Are we driving our kids to bad health?
That was the implication of a report issued by the Active Healthy Kids Network. It gave Canadian kids a "D-" in physical activity and a "D" in active transportation. The report says that if kids walked an extra kilometre a day, they would get much farther in reaching the goal of 60 minutes of activity per day.
A school in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia has replaced Mother's Day and Father's Day with more inclusive activities that recognize International Day of the Family, on May 15th.
Needless to say, getting rid of Mother's Day and Father's Day has drummed up some controversy. Cries of political correctness can be heard all over North America.
But does ditching the commercial holiday at school really represent a culture gone too far? I don't think so.
Last week, the Internet heated up with outrage as Disney seeemed to turn the rebellious Princess Merida into a sparkly, thinnified, more mature version of herself. A petition and many blog posts later, Disney pulled the images from their website and denied the makeover happened at all.
Catherine Connors, Disney exec. and Editor-in-Chief of Babble.com (and former Canadian mom blogger extraordinaire) writes:
...the original Merida hasn’t, actually, been made over: there are a few pieces of iterative artwork out there that were created for the purpose of celebrating her coronation, but these are fancified depictions of Merida, not a new Merida (who in any case is defined by far more important things than what she wears.)
The idea that the people who were upset about the changes were the ones guilty of making a big deal about appearances is a Disney spin (and also disappointing coming from Babble). Her gown was much less of an issue than her apparant rib removal.
Three kids are the most stressful number, says a survey by the Today Show.
I have three kids. I win the mommy stress competition! Phew, I knew that something good would finally come out of my multiple progeny.
According to the 7,000 women surveyed, moms of three kids have more stress than mothers with less kids, and even more stress than mothers who have four or more. The Today Show called it the "Duggar Effect". As if 19 kids are less stressful than my three.
Photographer Jaime Moore wanted to commemorate her daughter's fifth birthday with some photos. When she searched for inspiration she found a lot of little girls dressed up as princesses. But she wanted to do something different, so she posed her daughter Emma as five inspirational women who have made a difference in women's lives.
Sometimes we forget that celebrities have real feelings and are real people under all the makeup and paparazzi flashes. Even their children often look like props in a photoshoot entitled "just like us."
But Angelina Jolie, in a stunning op-ed in the New York Times, shows us that beneath the glamour, celebrities have the same pain and anxieties that as we do.
Jolie chose to have a double mastectomy. She carries the mutated BRCA1 gene which dramatically increases her risk of breast and ovarian cancer (though BRCA1 and 2 mutations only make up 5 to 10 per cent of breast cancers). Jolie's mother died at 56 from the disease, and only met one of her six grandchildren.
Every once in a while, a nation gets inspired. And who better than a guitar-wielding, super-geek astronaut with a groovy 'stache?
Chris Hadfield returned to Earth on Monday night, but hopefully his legacy will inspire kids and adults to continue to look to the stars.
Chris Hadfield may just be the coolest astronaut that has ever lived. He doesn't have a catch phrase and a golf club, but communicated the simple pleasures and beauty of the earth while suspended in orbit for five months, 2,336 orbits, 146 days and 16 sunrises and sunsets per day.
There was a coronation on Saturday, one that brought a new princess into our midst. No, not Kate - Merida from the Pixar movie Brave. Merida is the outspoken, arrow-shooting, boyfriend-shunning princess in the Oscar-winning Pixar movie.
It seems just like Anne Hathaway's character in Princess Diaries, Merida had to get a makeover before the powers-that-be at Disney would allowed her to join her princess-y sisters.
One million babies die on their first day of life -- making their birth day the most dangerous day of their life.
Save the Children has come out with their State of the World's Mothers Index and the results are startling. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most dangerous place to give birth. If you are pregnant in the Democratic Republic of Congo you have a one in 30 chance of not living through the birth. Finland and other Nordic countries are ranked the best places to be a mother.
I have recently returned from a trip to Dominican Republic where I toured three SOS Children's Villages. A number of the orphaned children that I met ended up in care because their mothers had died in childbirth. It sounded outlandish to me that dying in childbirth is so common. There must be a way to make it better. And there is.
I hate shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch. The heavy scent of cologne and teen angst makes me want to pass out.
I don't need much of an excuse to steer my tween to some other mall store that sells overpriced preppy clothes in a loud obnoxious environment that's too dark to see the price tag. And thankfully, the CEO of Abercrombie has handed me and many other mothers a reason to cross the aisle.
Emma WavermanEmma Waverman writes five days a week about the chaos of modern family life here at MSN.ca. She is the co-author of the family cookbook Whining and Dining: Mealtime Survival for Picky Eaters and Families Who Love Them and is hoping to one day to finish her certification as a parenting coach. She lives with her three kids, ranging from tween to grade schooler, and husband in Toronto. Emma has written for a variety of national parenting and lifestyle magazines and papers. When she’s is not making typos, telling you what she thinks, and thinking about dinner - you can find her on Twitter at @emmawaverman. You can contact Emma at embracingchaos@hotmail.ca
If you need a specific day to remember to honor the people that are important to you
then you are doomed to begin with. Tell your kids on mother's day to make that card for a motherly figure in their life, could be grandma or the Lady next door, whoever. Same goes for father's day. Have them make a card for a father figure. Even if the closest to that is their bus driver. Doesn't matter. We don't have to rename everything every year just because our population changes. Christmas isn't about Jesus' birth anymore either, but no one wants to rename it "gift giving frenzy day", even though in some areas it seems like the use of the name is forbidden now. Does really everyday have to be analyzed to death? What about Sunday? Statistically it rains most often on Sunday. Shall we rename it " Almostmonday"? Just so not to disappoint the people expecting Sunday to be sunny? There are really more important things in life. Honor the important people on your life as often as possible. No matter what you call them. Peace.
I guess I'm paranoid, like so many other parents. The thought that someone could snatch any of my children and I would never see them again, doesn't sit well with me. Every time I think of making my children walk by themselves I remember Holly Jones and Tori Stafford, and I feel crippled.
I walk with them when we are not running late, so they do get their exercise, plus I keep fit. We also go riding and to the parks in the area. I'm not worried about my children's activity level. I cook healthy meals, and make sure that they keep active, and limit the TV/Video game time.
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