Category archive: news

November 19, 2009

ЯIP: Gunther Kilsheimer, Creator Of Toys R Us Logo

No way, did you know Toys R Us started in Washington DC? It began as a baby furniture retailer in Adams Morgan [in fact, the original store is now a blues bar called Madam's Organ. All the Baby Boomers raised...
[read the full post...]

November 18, 2009

Working Mother Fans Sexist Hysteria Over Child Custody

Wow. I am just blown away by the incredibly sexist premise and alarming tone of Sally Abrahms' article in Working Mother magazine about supposed changes in divorce and family law. The magazine considers dads' increased involvement in parenting to be...
[read the full post...]

November 14, 2009

Heh, Baby Weinstein

I was just building bookcases, listening to WNYC's weekly radio show, On The Media, minding my own business. Then this bit on Disney's Baby Einstein refund story came on, and I laughed so much, I could no longer operate...
[read the full post...]

November 13, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Home Alone Edition

While the whole family's scattered to various grandparents for the week/night, I'm freaking out about how well the lacquer on the new radiator cover will take the heat. For you, how about some hyperbolic science and parenting headlines to freak...
[read the full post...]

Uh, No. Playdate By John Waters

Look, it's not that I don't think John Waters is a great artist. It's just that I think his best work is in the medium of film, not art world art. But as a filmmaker who also hangs out...
[read the full post...]

November 12, 2009

Oy, Macopalypse 2009 Now Park Slopalypse 2009

Wow, I miss one day of blogging, and suddenly Park Slope has turned into the hyperventilating headquarters for Maclaren's Rahm Emanuel Appreciation Society:"There's swine flu and Maclaren strollers," said Dara Kass, a mother of two, as she prepared to order...
[read the full post...]

Macopalypse 2009 2004! Or, How Not To Sell A Stroller

So we're starting to fill in some of the dates on the timeline for Maclaren's Global War On Future Concert Pianists. When I spoke to Maclaren USA chairman Bahman Kia, he said the amputating hinge issue came to the company's...
[read the full post...]

November 10, 2009

Health Care Reform Prop Baby

Well change my mind and open my health care savings account! Now that 7-month-old Maddie has successfully channeled her opposition to health care reform through her zombie symbiant Rep. John Shadegg, I am thoroughly opposed to upsetting the insurance...
[read the full post...]

November 9, 2009

Macopalypse 2009: Recalled Maclaren Hinges An 'Industry-Wide Issue'

So clearly, the biggest stroller recall in history, of one of the most popular brands, for amputating children's fingers is a big deal. But then you realize that the actual threat posed to your kid's future as a concert...
[read the full post...]

Macopalypse 2009: The CPSC Version

So here's the official CPSC recall announcement for the Maclaren Everythings, for your headline-comparing entertainment:Maclaren USA Recalls to Repair Strollers Following Fingertip Amputations WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today...
[read the full post...]

Macopalypse 2009: The Maclaren Recall Press Release

Just got a press release from Maclaren's publicists reaffirming the company's "unwavering commitment to child safety," their "Zero Tolerance policy of safety issues," and that their "umbrella strollers meet all U.S. ASTM & JPMA compliance standards." Oh, also, they're recalling...
[read the full post...]

November 6, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Shocked, Shocked Edition

Calm, relaxing autumn weekend with the kid? Not if the publicizers of these stories from the worlds of science, medicine, education, safety, and parenting have anything to do with it: What better way to start the Friday Freakout than...
[read the full post...]

November 5, 2009

Must Credit Dadcentric!! Ford Announces Inflatable Seat Belts

Jason Avant of Dadcentric is representin' for the dadblogging community at a lavish Ford Safety press event in the US Virgin Islands this weekend. Now that he's livetweeted the big news--inflatable rear seat belts!!--he has the entire weekend free...
[read the full post...]

November 3, 2009

Ill. Dad Files Class-Action Lawsuit Over Crossed Baby Monitor Signal

So while an Illinois mom breastfeeds in the nursery at all hours of the night and day, the dad chats with the new dad neighbor about how they must have the same brand of baby monitor, because they can...
[read the full post...]

October 31, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Halloween Edition

Because you can only worry about razor blades in apples for a few more hours, here are some headlines from the worlds of science and parenting to freakout over the rest of the weekend: 610,000 cheap-ass Halloween flashlights sold at...
[read the full post...]

BRIO? Indies? Toy Casualties Mount In CPSIA Trainwreck

It's been a while since the CPSIA has been in the news, or at least since anyone's sent me anything about it. The CPSC's new lead and phthalates restrictions and testing requirements for childrens' products kicked in earlier this year,...
[read the full post...]

UK Combats Paedophile Plague By Banning Parents From Playgrounds

As everyone knows, the United Kingdom was founded as a prison island for criminals exiled from Camelot. Given the population's well-established propensity for child abuse, a national paedophile database is being set up, and everyone who gets within 100 rods...
[read the full post...]

October 23, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Nuclear Edition

Here are some stories from the science, safety, and parenting worlds designed to help give your confidence a little extra push--over the cliff. Have a great weekend! Actually, these first two are just funny-sad: Do you remember going outside to...
[read the full post...]

October 22, 2009

Parental Yelling Experts Declare Parental Yelling Crisis

I know this should be in the Friday Freakout, but hey. The New York Times reports that this generation of parents is yelling at their kids in unprecedented numbers. This, according to authors of books on parental yelling, actresses starring...
[read the full post...]

Splash Flash Not Included: Bernie Madoff's E320 Wagon Gets Auctioned Tomorrow!

Sick kids, White House stargazing, work, family, I know that I've been letting a lot get past me the last couple of weeks, and for the most part, I don't mind. But finding out that I have less than...
[read the full post...]

October 19, 2009

LIFE Magazine Not Just For Photos Anymore

Sweet digitized Xanadu, Google has released the entire archive of LIFE Magazine--through 1972, anyway--online. It begins in 1936, and the fifth issue, Dec. 21, has this awesome pram photo with the surprisingly creepy caption, "Lord Beaverbrook's granddaughter and friend."...
[read the full post...]

