MetaFilter posts tagged with children and parenting

Everyone knows Santa isn't real

Rhaomi — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:10:12 -0800

As households across the world quietly deploy presents from St. Nick, Kate Beaton, author of the charming historical webcomic Hark, a Vagrant! (previ ously) remembers the tradition in a bittersweet light. In spite of venerable op-eds (and their animated offspring), such pain moves some to question whether parents should teach their children to believe in Santa Claus at all.

“I love you anyway too.”

The Dryyyyy Cracker — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 11:06:32 -0800

The Defiant Ones. In today’s picture books, the kids are in charge.

"this chattering-class version of Heat magazine"

paduasoy — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:55:33 -0800

The novlist Julie Myerson has written a book, The Lost Child, about her son's addiction to cannabis, the violent behaviour she says this caused and her tough love policy. Extract. Her son is angry that she's published it, and says his parents over-reacted: "I wasn't doing anything that most other teenagers do, but such was their naive terror of drugs they were acting like six-year-olds". It comes out through MumsNet that Julie Myerson was the anonymous author of a Guardian column, "Living with Teenagers," which described her children's behaviour candidly without their knowledge. Extract. Myerson first denied this. The Guardian discusses whether it was right to publish the columns. Myerson is interviewed about whether she was right to publish The Lost Child. Her partner, and son's father, Jonathan Myerson supports her: This is an emergency. Her son says she's addicted to writing. The tag line "this chattering-class version of Heat magazine" is from Libby Purves's comments. Many commentators consider Myerson was wrong to publish: Ian Jack in the Guardian, Tim Lott in the Independent, balanced by a positive review also in the Independent. The Daily Mail has dug up some more dirt from Myerson's sister. And here's an article by Myerson from 2001 about getting her son into the right school.

It takes a country

thejimp — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:26:58 -0800

CBC Filter: I guess parenting in Canada ain't what it used to be. The Senate wants to make spanking your children illegal and a Quebec judge quashes a dad's grounding of his 12-year-old daughter.

"My Fake Baby"

Avenger50 — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:08:49 -0800

"My Fake Baby" is a Channel 4 documentary exploring "the lives of women who spend hundreds of pounds on life-like baby dolls. Loved like real babies, they're taken for walks, cuddled and even have their nappies changed." Parts 2, 3, 4, 5.

Hey Mom And Dad, Leave Those Kids Alone!

amyms — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:52:54 -0800

Leave Those Kids Alone. The idea that parents should be engaging in play with their children is a modern concept (and not necessarily a good one, according to anthropologist David Lancy). Via.

Children are humiliating.

BrotherCaine — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 02:57:47 -0800

Even a misopedist such as myself has to laugh at the comments on humiliating moments in parenting.

The Incredible Shrinking World

JDHarper — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:28:15 -0800

The great-grandfather could walk six miles to go fishing; the grandfather could walk a mile to go to the woods; the son can't go more than 300 yards from his house. How children lost the right to roam, including a map illustrating the point.

Discipline help

mediareport — Tue, 08 May 2007 20:06:30 -0800

The Blurter. The Complainer. The Know-It-All. The Spoiled Darling. You can handle them all.

What's outside?

moonbird — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:23:51 -0800

Leave No Child Inside
Are children disconnected from the natural world? With the rise of endless variations of in-home entertainment, parents are finding it harder to get kids to play outside, get muddy, and explore nature. Are we inadvertently creating yet another childhood malady (Nature Deficit Disorder)?

One Egg At A Time, Please, Just One Egg At A Time

OhPuhLeez — Thu, 12 May 2005 14:40:41 -0800

One Egg At A Time, Please, Just One Egg At A Time!

Representative Lonnie Napier has a great idea! IVF requires eggs to be harvested from a woman, combined with a man's sperm outside of the woman's body, then putting several embryos back in hopes of getting one to implant and grow, resulting in a baby. Rep. Napier, being strongly pro-life and opposed to IVF, thinks the way to solve this is to fertilize only one egg at a time. And to violate this new law would be a class D felony in Kentucky, punishable with 1-5 years in prison.

Via And I Wasted All That Birth Control...

Just fill the catapult with one or more cupids, pull the trigger, and aim at the person of your dreams!

margarita — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 20:47:34 -0800

Just fill the catapult with one or more cupids, pull the trigger, and aim at the person of your dreams! This "love gun" alarms me, but maybe I overreact as a parent about my kid's exposure to violence. Is this just a harmless novelty, or a disturbing example of how desensitized we are to guns? At least it's for kids over 3.

California bill to ease move aways by custodial parents pulled.

