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Trying to raise a real man in today’s world may be harder than splitting an atom. Everyday our kids are bombarded with images and messages of the most unmanly things imaginable. Magazines are full of sexually ambiguous models dressed in feminine clothes in homo-erotic poses. There’s a new book out every month about how you don’t need a man in the house to raise a man. TV shows typically are full of metro-sexual, gay, and otherwise wimpy male characters, and nearly every Hollywood movie that comes out has at least one homosexual character. Almost every dad in the movies or...

A police review shows that New Zealand's new anti-spanking law has not reduced the number of physical abuse cases against children, but it has deterred good parents from properly disciplining their children. The report is the result of a three month review that took place directly after the passing of the bill and a separate three month review which was initiated six months later. New Zealanders are today presenting parliament with a petition calling for the law to be struck down. Family First NZ National Director Bob McCoskrie explained that the police review, which shows an almost 300% jump in...

An operator of a so-called “Booty Camp” in suburban Chicago has a claim that will astonish parents of droopy-diapered toddlers everywhere. Give her five hours, she says, and she’ll give you a potty-trained toddler.

The stage was set, the lights went down and in a suburban Japanese primary school everyone prepared to enjoy a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The only snag was that the entire cast was playing the part of Snow White. For the audience of menacing mothers and feisty fathers, though, the sight of 25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs and no wicked witch was a triumph: a clear victory for Japan's emerging new class of “Monster Parents”. For they had taken on the system and won. After a relentless campaign of bullying, hectoring and nuisance phone calls, the...

The stage was set, the lights went down and in a suburban Japanese primary school everyone prepared to enjoy a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The only snag was that the entire cast was playing the part of Snow White. For the audience of menacing mothers and feisty fathers, though, the sight of 25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs and no wicked witch was a triumph: a clear victory for Japan's emerging new class of “Monster Parents�. For they had taken on the system and won. After a relentless campaign of bullying, hectoring and nuisance phone calls, the...

WESTON, WI -- Parents who prayed as their 11-year-old daughter died of untreated diabetes were charged Monday with second-degree reckless homicide. The father considered the illness "a test of faith," and the mother never considered taking the girl to the doctor because she thought her daughter was under a "spiritual attack," the criminal complaint said. "It is very surprising, shocking that she wasn't allowed medical intervention," Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad said. "Her death could have been prevented." She announced the charges Monday during a news conference at the Everest Metro Police Department with Police Chief Dan Vergin. Vergin...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A mother who was videotaped while spraying her 2 1/2-year-old daughter with a high-pressure water hose at an Orlando car wash told authorities she did it because the child was throwing a tantrum. She told authorities she did not have the hose on full blast, and she said that it isn't as bad as it looks. The mother said she had used this type of punishment before with a spray bottle. The mother saw herself on TV late Thursday afternoon and called deputies. She called deputies and said they could come to her apartment to speak with...

Theresa Bonopartis vividly remembers the day, more than 20 years ago, that she phoned her doctor for the results of her pregnancy test. She was 18, unmarried, and scared. The doctor's words confirmed what, despite months of denial, she already knew she was almost four months pregnant. She and her boyfriend decided to marry. But then her parents kicked her out, telling her to forget she was their daughter. She and her boyfriend broke up. Her father urged her to have an abortion, which she initially resisted. But without a job, housing, or any support, she felt she had...

My husband and I are getting ready to do what many couples in these brink-of-recessionary times would consider unthinkable. No, we're not buying a Martha's Vineyard retreat or planning a month in St. Bart's or eco-decorating our house. We're planning to have a third child. What shocks people, when we tell them, isn't the thought of hauling three kids onto a place for a vacation, or even the idea of coming home every night to a houseful of runny noses and homework assignments. What gets them is the sheer financial audacity. Raising kids today costs a fortune. Last month, the...

The following is an excerpt from Lieberman’s upcoming book American Dreams Interrupted: How to Stay Sane and Safe in a Time of Terror. Age of innocence Underneath our pseudo-sophisticated exterior beats the heart of a child. Although society calls on us to be mature – especially now – in our heart of hearts, we secretly still want to believe that our wishes will come true when we blow out our birthday candles, and that we will live “happily ever after” as the fairytales promised. Even though we may be wonderful mothers or fathers, underneath we’re nostalgic for our own childhood...

The California appeals court decision criminalizing parents who homeschool their children is only the tip of an iceberg. Nationwide, parents are already being criminalized in huge numbers, and it is not limited to homeschoolers. During the Clinton years, the trend toward turning children into tools for expanding government power increased rapidly. Otherwise indefensible programs and regulations are now rationalized as "for the children."

