babies...
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Posted by greg at 3:58 PM | Comments (2)

NYMag Tries, Fails, To Conceive

Amy Sohn tries shooting fish in a barrel--how smug marrieds annoy their child-free friends--but all she hits is her reflection; her whole story's based on her self-absorbed extrapolation of a passing comment, "we've lapped you," made by a new mom/friend...
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Posted by greg at 9:34 AM | Comments (1)

December 15, 2004

Who's Your Daddy? Guess Right And Win $100K

What moral capacity is required to keep Fox News's true believers' heads from exploding when their favorite company puts out a show like Who's Your Daddy? I really want to know. On Jan. 3rd, Fox will air a reality TV...
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Posted by greg at 7:44 AM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2004

Bellini Crib Rated #1 [Among Politicians On The Take]

Outfitting a nursery's expensive, especially if you're gonna do it right Some people like to get friends and family to chip in a little somethin', which is great, unless those people are civil servants and their friends get their money...
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Posted by greg at 5:32 PM | Comments (2)

December 7, 2004

Japanese Dads Forced To Take Paid Leave

What's more Japanese than the government requiring all male city employees to take 40 days paid leave before their child's first birthday? How about that until now, no man has ever taken a day's paternity leave in the history of...
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Posted by greg at 8:24 PM | Comments (0)

December 5, 2004

It's Twins! But Not When You Think

So in 1999 some woman in Montreal was dating an identical twin, who's understands himself to be the father of her child--and who's been acting as such, for five years, by paying child support and visiting the kid every other...
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Posted by greg at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2004

"New" Slang from "the playgrounds and college campuses" [sic]

William Safire explains the words "kids" are sporting these days, including many terms that are so over, even I've stopped using them. "Camo is fashion slang, short for "camouflage," used to describe outdoorsy wear that blends in with jungle greenery."...
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Posted by greg at 12:39 PM | Comments (1)

Fathers 4 Justice, Now On The Fen

Fathers 4 Justice, the costume-wearing, irrational publicity-stunt-pulling UK advocacy "group" comprised largely of one bloke who, surprise surprise, has been denied custody of his kid, has set up shop in Scotland. On the roof of the Scottish Parliament. In Santa...
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Posted by greg at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)

December 2, 2004

Wanted: LI Baby Blogs

Or do you call them blawgs out there? Heh, just kidding. I've had a request from some media types (not reality TV this time, relax) seeking parents on Long Island who keep baby blogs. If you're interested in being interviewed,...
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Posted by greg at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)

AF Dad Phones It In From Qatar

Air Force mechanic John Markin rounded up 700 min. worth of phone cards so that he could call into the entire labor & delivery of his second child back in Indiana last week. [A momentary hats off to his wife,...
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Posted by greg at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2004

Hormone Swings: They're Not Just For Women Anymore

One interesting vein of research was presented at the At-Home Dads Convention a couple of weeks ago in Chi-town. Rebel Dad mentioned it, and now, Peter Baylies, the at-est-home dad of them all, expands on it. Turns out that pregnancy,...
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Posted by greg at 8:18 PM | Comments (1)

November 25, 2004

Um, Happy Thanksgiving?? Don't Read This

No, seriously, don't read this.Reacting to the news at City Hall, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said, "I don't know how anybody could do things like that, but that's the world we live in."At least save it for tomorrow....
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Posted by greg at 11:31 AM | Comments (4)

November 23, 2004

The Headline Sounded Worse Than The Story

His wife's in on it, and anyway, the kid's only 3-months old. Before I read the story, I had these horrible visions of a musical remake of The Lover flash in front of me. Johnny Hallyday to Adopt Vietnamese Girl...
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Posted by greg at 10:37 AM | Comments (1)

November 22, 2004

How Many Bad Ideas Can You Fit In One Post?