FTC Investigating Babies R Us For Widespread Baby Gear Pricefixing

From a report in the Baby Industrial Complex section of the Wall Street Journal--yes, it has its own section now, thanks, Rupert!--we learn that the Federal Trade Commission has opened an anti-trust investigation into price-fixing at Babies R Us. The...
[read the full post...]

October 16, 2009

Was That Kid Riding In A Love'N'Care Pram When He Got Run Over By That Train?

So you've probably already seen this video from a CCTV camera in Melbourne, Australia of a stroller with a 6-month-old kid in it, heading right over the edge of the platform just as the train comes. So you know...
[read the full post...]

October 15, 2009

Dads Across America Tonight Are Hugging Their Kids, Checking The Moorings On Their Experimental Helium Balloon Projects

I don't know about your cockamamie, gigantic, mylar balloon project, but mine is not in our backyard; it'll be in the Pantheon or the Grand Palais. Or outer space. Still, I made the kid promise me she wouldn't climb...
[read the full post...]

October 13, 2009

Don't Throw Rama From The Train

A 30-year old woman suddenly gave birth in the toilet on a train in northeast India, and the baby fell down the chute, out the trapdoor, and onto the tracks. So the mother raced out of the bathroom and jumped...
[read the full post...]

October 9, 2009

DT Friday Freakout

The moon is still here, and you didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize this year, but surely, there are still reports from the worlds of science and parenting to freak out about this weekend? Yes, and don't call me Shirley:...
[read the full post...]

That'd Be The Wong-Baker FACES Pain Scale, Colbert

"His show is like the dramatization of a pain chart on a pediatrician's wall."- Stephen Colbert not giving Dr Donna Wong or Dr Carol Beck the credit they deserve while talking about Glenn Beck [who once advertised his special...
[read the full post...]

October 8, 2009

Inflatable Solar System Just Like The White House

So for the last few months, the wife has been working on a big astronomy event at the White House, which just went down tonight. [High five, baby, you pulled it off!] She had 150 middle school kids, a...
[read the full post...]

October 5, 2009

DT Monday Mommy Mailbag

Hey Ladies, I know you're all broken up over the loss of Cookie, but don't worry, there are still plenty of fabulous must-have blah blah blahs for you to buy!Hi Greg, Being pregnant doesn't have to mean putting your fitness...
[read the full post...]

WHOA, That's The Way The Gourmet, Cookie Crumble

When you pay McKinsey to tell you to jump, you also pay to tell you how high. And by jump, I actually mean, push someone off the cliff. In the face of an advertising depression Conde Nast just announced they...
[read the full post...]

October 2, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Unfit Mothers Edition

Sometimes it can be really hard to sit on some of these newly released studies all week and not freak out about them. But this way, it only ruins the weekend: The BBC's headline which took a new Institute of...
[read the full post...]

October 1, 2009

Huge Private Dicks Offer 'Covert Pregnancy Testing'

TPM Muckraker has some wacked out story about a freaky private army run by an ex-con in the OC which got a 10-year contract to run an empty prison in some podunk Montana town. Among the company, American Police...
[read the full post...]

September 30, 2009

Fire Trucks And Marauding Pirate Ships: New Cambridge Playground The Awesomest EVER

Thank you, Cambridge! Finally, the days of boring, namby-pamby playgrounds designed by product liability lawyers is are [oy. should never have laid off my Harvard-trained copy editor. -ed.] OVER! They build them like they used to in Cambridge, Mass.,...
[read the full post...]

September 25, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Snakes Edition

Some reports from the worlds of science and parenting to freak out over this weekend: Some survey found that, because of money worries during the recession, "many women" are delaying pregnancy and skimping on birth control. "Many men" who are...
[read the full post...]

It's Just A Plan Colombia: Awesome Activist Art By Beehive Design Collective

I was just surfing through some images of the protests at the G20 in Pittsburgh when I was stopped and stunned by the absolutely incredible banners of art-activists of the Beehive Design Collective. the Beehive Collective translates in-depth socio-political...
[read the full post...]

September 22, 2009

UK Autism Study: Same As It Ever Was, Same As It Ever Was

I know I should probably save it for the Freakout, but I couldn't resist. A new NHS study of autism in adults finds that they're just as autistic as all the kids these days. In other words, the supposed spike...
[read the full post...]

Mima + Alma Win K+J 2009 Innovation Awards

Well, the huge Kind + Jugend kid gear expo is finished in Cologne [stay tuned for a quick photo roundup]. A couple of the Innovation Award winners stood out--actually, Maxi Cosi's Innovation Award for its line of car seats...
[read the full post...]

September 18, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Back To School Edition

Just some news and science to freak out over this weekend: School officials summoned police to confront a family who rode their bikes to school together. They were told they were "out of compliance." [streetsblog via dt sr wtf correspondent...
[read the full post...]

September 16, 2009

D'oh!

Classic. They teach Phillies fans early not to get too caught up in the thrill of victory. Young Phillies fan reject's dad's foul ball gift [yahoo sports via ponch] A nice interview with the dad, Steve Monforto [nbcphiladelphia.com]...
[read the full post...]

September 10, 2009

Strolle(RED): Bugaboo Joins Onto Project (RED)

Bugaboo announced yesterday that the company is joining Project (RED), the big save-a-life-through-shopping program whereby companies create campaigns and products to raise money and awareness for the fight against HIV/AIDS and other global health crises. To their credit, Bugaboo is...
[read the full post...]

Target Saturation Licensing: Skelanimals Are The New Domo-kun

It's that time of year again, when a Target publicist's heart turns to thoughts of announcing which cutesy Japanese character property set will fulfill its 2.5 year business plan destiny and graduate from faux-niche Comic-con nerd fandom to having mountains...
[read the full post...]

September 7, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Labor Day Edition

Rather than ruin your whole weekend, here are a few stories to freakout over on your last day of summer vacation: This Wal-Mart ain't big enough for the three of us: At one of the five Wal-Marts in Stone Mountain,...
[read the full post...]

September 4, 2009

Swedish-Male Nipple Engorgers: This Sort Of Thing Is My Bag, Baby

Ragnar Bengtsson is the Mjölkmannen, the Milkman. He's a 26-year-old dad and grad student who just began trying to produce breast milk for some Swedish TV show. He'll be pumping every three hours all Fall. You can follow his...
[read the full post...]