More than half of parents believe that childhood is now over by the age of 11, according to a survey. The poll shows that children, desperate to keep up with their peers, are forcing parents to authorise freedoms that belie their years, in contrast with the traditional upbringings experienced by their mothers and fathers. Teenagers are increasingly being allowed to drink alcohol, stay out late and sleep over at their boyfriend or girlfriend's house, according to the survey for Random House Children's Books. But many adults feel that parents are wrong to succumb and that youngsters grow up alarmingly quickly,...

Crowd cheers advice to turn off TV, skip Popeyes for breakfast FORT WORTH, Texas -- On the campaign trail, Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama talks about how he would use the bully pulpit if president, and he offered a demonstration Thursday when he drew wild cheers as he told a mostly African-American crowd that parents need to shape up, turn off the TV, help their kids with their homework and stop letting them grow fat eating Popeyes chicken for breakfast. "It's not good enough for you to say to your child, 'Do good in school,' and then when that child...

Kids lie early, often, and for all sorts of reasons—to avoid punishment, to bond with friends, to gain a sense of control. But now there’s a singular theory for one way this habit develops: They are just copying their parents. In the last few years, a handful of intrepid scholars have decided it’s time to try to understand why kids lie. For a study to assess the extent of teenage dissembling, Dr. Nancy Darling, then at Penn State University, recruited a special research team of a dozen undergraduate students, all under the age of 21. Using gift certificates for free...

The family that prays together stays together. True or false? The saying is very old and not based on findings of formal family research. Perhaps it was merely an old wives tale. Certainly the high incidence of divorce in the Christian community would lead one to question the old adage. But let's not be too quick to discard the saying or its sentiment; family research does support it. No one should imagine that merely saying prayers is some magic tonic that will neutralize the effects of hurtful actions in a family. You cannot live like Hell and pray to Heaven...

Christian couple told: 'You can't foster if you think it's wrong to be gay'By DAVID WILKES - More by this author » Last updated at 11:24am on 27th February 2008 Eunice Johns: 'I can give love and security' They are devoted foster parents with an unblemished record of caring for almost 20 vulnerable children.   But Eunice and Owen Johns have been forced to abandon their good work because they refuse to tell children as young as ten that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle. To do so, they say, would go against their Christian beliefs. The devastated couple withdrew an application...

At lunch recently, a father of four who works in publishing told me he occasionally gives his children "a clip around the ear". The threat of minor violence, he said, was the fastest way to get his brood into the people carrier if they were all to get out of the house on time. It wasn't so much the fact that this otherwise modern thirtysomething father would slap his children that shocked me, but the fact that he spoke about it so openly. A decade ago, he might have been worried that I'd call social services - or at least...

Empty Nest Syndrome May Not Be Bad After All, Study Finds ScienceDaily (Feb. 21, 2008) — One day they are crawling, the next day they are driving and then suddenly they aren’t kids anymore. As children reach adulthood, the parent-child relationship changes as parents learn to adapt to newly independent children. A new study by a University of Missouri professor explored the differences in how mothers and fathers interacted with their young adult children. She found there were few differences in the way mothers and fathers felt and that many of the changes were positive, despite the perception that mothers...

MADISON, Ala. — On a January night nine years ago, Laura Snider was saved. A 27-year-old single mother at the time, Mrs. Snider felt she had ruined her life through a disastrous marriage and divorce. But in her kitchen that night, after reading pamphlets and Bible passages that her boss had pointed her to, she realized she was a sinner, she said, she prayed for forgiveness, and put her trust in Christ. Four years later, the conservative brand of Christianity Mrs. Snider embraced became the source of a bitter, continuing custody battle over her only child, Libby Mashburn. Across the...

WHEN Jacqueline Brown and her husband, Gavin Friedman, were in their early 30s, they lived in a condominium in Santa Monica, Calif., with a black leather Ikea couch Mr. Friedman had bought for law school, a few modest pieces from Pier 1 Imports and assorted hand-me-down furnishings. Within a few years, though, having acquired professional and financial stability — both were litigation associates at prominent law firms — they bought a house in Cheviot Hills, an affluent neighborhood in West Los Angeles, and began remodeling and decorating. During two renovations, each costing more than $100,000, they built a two-sided fireplace...