So some Scottish Queer Eye interior decorator couple is going to "adopt" a baby for their new reality TV series. But they're only going to take care of it for five days of filming, then they'll hand it back. To...
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Posted by greg at 12:33 AM | Comments (3)

Operation Baby Freedom

Fort Campbell, KY, home of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, is in the middle of a baby boom. The 101st started coming back from Iraq in January, and for some reason, the number of babies born since September has jumped...
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Posted by greg at 12:05 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2004

Malcolm Gladwell Sniffs Around Diapers

Funny how, in 2001, when this article came out, I just didn't care that much about the fascinating history of innovation in disposable diaper technology. Now I'll be a hit at parties when I explain how, thanks to Harmon &...
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Posted by greg at 9:32 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2004

All the items in Caitlin Flanagan's New Yorker story

For your shoppertainment, and for the poetry of it, here are all the furniture, gear, and "Must-Have!" what-nots mentioned by brand name in Caitlin Flanagan's New Yorker article, "Bringing Up Baby." Items previously on Daddy Types are marked with a...
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Posted by greg at 9:22 AM | Comments (3)

November 8, 2004

At-Home Dads Convention,, Nov. 20

The 9th Annual At-Home Dads Convention is coming up, as if I need to tell you. Unlike most other occupation-related conferences, it's on a Saturday, Nov. 20th, to be precise, at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois. The AHDC...
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Posted by greg at 5:28 PM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2004

Q: Who's Your Daddy?

Q (cont'd) Because even though he's whipping our daddy's butt 8-1 in the 7th inning, we're still gonna act like we're winning by taunting you and stuff. - Yankee Stadium crowd...
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Posted by greg at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2004

Raised Type

Forget baseball players or hiphop stars; if you really want your kids to hook you up when you're old, raise them to be typeface designers. At least that's the message I'm getting from the remarkably similar childhoods of Jonathan Hoefler...
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Posted by greg at 2:04 PM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2004

Thumbs Up to New Dad Spc. Charles Graner Jr.

It can be hard sometimes for a man when the mother of his child is more famous than he is. In the case of Sp. Charles Graner, it's not just hard, but hard time. His ex-girlfriend, Lynndie England (Abu Ghraib,...
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Posted by greg at 9:54 PM | Comments (0)

YOW. 1-Year Old Drowns In Bucket Of Water

While a father in Michigan was "distracted for three to five minutes" talking to someone--or "playing football," I'm not quite clear--his one-year-and-a-day-old daughter got out of the house, onto the porch, and into a 5-gallon bucket of water that'd been...
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Posted by greg at 12:44 AM | Comments (1)

Bratproofing your kids with artificial non-affluence

The Wall Street Journal thinks it's news that a Sacramento couple with an 8,000sf, 6br house makes their two sons, Neo and Eon, ages 3 and 2, respectively, share a single bedroom. Otherwise, they become "little czars," says their mother,...
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Posted by greg at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2004

Wanna put your reality in reality TV?

The producers of ABC's new reality series, Wife Swap, are looking for families with at-home dads to work their television magic on. Listen to their pitch:ARE YOU AN AT-HOME DAD? IS YOUR FAMILY READY FOR...PRIMETIME TELEVISION? Wife Swap is an...
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Posted by greg at 10:16 PM | Comments (0)

October 12, 2004

Thank the children of linguists, but pity them, too

SUNY Buffalo professor Dr. Jeri Jaeger researches how children develop language skills by studying how they slip up. Turning "one, two, three," into "one, twee," for example. In this previously unstudied field, it was necessary to be very familiar with...
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Posted by greg at 8:34 AM | Comments (0)

October 9, 2004

George W. Bush made my baby cry, too

We left the kid at Grandma's house last night so we could attend the opening of a friend's art exhibit. When we called Grandma at 9:45, well after the kid's supposed bedtime (obviously, Grandma lets her get away with anything.),...
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Posted by greg at 9:41 PM | Comments (0)

October 6, 2004

Beyond Pollock-Spotting: Kids in the City

"Look, I made a Pollock," "That new 'don't walk' sign looks like the ones in Europe." City kids say the darnedest things. In this week's Observer, Mary Elizabeth Williams writes a funny, thought-provoking essay on how challenging it can be...
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Posted by greg at 3:25 PM | Comments (1)