It's Just A Brownie

At first I thought this findings published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report would go into the Friday Freakout, but I think it deserves its own post. Emphasis added for humorous/dramatic effect:On the morning of April 7, 2009,...
[read the full post...]

September 2, 2009

Wednesday WTF: Don't Bring A Knife To A Homework Fight

After punching his 7-yo daughter a couple of times because she just started guessing the answers on her homework, a Delaware dad pressed one of his knives against her cheek to show that he was serious about the guessing. How...
[read the full post...]

August 31, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Monday Makeup Edition

Did your weekend feel kind of empty, devoid of excessive freakouts over the latest hyperbolic news reports from the worlds of science, health, safety, and parenting? Sorry, my bad. Here we go: Is ICE really trying to take the US-born...
[read the full post...]

August 28, 2009

Marketers Turning To Dadblogs, Says Dadblogging Marketer

I love it when a marketing plan falls together. A couple of days ago, DT reader George heard a public radio news report about how dadblogs are the new marketing hotness: Sony markets to fathers with 'DigiDads' Sony has launched...
[read the full post...]

August 26, 2009

CPSC Does Windows: 5.4 Million Blinds & Shades Recalled For Strangulation Danger

Whoa, now that's a recall. Six of them, actually. The CPSC has issued a sweeping set of recalls of window blinds, Roman shades, and roller shades sold at a whole bunch of major retailers and manufacturers, including Target, Ikea, Pottery...
[read the full post...]

August 25, 2009

First Time As Farce, Second As Tragedy, Or Vice Versa

I swear I was kidding when I wrote just yesterday that circumcision was All-American enough to get the wingnuts to squeal the Pledge of Allegiance. Now some liberal knucklehead's gone and proved me wrong/right by dredging up some birther theories...
[read the full post...]

August 24, 2009

DT Monday Mommy Mailbag

It's been a while since I've dumped a mess of mommy marketing material on here. At first, I thought I was in trouble because I wasn't getting as many tone-deaf, gender-ridiculous press releases; what would I mock on the blog?...
[read the full post...]

Government Foreskin Panels Want To Africanize All American Baby Boys

How's my headline? Does it sound teabag militia wingnutty enough to get some cranky, gun-toting mobs to wave their "Don't Tread On My American Forskin!" signs outside the CDC? Because the NY Times reports that HIV/AIDS epidemiology officials at the...
[read the full post...]

August 22, 2009

'Don't Tase My Mom!'

Here's that awesome dashboard video of a policeman in Syracuse, NY tasing and arresting a mom in front of her minivanful of kids. She'd just turned onto the family's street when the police officer pulled her over for talking...
[read the full post...]

August 21, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Fish Edition

I've got a vacationful of stucco wall-inflicted bruises and unsupervised children to freak out over this weekend. But in case that's not enough, here are a few headlines from the worlds of scary science and safety: Blow out the candles...
[read the full post...]

Phil & Teds Moves Mountain Buggy To China Right On Schedule

It's as simple as 3+6=9. March + 6 months = September. March was when Phil & Teds announced it was buying Mountain Buggy, its New Zealand competitor, out of bankruptcy. Six months was the timeline floated then for making a...
[read the full post...]

August 19, 2009

The Ice Cream Menace

The NY Times article on the annoyances of the ice cream man cracks me up like five different ways: First there's the whole premise of the predatory ice cream man, whether he's an unlicensed immigrant sneaking into the playground, a...
[read the full post...]

Advice For When The White House Asks You To Read A Book To Children

Alright, Melody and Rahm, you are the fifth and sixth White House-related celebrities to read books to large groups of children [the other four being former Utah governor and HHS secretary Mike Leavitt and his wife, and two guys...
[read the full post...]

August 14, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Neo-Liberal Risk Culture Edition

What does the world of overhyped science and overly alarming and/or underpublicized safety news want you to freak out over this weekend? Researchers in Boston have found the cure to obesity: brown fat, which burns calories instead of storing them....
[read the full post...]

August 7, 2009

DT Friday Freakout

Man, my browser tabs are ready to *POP* with all kinds of research and recalls ready to freak. you out: The next time you have to pay for your own C-section, go ahead and treat yourself. A news study shows...
[read the full post...]

August 6, 2009

Funny As A Heart Attack: Mister Mom Writer John Hughes Is Dead

Wow. Considering how many of my neurons are devoted to remembering and reciting nearly every line from the rest of his movies--Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, National Lampoon Vacation, Uncle Buck, Home Alone 1-3,...
[read the full post...]

DTQ: How Much Did Your Kid Cost?

Ever since reading Sarah Wildman's article about getting blindsided by a $22,000 hospital bill for the birth of their child, after they'd been paying $126/month for a carefully researched maternity care rider on their high-deductible, high-copay insurance policy, I've wondered...
[read the full post...]

August 3, 2009

Welcoming Your Little Bundle Of Joy And Hospital Bills, Holy CRAP!

Wow, last time we heard from Sarah Wildman, she was writing an incredibly insightful article for the New York Times stuffed with the wisdom of hard-found parenting experts on how parents in these New Depressionary times really might not need...
[read the full post...]

Words You Definitely Don't Want To Hear, Ch. MCXXI

When you're hittin' on a hot Swedish broad at your wife's funeral: "Daddy, it's me --Tatum!" Beautiful People, Ugly Choices [vanityfair.com]...
[read the full post...]

July 31, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: No Toms, Dustins Or Leos Edition

Have we got a pile of overhyped science and alarming news stories to ruin your parenting weekend! "Does Breastfeeding Cause Autism?" This insane headline is the reason the Freakout was created. It is also practically a quote from the UCSF...
[read the full post...]

July 27, 2009

DT Monday Mommy Mailbag: Post-Partum Boutique Edition

Evening, ladies! It's only been a few weeks since it was born, but it looks like the Mommy Mailbag is already back into its skinny jeans, no pressure! "HadleyStilwell, a Designer of Clothes for Breastfeeding Mothers Returning to Work, Now...
[read the full post...]

Judge, Joovy: Baby Trend Angles For Bankruptcy After Court Smackdowns

One post about The Guiding Light and suddenly it's wall-to-wall soap opera around here. In today's episode of As The Stroller World Turns: A court in Orange County The O.C. has awarded $8.4 million to Rob Gardner, formerly the head...
[read the full post...]

