Babble.com, the parenting website that many bloggers love to hate (but also secretly want to appear on their Top 50 lists), has released their Top 50 Dad Blogs. (With run on sentences like that, I will never appear on another list.)

The list is not as controversial as last year, but I'm sure it stirred up some turmoil in the dad arena. All rankings are by their nature arbitrary there are must-read blogs on the list, and probably some that have been left off. (One of the things I find most annoying about the list is that, in true Babble fashion, they don't always include outside links to the blogs.)

Nonetheless, there is some very powerful writing out there by male writers. And the Babble list is a good place to start if you are looking for some more blogs to read, or need a little more testosterone on your list.

Now that the gifts have been doled out, the Christmas movies have been watched and the fatigue has set in: It's time for the fighting!

Let's be honest; the few days after the holidays can be tough and loud. Kids start to gaze over at their siblings toys and start to wander who got the better deal. And then the yelling begins. Which begets more yelling from you, as you start to hate yourself for raising such ungrateful children. So how do you handle the hotbed of sibling rivalry?

In a totally biased, non-scientific way, I have decided on the biggest parenting stories of the year. These aren't the stories that got the most clicks (Jessica Simpson may own that title) but these are the stories that had us talking in the schoolyard and online and are the ones that we may remember in years to come (unlike what's her name.)

Just like last year, we were told that parents from another country were doing it better than us; we ruminated on the impossibility of work-life balance and the shape of motherhood and we mourned the loss of innocence. And if we got it on.

The 2012 Biggest Stories in Chaos: (in no particular order):

Tony Hawk is a skateboarding legend. He can do things while standing on a board that I can't do standing on my feet. He would obviously be the coolest dad in the world. 

But even legends hit speedbumps and Hawk came under fire this week after posting a photo on Instagram. He is seen swinging his shoeless four-year-old daughter while riding his skateboard in his backyard skateboard park. Problem is, neither of them are wearing helmets.

I have a text group chat with friends on my phone that would burn my kids' ears off; we complain, we gossip, we joke and it is not for public consumption. Now that all three of my kids can read, I have to shield my phone from them so they don't lose their innocence too early.

That is, until I got a Windows 8 Phone -- the Nokia Lumina 920. [I was given the phone to test along with some other bloggers for a month during the busiest time of the year in a #holidayswap].

Teen McKenna Pope walked into her 4-year-old brother's room to find him cooking tortillas on top of a light bulb. She knew then and there that she would get him an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas.

That is, until she went shopping and realized that the pink oven was overly girly and her brother wouldn't like it. She wanted to show him that it's "it's not 'wrong' for him to want to be a chef." So she did what an enterprising teen does these days.

She started a petition and Change.org and then she went viral.

You know when your kids are fighting about something trivial and they are both at fault; neither of them are listening to each other, they're kicking and punching and maybe even head butting. Perhaps they are fighting over who gets to cuddle with the dog, but the dog ends up getting a little beat up in all of the fracas.

You have two choices: sit between them and negotiate, or send them to their rooms. But for negotiating to work, there has to be some buy-in. So you have a choice: send them for time-outs, or give yourself one and hope that they learn to co-exist.

Welcome to Ontario's educational system. We have two sides unwilling to negotiate with each other and our kids are the ones suffering.

The blank page is a little bit daunting today. There are lots of topics to write about, but really there is only one thing that I can think of. The violent loss of 20 Grade One students in Connecticut hangs heavy on every parent -- no matter where you live, or how old your children are.

There is really no good way to talk to your kids about an act so brazen and so violent that you can't talk about it without crying yourself. How would I tell my 6-year-old that girls her own age were hurt in a place they consider safe? That teachers and the principal lost their lives for those kids? So I chose not to tell my 6- and 9-year-olds. I'm not sure if that was the right decision; I'm not sure if someone will say something at school or not. But for now, that is what we've decided.

My 12-year-old had to know, as he is out in the world. Before I could do that, I compiled some ideas from experts to keep in mind when talking about this tragedy: 

My parents split when I was five. For the first years, I didn't know any other families who were divorced. I don't think I even knew the word "divorced".

I can't think of a TV character or book that provided a model for me. Those eventually came, but much later. Now divorce is much more common and my kids talk easily of their friends who shuffle between their mom's and dad's houses.

Sesame Street is one of the few constants linking my childhood to my kids, so imagine my surprise to know that they haven't really touched the divorce topic until now.

My 12-year-old son told me years ago that Santa is a big joke that parents play on children. He thinks all adults are laughing at kids for believing that someone flies around the world in one night delivering gifts. He is not someone for whom the Big Lie works at all.

We teach our kids to tell the truth, we teach them about gravity, and then we expect them to believe in the magic of Santa? I had absolutely no problem being honest with my oldest as soon as he asked the question at the age of three. (And I'm not alone.)

I am not a fan of lying to my kids. I even feel guilty about the Tooth Fairy.