We've covered quite a few stories here where a kid climbs into the driver's seat of someone's car and takes it out for a spin. Sometimes the kid is looking for chocolate. Sometimes it's an Applebee's fix. Other times, there is no destination in mind, just a joyride. Usually the ride - and the story - ends when the kid crashes the car into something. This ride ends that way, too. But unfortunately, this is probably just the beginning of the story for this kid.
Unlike the car-thieving kids mentioned above, the Longmont, Colorado boy who took his mother's van in the wee hours of the night isn't a toddler. He's a 12-year-old who police say was trying to prove to his 14-year-old friend that he could drive. Long story short, he can't drive and proved that by crashing the van into someone's garage.
He managed to back out of the smashed garage and flee the scene. He returned mom's van to her driveway and went back to his 14-year-old friend's house, where he was having a sleepover. Except somebody should have told him that you can't actually smash a car into someone's garage and think you can get away with it. Police easily tracked him down using the clues he left behind - a license plate at the scene of the crash and a broken windshield with bits of fence in it on mom's van.
Mom, being the registered owner of the van, got a visit from the police and she was none too happy. She immediately said she wanted to press charges and the kid was arrested that afternoon. He's now in the Boulder County Juvenile Detention Center facing a whole slew of possible charges: aggravated motor vehicle theft, driving without a valid license, leaving the scene of an accident and failing to notify police, and reckless driving.
Pressing criminal charges against your 12-year-old child may seem harsh, but I think this woman is probably doing the only thing she could do under the circumstances. A non-family member certainly would have pressed charges and the boy could have seriously hurt or even killed someone. I feel bad for this mother, but applaud her for exercising some tough love on a clearly out of control child. What would you have done?
I love being pregnant, and I love having kids. I love breastfeeding. But I hate, and hate is really not a strong word compared to how I actually feel, nursing bras. They're all terrible. First of all, they're gigantic. Breasts become fuller with milk, of course, so they get bigger...and bigger, and bigger and bigger until they feel like they're going to burst. Hence, once needs a giant bra for the giant breasts. I can get behind that--it's rational and makes sense.
What I don't understand is why they have to be so hideously ugly and not actually provide the support required to tote around said enormous breasts. And while I may be funny, I'm also being dead serious. I have three or four (I think I banished one it was so awful) nursing bras from various manufacturers that were clearly designed with someone who either has never had breasts swollen with milk or who never wanted to look even remotely attractive without her shirt on. Those with underwires are uncomfortable. Those without lack any real support.
There's also the issue of the bras never quite managing to hold onto the breastpads placed in them to keep them from getting covered with milk leakage. I have had, however, quite a bit of success with Lily Pads, which are technically designed to be worn under things with which one can wear no bra or at night when one doesn't want to wear a bra to bed. Some women have reverted to wearing regular bras in larger sizes or just going braless all together.
What about you? Do you hate nursing bras, or have you found one that answers your prayers? Do you have a trick for making them more comfortable, or at least more tolerable?
How would you describe your marriage? Happy? Satisfying? Meh? Does it depend on the checking account balance? Or how the kids are behaving? Or just on the weather? You know, divorce is always an option. And according to Ellen Tien, it is an option that many of us fantasize about on a regular basis.
In an essay titled "She's happily married, dreaming of divorce" originally published in the May issue of O Magazine, Tien describes her own marriage as "Less than bliss, better than disaster." She says that she and her husband "remain if not happily married, then steadily so." In other words, they're not divorced. Yet.
But, she claims, she thinks constantly about the possibility of divorce, acknowledges it as an option. It is just an option she has not yet exercised. In this, she says, she is not unlike other women her age and class -- we are all dreaming of divorce despite the fact that we claim to be happily married.
Is there a downside to breastfeeding? A new report from the New York Times might have you thinking so. In a recent article, several studies monitoring a lack of vitamin D in infants might support that breastmilk is not enough to prevent things like rickets in children. The biggest fear is that the deficiency is more common than previously thought and is going undetected. Breastmilk apparently does not necessarily provide enough of the vitamin to children.
