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1. Know Thy Children

   I happen to be a writer, and doubt this was a "publicity stunt" - those went out in the 1950's. These days, you never know what will connect with people or not, as values are so upside down. My neighbor is so overprotective, her girls still hold her hand everywhere they go-at ages 12 and 14-and living in a rural community! She has an 8 foot fence in the backyard, but they never played there without her direct supervision. I don't mean glancing out the kitchen window. She was physically there on her back porch, watching their every move without even reading a magazine, and puffing on her cigarettes, one right after another. Her second-hand smoke will get them before any bogeyman. She has crippled them to the point where I doubt they will ever leave home. A good mother knows her children; what they can take and give; when they need space or a hug. My oldest daughter recently praised me for knowing her younger brother so well. Everyone fears he might be gay. She shared her concerns, and I laughed, saying I would be fine if he was, but I know he's not, and explained. Her brother is an artist who thrives on the shock value of everything he does-he likes to provoke reactions. It's why his hair is streaked blue. Besides, I've accidentally seen him kissing his girlfriend, and watched him interact all his life with his father, brother, and male friends. Skenazy knows her son. She knew he needed this experience. She let him take flight, and he soared. If we've learned anything this week, it's that planes can fall from the sky and kill you as you innocently walk on the sidewalk. A cyclone can get you while sleeping in your bed and an earthquake can take a classroom full of children in an instant. Plan, teach, prepare, and love. Part of love knows when your child needs to let go, if only for an afternoon subway ride that gave him wings, because he had been given strong roots.

   3 months, 2 weeks ago In response to America's Worst Mom?

2. Bars in Europe

   Yes, I can enlighten you a bit on the scene in Europe. I lived there nearly five years in three different countries. Alcohol is served everywhere there at pubs and grocery store eating places; even in work lunchrooms at places like department stores, Hewlett-Packard and Seimans, which could never happen in America. People seem to know how to drink with sense in Europe. They drink with FOOD and don't get drunk. They usually walk or take public transportation, so driving drunk isn't an issue. In America people mostly drink to get drunk. That is the object of their visits. A restaurant with a bar is different from a bar. The former is okay for the stroller set, the latter, most assuredly, is not.

   4 months, 2 weeks ago In response to Babies in the Bar

3. Stop it!!!

   Kids who have kids are often suffering from a form of mental illness that seriously impairs their judgement (and what 16 year-old has much control in the first place?) Many are known to give birth NOT KNOWING they were pregnant (a form of denial) and being in shock when they hold the crying newborn. These are usually the babies that die in toilets and trash cans. We need to let the mental health professionals take over in these cases, and remove law enforcement. Putting her in jail would solve little. As parents, let's teach abstinence again. It's worked for all of my kids, and it can work for yours if you teach them right from wrong. As for this girl, stop looking. Find the baby a safe home and rejoice in his health. (How do we even know she just 'slipped away'? She may have been abducted, raped and killed herself! We must all stop judging everyone and get on with giving our own children the best we have to offer. Give them the tools they need to rear the next generation better than this one has been raised. We can also stop celebrating the lurid, base and disgusting Brats Dolls and booze guzzling heiress role-models.

   4 months, 3 weeks ago In response to Gone Baby Gone

Being a responsible neighbor means not parking your RV or boat on the street in front of another neighbor’s home creating an eyesore.