In this recent address at a town hall meeting in Los Angeles, the Most Powerful Parent in the Free World took other child-rearers to task for letting their kids play “Super Smash Brothers Brawl” or “World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King” after school instead of doing their homework and generally becoming superlative, like […]

» Continue reading "Obama calls for parental perfection!"

A lot of people try to write funny books on child-rearing, but few attain this goal. Sippy Cups Are Not For Chardonnay by Stefanie Wilder-Taylor made me laugh out loud. So did The Three-Martini Play Date by Christie Mellor. And no, I’m not an alcoholic. One book I found less side-splitting is What to Expect […]

» Continue reading "What to expect from a terrible parenting-humor book"

I recently encountered the website for Only Child, a magazine that shrewdly targets the “20 million only-child households” in America (this figure has doubled since the ’80s and increases every year). I urge you to check out the home-page, if only to see how it depicts sibling-free kids. The main photo offers a primer on […]

» Continue reading "What “only children” look like in 2009"

First, a warning for regular readers, including the anonymous Germans who are already fixating on The Perfect Baby Blog: This post kicks off a new “Ghosts of Perfect Babies Past” series that may unnerve you. It takes a strong constitution, after all, to read about history’s most overwhelmingly splendid infants without comparing them to your […]

» Continue reading "The Ghost of Perfect Babies Past: Sylvia Plath"

Nice. A doorknob crafted to resemble a disembodied baby skull. This is easily one of the creepiest infant-related products I’ve ever encountered. The manufacturer actually advertised it as “suitable for nurseries!” Absolutely, if you want your child to grow up and have scale models of your own heads cast in bronze for use as toilet-flush […]

» Continue reading "“Hey, come on in! Just viciously twist the little bronze baby head!”"