Once upon a time, families traveling with small children got to board first, to give them time to get their little ones settled in, put away their luggage, toys, and snacks, and do whatever else they needed to do, without blocking the rest of the passengers from getting on the plane. Instead of standing in the aisle getting angry at the parents, the other passengers could sit comfortably in the terminal, getting annoyed with the airline.
Not so anymore, according to the St. Petersburg Times. Southwest, American, Delta, and United have all dropped the practice, although you can still ask to board early on American and Delta; it's up to the gate attendants. The reason isn't corporate hatred of families; studies have shown that boarding everyone together -- including the little ones -- saves ten to twelve minutes, on average.
"If you're bringing on people who need assistance -- younger kids -- all at once, you potentially create a bottleneck on the front end, as opposed to randomly dispersing them based on where people are sitting in the aircraft," says Anthony Black, a spokesman for Delta. "The best process is to board the aircraft normally." I imagine, too, that parents move a little quicker when they feel the stares of other passengers beating down on them and saving time is clearly more important than saving a parent's sanity.
For actress Brooke Shields, life is far from perfect. And she's not afraid to admit it. The Lipstick Jungle star was very free with her words when she spoke with TimesOnline. And she's not afraid to admit that having and raising kids is tough for the working mom. Shields, now 43, is mom to two daughters with husband Chris Henchy, Rowan who is five and Grier who is two.
She's thankful to be on a hit show like Lipstick Jungle (from acclaimed Sex in the City creator Candace Bushnell) and to have had an incredible career that started when she was a mere fourteen years old, but, states Shields, ""I'm on the set of Lipstick, committed, yes, but constantly wondering how my kids are, where they are, sad when my daughter asks if she can stay up until I get home...." Just like any other working mother. Shields also says she's acquiesced to letting her kids stay up until she gets home and letting them into bed with her, which she said she would never do. Yes, even Brooke Shields, who once sported little more than Calvin Kleins and arm candy like Andre Agassi, has to make compromises. Good to hear they're for a five- and two-year-old.
It's also refreshing to hear that a celebrity mom thinks parenting and working is tough, that she admits to not being perfect and to giving in to her kids, and that she misses them and cares about what's going on with them. Celebs act like things are so hard all the time and they have these armies of nannies and other kinds of help that regular folks like us could never dream of. Occasionally we see them out with their kids for little more than what amounts to photo ops, whether they intend such outings to be such or not. I'm sure Brooke has her share of help--it would be impossible to star in a television series and not--but at least she's being realistic and honest with us that parenting--parenting done RIGHT--is not easy, and that perfection is far from reality.
So this is a weird one. When we travel we always bring along Parmalat for our toddler. It's much easier, obviously to transport and deal with on the road as it's vacuum-sealed and doesn't need to be refrigerated (until it's opened of course). Upon a recent trip to Central Park Zoo, a friend said someone had once told her that Parmalat isn't really milk.
The friend's acquaintance who made this claim was vegetarian (as is our family) and my friend was actually commenting on how people make such strange distinctions. The acquaintance refused to drink Parmalat because it wasn't "real milk." My understanding is that Parmalat is, indeed, real milk, it's just packaged differently, and perhaps treated a little differently to ensure it's safe to be packaged in a way that allows it to not need to be refrigerated (until opened).
So what is the deal? A recent trip to the Parmalat website upped my curiosity factor. They refer to the milk they distribute as "milk products." They also call it "ESL milk" which means Extended Shelf Life--not English as a Second Language. With regard to the whole vegetarian thing, while we don't necessarily eat meat, a good deal of us do drink milk--Parmalat included. Vegans don't do any animal products whatsoever, but quite a few vegetarians do.
So what's the deal? Is Parmalat really milk, or not? To me, if it looks like milk, smells like milk, and tastes like milk, and they call it milk, it's probably milk.
Dora the Explorer may be one of Nickelodeon's most popular characters, but she's no Hannah Montana. Some of us would say that's a good thing, since she is designed to appeal to much younger audience. But, according to a source, the powers that be over at Nickelodeon want to give the bilingual cutie a makeover in an attempt to draw in the older kids.
First up for the Dora transformation is a new, feminine look. Maybe put her in a skirt and fix her hair up a little? Add some bows to the backpack and color the map pink? Next, get the girl some human friends. The source says they are considering adding a group of "Explorer Girls" to the animated cast. If these Explorer Girls follow the typical kid's show formula, you can expect a smart one, a pretty one and maybe a prissy one who doesn't like to get dirty.
If all that goes well, Dora may soon find herself featured on the big screen. Nickelodeon isn't commenting, but the source says they are considering a full-length feature film featuring Dora as an older kid. "Dora is as popular as she's ever been, and now has a second generation of viewers that we would love to serve," the company said.
I sure hope they don't ruin Dora. Sure, my 7-year-old has zero interest in that "baby show" now, but she loved it when she was younger. As do lots of little kids today. Does everything have to be about appealing to the tween audience these days?
