Archive for July, 2010

You are strong, independent, intelligent, fashionable, fit and an all around perfect mother-earth-goddess to everyone in your life in every way, shape and form. But you might have a “friend” who could use the guidance in this new book, Stuff Every Woman Should Know:

- How to Buy a Car Without Getting Ripped Off: When you walk into a predominately male environment chances are the salesmen will be falling over themselves to help you. Have that attention work in your favor.

- How to Throw a Football: Start with a good grip, aim at the target, snap, release and impress your family on Thanksgiving

- 10 Stylish Pieces Every Woman Should Own: Start with quality underwear and always choose a chic (and warm) coat - it’s the only thing people see for a good portion of the year.

This pocket-sized companion from author Alanna Kalb includes all the girly stuff (how to pick a signature scent) along with business savvy (how to ask for a raise) and DIY challenges (how to change a tire.)

Treat yourself. It’s cheaper than hiring a shrink, trainer or fashion stylist to help you with this stuff.

Available at Amazon.com

Every parent worries about who can find their kid online. But Geoffrey Arone, co-founder and co-CEO of Internet monitoring service SafetyWeb, says that what can be an even bigger concern in the fullness of time is not who can get to your kid, but the traces of himself he leaves behind.

“This is the first generation of kids growing up with a log file,” says Arone. “You wouldn’t believe the things you can find about kids, just doing a Google search. If they won the spelling bee, if they played on a sports team, it’s out there. And so are networking profiles from years ago that they set up and forgot about.”

It’s a parent’s nightmare: what if on these old profiles, something your kid said or did comes back to haunt her later?

With such concerns in mind, Arone and company set up SafetyWeb to chaperone kids in a unique way. When parents visit SafetyWeb, they type in their kid’s email address. SafetyWeb then searches social networking sites for your kid’s profile, and for activity. If your kid uploaded a photo to Flickr, you’ll know. If your child made a new friend on Facebook, you’ll see it. Parents who decide to join SafetyWeb ($10 a month, $100 a year), get regular reports on what their kids have said and done online. Everything that’s in the public domain (not hidden away behind some kind of password), is visible, and anything that might concern parents, such as text containing curses, or Facebook friends whose profile reveals them to be much older than your child, is flagged in the reports sent to parents.

It’s not an invasion of privacy: The only things parents can see are what’s public. SafetyWeb won’t capture texts sent from your tween’s phone, and you won’t be able to see her email. SafetyWeb is about giving parents the knowledge they need to guide their kids through the Internet’s wilds.

“We can’t guarantee your kids won’t make mistakes, but if it’s in the pubic domain, we’ll find anything risky to your child’s safety, privacy, or reputation,” says Arone.

Great flicks like Freaky Friday and Charlotte’s Web aside, there just aren’t a lot of movies that are friendly to the female tween audience. At least, not many without messages guaranteed to horrify mom, or make the movie a serious no-no if any younger sibs happen to be hanging around.

So the gentle tween romance Aquamarine is even more of a refreshing surprise. Made in 2006, the film features two charming 13-year-old girls who, by the way, really look like 13-year-olds, not overly made up twentysomethings, who play out a pre-teen version of Splash when they find a mermaid trapped in a beachside swimming pool. They take the mermaid, Aqua (Sara Paxton), home, hide her condition from everyone, and help her on her quest to find true love. Which, wonder of wonders, turns out to not be found in the arms of some boy, but instead within the circle of female friendship she’s found on land.

Aqua’s clothes could be a little less slutty, and the film employs the tired old “mean girls vs. nice girls” trope, with a group of harpies opposing Aqua and her cohorts. But overall the film is cute, girl positive, fun to watch, and even boasts a cool theme song: “Connected,” sung by Paxton, was also featured in another girl-power movie, Barbie and the Diamond Castle.

In the parenting world, “best” and “perfect” are two words we spend far too much time obsessing over and allowing to rule our every move. But here’s a fun “best” … and it’s used, if you can believe it, in connection with Minneapolis-St. Paul.

ForbesWoman is out with its second annual list of Best Cities for Working Mothers, and the Twin Cities top the list, dethroning last year’s No. 1, NYC, which is eighth in 2010. Women’s income, cost of living, number of pediatricians, crime and spending per pupil were all factors the editors considered when ranking the top 50 cities.

Minneapolis-St. Paul beat NYC because this year editors placed a greater emphasis on women’s earnings. The Twin Cities also have the lowest violent crime rate and the second-lowest unemployment rate (6.4%). Washington, D.C, Boston, Pittsburgh and Baltimore-Towson, MD round out the top five.

No. 50? Vegas, baby.

Check out the full list at forbes.com.

We’ve found a way to simultaneously expose Junior to a sanitized version of Lady Gaga’s music and the sounds of classical music instruments.

The Vitamin String Quartet gives 11 of Lady Gaga’s songs a special makeover. “Poker Face,” “Alejandro” and “Just Dance” hit iTunes tomorrow. The full album, Vitamin String Quartet Performs Lady Gaga, will be released mid-September, and the music will get top placement on the pop section of the iTunes homepage.

The string quartet is comprised of two violins, a viola and a cello, and it’s actually a rotating collective of top-flight L.A. musicians who create a crossover genre by putting together contemporary music styles with classical music instrumentation. The Vitamin String Quartet has given the classical music treatment to Journey, Aerosmith, The Doors and many others.

Lady Gaga enters PG territory.

The Vitamin String Quartet Performs Lady Gaga be available at iTunes and amazon.com come mid-September. Three singles from the album will be available on iTunes starting 7/27.