Doctors, of course, are rare to say anything at all negative about breastfeeding. Unlike perhaps even fifty years ago, women are being told that they simply must breastfeed, that they are wrong for not doing so, and that breastmilk is the ultimate wonder food for their infants. This may well be true, but the medical profession that's been pushing breastfeeding down our throats has also admitted to knowing there is a probable link between vitamin D deficiency and diseases like diabetes and cancer.
The answer, of course, is not to stop breastfeeding, but rather to augment a child's nutrition by adding vitamin drops, or, my favorite, cod liver oil (yummy!). The other pretty obvious answer is that if a woman is deficient in something, so, too, will be her breastmilk. Mothers should be getting plenty of vitamin D themselves in order to pass on the right amount to their infants. That should be good news to those of us who are committed to breastfeeding exclusively for as long as possible. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and my own pediatrician recommend supplementing with the vitamin D drops.
Thoughts? I for one drink enough milk while pregnant and nursing to keep a small dairy in business. Is it enough? Who knows. Did you supplement breastfeeding with vitamins for your infants or enjoy a little cod liver oil?
I have a new favorite outfit. It's a brown dress that is nice and loose and hits just slightly above the knee. The first time I wore it, my seven-year-old looked me up and down and asked when I was going to finish getting dressed. I thought I was finished, but apparently a dress that hits just above the knee is, to her, a mini-dress and not suitable for person of my age. She suggested I complete the outfit with a nice pair of leggings.
I declined to wear the leggings and she let it drop. But I am clearly not the only one who embarrasses my kid with my choice of clothing. The 16-year-old daughter of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall has similar issues with her mom.
Georgia May Jagger considers herself a bit of an expert when it comes to fashion. "I'm interested in every aspect of fashion," she says. "I think it's in my bones. When I was younger I used to be my mum's stylist, picking things out for her to wear. I'd say to her, 'If anybody asks you who styled you tonight say Georgia'."
But Georgia doesn't want credit when mom isn't dressing her age. She says she usually doesn't tell her mother what she should and shouldn't wear, but she did take it upon herself to remove temptation from mom's closet. "I did take all her miniskirts," she says. "I didn't tell her she couldn't wear them but I told her one night that her skirt was too short. She came down the stairs and I was like, 'God, Mum, you are 50'."
Jerry Hall is a beautiful woman who looks great for her age. But I agree that 50 is a bit old for mini-skirts, even if you have the legs for them. What do you think? Is there a cut-off age for wearing short skirts? Or do you believe that if you've got it, you should flaunt it - no matter what your age?
Despite rumors that their marriage is on the skids, Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie have renewed their vows. According to reports the two resealed the deal this past weekend in a Kabbalah ceremony in Ritchie's native London.
If reports are to be believed, Madge flew her Kabbalah teacher over from Los Angeles to lead the proceedings. The unnamed source went on to say that the pair arrived in gym clothes and changed into white robes before the vows renewal took place, stating they wanted to get through a rough patch in their marriage and make it strong again.
Let's hope if they did hit a rough patch they're working it out. Hard to say why I feel this way, but for a woman who has everything, it seems like Madonna ought to be able to have a marriage that works, too. She may be a material girl and all, but I think she deserves the right to be happy. And if being married is what will make her happy, then I say go for it and do whatever it takes to stay together! Good luck to the two!
A new Census Bureau report confirms something most of us already suspected: women are waiting longer to have children than they did 30 years ago. What might be a little surprising is the fact that more women than ever are choosing not to have children at all. In fact, the numbers show that a whopping 20 percent of women ages 40 to 44 have never had children.
"A lot of women are not having any children," said Jane Lawler Dye, a Census Bureau researcher. "It used to be sort of expected that there was a phase of life where you had children, and a lot of women aren't doing that now,"she said.
The report also reveals that the more education a woman has, the less likely she is to become a mother. Clearly more women are taking advantages of the opportunities available now that didn't exist 30 years ago. But these numbers suggest - at least to me - that women may be giving up on the idea of 'having it all'. Sure, the big job can be managed at the same time as a full family life. But it isn't easy and eventually something has to give. It would seem that for many women, what gives is motherhood.
Those first few weeks at home with a newborn baby, applying makeup is pretty much an exercise in futility. Nothing is going to cover under-eye circles of that magnitude and even the strongest lipstick will just end up on your itty bitty baby from the thousands of kisses you'll be giving.