July 24, 2009

Red Hookalypse Is Nigh! IKEA Banishes Breastfeeding Mom To Bathroom

Pull up a POÄNG chair, folks, and have a seat. It's gonna be nothing but breast milk and meatballs for the rest of the summer. Of all the furniture joints in all the towns in all the world, a security...
[read the full post...]

DT Friday Freakout: Early Start Edition

Usually, I don't get these science, news, and political stories designed to ruin your parenting weekend together until much later in the day. But given today's freakout roundup, I figured it's never too early to start: "A 16-year-old mother who...
[read the full post...]

July 23, 2009

Daddy Talks--With The New CEO Of The New The Right Start

I admit, I was caught off guard by Liberty Media's purchase of the assets of The Right Start and babystyle at a court-supervised bankruptcy auction a couple of months ago. What interest could John Malone, aka the Infobahn Warrior, have...
[read the full post...]

July 22, 2009

Dads: There're Just Too Damn Many Of Them

If you leave something open in your browser tab long enough, it becomes irrelevant or a bona fide trend. Right now, the trend is, there are just dads everywhere. Dads dads dads. Dads in Manhattan, dads in Brooklyn. They're like...
[read the full post...]

July 20, 2009

DT Monday Mommy Mailbag: Rack After Rack Edition

Wondering what Smart, Haute Moms are being sold this week? Just check out these marketing messages meant for the Mammary Set from the Daddy Types Monday Mommy Mailbag: First up, Sea Goddess contouring swimsuits:Hi There - Every summer, women agonize...
[read the full post...]

Circumcision Is The New African HIV-Fighting Hotness

The NY Times reports on the latest trend in southern African penises: circumcision. After several international studies found that adult male circumcision reduced female-to-male HIV transmission by up to 60%, hundreds of thousands of men are lining up to chop...
[read the full post...]

Bend Over Obama Bib [???]

I didn't have kids in the 90's, so I never needed to answer awkward questions about why Ken Starr, Newt Gingrich and Lindsey Graham were talking about oral sex, blue dresses, and cigars on every TV channel, every day...
[read the full post...]

July 18, 2009

Dude, Where's My Oscar Mayer Wienermobile?

Yesterday, a wayward Oscar Mayer Wienermobile slammed into the lakefront house Nick Krupp, 23, rents from his mother in Racine, Wisconsin. The Wienermobile [codename: WEENR] got lost on the way to a public appearance Friday, ended up on a...
[read the full post...]

July 17, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Neighborly Edition

The lead time on overexcited science study press releases must be around two weeks, and so the 4th of July gives us time to freak out over some other news this weekend: Lord knows I've seen a few, but Barack...
[read the full post...]

July 16, 2009

Mama Bear

O forgive me, for I am a weak and imperfect man who is unable to resist temptation--especially when it is placed right before me on AKGovSarahPalin's Quitter Twitter:Great day w/bear management wildlife biologists; much to see in wild territory incl...
[read the full post...]

Special Delivery! DT Mommy Mailbag

It's not Monday, I know, but this seemed like such an important message to get out there right away. Dads, won't you help? Take a few minutes on the golf course this weekend and see if you can think of...
[read the full post...]

July 15, 2009

One Backwards R To Rule Them All

Wow, so last we heard from Toys R Us & Babies R Us, they were buying up F.A.O. Schwarz, or whatever's left of it--a soon-to-be-evicted, toy store-themed amusement park on Fifth Avenue, and parents' vague, vestigial fondness for Tom Hanks...
[read the full post...]

July 13, 2009

Spring Break Wasilla 2009!!

Nothing like waking up to a giant photo on the front of the NY Times of Sarah Palin signing some snowbilly kid's rack. She's never going to have bathtime again. Palin's Route to Resignation: Missteps and Ignored Advice, photo:...
[read the full post...]

July 12, 2009

Oilily Be Right Back

At this rate, I'll need to start a "back in business" tag to go with the "out of business." The bankrupt Dutch psychedelic hippie/moppet clothing company Oilily was recently liquidated; the intellectual property and trademarks for the firm were reportedly...
[read the full post...]

July 10, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Beach Edition

How about some alarming studies and news reports to fill your sunny parenting weekend with freakout and doom? Fat and lazy, true, but not dumb: child obesity researchers in East London found out some of their lazier test subjects were...
[read the full post...]

July 8, 2009

Right Start Restart: Liberty Media Gets Into The Baby Business

This weekend in Pennsylvania, we passed a mall that had a big Right Start sign on the street, and I thought, huh. Are they actually still open? [They were not.] And then tonight I get an email from DT...
[read the full post...]

Ahh, You Never Forget The First Time--Your Dad Asks You To Help Ditch The Hooker's Body

Wow. In a cage match for Father of The Freakin' Year against Alan John Jett of BF Florida, Stone Cold Derek Lindsay just won with a knockout in the first round. Jett took his 5th grade son out with him...
[read the full post...]

Brits Say They Created Sperm From Stem Cells

Soon the only thing left for you to do will be taking the pictures. AP: British scientists claim to create human sperm [ap/google] OTOH, this same stem cell researcher's been crying "Sperm!" since 2006 [telegraph.co.uk]...
[read the full post...]

July 7, 2009

DT Monday Mommy Mailbag Meets Tuesday Turf War: Our365

The publicists were off for the holiday, because I didn't get any seriously biased mommy marketing pitches until today. And the one I got bears looking into:Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY), the leading Internet-based social expression and personal publishing service, today...
[read the full post...]

July 6, 2009

4 Million Aqua Leisure Baby Floats Recalled For Drowning Risk [!]

If you thought reaching a live customer service rep at Aqua Leisure was hard before... The CPSC just issued a recall for over 4 million baby floats made by Aqua Leisure between 2002 and 2008 and sold until June...
[read the full post...]

Tintori Time! Trendy Toddler-Terrorizing Auteur Talks Turkey

We Love You So has a nice little interview with Ray Tintori, who directed the sadistic 80's horror-themed music video for MGMT's hit "Kids" [and whose name, I just realized, I'd mistyped as Ryan.] Tintori's young, and clearly a...
[read the full post...]