Parents have a lot of competition when it comes to luring their kids outdoors: SpongeBob, Wii and today’s toy du jour. “Flaming Balloons” just might do the trick. They are made from bamboo and rice paper, with a small candle attached at the base; the rising hot hair lifts it up to the sky (tether lanterns for safety.) Make it Wild! 101 things to Make and Do Outdoors by Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield entices kids to be creative with their natural environment all year long. We can’t wait to try: Outdoor Ice Lanterns, Flaming Night Boats, Withy Lanterns, and Sand Silhouettes.

This is not your average craft book. Beautiful photographs accompany detailed descriptions for each distinctive project. Children (and adults!) are encouraged to think for themselves and make their creations their own. They learn to take risks, work together and discover new uses for natural resources.

This should hold their attention until they’re old enough to discover Facebook.
Let the wild rumpus start!

Available at Amazon.com

First, the good news, as is amply fleshed out by the article “Is Picky Eating An Early Sign of Autism?” in Time: parents of autistic kids need not be seized with fear that their (typically) picky eating habits are putting their health at risk. The long-term study of the dietary habits and physical health of 12,980 children in Bristol, England, found that “the scientists found no significant differences in the total energy intake or overall carbohydrate, fat and protein consumption between the autistic children and the controls at 18 months. All the children were similar in height, weight and body mass index.” The same held true at 7 years of age, the last time the children were measured.

Whew, right? Not so fast. Since the data collection started when the kids were six months, well before a diagnosis of autism would be given, and continued until the children were 4 1/2, a snapshot of the dietary habits of all these children together could be compared. And something surprising emerged: The picky eaters were more likely to be diagnosed as autistic. In other words, the pickiness, which can begin as early as the child’s first forays into solid food, is something of a predictor of a later autism diagnosis. “Researchers found that by the time they were 1 month old, the autistic children were already 35 percent more likely than unaffected children to be slow feeders. By their first birthday, their diets were considerably less varied–they ate fewer vegetables and fruits, but they also consumed fewer sweets and carbonated beverages. By that age, children with ASD were nearly twice as likely to be choosier about their food than unaffected children, according to their parents’ reports.”

Just being picky does not mean autism, of course. But can be a sign that something’s up. A kid who doesn’t like broccoli? Normal. A kid who doesn’t like anything but nuggets and who shows other signs of developmental delays? Time to call in the docs.

No, not the cheesy Disney version where Peter Pan is rendered as fey and neuter as, well, a male Disney character. This 2003 British live-action Peter Pan has more color, more juice, more verve injected into the classic story familiar to every parent.

This is one for the grade-school kids, first grade and up, as it’s a more mature take on the Peter Pan myth. In this tale, Captain Hook has a gruesome stump under that fearsome hook, and the pirates drink grog and smoke cigars. The action is a bit darker, particularly the memorably spooky scene where Peter and Wendy meet the mermaids. And the playful flirtation between Peter and Wendy is played up too, with a trembling-on-the-edge-of-puberty Wendy who knows exactly what she’s asking for when she asks Peter for a kiss. (No tongue, nervous parents). Oh, and a couple of pirates are killed. Watch out for that one.

But for all that, it’s a beautiful and luminous adaptation that’s smart and fast-moving enough to entertain parents as well as kids. Put this one on for Family Movie Night, and you’ll have a winner that works for many different age groups.

With food allergies so prevalent in kids these days - three million have them - birthday parties and other get-togethers can be bland affairs. The baked goods are often free of eggs, wheat, nuts … and taste. Time for a gustatory (taste) intervention.

Lori Sandler’s The Divvies Bakery Cookbook: Not Nuts. No Eggs. No Dairy. Just Delicious! is sure to produce some palate pleasers. Sandler’s mission began 11 years ago when her son Benjamin first showed signs of food allergies, and she had to carefully monitor everything he ate and touched. In 2005, she opened Divvies Bakery, a nut-free, egg-free and milk-free gourmet bakeshop. Sandler’s business took off and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. Her “safe sweets” have been featured on The Martha Stewart Show and Every Day with Rachael Ray and been sold in high-end retailers, including Dylan’s Candy Bar, Whole Foods and Balducci’s. Sandler’s new bakery cookbook contains 70 recipes. Here’s a preview: Chocolate-Dipped Candy Shop Pretzel Sticks, “Ice Cream” Hash (perfectly legal), Strawberry-Rhubarb Oatmeal Cookies, Popcorn Snowmen and Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

You see, good taste can be acquired.

-The Divvies Bakery Cookbook (including a Kindle edition) is available at amazon.com.
-Shop for Divvies products at divvies.com/store.

These days, it seems like practically every product has an eco-friendly version, from lap-top computers (bamboo, no less) to baby wipes. But back in the 70s, the age of polyester and Marcia Brady, that wasn’t the case. The children’s clothing company Le Top was one of the exceptions.

Le Top, a staple in boutiques and specialty department stores across the country, has been using natural fabrics since the brand was started in 1978. Now the family-run company known for its spirited playwear is launching its first online store. Le Top offers dresses, leggings, pants, jackets, sweaters and practically every other item you need to clothe Junior. Le Top Baby consists of all the basic layette pieces. Style-wise, Le Top is not over the top; the clothes are refreshingly free of sequins, tie-dye, studs, “gems” and other bling. Understated basics that let kids look kids.

An antidote to today’s Lady Gaga aesthetic.

Shop at www.letop-usa.com. FREE ground shipping through 8/22/10.