Hillary Clinton isn’t the only woman struggling to find an ideal mix of feminism and femininity, one that allows a woman to behave both like and unlike a man without being penalized either way. Mothers of daughters, even if they don’t support the former first lady, feel, if not her pain, at least her conflict. You need only look at the staggering success, in a publishing industry gone soft, of two advice manuals for young women, “The Daring Book for Girls” and “The Girls’ Book: How to Be the Best at Everything.” Those volumes were inspired by “The Dangerous Book...

When our children were young, we had a plaque hanging on the wall of our bedroom that read: There are two essential things you can provide your children. One is roots. The other is wings. Roots, so that they might know from whence they came, and where they can always look for affirmation and love. And wings to provide a sense of independence, and the tools and the spirit to strive to be all that they can be. A good friend, the contributor known as ‘First_Salute’ here on FR, recently forwarded me a Wall Street Journal article entitled, What’s...

Glennette Scott was horrified when her daughter Brianna, 3 years old, started picking fights, throwing chairs and having emotional meltdowns in preschool. Anxious and upset, Ms. Scott searched the Internet and asked school officials for help with her daughter; she sometimes seemed like "a ticking time bomb," Ms. Scott says, because her outbursts were so sudden and unpredictable. With more individual guidance and one-on-one time from teachers, Brianna is learning to control herself, and she's progressing well now in her Falls Church, Va., kindergarten. But Ms. Scott still worries about her. Behavior problems among preschoolers are emerging as a national...

GARLAND, Texas — An essay that won a 6-year-old girl four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert began with the powerful line: "My daddy died this year in Iraq." While gripping, it was not true — and now the girl may lose her tickets after her mom acknowledged to contest organizers it was all a lie.

A U.S. Air Force staff sergeant stationed in Italy received an early Christmas gift on Saturday: her children. After a months-long legal battle with Italian authorities who had removed her children when a neighbor alleged they were being abused, a judge on Saturday dropped all charges against Kris Wylie, clearing the way for the family to be reunited.

NEW YORK - Lynne Spears' book about parenting has been delayed indefinitely, her publisher said Wednesday. Lindsey Nobles, a spokeswoman for Christian book publisher Thomas Nelson Inc., said Wednesday that the memoir by the mother of Britney Spears was put on hold last week. She declined to comment on whether the delay was connected to the revelation that Spears' 16-year-old daughter, Jamie Lynn, is pregnant. "I can tell you that we are standing behind Lynne and supporting her decision to be with her family at this time," Nobles told The Associated Press. "Pop Culture Mom: A Real Story of Fame...

MONTREAL (AFP) — After catching his 15-year-old smoking pot, a father sold the hard-to-get "Guitar Hero III" video game he bought his son for 90 dollars for Christmas at an online auction, fetching 9,000 dollars. The sale took place after the father spent two weeks searching for the video game for the Nintendo Wii gameboard. "So I was so relieved in that I had finally got the Holy Grail of Christmas presents pretty much just in the nick of time. I couldn't wait to spread the jubilance to my son," the father wrote on the eBay website. "Then, yesterday, I...

"I rolled my window down and asked what happened. They said the bus driver apparently swore at them, took off and left the bus." YouTube

QX NOTE: the following is a—GENERALIZED DISCUSSION—in the interest of preventing such horrors as the recent Colorado shootings. I do not know important details nor do I wish to add to the parent’s grief. HOWEVER, this is a VERY TEACHABLE moment for many who may read such an article as this. And I dare not ignore such a fitting opportunity. Therefore, read my comments and the articles referred to as PRESCRIPTIVE, PREVENTATIVE, not punishing or haughtily castigating. Life is complex. Parenting is even more complex. Nevertheless, the research on ATTACHMENT and REACTIVE ATTACHMENT DISORDER is remarkably clear with confirming...

THE federal No Child Left Behind law of 2002 rates schools based on how students perform on state standardized tests, and if too many children score poorly, the school is judged as failing. But how much is really the school’s fault? A new study by the Educational Testing Service — which develops and administers more than 50 million standardized tests annually, including the SAT — concludes that an awful lot of those low scores can be explained by factors that have nothing to do with schools. The study, “The Family: America’s Smallest School,” suggests that a lot of the failure...

Salute to Parenting... Pregnancy Questions & Answers: Q: Should I have a baby after 35? A: No, 35 children is enough. Q: I'm two months pregnant now. When will my baby move? A: With any luck, right after he finishes college. Q: What is the most reliable method to determine a baby's sex? A: Childbirth. Q: My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right? A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current. Q: When is the best time to get an epidural? A: Right after...