July 4, 2009

Build-A-Heroin-Filled-Bear

On Independence Day, let's take a moment to celebrate what makes America great: like a network of drug dealers in the Bronx moving their heroin around the tri-state area inside Build-A-Bears. And the free press who keep referring to...
[read the full post...]

July 3, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: The British Are Coming! Edition

A short list of hyperbolic parenting, safety, and science news to freak you out over the weekend: If pollution caused premature births, it would be enough. If preeclampsia occurred more frequently in Long Beach, it would be enough. But holy...
[read the full post...]

July 2, 2009

Uh, Yes I HAVE Heard About The Boyfriend's Python Strangling The 2-Year-Old

What I hadn't heard was that the lid on Jason Darnell's pen for his 8.5-ft Burmese python was "a quilt and some rope." Un. freaking. believable. Also, Shaiunna? Or is it too soon to ask? OXFORD, FLORIDA -- Charges Possible...
[read the full post...]

July 1, 2009

Snopp! You Must Not Hop On Pop!

A young Swedish couple has decided to raise their kid gender-neutral, and is not revealing whether the two-year-old is a boy or a girl. The paper Svenska Dagbladet interviewed them in March [google translation]. They used the aliases Jonas, Nora...
[read the full post...]

June 28, 2009

Taunton's Fightinest Gets Out Of Jail Long Enough To Get Arrested For 143rd Time

So I start seeing a burst of comments about Stone Cold Derek Lindsay, the fightinest dad in Taunton, Massachusetts, and I'm like, "No way could he get arrested, he's in jail!" Way! Even though Lindsay's 142nd arrest--for attempted murder [!]--was...
[read the full post...]

June 26, 2009

DT Friday Freakout

Here are some overwrought headlines from the worlds of science and health and such to ruin your parenting weekend: Smacking your kid will give him cancer. In Canada. "Childhood physical abuse is associated with elevated rates of cancer in adulthood,...
[read the full post...]

DT Replays Michael Jackson's Greatest Hits

What more could be said about Michael Jackson that hasn't already been said here on Daddy Types? Really, I got nothing. So without further ado, here is the complete anthology of MJ-related DT posts. Summer 2007 was clearly a peak:...
[read the full post...]

June 25, 2009

DadCentric On NuPoppa

Damn you sports camp carpool lane gridlock! I missed Jason from DadCentric's interview on NuPoppa, the, uh, dad-centric podcast for, uh, new poppas, hosted each week by Doug and Ted. The wife's out of town this week, so I'm soloing...
[read the full post...]

Last Call For Token Father's Day Stories

Have you come across a token Father's Day story from a TV station, magazine, or newspaper? Have you put a link to it in the DT Token Father's Day Contest so you can have a chance to win a Nintendo...
[read the full post...]

Gerber, Hanna Andersson Spun Off To Pay The Bills

Whoops, looks like I missed this story from the New Depression. Which I guess was the entire point of the company releasing the news on November 25, two days before Thanksgiving. Kellwood, a women's apparel manufacturer which bought Gerber Childrenswear...
[read the full post...]

June 20, 2009

The DT Token Father's Day Story Contest!

Alright, this one will be quick. DT's minivan correspondent JJ Daddy-O has challenged us to a contest, and I think we can't back down. So get out there and find the most ridiculously patronizing Father's Day story you can find,...
[read the full post...]

Educational & Entertaining: Why, They're As Different As Colored And White

Did you know that when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created in 1967, a Republican congressman from Texas proposed an amendment forbidding the "educational stations" from offering "entertainment"? These were the two opposing ends of the media spectrum back...
[read the full post...]

June 19, 2009

DT Friday Freakout Jersey Girl Edition

Father's Day notwithstanding, here are some news reports from the worlds of science, government, and parenting to ruin your weekend: In two separate incidents this week, Continental Airlines sent two unaccompanied minors to the wrong cities, and USA Today says...
[read the full post...]

June 18, 2009

And The Winner Of The 2009 Token Father's Day Involved Dad Feature Story Is...

Ah yes, Father's Day. That time of year when a thick-headed morning news producer's heart turns to Mr. Mom stories that weren't relevant 20 years ago, either, and newspaper editors momentarily acknowledge the existence of entire generations of involved...
[read the full post...]

June 17, 2009

Endless Summer Of Luvs

Looks like the NY Times' advertising columnist Stuart Elliott recently caught the Broadway revival of Hair:The moon may not be in the seventh house. And only an astrologer knows for sure if Jupiter has aligned with Mars. But it...
[read the full post...]

And In Other Annoying, Talentless, Manipulative Hack News...

Jill Greenberg made babies cry, and then took their picture. Glenn Beck makes himself--and anyone with two neurons to rub together--cry on his flame-fanning, wingnut TV show. Greenberg's 2004 exhibit of her crybaby photos was called "End Times." Glenn...
[read the full post...]

June 14, 2009

Secret Asian Man

Studies of data from the 2000 US census and 2004 births show that Asians in the US are increasingly turning to "family balancing," either through sex selection or abortion, to ensure they have a boy. The chances of a second...
[read the full post...]

June 13, 2009

MacNetto! Maclaren Bought Netto Collection

I think that's called a scoop. I'm hearing from multiple parties that the deal for Maclaren to acquire Netto Collection was finalized Friday, and it will be announced publicly on Monday. After dabbling a bit with portable cribs, and high...
[read the full post...]

June 12, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Playgrounds, Pregnant BPA & Asian Co-Sleeping Edition

Some over-reaching conclusions and alarming news stories from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting to ruin your weekend, especially if you were planning to go to a playground, or drink from a plastic bottle when you're pregnant: "Safety Questions...
[read the full post...]

June 8, 2009

This Week In Bankrupt Dutch Moppetwear Company News

So what's up with Oilily since the Dutch bankruptcy trustee shuttered the high-end kid clothing company's local stores and then sold off/handed back the trademarks to the Olsthoorn family, who founded the company, and who retained a significant minority stake...
[read the full post...]

June 6, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Russian Mice Breast Pump Edition

The Freakout's roundup of overwrought science, safety, and parenting news ruineth your weekend--and it unruineth [?] it with a little dose of Uma: The California Senate passed a ban on BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups this week, one...
[read the full post...]

