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Five-year-old Madison gives us the lowdown on how to use makeup brushes. She's getting started on her "vlogging" career early!  -via The Hairpin

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You know what's cool? Being a good dad. Enjoy the video, and remember to take some time to have fun with your children. -via reddit

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Ashley is trying so hard! Maybe a bit too hard. After all, there is nothing simple about first position. -via Arbroath

A six-year-old boy in Minnesota is the envy of all with a pirate bedroom designed by Steve Kuhl. It features a floating pirate ship high on the wall, a spiral slide, a rope bridge, a jail cell, and a closet accessible from overhead! See more pictures at My Modern Met. Link -via Metafilter

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This little girl has the right idea. Like I always tell my daughters, be able to take care of yourself, so you can marry for love instead of support. However, this five-year-old has an even better reason, which you'll find at the end of the video. -via The Daily What

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These two competitors barely look old enough to walk, and they are as padded as American football players. Yet they are getting their kicks in, if not much connecting. From the YouTube page:

This video proves how we can be winners without necessarily fighting.

Besides that, they're just as cute as they can be! -via 9gag

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This toddler has no sense of propriety. What a mess! She's staggering around, knocking stuff over! She obviously can't hold her drink. This is a small piece of a short film entitled Las Palmas by Johannes Nyholm. -via Metafilter

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Kevin Clash and his alter ego Elmo give a pregnant woman a memory for life at the premiere of the documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteers Journey. -via Metafilter

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Developing a habit of reading, in the cutest way ever. This PSA was produced by the Finnish Library Association for their 100th anniversary. -via Stephen's Lighthouse

We've posted before about mothers who practice one-upmanship and make other moms feel inadequate (see Mompetition). At one time, I belonged to a very large online parenting forum that was dominated by self-proclaimed experts who passed judgment on everything from formula brands to college applications. These "alpha moms" especially came down on anyone who wasn't in a perpetually cheery good mood. One day, a member jokingly suggested forming a splinter group where parents who were less than happy-all-the-time could complain and even use foul language. By the end of the day, it was no longer a joke and the new group had about 50 members, who have become lifelong friends. One member even took the name Omega Mom to distance herself from the "alpha moms". Meanwhile, the large forums survive where new members can be made to feel inadequate if they don't toe the line and conform to the prevailing wisdom -or even if they do, they can be made to feel as if it's still not enough.

It's been said that "alpha moms" sit in judgment of others in order to justify their own parenting decisions or to cover up their insecurities. I don't know, but these kinds of parents can't be as common as the online forums make them seem. The veil of anonymity, or at least physical distance, makes some internet users shed their normal inhibitions and become bullies. We all know that raising children is hard, that every child is different, and that the only thing we are experts in is our own particular children (and even so, they change from day to day).

Washington City Paper takes a look at DC Urban Moms and Dads, a large parenting forum for parents in the District of Columbia, where they seem to take one-upmanship to an entirely new level.

In many ways, DCUM is a typical parents’ message board. There are garden-variety threads on medical practices, preschools, and how to get your picky eater to try new foods. There are ads for nannies and discussions about how to fire them. There’s endless speculation about other people’s parenting styles—a subject of particular fascination in this season of debate about whether or not Chinese “Tiger Mothers” are out-parenting their American counterparts. It’s no surprise that the parenting website Babble just named DCUM one of the country’s “top 12 Listserv parent networks.”

All the same, DCUM’s vivid displays of jostling for position might make it an appealing locale for anthropologists, too. Flame wars are common wherever the Internet grants people anonymity, but the fights on DCUM have a uniquely Washington flavor to them. With all that ambient worry about where we live, how much money we make, and how gifted our children are, it’s a place to ponder what it means to raise a child in America’s highest-income, best-educated Census area. DCUM might be as close as it gets to a field guide to parentis Washingtonianis.

If reading about families with 6- and 7-figure incomes bothers you, there is an alternative. The story links to a site called the Institute for Adequate Parenting, founded by a DC mom in reaction to to forum. Its motto: "Because good enough is good enough. Really."

Read more at Washington City Paper. Link -via Fark

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Enjoy yet another parody of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back", produced by the students of Dowell Middle School in McKinney, Texas, for a reading awareness project. Don't let the 6 minute video length deter you -the last couple of minutes are credits and outtakes. -via Rue the Day

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Sesame Street is using YouTube interactive games to teach science concepts to children! Sink or Float with Cookie Monster is the first such interactive video game made available through YouTube; it teaches kids about the experimental method. Link -via Boing Boing

Tiffany Yang gave hairstyles to these redheaded kids made of Babybel cheese! The eyes are black sesame seeds. See more at Cute Food For Kids. Link -via Nag on the Lake

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There is a short window in a child's life when he knows how to say this, but doesn't use it seriously. Give him six months. When he says it and means it, it stops being so darned cute. -via The Daily What

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This is what the internet was made for. -via The Daily What