October 5, 2004

So You Want Your Kid To Be An Artist

Marla Olmstead is a 4-year old from Binghamton, NY whose paintings are selling [or, at least, they're for sale] for $6,000 in a gallery in town. Her painting career began a couple of years ago, when her father gave her...
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Posted by greg at 3:00 PM | Comments (2)

September 29, 2004

Daddy, I Can't Get The Toilet Off My Head

That was the gist of the conversation between 18 month-old Katie Chang and her dad, who came home from work when the sitter couldn't get Katie's training toilet off her head. Daddy wisely called 911, and firefighters used wirecutters to...
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Posted by greg at 1:09 PM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2004

Dr. Phil is Crazy. Run Far Away.

And take your kid with you. On Slate, Ann Hulbert exposes the ridiculous, contradictory, and divisive "advice" Dr. Phil deals out in his book and on his TV show. Meanwhile, Hulbert turns out to be the author of the interesting-sounding...
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Posted by greg at 7:16 AM | Comments (2)

September 26, 2004

Mom's a Bitch: Siberian Boy Raised by Dog

This sounds like fake news. A 7-year old kid in Siberia was abandoned at three months by his mother, then later by his "drunken invalid" father. He was raised by the family's old dog, until the bitch [sic] got in...
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Posted by greg at 6:11 PM | Comments (0)

Brain, Child looks at Dad, Child

I found out about Brain, Child magazine in a comment on Rebel Dad. It looks very thoughtful and well-done, and hats off to anyone who actually launches a magazine successfully these days. The latest issue has a long article on...
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Posted by greg at 2:54 PM | Comments (2)

September 24, 2004

New Dad in Conn. Berserks on Mother & Son

When I started writing this post, the guy was the prime suspect. Now he's arrested and confessed to killing both his girlfriend and their 4-month old son. In his stroller. The couple met in the Danbury Fair Mall last year,...
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Posted by greg at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2004

Sydney's Playground, aka Tribeca House for Kids

Did you go to Brown? Were you at the City Museum party last night? Is your kid very advanced for his age? If so, be sure to mention it when you go to Sydney's Playground, the 6,000-sf playground-in-a-loft in Tribeca,...
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Posted by greg at 7:35 AM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2004

Holy crap, What's wrong with this picture??

Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan:"Seaman Robert Howard sat on his tiny baby to shut him up, playing PokÈmon on his Game Boy as the infant suffocated and died beneath him, Howard testified on Monday... "...28-day old son Logan... "'Please tell me...
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Posted by greg at 7:25 PM | Comments (5)

SoHo House for Kids (BYOE)

I'm putting this in 'news' because DaddyTypes doesn't have a category for 10-20,000 square foot members-only spa/gym/club/playlands in SoHo for babies and their parents mothers. Citibabes in in the works for a 10,000-sf loft in SoHo; there'll be a gym,...
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Posted by greg at 9:46 AM | Comments (2)

September 20, 2004

The Hurricane-Baby Theory?

Everyone knows the Blackout Baby Theory, and I remember hearing about a very localized Snowstorm Baby Theory when Microsoft's overworked programmers got stuck at home for a few days. But the Hurricane-Baby Theory is on the other end of the...
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Posted by greg at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2004

Child-Safe Zones: A network solution to losing children

England, a small island country, blanketed with security cameras, saturated with mobile phones. Yet somehow, British parents still lose their kids in public places all the time. Child Safe Zones is a centralized, nationwide network of venues (over 7,000 so...
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Posted by greg at 1:24 PM | Comments (0)

Thinking of Cutting your Dad-ability Short?