June 2, 2009

American Dude Delivered By Midwife Suddenly Can't Get A Passport

I was just filling out the application for K2's passport--and renewing the kid's--when I caught this crazy passport thread and started pulling. Apparently, the State Department has flagged people who were delivered by at least 200 midwives around the country...
[read the full post...]

June 1, 2009

MacNetto?

How many people on how many sides of a rumor do you have to know personally before it becomes awkward to post about it? If what I'm hearing about Maclaren buying Netto Collection is true, then I guess I'm about...
[read the full post...]

WTD BPA Spokesmodel: Nice Cans, Pregnant A Plus, Some Travel Req.

Someone leaked the minutes of last Thursday's North American Metal Packaging Alliance BPA Joint Trade Association Meeting on Communications Strategy, or NAMPA BPA PR/BS HQ OMG WTF for short. It's like Treadstone for baby formula cans! Who is Jason Bourne??...
[read the full post...]

May 30, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Exercise Edition

Did someone say hidden health hazards? Yes, yes they did. After the terrible death of Mike Tyson's 4-year-old daughter this week, how could we freak out about anything other than the hidden health hazards around your house? This single CNN...
[read the full post...]

May 28, 2009

F.A.O. R Us

Toys R Us is owned by Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts. TRU has announced it is acquiring F.A.O. Schwarz, a company whose primary assets consist of two retail leases [NYC, which expires in 2012 and is being...
[read the full post...]

There's A Fete In My Tummy! Yo Gabba Gabba Producer Is Obama's New Ambassador To France

Ho. Ly. Smokes. Avec une cerise on top. Charlie Rivkin, the CEO of Wildbrain, which executive produces Yo Gabba Gabba!, was just named as President Obama's ambassador to France. In other world-shaking news, YGG! got picked up for another season....
[read the full post...]

May 27, 2009

Yanmama: Japan's Having It's Own Jamie Lynn & Bristol Moment

According to neojaponisme, my favorite source for gaijin analysis, Japan is having a yanmama boom. Whether the yan in yanmama is from "young" or from yankii, the Japanese equivalent of white trash, a few young celebrities are having kids really...
[read the full post...]

May 26, 2009

Tanzanian Maternity Ward

Wow, I couldn't bring myself to read this weekend's New York Times article yet about the crazy-high mortality rate for mothers and babies alike in Tanzania. But I just scrolled through Beatrice de Gea's photo essay of the Tanzanian...
[read the full post...]

May 15, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Viagra Edition

Just a little list of headlines, recalls, and over-interpreted science and medical news to ruin your parenting weekend: The Northbridge, Mass. bus driver who left a 3-yo on the bus all day had dropped a 5-yo at the wrong day...
[read the full post...]

On The Return Of Drives A _!

You know what I was thinking we haven't had enough of lately? Those fun, inspiring "______ drives a ______!" where we get to identify with a celebrity dad and [possibly!] validate our own stroller purchase a little. Yeah, maybe...
[read the full post...]

May 11, 2009

DT Freakout Friday: Vaccine Autism Celebrities Edition

Close readers of the Daddy Types will notice that there was no Friday Freakout over the weekend. Sorry. Things got a little busy, I didn't want to ruin Mother's Day, or when it comes to dishonest and dangerous pseudo-scientific quackery...
[read the full post...]

May 8, 2009

Insane Argington Bamboofest At BKLYN DESIGNS This Weekend

Alright, this is like five kinds of freakin' bamboo awesome all in one. Argington is one of the half dozen kid-related design outfits participating in the BKLYN DESIGNS festival this weekend in DUMBO. [The others are Boo-Coup, Casa Kids, Hugh...
[read the full post...]

May 7, 2009

Simplicity/SFCA Out Of Business, Into Trouble

First things first: IF YOU HAVE ANY SIMPLICITY CRIBS, CO-SLEEPERS, OR PLAYARDS, CHECK THE CPSC RECALL NOTICES. THEN STOP USING THEM NO MATTER WHAT. THEN DESTROY THEM. DON'T PUT THEM ON CRAIGSLIST OR WHATEVER. AND REPORT ANY SAFETY INCIDENTS...
[read the full post...]

May 3, 2009

Leave The Stores, Take The Oilily: Founding Family Buys Back The Brand

Well that's interesting and a little complicated. The government-appointed trustee overseeing the sale of the bankrupt Dutch luxo-moppet fashion chain Oilily has announced a deal, of sorts. Turns out it's the family of Willem Olsthoorn, the hippiepreneur who founded the...
[read the full post...]

May 2, 2009

DT Friday Freakout Followup

We had the in-laws in town for a 4-day playdate, so if the Freakout list is late and lazy, I hope you'll understand. Besides, isn't swine flu enough of a freakout this week already? Obligatory swine flu freakout: a charter...
[read the full post...]

May 1, 2009

Where's The Outrage??

So a Wisconsin grandma and volunteer crisis counselor makes a coloring book in 2003 to help kids in her town deal with a tornado strike, and five years and 100 days [...] later Fox News throws a FEMA hissy fit...
[read the full post...]

Justice Dept. Turns Illegal Hardwood Crib Smuggler Every Which Way But Loose

So I had a call into the press office at the Department of Justice today--more on that later, definitely stay tuned--and their crib guy called me back. Only it wasn't the crib guy I was looking for; it was...
[read the full post...]

Cheap Crib Recalls R Us: Dorel x BRU Cribocalypse Tally Climbs To 472,450

The CPSC added another 96,000 Jardine cribs to its existing recall yesterday, bringing the total to at least 472,450. Jardine is a brand name used exclusively at Babies R Us and Toys R Us to sell low-end cribs [mostly...
[read the full post...]

Huggies Pure & Natural Hypoallergenic Latex-Free Organic Cotton Huggies Brand Initial Steps Toward Environmental Improvements!

I was one of two finalists to give the student address for my business school commencement. My speech was a hilarious [obviously] reminder that we'd be more effective business leaders if we learn to avoid knuckleheaded jargon and "speak...
[read the full post...]

April 25, 2009

DT Freakout Friday: Was, Uh, Yesterday Edition

Sorry I'm late. I hope these alarmist, hyperbolic, or way-too-early-to-say stories from the news will still be able to ruin at least half your parenting weekend: Can't really top the headline: "Pregnant woman hit by car while running from bear"...
[read the full post...]

