by Stacey
Yesterday evening we took the kids to Cyclefest, a Seattle-based event that included beer on tap, loud music, lots of people wearing spandex, and a giant screen set up on the grass to watch the Alpe d’huez stage of the Tour de France. (For more on that go to my husband’s great blog about […]

by Stacey
Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama used the occasion of Father’s Day last weekend to talk about the role of fathers in the lives of many black children. This article in the NY Times said that in a speech at a 20,000-member Apostolic Church of God on the South Side near Lake Michigan, Obama delivered […]

by Stacey
Some schools around the country are teaching students a controversial form of meditation to help battle stress. According to this article in Newsweek, transcendental meditation may help kids in inner city schools better handle stressful situations as well as improve their academic performance.
TM is the trademarked name of a meditation technique created by Maharishi […]

Cross-posted at MotherTalkers
by Stacey
New software programs enable parents to learn of everything from their child’s daily class attendance and homework completion to test scores and overall grades throughout the semester, according to this article in the NY Times.
Boy am I glad I’m not a kid anymore. What a nightmare. Sorry if you’re one of […]

by Stacey
One of the most heated debates among parents involves the safety of vaccines. In recent years, some parents have warned that vaccines caused their child’s autism, a claim that federal scientists have refuted. But the recent news of the government’s compensation to the family of 9-year old Hannah Poling may move the debate into […]

by Stacey
A mother in New York has been making headlines the last few days after leaving her nine-year old son at Bloomingdale’s in Manhattan to find his way home armed with a MetroCard, a subway map, twenty bucks, and some quarters to call home in case he got lost.
The mom, Lenore Skenazy who is a […]

Cross-posted at MotherTalkers
by Stacey
Here’s some crazy crap for you: According to a new documentary film making its way through politically conservative circles, there’s an ominous decline in childbirth rates around the world such that if we all don’t start procreating fast, armageddon is surely afoot. The movie is called “Demographic Winter: Decline of the Human […]

by Stacey
A new rule will soon go into effect in schools across one of DC’s prominent Maryland suburbs that will require school officials to notify parents if they learn that a female student is pregnant. According to this article in last Sunday’s Washington Post, it’s a move health experts say violates a young woman’s right […]

by Stacey
A new study shows infants metabolize the mercury used as a preservative in vaccines much more quickly than doctors had previously thought. The research will be published this Monday in the Journal Pediatrics. The study casts even more doubt on the link between vaccines and autism, says this article in the LA Times.
Researchers had […]

by Stacey
Here we go. According to this article in the NY Times, a study published today in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology says that too much caffeine during pregnancy may increase the risk of miscarriage, prompting the study authors to suggest that pregnant women consider reducing or eliminating their caffeine intake altogether. […]