Many of today's parents grew up with the daily query, "Did you remember to take your vitamin?" and would dutifully trudge back to the kitchen and pop that Flintstone chewable.
Today there is a vast ocean of choice when it comes to children's vitamins. You can choose between omega3, immunity support, zinc & echinachea, extra iron, or extra C in liquid, swallow-able, or chewable in the traditional chalky version, gummy-bear, or bubblegum variety forms.
But are vitamins still an necessary part of a children's daily diet? A British website did a study on children's multivitamins and found only five out of 14 brands of supplements contained all 12 essential vitamins and stated that some have little more nutritional value than candy.
Even experts seem to disagree whether multivitamins are necessary for all children. The American Academy of Pediatrics only giving supplements if your pediatrician advises you to, but the same organization also says a daily vitamin isn't likely do any harm, unless it exceeds the recommended daily allowance amounts of a vitamin or mineral.
With so many of today's common food and beverages being fortified (Who could have imagined that calcium could be added to orange juice?!) even finicky children are probably getting a lot more vitamins and minerals than parents realize. We're pretty lackadaisical on the multivitamin front in our house. What about you?
Before I was a mom, there were a lot of things I was never going to do as a parent. I was never going to let my kids watch TV, I was only going to feed them homemade, organic food. I was never going to let them play with plastic toys adorned with licensed characters. And I was certainly going to make sure that most of the toys in our house were gender neutral.
Then I gave birth and became a real parent, and all of that (or at least a lot of it) went out the window. So when my girls, at around 12 to 18 months, embraced the baby dolls and princesses kind of girlhood, I figured it was because I hadn't given them enough trucks and tools to play with when they were babies.
But according a psychologist at CNN, many of the differences we see between boys and girls is actually hardwired at birth. Boys are more likely to enjoy watching mechanical motion, walk sooner, and are more fearless. Girls enjoy looking at human faces, are good listeners, and talk earlier than boys. Do these differences eventually lead to different interests in toys? She says that in one study, when toddlers were shown photos of dolls and vehicles, the girls tended to opt for the dolls, while the boys chose the trucks.
My kid takes showers. He is sixteen months old. I took showers as a kid, but spent most of my time in the bath, surrounded by various toys and lots of suds. When our children are first born we barely bathe them, then move them into the little plastic tubs, then eventually into the tub for big kids. I don't even know when the technical transition from bath to shower begins.
I got the idea to put my child in the shower from a friend who always took her three girls into the shower with her (not all at once). The concept was that mom was in the shower and wet already anyway. Showers also use a lot less water than baths, and they're faster. Baths are tough in our apartment as the bathroom is small and the bathtub is awkwardly placed.
So, my husband and I tried taking our son, who was able to stand very comfortably on his own, into the shower a few times with decent results. Over time he became less intimidated by the water and now enjoys splashing around in it. He still plays with his toys and we all get clean relatively quickly. Still, I wonder if there's any reason to go back to baths, or to only do baths. There will come a point when our son is too old to be in the shower with us, for obvious reasons. There will also need to be a time when he lathers himself up instead of having a parent do it. I'm not wild about leaving him alone in the bath or the shower, and I wonder if either is really "safer."
Do you do showers or baths for your kids? At what age did you settle on a routine?
What parent hasn't handed over the car keys to a fussy baby in order to distract and entertain them? A shake or two of the magic keys is usually all it takes for most babies to become enthralled and forget what they were fussing about in the first place. Keys as a makeshift rattle are a tried and true baby distracter, but after a while baby loses interest, right? You start digging into your purse and handing over any non-toxic items you can find. What about your cell-phone? Do you ever let the baby play with that?
Disney suspects that you do and is looking to create cell-phone applications specifically for the preschool set. Like a digital pacifier, you could hand over your phone to keep baby busy on the go. No word on the specifics of these baby cell-phone games, but I imagine they would involve lots of button pushing and annoying sounds. Which, to me, is only slightly more appealing than the sound of baby fussing.
But If they really are going to make cell phone applications for babies, they may need to rethink the design of the phone itself. Babies might actually push a few buttons on the phone, but they will also try to eat it. And unless the phone is drool-proof, it is going to end up in the junk drawer like the remote clicker for my last car.
It may seem like something of a bore by now, but actress Jennifer Garner has finally come clean about her pregnancy. the Alias star, married to fellow actor Ben Affleck, has caused much speculation over recent months after being photographed wearing comfortable clothing and posing her daughter, Violet, and some pretty expensive handbags in front of her swelling belly.
Not too long ago, former Alias co-star Victor Garber seemingly confirmed the news that Garner was pregnant again. He later recanted, saying his comments were taken out of context. Then her mother-in-law had a similar slip of the lip. Both Jenn and Ben refused to comment on her state of impending mommyhood until just recently, when she confirmed the news.
Now the watch is on to see how big she'll get, whether the baby will be a girl or boy, and what the name will be. These are the things the media is sure we care about and will take every opportunity to tell us. As or the Garner-Afflecks, I can appreciate wanting to keep some of the joy to yourself--they told when they were good and ready, and not a moment before that.