April 24, 2009

Change Volvo Can Believe In? DOT Calls For Side Impact Standards, Mfr Car Seat Recommendations

Whoa, the Secretary of Transportation just posted the findings of NHTSA's wide-ranging review of US car seat safety standards policy [!] to his blog [!!], Welcome To The Fast Lane. The bullet points: "[N]ew side-impact standards as well as increased...
[read the full post...]

April 23, 2009

Did You Know It Is Or Will Be Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week Or Month?

So maybe the Baby Shaker iPhone app was released Monday to drum up publicity for Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week--in which case, our society is doomed, because apparently the media only freaks out over a problem with the App Store,...
[read the full post...]

Apple Strangles Baby Shaker App In Crib

Apple just wanted the screaming to stop, is that so wrong? The iPhone review site Krapps.com set off a media tweetstorm yesterday when it publicized Baby Shaker, an iPhone app where a baby cries until you shake it real...
[read the full post...]

April 18, 2009

Score One For The Little Bunny: Bankruptcy Court Orders Oilily To Remove & Destroy Rosa Pomar Knockoff Bunnies

Wow. If I'm reading my Google Translator right, Rosa Pomar has won. Fearing that publicity and criticism of Oilily's knocking off of Pomar's stuffed bunnies could derail the sale of the bankrupt company, the Dutch court trustee appointed to oversee...
[read the full post...]

April 17, 2009

Things I'd Rather Not Be Recorded Saying, Vol XII

Especially if there's a chance they release the 911 call to the media:"I didn't know my wife was pregnant," Ryan said of his 27-year-old wife, already a mother of three.Couple unaware of pregnancy gives birth at home with help of...
[read the full post...]

DT Friday Freakout: Spawning Season Edition

Sun's out, it's getting warmer, it looks like a great weekend--for random and preliminary medical research news to undermine your confidence in the way you're parenting! Since April is Autism Awareness Month, we'll start there: Were you aware autism is...
[read the full post...]

April 15, 2009

DT WTF Wednesday: Strollers & Syrup

Some quick, headscratching news stories from around the strollerverse: The Albany Times-Union reports that Miguel Angel Rodriguez, 20, was arrested on attempted [!] grand larceny after an employee at Hollywood Video saw him pack "more than $1,000 worth of...
[read the full post...]

April 14, 2009

Wasilla Area Man Is At-Home Dad

Luke Dittrich did a Hangout With Todd Palin article for Esquire. It stars piles of laundry, car seat bases, kid handoffs, trips to Target, snowmobiles, splitting childcare with your pregnant eldest daughter, Google Alerts set up for media mentions of...
[read the full post...]

April 13, 2009

Diaper Changing Stations We Can Believe In

Sorry for the radio silence today; our timeslot for the White House Easter Egg Roll was smack in the middle of the day, and it threw everything else off. Still, it was pretty awesome. The Obama kids' playground which...
[read the full post...]

April 9, 2009

Let's See, What Rhymes With Citi?

Now that they have their fancypants corporate stadium, The Mets are giving their little league fans the shaft. I'll be sure to work this into the conversation the next time the kid asks me why we're Yankees fans. Why do...
[read the full post...]

April 8, 2009

UCLA Study: Parents Cutting Costs, Not Foreskins

Actually, the study says that hospital circumcision rates are 24% lower in the 16 states where the procedure isn't covered by Medicaid. But not in Missouri, right? "'We whack 'em all,' says Dr. Renee Stein, whose clinic at St. John's...
[read the full post...]

For Sale: One Slightly Used, Knockoff-Prone, Dutch Moppetwear Company,

Oilily's having a sale! Of itself. The Dutch children's clothing chain has apparently not sold enough Rosa Pomar knockoff bunnies to cover its nut, because bankruptcy administrators in Amsterdam Monday ordered the company to be sold. Which is funny [and,...
[read the full post...]

April 7, 2009

"Nathan Needs Some Huggies" Still Not Working

Kudos to Southtown Star reporter Kim Janssen for making the connection, but I doubt the 21-year-old Jeremy Humphrey got the idea for stealing diaper money from the 22-year-old Coen Brothers classic, Raising Arizona: As you can clearly see from the...
[read the full post...]

April 3, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Smoking Edition

Some quick 'n dirty scientific studies from which to draw way-too-hasty parenting lessons: Remember that Freakout where the breastfeeding, organic treehugger mom was all worried that perchlorates might be in her kid's drinking water? Well, that's the newly discovered benefit...
[read the full post...]

March 31, 2009

The Dozen Or So Unhappily Circumcised Man March

If your head's not too desensitized to appreciate it, the Washington Post's story on the 50 or so intactivists who marched from the White House to Capitol Hill yesterday is entertaining. Also a little sad. Two foreskin-mourning college kids were...
[read the full post...]

Stokke, Chicco, Chicco, Stokke?

One of the many things I learned from Pamela Paul's book, Parenting, Inc.: Chicco's pronounced KEE-koh. Because it's Italian, obviously. Also, they're huge. The parent company Artsana has like EUR 1.6 billion in sales for three business lines, only one...
[read the full post...]

Will Oilily's New Private Owners Address Their Rosa Pomar Problem?

It turns out that while they were launching their new Spring line of knockoff Rosa Pomar bunnies, the Dutch moppet clothing company Oilily was itself being sold. The announcement appeared in the Dutch press two wekes ago that Lea Ward,...
[read the full post...]

March 27, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Short Tips Edition

We just rolled into NYC after just seven hours on the road. Thanks for nothing, Delaware. So though it should still ruin your weekend with alarmist interpretations of scientific research results, the Freakout will be cut short today: A new...
[read the full post...]

March 25, 2009

Doubling Down: Phil & Teds Buys Mountain Buggy Out Of Bankruptcy

Rachel at Dainty Baby just emailed with the scoop: The National Business Review reports that Phil & Teds is acquiring the other offroad double stroller company in New Zealand, Mountain Buggy. Mountain Buggy's parent company Tritec went into receivership in...
[read the full post...]

March 19, 2009

DT Xingqi-wu Xitstorm

I know today's only xingqi-su, but it's xingqi-wu in Asia, isn't it? Here are a couple of stories that make you say Wu Tang Fung, if you know what I mean: After that consumer activist group announced they had "found"...
[read the full post...]

