Some Florida kids decided that they were bored and it wouldn't it be fun to hop on a plane and spend the day at Dollywood. The kids, ages 11,13, and 15 used babysitting money to take a cab to the airport and hop on a Southwest flight to Nashville. The problem was:
1) They didn't tell their parents what they were doing.
2) Dollywood is 200 miles from Nashville
Once they got to Nashville and realized they were no where near Dollywood the kids had to call their parents and fess up. The parents were not only shocked that the kids would do such a thing, but that the airlines and airline security would allow such a thing to happen.
Do you know what your kids are up to when your not around? Makes you wonder.
A Junior High School in Alabama is no longer allowing their students to bring drinks to school. Administrators say this is a move to enforce a rule that has been on the books for several years.
"The kids would be trying to get themselves a drink between classes and flavored drinks would leak into the locker below, ruin jackets, ruin clothes. We've had drinks to explode and ruin books. And the parents had to pay for the books that were destroyed," said Dr. Horton.
Administrators also admit this new enforcement is at least partially related to new school guidelines relating to sugar content and the consumption of sugary snacks on school campuses.
A group of fast acting teens in Utah are credited with saving a little boy's life. Two-year old Isaac was hit by a car in his own driveway. He was dragged about 15-feet after which he became pinned under the vehicle. The teens saw what happened, ran to help, and proceeded to lift the vehicle up and off of little Isaac.
Some children in New York were swimming their backyard when a sinkhole opened up and drained their entire pool. Luckily everyone got out safe, but the family and the city are still trying to figure out what happened.
Infant formula in China is once again under fire. This time it's for possibly causing breasts to grow on babies. Several little girls have already been found to show signs of premature development.
Tests showed that their hormone levels were abnormally high, which some doctors suspect may be linked to drinking infant formula produced by Synutra International, a Nasdaq-listed infant formula maker based in Qingdao, in coastal northeastern China.
The manufacturers of this new allegedly tainted formula were also involved in the previous milk scandal. That incident harmed upwards of 300,000 infants and was responsible for the death of 6 children.
Four sisters gave birth to 4 babies within 4 days of each other. Three of the sisters live in Chicago and the fourth lives in California. According to the family the timing was not planned.
If your little bundle of joy is a senior this year and looking at colleges here is something you might want to take note of:
The Princeton Review announced that the University of Georgia has taken this years top party school spot. There are nearly 100 bars that surround the campus.
Georgia beat out Pennsylvania State University, West Virginia University and University of Florida -- which were the top party schools over the last three years. Those three made the top 10 this year, while Ohio University ranked second.
The news was not all bad for the University of Georgia. The school was also on the Green Honor roll for top 50 most environmentally conscious campuses.
A study done by the Pew Hispanic Center suggests that nearly 8 percent of all U.S. newborns in 2008 had parents who were undocumented. Under the 14th Amendment these children were granted automatic citizenship. This research is continuing to fuel the birthright citizenship debate.
Despite all the heat, a majority of Americans seem to oppose changing the 14th Amendment. A nationwide poll conducted in June by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that 56 percent of Americans are against changing the citizenship provision while 41 percent favor amending it.
A few weeks ago I did a post on a pediatrician who allegedly turned away children because there were guns in the home. This was fascinating to me, because in the 4+ years that I have known my kids' pediatrician he has never once asked me if we own a firearm. He has, however, asked me several times if we have a swimming pool or if my children have access to a swimming pool.
Today was my daughter's 4-year check-up and my pediatrician once again asked the swimming pool question. Now I don't have a swimming pool, but my parents do. My pediatrician on hearing this instructed me to make sure my children received adequate swim instruction. In short they should be schooled until they were proficient swimmers. They must be taught all swim safety rules. This included floating and finding their way to the wall so they could crawl out. My daughter was also made to repeat after him that she would, "not go near or into a swimming pool without Mommy or Daddy."
I love my pediatrician. I don't find the swimming pool interrogation to be the least bit insulting. I appreciate his concern. Call me strange, but I like that he questions me and provides detailed parenting instruction.
Recently,however, I have been starting to wonder if my pediatrician's questions and advice are not regional. There are a lot of drowning deaths in my area and less firearm deaths. This might go a long way to explaining why my pediatrician fixates on pools. So that begs the question, what great pediatrician questions and subsequent advice am I missing by living where I do? I was hoping that some readers out there would be willing to share what their pediatrician obsesses about. You never know what advice you were told that just might come in handy to someone else.
Lisa Belkin of Motherlode wrote an interesting little piece on the rising cost of childcare. The article refers to a study released last week by the National Association of Child Care Resource Referral Agencies. That study asserts that childcare is now more expensive than the tuition for a public-university.
In 40 states the average annual cost for an infant in center-based care was higher than a year’s tuition and fees at a four-year public college. In Massachusetts, the yearly infant care cost exceeded the yearly cost of tuition and fees by $9,533; in New York, Wyoming and Washington, D.C., the infant-care costs were more than double the college costs.
With childcare costs this outrageous isn't it time we started to hold daycare facilities to higher standards? The least they could do is throw in a little SAT prep before nap time.
A Grandma, from Maine, has an interesting and wonderful hobby. She makes cross-stitch portraits of her grandchildren. Each amazingly realistic portrait takes about 9 months to complete.
This woman is incredibly skilled at cross-stitch. I truly hope at least some of her grandchildren has developed the same love of the art. I am sure Grandma has many wonderful cross-stitch secrets. It would be a shame if this skill wasn't passed onto someone else in the family.
The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association has filed a lawsuit claiming that male teachers are discriminated against. Why? Because, their health insurance plan does not cover Viagra or other drugs for erectile dysfunction.
Lawyers for the union claimed that because treatment for female sexual dysfunction such as vaginal cream and estrogen replacement medication is covered, the removal of Viagra from the health plan unfairly disadvantaged male employees.
The school district has countered that the elimination was a cost-saving measure and non-discriminatory because the drugs are mainly recreational.
What do you think about this school budget woe? Do you think their argument is limp?
Eric Randall of the Journal Sentinel has more: Link
New studies are reporting that American girls are hitting puberty as early as 7-years old. Why are people worried? Early puberty has been linked to a host of other problems.
For instance, studies have linked an early start to menstruation with an elevated risk of breast cancer. And other research has shown that girls who go through puberty early tend to have lower self-esteem and a poor body image. They are also more likely to engage in risky behaviors which can result in unplanned pregnancies, experts say.
It is currently unclear why younger girls are going into puberty. It is suggested that there are several factors involved. One is the rise in childhood obesity. Others propose environmental factors at play. Hormones in the milk, estrogens in plastic that sort of thing. Will switching to a greener and healthier lifestyle reverse the trend? They just don't know.
Behold the yellow submarine stroller by Maclaren. This is the perfect stroller for the Beatles fanatic.
This post is actually dedicated to one of my very best friends. She is a big Beatles fan and currently on the fence about having kids. Come to the dark side H! It's true, we do have cookies. We also have crumbs and some strange gooey stuff that I just can't seem to get off the cabinets.