And if, during my darker moments I feel at a loss for perspective, I can always recall the sentiments of my wife, uttered once she felt it was time for me to pull myself together, start changing nappies again and...
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Posted by greg at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)

While UK figures out if courts are unfair to fathers,

The BBC has a decent roundup of the state of the British government's and family court's alleged bias against fathers; the issues are predictable, but at least they're spelled out: visitation rights, automatic custody decisions, child support payments. While...
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Posted by greg at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2004

If you think the special needs kid story's a slog

just remember: it's nothing compared to actually being a conscientious parent to a special needs kid. That's the takeaway from Lisa Belkin's loooong NY Times Magazine piece today about Thomas Ellenson's first year of kindergarten. While Tom has cerebral palsy,...
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Posted by greg at 10:29 PM | Comments (1)

September 7, 2004

Parenting The Hamptons Way

The NY Post hands out some funny awards for Hamptons Summer Inanity. At least one goes to a parent:THE NOTHING GETS BETWEEN ME AND A PARTY AWARD: The unknown person who left a baby in an SUV to attend a...
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Posted by greg at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)

When Vegan Parents Go Crazy

How about when Crazy Parents go Vegan? Parents lose it everyday, but for some reason, some of the craziest like to take Veganism down with them. The NY Daily News reports that Coney Island dad Raphael Spindell has spirited his...
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Posted by greg at 9:38 AM | Comments (2)

August 31, 2004

Swiss Family 'bandons Son

Oh boy, this is the week New York really sticks it to Old Europe, and I mean but GOOD. No, I'm not talking about the Republican Convention, even though this story DOES involve a dubious arrest. And, in Gothamist's comment...
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Posted by greg at 4:26 PM | Comments (1)

August 23, 2004

The new DWB: Daddying While Black

The NY Times Magazine ran a long book excerpt about Ken, a 32-year old black father in Milwaukee who's making a concerted effort to break the multi-generation absent-father cycle that seems to be at the center--if not the root--of the...
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Posted by greg at 6:18 PM | Comments (2)

August 21, 2004

Blurbomat wants what 72% of men want

Jon at Blurbomat wants a new job. He and his commenters put cogent voice to the 72% of men who told SpikeTV they want jobs that give them more time with their families. Rebel Dad's got more findings of the...
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Posted by greg at 10:15 AM | Comments (3)

August 16, 2004

Ah, the baby food jar bong

At waxy.org, Andy links to the story of an Indianapolis mom arrested for letting her 5-year old son smoke crack--from her baby food jar bong. In addition to being "horrendous," giving crack to babies is so nineties, it should be...
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Posted by greg at 4:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2004

Cruising for, with, kids

So you just bought a brownstone, and you and your partner are starting to think about filling it with kids. How do you go about researching this major life decision? Take a cruise! That's what Peter Marchese did last month,...
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Posted by greg at 8:54 AM | Comments (0)

July 29, 2004

Just heard this: Flight attendant spiked kid's juice with Xanax

I was talking with some friends last night about the kid's big flight this weekend (14 hours to Osaka), and one child-free guy asked, "isn't there something you can give them, you know, to take the edge off?" "Haha, where's...
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Posted by greg at 10:48 AM | Comments (2)

July 28, 2004

Military Dads, Coming and Going

It's been a little over a week since my wife left on a business trip, and we're going bonkers. Just imagine not seeing your kids, your entire family, maybe even your unborn kid, for up to 18 months. That's the...
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Posted by greg at 12:09 AM | Comments (3)

July 27, 2004

"Pimp Your Stroller"? Gladly, Brother Tavis

A serious and belated--what's the vernacular?--shout-out to my Brother Omar and my Brother Tavis, who did an interesting segment on baby tech and gadgets that included a nice plug for Daddy Types. I am truly living large. The discussion was...
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Posted by greg at 11:58 PM | Comments (2)

July 26, 2004

So you think your boys can swim?

adrants and TMFTML] Reality TV giant Endemol (who produces Big Brother, maybe you've heard of it?) has apparently conceived [*cough*] its latest program idea in the pregnancy aisle at Barnes & Noble. London's Telegraph reports that the show--provisionally titled 'Make...
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Posted by greg at 1:01 AM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2004

AU: A call for dads-only childbirth classes?