Extreme parenting has come to be associated with images of overly involved parents — this generation's stage parents, who manage and control every minute of their child's life, imposing their adult dreams and desires onto the little ones in a pathetic attempt to fuel their own insatiable need for success and recognition. As familiar as this parental profile has become, another form of extreme parenting has emerged, one that is getting harder to ignore. I am referring to the increasingly ubiquitous parenting approach that rejects the use of the word "no," and in which even the most reasonable degree of...

Kids look cute in their Christmas finery but festive duds won’t cloak the fact that parents aren’t teaching youngsters their Ps and Qs. All the monkeys aren’t in the zoo. Many tykes are on the loose without social skills or discipline and, alas, manners matter. We’ve just survived a Thanksgiving siege with out-of-town guests, a missionary couple and their four children who camped out in our finished basement. Obviously they embraced their call to the Biblical axiom “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel” but it was clear they skipped “Train up a child in the way...

When California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two bills on Oct. 12 that essentially turn the state's public schools over to homosexual and transgender activists, there was virtually no media coverage outside California. There still isn't. Beginning in January 2008, California public schools must teach children as young as 3 to 5 years old that homosexuality is a normal, healthy lifestyle and that kids can choose their "gender." This means banning the terms "husband" and "wife" for the more progressively inclusive term "partner." "Moms" and "dads" will morph into sexually neutral "parents." Textbooks will be rewritten to blot out any reminder...

SMITH CENTER, Kan. — Their photos are on the cards traded over at the elementary school, and their exploits are on the lips of the old men who gather at the Second Cup Cafe each morning. They are the sons and grandsons of this north Kansas town, and for 30 autumns now, the Smith Center Redmen have puffed up the chests of folks here. They are a high school football team, a superb one that has won 51 games in a row and three consecutive state championships, and has outscored opponents this season, 704-0. They are more than that, however,...

Flags flew the May day they buried Dale Peterson. They lined the streets of Burns, where hundreds watched, hands on hearts, as his coffin passed. One flag, in particular, made it to Dale's dad. Greg Peterson, former sheriff of Harney County, went home to Redmond and hung the flag beside his front door. And there it flew, day and night, for the toddler he carried on his back into the Blue Mountains, for the boy he taught to fish the Malheur River, for the only son he sent to Iraq. Sunday morning, as Greg Peterson left for church, he found...

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton courted female voters on Tuesday with a plan to expand paid family leave, boost child-care funding and fight workplace discrimination against pregnant women. In a speech peppered with anecdotes from raising her 27-year-old daughter Chelsea, the former first lady who would be America's first woman president said her plan would cost $1.75 billion a year and be paid for by shutting down certain kinds of tax shelters without expanding the deficit. "The struggle to balance family and work can be simply overwhelming," the New York senator told a gathering of about...

A WEEK’S worth of dinners for young Fiona Jacobson looks like this: Noodles. Noodles. Noodles. Noodles. French fries. Noodles. On the seventh day, the 5-year-old from Forest Hills, Queens, might indulge in a piece of pizza crust, with no sauce or cheese. Over in New Jersey, the Bakers changed their November family vacation to accommodate Sasha, an 11-year-old so averse to fruits and vegetables that the smell of orange juice once made him faint. Instead of flying to Prague, Sasha’s parents decided to go to Barcelona, where they hope the food will be more to his liking. And at the...

Author: Letting Kids Drink Early Reduces BingingATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Over dinner recently, Anna Peele recalls one of the first times she drank alcohol. "I was like 14 or 15," Peele says. "I ordered a beer and they served me." She had just finished her freshman year of high school and was traveling in Greece with family friends. "We would just have wine with dinner," Peele says. "In Greece it's so not a big deal." Anna Peele's parents allowed her to drink at family functions and social events when she was in high school. While that experience would cause some...

"We don't need no piece of paper from the city hall, keeping us tied and true -- no ..." -- Joni Mitchell from My Old Man (1971) As much as I admire Joni, that sentiment was, and still is, hokey and more importantly, untrue if not dangerous. Those hippie days are long past, but the notion of shacking up grows more prevalent every year, as Statistics Canada's release Wednesday of 2006 census data shows. Couples have common-law relationships for a myriad of reasons -- most of them terribly unromantic -- and include convenience, being incapable of true commitment, waiting for...

For Wayne Logan, a single father of two, being selected for the city's experimental cash-rewards program for the poor was like hitting the lottery. "I'm happy. I'm grateful," he declared, sounding somewhat amazed at his good fortune. "To get paid to do things I'm doing anyway is a welcome feeling." Logan, 49, was among the first enrollees in a daring $50 million pilot project launched by Mayor Bloomberg with private funds to pay poor families as much as $5,000 a year simply to do the right thing. A child getting a library card is worth $50. A student who passes...