Congrats to Violet's mom and dad! She'll be a big sister soon!
In some families, the original isn't always the best when it comes to fathers. For 'fragile families', described as low-income urban families prone to non marital births, mothers say that stepfathers are often more engaged, cooperative and willing to share responsibilities than married biological fathers.
A new study finds that while married biological fathers and stepfathers may be almost equally engaged with the children themselves, it is their interaction with mom that often makes stepfathers better parents. The mothers surveyed reported that stepfathers shared their parental views and were more open to talking about their parental wants than natural fathers. Rebekah Levine Coley, a developmental psychologist at Boston College, says this is probably because stepfathers "have to work harder to fit in and to have a useful productive role."
Coley says the findings contradict the popular view among social workers and experts that dads are more invested if the child is of their own flesh and blood. "I think this research does, to some extent, call some of those assumptions into question," she said.
The conclusions were made after interviewing 2,098 urban mothers from the The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study and will be published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.
Tom Cruise is known for being an action hero of sorts -- from prancing about in his skivvies in Risky Business to chasing about as super spy Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible series -- but that doesn't mean he can't carry his kid's playthings out in public. In fact, he was spotted doing just that recently in New York.
From a stuffed bunny to a Cabbage Patch doll and from a coloring book to a baby bottle, he'll apparently carry anything his little Suri might need for a day or even a night on the town. So is he no longer the macho star he was before parenthood? Of course not! You can't get much more manly than to carry a child's toy for them, if you ask me.
No, if you want to rag on Tom Cruise, don't do it for taking care of his kid. There are plenty of other things to ridicule him for: his bad acting, the whole space alien religion thing, and his propensity for hopping up and down on talk show hosts' couches.
Suri Cruise is nearly two and a half years old. Heaven knows you couldn't forget that if you tried. And while she has more fashion sense than pretty much any other tot on the planet, there is one thing that seems to still give us all pause. No, it's not how her celebrity parents could have actually spawned her, nor is it how much is spent keeping her best-dressed and -tressed. Nah--it's that thing where she's still carrying around a baby bottle.
Yes, still. It seems like this first made the news when Suri was more than a year old and still using a bottle. Like sippy cups are so great. Now she's making headlines again for still sporting the baby bottle--when she's not even really a baby. My question is this: what is the big deal? My kid is nearly seventeen months old and he still occasionally uses a bottle. We've tried really hard to break him of the habit, but, for a while, he simply eschewed the sippy cup. He could use one, sure, but he couldn't get the same amount of milk from the sippy as from the bottle. So, we let him roll with it. Eventually, he switched over to predominantly using the sippy.
I know there are standards and practices for how we're supposed to raise our children. I know that guidelines have been set to help us make our way through this crazy maze called parenthood. But with issues as large as world hunger, violence, abuse and immunizations out there for us to tackle, why does anyone give a rat's butt about whether or not Suri Cruise still uses her baby bottle? I feel sorry for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes--they're busy people who are trying to raise a kid and have full-time jobs too. it ain't easy. And not every kid fits the model she's supposed to. Is it really the end of the world if Suri still uses a bottle?
Once upon a time, families traveling with small children got to board first, to give them time to get their little ones settled in, put away their luggage, toys, and snacks, and do whatever else they needed to do, without blocking the rest of the passengers from getting on the plane. Instead of standing in the aisle getting angry at the parents, the other passengers could sit comfortably in the terminal, getting annoyed with the airline.
Dora the Explorer may be one of Nickelodeon's most popular characters, but she's no Hannah Montana. Some of us would say that's a good thing, since she is designed to appeal to much younger audience. But, according to a source, the powers that be over at Nickelodeon want to give the bilingual cutie 
Many of today's parents grew up with the daily query, "Did you remember to take your vitamin?" and would dutifully trudge back to the kitchen and pop that Flintstone chewable.
Before I was a mom, there were a lot of things I was never going to do as a parent. I was never going to let my kids watch TV, I was only going to feed them homemade, organic food. I was never going to let them play with plastic toys adorned with licensed characters. And I was certainly going to make sure that most of the toys in our house were gender neutral.
What parent hasn't handed over the car keys to a fussy baby in order to distract and entertain them? A shake or two of the magic keys is usually all it takes for most babies to become enthralled and forget what they were fussing about in the first place. Keys as a makeshift rattle are a tried and true baby distracter, but after a while baby loses interest, right? You start digging into your purse and handing over any non-toxic items you can find. What about your cell-phone? Do you ever let the baby play with that?
In some families, the original isn't always the best when it comes to fathers. For 'fragile families', described as low-income urban families prone to non marital births, mothers say that stepfathers are often more engaged, cooperative and willing to share responsibilities than married biological fathers. 
Tom Cruise is known for being an action hero of sorts -- from prancing about in his skivvies in Risky Business to chasing about as super spy Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible series -- but that doesn't mean he can't carry his kid's playthings out in public. In fact, he was 