March 18, 2009

Remember, Son, Don't Take A Knife To A Tattoo Parlor Gun Fight

Judging from the number of people who emailed this tip to me, a lot of dads are wondering what is up with Taunton, Massachusetts' most misunderstood parenting philosopher/mixed martial arts aficionado, Stone Cold Derek Lindsay. Last we heard, Lindsay...
[read the full post...]

March 13, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Lots More Tears Edition

Yes, in case you're keeping score at home, you've already noticed there was no Friday Freakout last week; because we freakin' went out of town for the weekend. So refreshing. But enough of that, let's get on with the overly...
[read the full post...]

March 12, 2009

Grover, Can You Spare A Dime? Sesame Workshop Lays Off 20% Of Employees

Sesame Workshop announced layoffs of 67 employees today, roughly 20 percent of the non-profit company's workforce. In a statement to the Financial Times, the Workshop said it was "not immune to the unprecedented challenges of today's economic environment," and that...
[read the full post...]

March 11, 2009

Plush Your Mother: Grass Mud Horse Dolls In China

Long Duck Dong, freedom fighter! The NY Times has a report about a fascinating protest movement that's sweeping the Chinese internet. In response to a massive political crackdown by government censors, ostensibly targeting vulgarity and porn, millions of net...
[read the full post...]

Hey Kids, Can You Say Pendejo?

For one brief, shining, hilarious moment at the end of this Jon Stewart clip about his feud with Jim Cramer and the CNBC/NBC/MSNBC conglomernaut, I felt a swelling of synergistic gratitude in my heart for Viacom. Unfortunately, that was...
[read the full post...]

March 10, 2009

Thank You, Greatest Generation!

I don't read Thomas Friedman's column regularly, but if he promises to quote The Onion and make me think of Wonder Showzen from now on, I'll give him a chance. The Onion quote you can read for yourself. But...
[read the full post...]

March 5, 2009

All The Names In The Times' Last-Bohemians-In-The-Apthorp Story

For everyone who thought the only possible baby names to come out of the Apthorp were Wendy [Wasserstein], Cyndi [Lauper] and Apthorp, the NY Times has a story that will warm your heart. Or jab it like a knife, since...
[read the full post...]

March 2, 2009

Some Phony Survey: Dads Flake Out On Books, Should Watch More TV

"A mere 3% of fathers read to their children, compared with 89% of mothers." Somehow, even aunts and uncles read to kids twice as frequently [6%] as their own dads. At least that's the lead finding of a pointless online...
[read the full post...]

February 27, 2009

Jenny From The Docket: J.Lo Sues Silver Cross For Unauthorized Promo

God bless Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. The couple and their company, Nuyorican Productions, Inc. have filed a $30 million copyright infringement suit against fusty prammaker Silver Cross for using a photograph of them pushing some prams to, well, push...
[read the full post...]

February 20, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: K2 Edition

You know, because K2 chose this week to basically challenge Death at every turn, I've had a hard time freaking out over anything the hyperbolic science reporting industry can come up with, but I'll try: The NY Times reports that...
[read the full post...]

February 17, 2009

Brio Bork Bork Bork Bork! What's Swedish For "Bankruptcy"?

Actually, the word that matters most to the venerable Swedish wooden train maker right now is likviditeten. Liquidity. As in, cash. As in, after disappointing sales, extended operating losses, and extraordinary expenses, Brio is facing what its board of...
[read the full post...]

In Your Face, England! We Have A Mom Of 14!

Haha, England's all excited now because they have a guy who's a dad of only 13. Wait, what?? [thesun.co.uk] six other baby daddies update: wait, what what?? [dailymail.co.uk]...
[read the full post...]

February 10, 2009

Hello, It's February 10th. Is The Phthalate Baby Product Industry Still With Us?

Any shuttered stores? Stopped assembly lines? Quarantined shipping containers? Empty shelves in the teething ring aisle? Tumbleweeds on etsy.com? Wire service photos of despairing phthalate futures traders clapping their foreheads? Though they're not being enforced officially, today is the...
[read the full post...]

February 7, 2009

Running Out: DT Runs The Numbers On The End Of Right Start

OK, this is almost literally kicking a dead horse, but I did a little digging into the bankruptcy filing for Right Start and babystyle. At first, I was trying to figure out if I needed to correct the suggestions made...
[read the full post...]

February 6, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: "I Was Devastated." Edition

OK, Science may actually have some preliminary research findings for you to freak out over this weekend: Actually, we've been quietly freaking out over this one for nearly five years, since we first got our place in DC, where the...
[read the full post...]

February 5, 2009

Wait, Is Right Start Not Honoring Gift Cards And Store Credit?

With the news that Right Start and babystyle have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy [yet again], I made the slightly offhand, slightly serious suggestion that anyone with a gift card should hustle over to a store and use it up...
[read the full post...]

Everything Must Not Go! Court Spanks CPSC, Upholds CPSIA Phthalate Ban

Short story: If you make or sell plastic or vinyl children's products, you can forget whatever plans you made for the weekend. Slightly longer story: The Natural Resources Defense Council and Public Citizen sued the CPSC over exceptions the Commission...
[read the full post...]

February 4, 2009

8 Is Enough For The Pilot, Anyway

You know, I prefer not to discuss octuplets unless they're named Nahasapeemapetilon. So I've kept the whole, single, baby-obsessed mom living at home with her 14 IVF kids story off Daddy Types. Because seriously, what Then someone forwarded me an...
[read the full post...]

February 3, 2009

Use Up Your Gift Cards Right Quick: Right Start Files For Chapter 11

Well, it seems to be official: the blog Strollerinfo is reporting that Right Start, the baby retailer who bought babystyle out of its own bankruptcy last Spring, has filed for chapter 11 protection itself. Sure enough, I just saw the...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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:...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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'...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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:...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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]...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

Papa Zao

Should've seen it coming, but I had my eyes closed: K-Fed just got custody of the kids. [via gawker]...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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?...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

"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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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]...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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]...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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]...
[read the full post...]

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],...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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]...
[read the full post...]

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],...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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;...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

'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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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]...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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:...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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,...
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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....
[read the full post...]

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...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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��t there an international symbol...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]

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...
[read the full post...]