Lonely, How About Renting A Family Member?

Posted by Jill Harness in Everything Else, Odd News, Travel & Places on January 13, 2009 at 7:05 am

If pet rental isn’t enough to fill the void in your soul, how about renting a mommy or daddy? If you’re a single mom, and you think your child needs a father figure, just rent them love by the hour. Or, at least you can if you live in Japan.

“The website says the “dad” will help the children with their homework. He will sort out problems with the neighbors. He will take the kids to a barbecue or to a park. He could also appear at the daunting interview with a nursery school head teacher which parents are required to endure in order to persuade the principal to give their child a good start in life.”

While one hopes they check all the actors to make sure they aren’t sex offenders, I think there’s a much bigger concern here. Have our lives really gotten so empty that we must rent relationships rather than forging our own? And how long until this service comes to the states? I’ve really wanted to have a family reunion, but don’t feel like actually contacting all of my distant relatives.

Link Via TokyoMango

 
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GPS Tracking Watch for Kids: Is it Spying or Good Parenting?

Posted by Alex in Gadget on January 7, 2009 at 2:36 am

It’s 10 PM. Do you know where your children are? Well, with this GPS tracking watch, you definitely do. Here’s the Nu.M8 digital watch that lets parents track their children’s whereabouts through a secure website (it’ll even overlay the location on Google Maps).

And to answer the obvious question: an alarm will be triggered if the watch is forcibly removed.

Link

Is it too much or just being a prudent parent in today’s environment?

 
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The Horror: Your Parents on Facebook, Befriending You

Posted by Alex in Blog & Internet on January 4, 2009 at 11:54 am

The growing popularity of Facebook has an unintended consequences for young people who used to have the social networking website all to themselves: their parents are joining and befriending them!

The Facebook group entitled "For the love of god — don’t let parents join Facebook" has 5,819 high school and college-aged members who want to stop the growing number of parents who are joining Facebook, the massively popular social networking site, from "spying" on them. [...]

"It’s really weird that nonstudents and parents use Facebook," said Emma Gaines, a Tufts University sophomore. "It makes me feel really uncomfortable that my older aunt has Facebook, because she says that she likes to check up on her teenage nieces and nephews and takes our pictures for her own use. That’s creepy."

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Gay Penguins Turned Out to be the Best Parents in the Zoo

Posted by Alex in Animal on December 19, 2008 at 12:50 am

Remember the gay penguins that got ejected from their colony because they were trying to steal eggs from other penguins? Well, the zookeepers gave the couple two eggs laid by an inexperienced penguin mom … and it turns out they became the best parents in the zoo!

‘We decided to give them two eggs from another couple whose hatching ability had been poor and they’ve turned out to be the best parents in the whole zoo,’ said one of the keepers.

‘It’s very encouraging and if this works out well we will try to arrange for them to become real parents themselves with artificial insemination.’

Wildlife experts at the park explain that despite being gay the three-year-old male birds are still driven by an urge to be fathers.

‘One of the responsibilities of being a male adult is looking after the eggs. Despite the fact that they can’t have eggs naturally, it does not take away their biological drive to be a parent,’ said one.

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