Does pink really stink?

By Ana Lilian, Los Angeles Moms Blog I just read on the NYT Motherlode blog an article titled “Boycotting Pink Toys for Girls” about a British online campaign started by two moms-Pink Stinks-which just launched an effort to boycott the Early Learning Centre, a large toy retailer in Britain, during the Christmas season because of their “pinkification” of girls’ toys. They know there are many toy outlets that abide by this practice, but believe the ELC is the worst offender since they market themselves as educational. Yes, they have a point that the role models being perpetuated by marketers and retailers are too narrow and simplified to define who our girls really are. However, I4m not sure that pointing our fingers towards retailers will result in us...

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Technology has made me stupid

By Erica, Silicon Valley Moms Blog Keychain remote What else could I conclude, as I stood crying in a dark parking lot, unable to find my car in a freezing rain on a recent Monday night? While neuroscientists and journalists debate whether the Internet is making us stupid, a different kind of technology — the remote control keychain — is contributing to my own brain-flabbiness. I borrowed my babysitter’s car to run some errands and visit my Dad at his nursing home. The problem: I had been on my cell phone (hands-free) when I parked the car and walked inside Valley Fair shopping mall, so I didn’t pay careful attention to exactly where I parked. In my defense, I was also distracted by my Dad’s recent health problems and had been feeling “fuzzy-headed”...

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Book reviews: Best of 2009

Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Bookworm Sez Ahhh, the new year. A time for fresh beginnings and resolutions made with the best intentions (then broken). Out with the old, in with the new. A time to use up that bookstore gift certificate that’s burning a hole in your pocket. But what to buy? Lucky for you, the New Year is also a time for the annual Best Of list. So without further ado (and because that gift certificate is tingling), here are my best picks for 2009: Fiction If you love mysteries with sass and a few cringe-worthy scenes, you’ll love the Jacqueline Daniels series, the latest being “Cherry Bomb” by J.A. Konrath. This book starts out with a boom and ends with a cliff-hanger that leaves fans howling for the next installment. One caveat: you’ll get more out of this novel...

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Mom learns to change lifestyle in weight loss challenge

By Cammy Clark, McClatchy Newspapers KEY WEST — Leigh Smith, an out-of-shape, 240-pound mother of two, wanted to get healthy, but growing up on Southern fried food and routinely putting her family first, the 35-year-old admitted she didn’t know how. Enter three Key West nutrition and fitness experts who spent November giving her a head-to-toe wellness makeover after choosing her from nearly 90 applicants for a “30 Days to Help Yourself Challenge.” It wasn’t easy, but on Nov. 30, Smith showed off her new body, new confidence and new attitude about food and exercise at a celebration at Nine One Five Bistro and Wine Bar. “It was more than what I had hoped for,” Smith said. “I feel now like how a 35-year-old probably should feel.” In 30 days...

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Top 5 tips to avoid holiday toy injuries

By Aisha Sultan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), there were an estimated 235,300 toy-related injuries treated in emergency rooms in 2008. Here are some useful toy safety tips from Malcolm Denniss, technical director for SGS Consumer Testing Services, to avoid the ER this holiday season: The most important aspect of buying gifts for children for the holidays is to make sure the toy or game is age-appropriate for the child. The guidelines were developed by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Toy Industry Association, and take into account the typical ability of children to handle certain toys. Children are naturally excited to play with new toys at holiday times, often in a robust and possibly in an overly enthusiastic manner....

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Happy (low key) New Year

By Jessica Yadegarank, Contra Costa Times During her 20s, Kindall Reding went all out for New Year’s Eve. Cruising the Las Vegas Strip. Counting down in Manhattan’s Times Square. Hitting the slopes in Vail, Colo. But, for the past six years, Reding, now 35 and a stay-at-home mother of two, has hosted half a dozen families at her home in Danville, Calif. This way, they enjoy each other’s company, share appetizers, blow some noisemakers, and “check it (the holiday) off the list,” so no one feels pressured to find a babysitter and plan a big night out. “This way we can say we did something,” she says. “You feel like a failure if you don’t have plans for New Year’s Eve.” But you don’t have to feel that way. Many of us...

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Reward system seems to work

I may have hit upon a successful way of keeping the kids in line that focuses on rewarding positive behavior rather than using discipline as a deterrent. A friend recommended it as she’d had quite a bit of success with it herself with one of her four children. Since I, too, have one child for whom no punishment eliminated undesirable behavior in the long-term, I decided to give the reward system a try across the board rather than try using it for just one of the kids. Basically, if the kids earn five smiley faces on the calendar in any week, they earn a reward. The rewards are free and usually consist of time alone with either Mom or Dad. Four weeks in and I’m still amazed at how well this is working for all three children despite the range of ages. My 9-year-old is as interested in...

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Fun and Easy Photo Collage Tool

A blogging friend wrote me one day and said “You have to go to this website and try out this new tool…it’s fantastic!”

I headed over to Photovisi and found out that it’s a website that allows you to create beautiful photo collages in a variety of formats and styles for FREE!  As a photographer I have made hundreds of collages over the years.  I wish I had known about this tool a long time ago - it would have saved me tons of time!

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I’m kind of in love with my kids lately

By Erin S., Los Angeles Moms Blog Please don’t take this post the wrong way. I am not a model mother at all times. I yell, I coax, I bribe with candy, I forget to make dinner sometimes, I scream on the soccer field, I don’t always like my kids’ friends, I get very irritated at my kids regularly, I sometimes fake my interest in their stories, and I often forget the important details of their daily lives. Just yesterday, I chose to go to my own chiropractic appointment and skip sitting through two awards assemblies: during one, my middle child would receive a 20-second recognition for her writing and then, an hour later, her sister would receive her own props for drama in a cattle call of awards for her grade. So I’m selfish, but my back feels better and hey, when...

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Making toy food for toddlers can be easy

Associated Press Rebecca Haacke started making play food out of felt for her children because she was tired of cleaning out their toy box during recalls of lead-contaminated toys. The 29-year-old from Orem, Utah, first made a whole stuffed apple, then sewed a ham sandwich with a felt lunch sack. She is one of a number of mothers who, worried about plastic toys’ safety and environmental impact, have created interest in homemade play food. “It’s not a run-of-the-mill, China-made toy,” Haacke said. “I get tired of my kids playing with plastic all the time.” Miranda Kuskie, 25, of Nampa, Idaho, went on a felt food sewing spree for her 3-year-old son because she was unimpressed by the play food for sale and concerned about contaminated plastic. She likes...

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