Mothers who return to work have a reason to try to look good when they head out in the morning but for the stay-at-home mom, it's easy to fall out of your former daily beauty routine. When the only adult interact you have to look forward to is the Wiggles and perhaps, the mailman, you might as well conserve that concealer.
For years after staying home with my babies, I was mostly bare-faced. I didn't really know what to do with the makeup brushes, felt too busy to bother with it, didn't want to invest much money in something that seemed so frivolous, and had the power of youthful good skin on my side.
Then I got older and went with girlfriends for a professional makeover and discovered the power of eyeliner and a good lipstick. Now I put a little color and concealer on my face every day, even if I'm just working around the house. I don't wear a lot and can do my entire routine in 6 minutes but it really make me feel better and more professional, even if I'm just folding laundry and scrubbing out the bathtub. There's also the added bonus of not looking quite as frumpy if someone droops by unexpectedly.
Inquiring minds want to know, what has motherhood done to your makeup routine?
When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time listening to music, and perhaps even more money on t-shirts from the concerts I attended. I've kept them faithfully over the years. In fact, they've traveled from Kentucky to New York several times and have still remained intact, tucked away somewhere safe for all this time. My husband also have quite a collection of his own that he brought to our marriage. Many of his are tucked away too.
I occasionally wear mine every once in a while, and some of his (his are cooler). For the most part, though, they sit in storage waiting for us to do something with them. Perhaps we hold on to them for nostalgic purposes. Perhaps we keep them in hopes of turning them over to our children one day--at least that's what I told myself upon recent purchases of concert t-shirts from both Police and Springsteen concerts. Maybe then my kids will think I was cool.
But, other than storing and waiting, what is to be done with all those t-shirts? Some have suggested cutting off the fronts and backs and using them to make a giant quilt. That would be very cool. I countered that notion with, hey, why stop at a quilt--you could do throw pillows, the whole nine yards. Others say to sell on e-bay or donate to charity or just use them as rags like the rest of the old t-shirts. Some say, better yet, don't buy them--they're too expensive and just sit in the closet. And that kids won't think you're any cooler for having them (and having kept them all these years).
What did you do with all your old concert t-shirts? Are they still sitting in a pile somewhere or did you come up with a clever alternative to dumping them?
Lots of mothers would enjoy spending their birthday with their children. A nice family lunch, a day at the park, or perhaps driving the getaway car for your son while he commits armed robbery. According to police, that is exactly what 37-year-old Angelia Kelly did on her special day.
The Milwaukee mom has been accused of not only assisting her 17-year-old son, Elmer Taylor, with robbing a gas station in Greenfield, but also of taking her younger kids along for the ride. Surveillance video shows Elmer pointing a gun at the station clerk and taking off with an undisclosed amount of money. Police were alerted and after spotting the getaway car, pulled them over. Imagine their surprise when they found not only Angelia and Elmer in the car, but also a 13-month-old girl and two boys, 10 and 14 years old.
There were a few tense moments before Angelia and Elmer were arrested. "It's a very intense situation. I mean, you have officers with their guns out and they're concerned, with a gun battle out in the street," Greenfield Police Deputy Inspector Bradley Wentlandt said.
Fortunately, nobody got hurt (unless you consider the scars associated with having a mother like that) and Angelia and Elmer were taken into custody. Charges haven't been filed yet, but mother and son are both being held in the county jail. Yes, nothing says 'happy birthday' quite like a long prison sentence.
When I gave birth twenty-something years ago, nobody really prepared me for what breastfeeding would be like. I have every intention of doing it, but was shocked to find out just how much it hurt. I ended up giving up pretty quickly because of that pain.
These days, mothers are better informed than I was, but a new study finds that many who give up on breastfeeding do so for the same reason I did. The study, from Brigham Young University, finds that while three out of four new moms start out breastfeeding, 36 percent of them have quit by the time baby is six months old.
Renata Forste, a professor in the sociology department at BYU, says the discomfort that comes with breastfeeding is a common reason for women giving up. "A lot of women don't understand the discomfort,'' says Dr. Forste. "They aren't necessarily prepared for that. There is sort of an expectation that it's a very natural process - bring the baby to your breast and it's very simple. But it's not. I think it's much more complicated than that. It requires a lot more support.''