MattD — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 13:03:12 -0800

California bill to ease "move aways" by custodial parents pulled. Until a recent CA Supreme Court decision, it was easy for custodial parents to move themselves and their children far from their ex-spouse. The Court reversed the old rule and held that the move could be blocked if the non-custodial parent could show that it would interfere with his/her relationship with the kids. Legislation to reimpose the old permissive standard passed through the State Senate, but has now been pulled off the legislative calendar after an outcry by father's rights groups.

Okay, so who volunteers to name their kid "Mefi?"

jennak — Sat, 27 Dec 2003 08:17:20 -0800

A real Gucci bag out of your reach? Don´t worry, just compensate by naming your kid Gucci! Or Lexus, Evian, Enternity.... more brand baby names here.

The Story About The Baby

BrodieShadeTree — Fri, 21 Feb 2003 10:46:07 -0800

"The Story About The Baby" - this consistently funny and entertaining website is well suited to anyone who has ever thought about having kids, has kids or anyone else. An endearing yet fantastically cynical take on the first year of raising a child has just wrapped up and in its completion is a great antidote to the overbearing cutesy-wootsy baby web pages that proliferate the internet. With entry titles such as: The Unbearable Grossness of Being, Dawn of the Neglectomatic and The Use Of Skinnerian Conditioning To Mold My Child's Brain, well how could you go wrong?

It is important to look for other disorders which may be present ...

magullo — Wed, 22 Jan 2003 09:22:03 -0800

ODD. Indeed.

Dr. Spock means Johnny Rotton?

agentfresh — Sun, 17 Nov 2002 00:11:03 -0800

AnarchistParenting.com As any parent knows, kids are heavily into anarchy. It seems that some parents are, too. Personally, I like to keep my anarchy where it belongs: fairytales (which are also the only places it works.)

kablam — Mon, 11 Nov 2002 13:22:49 -0800

Abigail and Brittany Hensel are in the 6th grade and continue to defy the odds. After the initial struggle with the personal pronoun (her? their?), one is left with both curiosity and sympathy. The greater issue is how to assimilate the truly miraculous.

MediaMan — Wed, 18 Sep 2002 08:57:09 -0800

Parents charged in death of girl forced to drink water - Forcing a 4 year old to consume large amounts of water seems like an odd way to promote family bonding. Death by over watering can happen, but this sounds more like an episode of Law & Order.

Postroad — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 04:35:16 -0800

Teens, sex, and power of parents How did you "discover" sex? from mom? school? Or the pals down the block?

Mack Twain — Wed, 17 Jul 2002 09:10:13 -0800

White couple gets black twins, sue IVF clinic. Experts say a mistake could have occurred in one of three ways.The wrong sperm could have been used to fertilise the right egg, the right sperm could have been used to fertilise the wrong egg, or the embryo implanted in the woman may have been another couple's altogether. Although it is not clear whether another couple has laid claim to the children, legal experts say the judge will be expected to make a modern-day judgment of Solomon on who should be considered the babies' legal parents. This is unploughed legal ground. Is there a fair way to sort this out?

darian — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 13:50:20 -0800

Nickelodeon is airing a special tonight on families that have same-sex parents. The concern of some is that this show: "proves that this network has been co-opted by homosexual activists who are targeting children. Sodomy is not a family value. Nickelodeon has now lost the trust of parents."

My issue with it is that it appears that they are not publicizing the fact that they are showing this to the parents to allow them to decide if their children should watch it or not... I couldn't find anything on their website, except the listing in the schedule for "Nick News Special Edition" (MORE INSIDE)

KevinSkomsvold — Sun, 19 May 2002 14:45:37 -0800

Has A&F stepped over the line this time? Calling it the "modern-day version of Underoos," a national clothing company is selling thong underwear in children's sizes - with the words "eye candy" and "wink wink" printed on the front.

dejah420 — Mon, 13 May 2002 08:15:35 -0800

Mother jailed for girls' truancy A question for our British gang, is truancy such a problem in the UK now that this is really necessary? When I went to school in England, lo those mumblemumble years ago, I don't remember it being this bad. For the rest of the world, do you think truancy in your country would justify locking up the primary caregiver or is this punishing the wrong person? Can parents be held responsible for everything a child does? And better said, should they? When should we grant children the priviledges and penalties of their own autonomous actions?

o2b — Thu, 25 Apr 2002 08:13:47 -0800

Bring your daughters to work. A few daughters are in the office today. I'm going to show them stuff like Blogger, CNet, Loobylu and Habbo Hotel. What would you show them?