A recent survey funded by the Australian government found that men were put off, confused, and intimidated by most parenting and childbirth information because it was targeted so clearly at women. One suggestion that came out of the questioning: men-only...
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Posted by greg at 11:39 PM | Comments (1)

July 20, 2004

Magazine wants to trade discussion for beer, burgers

FLASH: A writer for Redbook magazine is "looking for a married dad under 30 in nyc for a 'lively' roundtable discussion tomorrow (Wed.) night with 5 other married dads over free burgers and beer - first names only." If you...
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Posted by greg at 1:05 PM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2004

Emergency Fathering Advice from National Lampoon

A 1979 article in National Lampoon gives post-women's lib dads some handy advice. Topics range from the basics of childcare and feeding, to giving the kid some of that "old-fashioned discipline" without facing a child abuse rap. Here's the...
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Posted by greg at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

Papi Cholo: Gang Dad photos by Robert Yager

Robert Yager's photographs have appeared on the covers of Newsweek and the NYTimes Magazine, among other publications. There are a couple of violent scenes, but most of Yager's photos of Latino gang members in LA capture the quieter moments...
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Posted by greg at 9:14 AM | Comments (2)

July 12, 2004

Paid Family Leave Opens Door to Communism in CA

The US Chamber of Commerce warned of a Communist conspiracy--partially paid family leave--which just took effect in California and which they say threatens The American Way of Life. And if you define The American Way of Life, as Can't Afford...
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Posted by greg at 9:17 AM | Comments (1)

July 10, 2004

UK Dads Fight For Shared Custody--Without Flourbombs

It may be obvious to UK readers, but I can't quite tell the what the status quo is. From this Guardian article, it sounds like divorced parents--'weekend dads,' as the headline says--get visitation for two weekends a month, period, as...
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Posted by greg at 11:25 PM | Comments (3)

July 6, 2004

NYMag: Men Can't Handle Post-Delivery Room Sex

It's as if that NYTimes article about men getting squeamish in the delivery room had been rewritten by Carrie Bradshaw. In this week's New York Magazine, sex writer Amy Sohn puts out the multi-pronged theory that 1) After having a...
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Posted by greg at 6:20 PM | Comments (0)

Coming Soon? PosthumousDaddyTypes.com

Nope, here already. NPR had a fascinating story yesterday about a woman's three-year court battle with the Social Security Administration to get her husband's benefits for the couple's twin children. The catch is, the children were conceived in vitro after...
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Posted by greg at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

July 5, 2004

UK's changing babyscape

Think tank says "Free childcare for everyone," since that's just what civilzed countries do. *cough cough* Meanwhile, House of Lords vote throws monkey wrench into debate over civilized levels of kid-slapping: anything more than a "light smacking," and it's off...
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Posted by greg at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

July 4, 2004

But I Meant 'Slacker' in a GOOD Way

New York Times Magazine: new marketing study...blah blah blah...51% of kids have Gen-X parents...blah blah...dads much more involved....blah blah blah...didn't we used to call them slackers?....blah blah blah..what really interests me is what people think of baby boomers....blah blah blah...I...
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Posted by greg at 7:58 AM | Comments (1)

June 30, 2004

Stroller Companies: 'You Are Celebrity Pram-Chasing Lemmings'

I can't top this, so I'll just link and quote a lot:Lists of the nation's top celebrities are being scoured by PR consultants for names of glamorous stars. They must be young, beautiful and - most importantly - have a...
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Posted by greg at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2004

Token Father's Day Stories Roundup

By which I mean, Roundup of Token Father's Day Stories. Rebeldad ("as heard on NPR") has put his army of interns to work assembling and reviewing news stories from around the country about at-home dads, changing roles of fathers, and...
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Posted by greg at 5:52 PM | Comments (2)

Ikea, therefore I am.

