Editor’s Note: Joan Blades of MoveOn.org and MomsRising.org alerted me of a battle brewing in Pennsylvania to make it illegal for employers to ask potential workers of their marital and child status. In case you haven’t read the Motherhood Manifesto, Kiki Peppard is the single mother who is spearheading this effort. Here is an update […] Continue reading →

My almost three-year-old has had one week of preschool and he has already had homework. Granted, it wasn’t a tough assignment for us: He had to learn a list of Spanish words. We speak the language at home so he already knew most of the words. But my heart went out to the non-native speakers […] Continue reading →

A friend sent me Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent comments about Cubans and Puerto Ricans. After all, I am half Cuban (my father) and Puerto Rican (mother). Here are his off-the-cuff remarks that made it into the Los Angeles Times: “I mean Cuban, Puerto-Rican, they are all very hot,” the governor says on the recording. “They have […] Continue reading →

Say as you will, ladies. Continue reading →

Joel Stein of the Los Angeles Times wrote a laugh-out-loud column about how much he hates Elmo. In a screed reminiscent of those when-I-was-a-kid lecture by our parents, Stein said the self-absorbed three-year-old Elmo was a setback from the “quirky adults” who personified the Muppet characters in his day. When I watched “Sesame Street” in […] Continue reading →

There were a series of medical stories this week I wanted to highlight: The first one, which ran in the New York Times found that medically unnecessary caesarean sections were riskier than vaginal deliveries. Even after accounting for socioeconomic and other risk factors, the researchers, whose findings were published in Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care, […] Continue reading →

I was the nervous one. Ari was excited to start school, even jumping out of bed to get dressed. But these were my fears in no particular order: that I would oversleep — I rely on my internal clock to get up — that he would poop in his pants at school (he is not […] Continue reading →

Editor’s Note: I actually wrote this post yesterday. So it is only pure coincidence that it is compatible with our discussion today about the physical risks we would — or would not — take as parents. Also, something that has been lost in all of this tragedy: How do children best cope with the absence […] Continue reading →

This is so sad: Steve Irwin, who turned his childhood passion for reptiles into the popular Crocodile Hunter show on the Discovery Channel, died when his heart was pierced by a stingray. He was 44. The Houston Chronicle ran a decent obituary on him, including the details surrounding his death. Apparently, it was a freak […] Continue reading →

What are you all up to this weekend? We had out-of-town guests who are considering relocating to the Bay Area. So we attended some open houses and hit the more attractive sites of Berkeley like Tilden Park. We have stayed up late watching our backlog of Daily Shows and Colbert Reports and Netflix rentals: Omigod […] Continue reading →