jeanne
School Says Kids Too Young for Valentine’s Day
First it was no flower deliveries in school, now some schools are actually banning Valentine’s Day outright. But is it because they don’t want the disruption during class time or they don’t want kids’ feelings hurt? No and no. The administrators at one British school don’t think little kids are mature enough for Valentine’s Day - because they’re not old enough to profess their love for a boyfriend or girlfriend.
jeanne
LA Kid Sent Home for Wearing Colts Jersey Apologizes
A kid from Indiana moves to Louisiana. So when his school says wear your football gear in place of your uniform, is it any surprise he picked his Indianapolis Colts jersey? Apparently it was for school staff - they called senior Brandon Frost into the office and gave him a dressing down for showing up in blue and white instead of celebrating the New Orleans Saints. Then they told him take it off or go home. Now the school has apologized, and Frost told the Times Picayune he thinks the story has been “blown out of proportion.” He’s even apologized himself.
jeanne
Inside Out Teddy Bears Still Look Cuddly
Photographer Kent Rogowski’s got the curiosity of childhood pegged with his prints that depict what a teddy bear would look like if he’d been made the other way around, with a baggie of stuffing sewed to the outside of his body, the rear of those plastic eyes protruding from his face and seams running everywhere.
jeanne
Bless Their Plush Beating Heart
There’s something about a plush heart that actually beats that makes the little kid in me go – grooooss! And at the same time: OMG, I must buy this for Valentine’s Day.
jeanne
Pajama Jeans Out-Casual the Snuggie
The grocery story may be banning moms in pajamas, but it looks like some moms have just found a way around it with a product that seems to out-casual the Snuggie. Because while you really should keep that blanket with sleeves at home, the pajama jeans are made to be worn out and about. Er, we think?
jeanne
Drew Barrymore Talks Mother Daughter Relationships
She was just a kid when we first saw her, and now Drew Barrymore is a mom of sorts - she sent her first baby out onto DVD last week. Whip It is Barrymore’s first film as a director, a coming of age tale that’s tailor made for opening doors between teens and their parents. Babble spoke with Barrymore about a few topics she knows a bit about - main character Bliss Cavendar’s teenage rebellion (in the form of running off from pageants to become a rollerderby queen), growing up in the spotlight and her relationship with her mom.
jeanne
BREAKING: Lancet Fully Retracts MMR Autism Link
It’s always been tenuous at best, but the link between autism and vaccines has been dealt a final and devastating blow this week. The medical journal that printed the controversial study in the late nineties has fully retracted it. In the wake of a medical panel’s announcement that the autism/MMR study’s author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, acted unethically in building the “evidence” that’s been used to support an entire crowd of anti-vaxers, the Lancet issued its announcement today.
jeanne
Ramona Quimby Gets Her Own Doll!
We’re having a hard enough time waiting until August for the release of Ramona and Beezus in theaters, but here’s another bit of news that has put us crazy for Quimby folks in a tizzy. Madame Alexander is adding everyone’s favorite spunky 8-year-old to its doll line.
jeanne
Parents Warn Visits to Vermont Will Ruin Your Child Forever - Any Guesses?
If you’re planning a trip to Vermont with the kiddos, slowly back away from the suitcase. A bunch of Tulsa parents think a view of Vermont is going to ruin your precious grublets forever. The problem? They allow men to get married there. I know, I know, it’s shocking but true. Oh yeah, and they don’t want your kids to read about it either. That’s why these Oklahoma idiots parents are calling for their school to ban a book based on the popular Arthur kids TV series that follows the aardvark’s buddy Buster to Vermont.
jeanne
PETA's Duggar Billboard
Fresh off their Obama family scandal, animal lovers PETA have a new target - those baby making Duggars.
jeanne
Texas Schools Ban Author for Book He Didn’t Even Write
Most parents love Bill Martin Jr. for the work he did with beloved children’s illustrator and author Eric Carle. But schools in Texas have decided Martin’s beloved tomes have to go. Not because they’re naughty, but because Martin shares his name with another Bill Martin. The other guy just so happened to write a book (for adults) about Marxism. And you all know what happens when you expose kids to a little socialism.