Happiness is not reaching your goal. Happiness is being on the way. It is our wonderful fate to be just at the beginning ... The word impossible has been and must remain deleted from our dictionary. -- From The Testament...
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Posted by greg at 7:52 AM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2004

Chinese Diaper Maker Tries to Trademark 'Bush'

According to the BBC, a Chinese manufacturer applied for a trademark on the brand name, "George Bush." He plans to use it for a line of diapers in his province, Henan. In the local dialect, "Bushi" is a homonym for...
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Posted by greg at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)

NPR Story on Involved Dads

What is going on this week that dads are in the news so much? Sheesh. NPR had a story this morning about dads getting more involved with raising their kids. They interviewed Bonnie Erbe, the host of PBS's womens' program,...
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Posted by greg at 9:27 PM | Comments (2)

June 17, 2004

Dad-Baby Olympics: 6/19 at TWC Border's

Border's Books at the Time Warner Mall on Columbus Circle is hosting a Dad-Baby Olympics and a book release party for Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads by Gary Greenberg and Jeannie Hayden this Saturday (6/19) at noon....
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Posted by greg at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

June 12, 2004

California: Jurisdiction of Choice for Surrogacy

As California goes, so goes the rest of the country. Right now, the California court system's advanced case law makes the state the "epicenter of the 'surrogacy industry,'" according to the NY Times. The issues being grappled with in family...
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Posted by greg at 6:46 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2004

Dads: not only NOT perfect, sometimes downright stupid

[via a Gawker reader in Texas] "Hilton Furniture owner Jack Hilton, quite a celebrity with his energetic cheap local-only Houston commercials, introduced his baby daughter on a commercial today. He named his daughter Paris. Paris Hilton." Related Tip: Use Google...
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Posted by greg at 9:23 AM | Comments (1)

June 9, 2004

Seal drives a Bugaboo!!!

"What are people excited about wearing this summer?" "'Baby barf!' said the singer Seal, who has been playing proud step-papa to luscious model Heidi Klumís 5-week-old baby, Leni. -The New York Observer's report from the Council of Fashion Designers...
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Posted by greg at 8:23 AM | Comments (0)

June 2, 2004

PlayDine: In-Restaurant Baby-sitting

Last Tuesday, in the early evening, the playroom at Big City Bar & Grill held 10 children who were supervised by two baby sitters. One mother, Chris P. [no sense taking over her Google results], hung over the railing and...
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Posted by greg at 8:03 AM | Comments (0)

May 27, 2004

Don't look at me; we live on the Upper East Side

You know how religious conservatives have been warning about the threat posed to families by the proliferation of the "homosexual lifestyle"? Well, now the feathered mule is on the other foot. According to this NY Times article, Chelsea, the nexis...
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Posted by greg at 4:39 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2004

Crazy Blog 4 Fathers 4 Justice

Thanks to Jay, aka The Zero Boss, for pointing out Fathers 4 Justice's weblog, Men's Hour. Did you know "bitter" also means "thank you" in German?...
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Posted by greg at 3:34 PM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2004

Tree Huggies

There's a heated environmental debate brewing at the store, and it's worse than paper vs. plastic. It's over the environmental impact of various kinds of diapers: traditional disposables, eco-friendly disposables, and cloth. If your kid is so worry-free that you...
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Posted by greg at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2004

Dads Dust-up in the UK: Fathers 4 Justice

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was hit in the back by a projectile as he answered questions in the House of Commons Wednesday. The projectile turned out to be a condom filled with purple-dyed flour. It was thrown from the...
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Posted by greg at 12:39 PM | Comments (2)

DON'T LEAVE YOUR KID IN THE CAR

Seriously, it should go without saying, but sometimes it needs to be said. Like now. We've all seen the "hot enough to fry an egg? HOT ENOUGH TO FRY A DOG'S BRAIN" commercial. Babies have an even lower frying point...
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Posted by greg at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2004

Three Centuries of Kids Gear at the Wadsworth Atheneum

So sue me. It turns out I did not invent fatherhood, and Daddy Types is not the first search for gear for kids. Kid Size: The Material World of Childhood is an exhibit at the Wadsworth Atheneum that explores three...
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Posted by greg at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

Roger Clemens dads it up

An interesting profile in USA Today of pitcher/dad Roger Clemens, who came out of "I want to spend time with my family" retirement for a year to play for the Houston Astros--and who included "I want to spend time with...
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Posted by greg at 8:34 AM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2004