Judge: Truant kids’ parents face jail ASSOCIATED PRESS PENSACOLA — Parents of kids who habitually skip school could find themselves locked up under an aggressive plan to curb truancy in this Florida Panhandle community. Parents who ignore several warnings and offers of help will have to explain to a judge why they shouldn’t face jail time for misdemeanor charges. Escambia County school officials worked with Circuit Judge Ross Goodman to toughen the consequences. “If the parent is not sending the child to school, then I can send the parent to jail,” Goodman said. School officials said 177 of the district’s...

Elizabeth Edwards Responds to Attack Over Parenting Skills August 28, 2007 7:36 PM ABC News Sunlen Miller Reports: Elizabeth Edwards is taking some heat about her parenting skills from the mom-friendly website "Silicon Valley Moms Blog." Blogger "Rebecca" wrote a fiery tirade on the site Monday morning attacking Mrs. Edwards choice to bring her two small children, Jack and Emma Claire, on the campaign trail with her while her husband, John Edwards runs for president. "…. you are being a terrible mother, forcing your young children, who should be in SCHOOL, to ride in buses and talk to the press...

THE GUCCI bib was the last straw. Gisele Bündchen, I read in Thursday's Globe, is "even reported to have bought several gifts for the child, including items from Baby Dior, Burberry, and a Gucci bib." In my rage, I nearly poured the baby's formula into my morning coffee. She what? It's every mom-to-be's worst nightmare: While you're sweating through hot flashes in the ninth month (it had to be July!) of an interminable pregnancy, your baby's father is gallivanting across Europe with the world's (the world's!) richest supermodel. You're scarfing Häagen-Dazs, alone on the couch, while they're sipping kir royals...

LOS ANGELES (August 8, 2007) – The Parents Television Council™ released its ranking of the “Top Ten Best and Worst Advertisers” on television. This annual report ranks advertisers according to how frequently they sponsor wholesome, family-oriented television shows or those containing sexually graphic, violent or profane material on broadcast television. “Television sponsors contribute to the television culture, either in a positive or negative way, by what programs they choose to support with their advertising dollars. We applaud those on our best list because they are contributing to the well-being of millions of families by choosing to be responsible sponsors. It’s...

My husband and I held each other and cried more than I think we have in nearly 22 years of marriage. We left our son Nick alone in his dorm room far from home after nurturing and loving him for 18 years. Our little boy is now a tall, responsible young man facing life on his own. Yes, it’s what good parents everywhere dream of and want for their kids -- to become independent adults who fly from our arms into a world where they can make their own mark. But still, the tears come -- for me, mainly because...

If you want your children to be happy adults and even happy children -- and what parent does not? -- minimize the excitement in their lives. The more excitement, the less happy they are likely to be. In both adults and children, one can either pursue excitement or pursue happiness, but one cannot do both. If you pursue excitement, you will not attain happiness. If you pursue happiness, you will still experience some moments of excitement, but you will attain happiness only if happiness, not excitement, is your goal. When we give our child a present, he experiences excitement, and...

What? He said what now? Nut graf from this ABC blog post: ABC News' Teddy Davis and Lindsey Ellerson Report: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Planned Parenthood Tuesday that sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is "age-appropriate," is "the right thing to do." Get this through your head, you freakin' weirdo. There is NO form of sex education that is appropriate for kindergarteners. None. It is not my wish to sound extreme here, but I find it hard to fathom how any decent person can think this is a good idea. Perhaps I'm just some sort of knuckle-dragging...

Many folks of mature age will tell you that, in their youth, no lessons were conveyed so memorably as those reinforced by a stinging rebuke to the backside. ... In 2005, S.F.'s then-12-year-old son G.F. was in hot water with dad. G.F. had a habit of leaving home without permission and lying when asked about his whereabouts. At first, dad tried the textbook approach. He grounded his son and withdrew his privileges. G.F. continued his delinquent ways. Dad then warned G.F. that he would use the paddle if his son threw a tantrum or left home again without permission. ......

The New York journalist, and I use the term "journalist" generously, was attempting to take me to task for claiming that slovenliness and laziness are unnecessary choices anywhere, anytime, but especially in America. I had just explained to him how, as a child of a lower middle-class family living on the outskirts of Detroit in the roaring 1950s, I got nothing unless I earned it. We did without. We were frugal by design. You want a guitar, kid? Get a job. Or two. I went into detail how my mother and father loved me and properly parented us kids in...