jeanne
Make a Baby Vacation Promotion Falls Flat
Tourist towns love trapping them some tourists, but a promotion about procreation was apparently going too far for one East Coast destination. A letter sent to hospitality establishments in Ocean City, Md. asked them to get on board with the OC Makes 3! promotion - encouraging folks to come to town to make a baby for Valentine’s Day. The response? Let’s just say don’t start dialing up a baby swimsuit maker yet. According to Ocean City Today, the hoteliers were so upset the town’s tourism department is denying it ever seriously considered the idea - although the paper has a copy of the memo sent out to folks in the hospitality industry that maps the whole thing out.
jeanne
School District Bans Dictionaries Over Definitions
It’s hard to imagine anything more educational than a dictionary, so why has a California school district banned them outright? Oh, those pesky definitions therein. A cranky parent decided her kid’s dictionary was NSFW - or school - because Merriam Webster’s book contains the definition to the words “oral sex.”
jeanne
Computer Illiterate Mom Fined for Kid’s Filing Sharing
A German woman who doesn’t know how to use a computer has just been handed thousands of euros in fines for illegal file sharing. Any surprise it was her bratty kid who did it? The German courts have determined the mom is to blame even though she says she expressly forbade her kid from doing any such thing on the computer. They say simply laying down a rule isn’t enough - the lack of follow-through on her part won the record companies their case. Although it’s not much different from most of the file sharing cases that have gone through, with every day people getting mega fines they can ill afford, the issue of how much parental guidance is enough is a tricky one.
jeanne
OctoMom’s Bikini Bod a Hoax?
OctoMom is back at it - not making babies but riling up American women. The shots of her in a bikini have been everywhere for the last week and a half, and the conspiracy theories are flying. But here’s one thing no one can make up: Nadya Suleman says she didn’t have surgery. But the violent stretchmarks on photos she released to the media in 2009 have miraculously disappeared. If not one scientist in the world has figured out how to make stretchmarks naturally disappear, how did OctoMom make it happen?
jeanne
Cupcakes in a Jar - Genius!!
The geniuses at California-based bakery Yummy Cupcakes have taken a tried and true kid favorite – the cupcake – and shoved it in a jar. The result? No more messy cupcake face . . . and no more risking the whole thing get stolen by the dog when it falls out of the wrapper.
jeanne
Underwear Bomber Puts Kibosh On Kids Book
Even bestselling children’s book author Robert Munsch is no match for the terrorists. Munsch was working on a book about a little girl who snuck her favorite dolls onto an airplane when the so-called underwear bomber snuck explosives onto a Christmas Day flight. Suddenly Munsch’s book deal may be blown apart.
jeanne
Newborn Rescued in Haiti Spent Half Her Life Without Food
Happy stories from Haiti have been few and far between this week, but a newborn rescued from under the rubble seems have survived half of her life without food or water. And yet Elisabeth Joassaint was feeding at her mother’s breast after rescuers reunited the two like nothing had ever happened.
jeanne
Cookie Shortage Looming!!
Parents, start your mixers - you’re about to go old-school with all that cookie baking. E. coli found in pre-made Toll House dough at a Nestle factory is being blamed for a possible cookie shortage this year. The dough never left the factory - according to USA Today reports - so your kids are safe. But in light of the major recall last year and several dozen sick people, the folks at Nestle are shutting down production to start over.
jeanne
This TV Won't Rot Your Brain
They’ve been begging for a TV in their bedroom, but you’ve been putting your foot down? Time to compromise Mom and Dad, but don’t worry, you’re going to like this one. The only show this television will play is the one they draw on the screen. That’s right – a TV chalkboard, with fun rabbit ears to move around to get better “reception” for your little artist fills their requests quite nicely, doesn’t it?
jeanne