NOT the Dads+Diapers combo we had in mind

Dude. Gothamist wonders aloud--and in photography--about a group of diaper-wearing middle-aged men walking through Washington Square Park last week. Commenters speculate that it's a ">SIDNY (Still In Diapers - NY) event. From the picture, though, I can't tell if it's...
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Posted by greg at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)

Bugaboo et al: Out of Africa

Maybe they haven't seen enough Sex and the City. The Washington Post Foreign Service reports that strollers are just not popular in Kenya. Marketed as prams (and unloaded from lorries, I guess), strollers are seen as cold, distant cages and...
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Posted by greg at 11:08 AM | Comments (1)

May 17, 2004

Coldplay's Daddy Video: The Nappies

When they have a baby, some musicians get their friends together and make silly T-shirts. Others get their friends together, put on silly wigs, and make silly videos. Coldplay, it turns out, falls into the latter category. To celebrate the...
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Posted by greg at 7:16 PM | Comments (6)

May 15, 2004

Raising Little Saddam

Tot therapy, where were you when we needed you? If you thought the worst you could do to your new kid was give him TV-induced ADD, read on. White House inside reporter for the Times Elizabeth Bumiller explores the work...
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Posted by greg at 1:31 PM | Comments (0)

May 13, 2004

Reporter takes kid for the day, lives

They say you never forget your first time. But what they don't tell you is, when you're a reporter, you publish a minute-by-minute account of your first time for everyone's inspiration and amusement. And, of course, to score macho points...
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Posted by greg at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)

May 9, 2004

UK Parents Wrestle for Work/Care Balance

From London, the Observer has an extensive article on the current state of child carers (the British term for parents, etc. I hear they call trucks "lorries," too.). Mums and dads are both dealing with balancing work and family life;...
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Posted by greg at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)

May 7, 2004

Pediatricians' Report on Enhancing Fathers' Roles

[via Rebel Dad] The American Academy of Pediatrics just published the results of a study that gives strong recommendations to pediatricians for getting fathers more involved in their childrens' care and development. It's an excellent piece which should get fired...
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Posted by greg at 12:50 AM | Comments (0)

May 5, 2004

Trixie Update Update

Ben MacNeil posts a link to an excellent profile of The Trixie Update by Jonathan Cox in the local paper, the Raleigh News & Observer. Online fame often exists side by side with comfortable hometown anonymity; now Trixie'll be recognized...
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Posted by greg at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)

April 28, 2004

LEGOLAND Kidspotter: track your kid with WiFi

Legoland has introduced Kidspotter, a WiFi-based tracking system that lets parents locate their children anywhere within the park. How it works: parents send a text message to the Kidspotter system, which returns the coordinates of their kid's transmitter wristbands. [via...
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Posted by greg at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2004

Pimp Daddies

Three's a trend: fathers are pimpin' their kids to movies, TV, fame in general. This is nothing new; Francis Ford Coppola put his weeks-old daughter Sofia in the baptism/murder scene of The Godfather, for example. But between reality TV and...
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Posted by greg at 7:18 PM | Comments (1)

April 22, 2004

Are you that Trixie from the New York Times?

People on this Internet just can NOT keep a secret. Thanks to her dad, Trixie's poo will become as famous as Mr Hanky. Buy a talking Mr Hanky plush toy, no doubt made with care (by a child in China)....
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Posted by greg at 12:54 AM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2004

NYMag's Parenting Porn

First, if New York Magazine's cover story on needless therapy for babies was actually intended to enlighten over-aggressive, over-scheduled Manhattan parents about the pitfalls of over-programming your child, it would'nt be so freaking long. Who has time to read all...
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Posted by greg at 8:55 AM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2004

Baby Blues, Daddy Depression?