She also notes that even though more women are being encouraged to breastfeed than ever before, the social support really isn't there. Returning to work or just trying to have a life outside of the home is difficult when you are trying to breastfeed. Especially when so many people seem to find feeding a baby in public to be unacceptable behavior.
The t-shirt is a wardrobe basic, no matter who you are or what you do all day, but when you're a mom, you rely even more on the trusty tee. It's easy to wear, easy to wash, and easy to find. No fuss, no muss, no hassle.
Just make sure you're not sacrificing style for simplicity.
The basic crew neck tee is versatile and comfy and can indeed be dressed up, for day or evening; add a cool necklace or scarf, or a pretty cardigan, and your tee can go pretty much anywhere. But don't just default to the crew neck -- mix it up a little when you shop for tees. Look for pretty necklines with ruching or fancy sleeves; go for colors that aren't white or black or gray.
Here are five tee alternatives, all from Old Navy, all for under $25.00. Wear them with your yoga pants and your jeans and -- even! -- a skirt. Wash and dry and go, go, go.
Why we love this: Because some days, you want to skip the tee all together. This tunic is a great alternative; simple and classic and unfussy but a little nicer than what you're probably wearing. Tunic shape is great for moms who have a bit more on top or a little extra through the middle.
Wear it with: Long shorts until it's cool; boot-cut jeans when the weather turns. Layer it over a tank or long sleeved tee for cooler days.
Why we love this: Because some days, yoga pants are as dressed up as you want -- or need -- to get.
Wear it with: The yoga pants, of course, but also jeans and shorts and a casual skirt and comfortable flat shoes. But this piece is best for upping the ante on those Saturday errands or the pre-shower car pool drop off.
Old Navy lightweight hoodie, $17.50. Available in XS to XXL, in three solids and four stripes. Steer clear of the stripes if you're not very very thin. Trust us on this one.
We've covered quite a few stories here where a kid climbs into the driver's seat of someone's car and takes it out for a spin. Sometimes the kid is looking for chocolate. Sometimes it's an Applebee's fix. Other times, there is no destination in mind, just a joyride. Usually the ride - and the story - ends when the kid crashes the car into something. This ride ends that way, too. But unfortunately, this is probably just the beginning of the story for this kid.
How would you describe your marriage? Happy? Satisfying? Meh? Does it depend on the checking account balance? Or how the kids are behaving? Or just on the weather? You know, divorce is always an option. And according to Ellen Tien, it is an option that many of us fantasize about on a regular basis.
I have a new favorite outfit. It's a brown dress that is nice and loose and hits just slightly above the knee. The first time I wore it, my seven-year-old looked me up and down and asked when I was going to finish getting dressed. I thought I was finished, but apparently a dress that hits just above the knee is, to her, a mini-dress and not suitable for person of my age. She suggested I complete the outfit with a nice pair of leggings.
A new Census Bureau report confirms something most of us already suspected: women are waiting longer to have children than they did 30 years ago. What might be a little surprising is the fact that more women than ever are choosing 
Those first few weeks at home with a newborn baby, applying makeup is pretty much an exercise in futility. Nothing is going to cover under-eye circles of that magnitude and even the strongest lipstick will just end up on your itty bitty baby from the thousands of kisses you'll be giving.
Lots of mothers would enjoy spending their birthday with their children. A nice family lunch, a day at the park, or perhaps driving the getaway car for your son while he commits armed robbery. According to police, that is exactly what 37-year-old Angelia Kelly 
When I gave birth twenty-something years ago, nobody really prepared me for what breastfeeding would be like. I have every intention of doing it, but was shocked to find out just how much it hurt. I ended up giving up pretty quickly because of that pain.
Why we love this: Because some days, you want to skip the tee all together. This tunic is a great alternative; simple and classic and unfussy but a little nicer than what you're probably wearing. Tunic shape is great for moms who have a bit more on top or a little extra through the middle.
Why we love this: Because some days, yoga pants are as dressed up as you want -- or need -- to get.
Why we love this: A boatneck tee is a nice alternative to a traditional crewneck. Best for girls with small shoulders and smaller breasts.