The National Health Service in the UK will roll out an anonymous helpline for fathers dealing with Post-Natal Depression (PND); the service has the so-upbeat-it's-disheartening title, "Fathers Matter." Although some psychiatrists--and at least one cranky farmer--dismiss the idea of PND,...
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Posted by greg at 11:30 PM | Comments (1)

April 12, 2004

Techno Difficulties

According to the NY Post, Maclaren Techno XT strollers have a problem: the wheels fall off, and it pitches your kid into the street. [Q: Does this mean the brake failure of the 2002 model's finally solved?] "We're victims of...
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Posted by greg at 10:12 AM | Comments (1)

April 11, 2004

The Nursing Father

According to Unhindered Living, a Christian hippy lifestyle site, men are able to produce milk and breastfeed their children. How do we know this? The Bible tells us so--The Bible and Ananova. Whatever the truth, I'm sure there are...
[read the full post...]
Posted by greg at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)

April 9, 2004

Dateline, ALBANY-- Some Dads Stay Home

[via Rebel Dad] The Albany Times-Union's reports extensively, if generally, on the issues facing primary caregiver dads. Rebel makes the good point that the issue might more accurately be framed in terms of equal parenting, or as he puts it,...
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Posted by greg at 5:22 PM | Comments (0)

April 1, 2004

Bobby Brown's Paternity Problems

So Bobby Brown's in jail? That's not news, you say. True, but now he's been jailed for failing to pay $63,500 in child support to the woman with whom he fathered two children. Brown, who was released from jail in...
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Posted by greg at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)

WTC Memorial Designed During Paternity Leave

According to an interview in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, architect Michael Arad was on paternity leave when he found out he was a finalist in the competition for designing the World Trade Center Memorial. His and his wife's first son,...
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Posted by greg at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2004

UrbanBaby Message Boards: Wild Mom-on-Mom Action

In today's NY Times fashion reporter Ginia Bellafante discovers the informative, life-affirming women's mudwrestling pit that is UrbanBaby's message boards. Because a request often seeks to justify one approach to child care or lifestyle over another, it can set off...
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Posted by greg at 8:00 AM

March 16, 2004

Um, Gay Manhattan Dad wants a La-Z-Boy?

Ignore for a moment that PlanetOut's Jeff Bennett calls his husband "Hubby," or that he coos over the weekly, treacly Babycenter.com emails written in the voice of his surrogate fetus(es). His "Who's your daddy?" column archive gives a real-time report...
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Posted by greg at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

Babycenter for Dads

It's the chickest of chick sites, what with all the pregnancy going on over there, but Babycenter has a section for dads, written by moms. Let me sum it up for you: do more housework, take off more time, and...
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Posted by greg at 7:15 PM | Comments (1)

March 13, 2004

NPR, PRC, PRC, NPR

Just caught the end of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, where Scott Simon excitedly blurted out, "We're going to China to pick up our daughter. I-- am the father of Alice Sylvie Simon!" Related: FCC: Families with Children From China, a...
[read the full post...]
Posted by greg at 1:22 PM

March 8, 2004

Helping British lesbians doin' it for themselves

John Gonzalez, an entrepreneur in Bristol, is targeting his new fertility clinic, the Man Not Included New Life Centre, at lesbians and single women, who are an underserved market for sperm. But not why you'd think. Turns out the Human...
[read the full post...]
Posted by greg at 6:33 AM

March 2, 2004

NY Magazine on Gay Parents, or Are Babies The New Messenger Bag?

The ever-sharp service journalists at New York Magazine called the gay parenting trend last November. Frankly a Saturday afternoon trip to The Container Store in Chelsea would tell you about the same thing: that's not just daddy's roommate, it's daddy,...
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Posted by greg at 7:24 PM | Comments (0)

March 1, 2004

New Fathers Roundtable

The Morning News turns out to be one of the more fecund websites around. Last December they convened a new fathers roundtable from among their stable of virile stud contributors. New Fathers Roundtable Participants:Kevin Guilfoile is a Chicago writer and...
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Posted by greg at 10:30 PM

February 12, 2004

Baby Naming Don'ts

Engineering geek names son version 2.0...
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Posted by greg at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)