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Worst Dads: Dad charged with binding girl with tape
Maybe at this point, it’s just piling on, but sometimes things people do with or to kids, supposedly thinking it’s all in good fun, are just too much. Here a single dad saw his daughter playing with packing tape and decided it would be funny to wrap it around her legs and hands and over her mouth and post a picture on Facebook. To make matters worse, he labeled the photo “Here’s wut (sic) happens when my baby hits me back. ; )”
And, now of course, he is clogging the courts with an aggravated assault charge. He can’t have contact with his daughter or any child under 18 while the case is pending. He is also not allowed on the Internet.
Amazingly stupid and lacking any humor for a dad whose mom says her son is a “big jokester.”
[From Dad charged with binding girl with tape ‘feels awful’ - Chicago Sun-Times]
Popularity: 1%
Review: BabyGiraffe Accessory Holder
The BabyGiraffe is a multi-use accessory for holding and hanging anything from a toy to a bottle that any parent would appreciate.
One thing we’ve learned about Rosemary, our three month old baby girl, is that she loves to stare at things. Especially fuzzy, hanging things. Put something fuzzy and hanging in front of her eyes and she’ll be captivated for period of time. And the more things you can dangle in front of her, the better. In an effort to keep her distracted and therefore quiet, we dangle things in front of her whenever we can.
But not everything you place her in is outfitted with fuzzy hanging things. This is where the BabyGiraffe, a versatile holder of fuzzy things, comes in handy. It is a simple yet clever accessory that allows you to dangle fuzzy things in front of your baby just about anywhere. It uses a surprisingly powerful spring-loaded clamp that doesn’t budge once it is clamped onto something. At home, I’ve clamped it on the changing table, the swinging chair, and the crib. The flexible spine makes it easy to place the hanging object exactly where you want it and viola, baby is distracted. It is small enough to fit into a diaper bag, so we take it everywhere. As soon as we settle Rosemary in, the BabyGiraffe comes out.
The idea of a gadget like this to hang things from was a great one, but the giraffe print cover was a stroke of genius. The soft material protects the surfaces it clamps to, which any fabric cover would do, but by using a giraffe motif, it is so much more fun. It was because of the giraffe print that before I even used it, I was charmed.
Other than fuzzy things, the BabyGiraffe comes with a bottle holder and a mirror, which comes in super handy for rear facing car seats or front facing strollers so you can keep an eye on your baby. Or it can be positioned so your baby can stare in awe at her own reflection.
At just $24.95. the BabyGiraffe is an accessory that any new parents will appreciate and use, so it makes an affordable and memorable gift.
Popularity: 1%
2011 in Bans around babies and kids
Some days it just seems like there are too many rules. Take a look at this list compiled by Yahoo! Shine’s Piper Weiss on crazy rules set up around pregnancy, baby names, schools and travel. Some seem a bit over the top and more than a few downright unnecessary, but in a world more and more focussed on the individual, it’s not surprising some organizations are trying to herd the cats. Happy reading.
· Baby photos: A Maryland hospital banned baby photos in the first five minutes after a child is delivered. The hospital explained that family photographers were causing risky distractions, though those in opposition to the policy believed it was put in place to avoid malpractice lawsuits.
· Brown-bag lunches: A Chicago public school banned kids from bringing food from home, forcing them to eat the cafeteria lunches or nothing at all. The school says it’s healthier for kids but not all parents agree. They’re also not in agreement on the price-point, considering home-made leftovers are a lot less money than the daily cafeteria fee.
· Baggy pants: Schools districts from Florida to Pennsylvania banned students from wearing baggy pants. In Orlando an actual “baggy pants” law suspended students who “exposed underwear or body parts” with a little loose hanging fabric.
· Babies on planes: When Malaysia Airlines banned babies from some first class flights, the hospitality industry took note.
· Babies with the name Lucifer: New Zealand courts decided to crack down on parents’ rights, banning the name from the baby books because of it’s satanic association.
· Kids expressing themselves creatively: It really sucked to be a high school student in Florida this year. By the summer, Lake County’s school district decided to ban “extreme” “unnatural” hair color and “bold” makeup, citing such mainstays of teen culture as causes of class distraction.
· Teachers-student Facebook friends: Social networking has been a minefield for teachers. In Missouri,
state senators came up with a band-aid solution. Fire any teacher who accepts a student’s friend request on Facebook. They probably shouldn’t retweet anything from a student either, just to be safe.
· Cheerleader uniforms: At a San Jose high school, cheerleaders are required to buy a micro-mini uniform if they make the squad. But they’re also required to take it off when they go to class, because it’s way too short. Paging the office of mixed messages.
· Saying ‘bless you’: A teacher said his class got so out of hand with sneeze follow-ups he banned the verbal courtesy from his classroom.
· Tanning teens: First no fur, now no leather skin. That’s probably a good thing. California passed a law banning the use of tanning beds by anyone under 18.
· Choosing your birth date: Hospitals in Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, Texas and California ban elective C-sections and inductions before 39 weeks gestation due to serious health risks.
· Dakota Fanning holding a bottle of perfume: The British Ad Council banned this ad suggesting it’s borderline pedophilia.
· Skinny jeans: At Brigham Young University-Idaho, students are getting turned away from their exams on the grounds that their jeans are far too form-fitting.
· Happy meals: In San Francisco, fast food joints can no longer bribe kids with toys. (Unless their parents want to spend an extra 10 cents.)
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Signs of the inevitable separation
This week, as I do every year, I am putting together the 30 page iPhoto book recapping our year as a family. I add highlights and special pages for each of our kids detailing their adventures and triumphs. Most of the pages, though, are family shots of me or my wife hugging our kids desperately, while they still smile brightly in the embrace. I give the book to both grandmas as well as my wife. For years, it’s come in their stocking and my kids still always impressed that Santa knows so much about our family. My mother just sent me an email saying she often pulls the books down and pages through them, marveling at how the kids grow and change.
However, for our own kids, the value of the books is quite a bit different. Of course, on Christmas day, they want to see what is in the book and if Santa has chosen flattering photos of them or has embarrassed them in some way. But that is mostly where their reading ends. The books sit on the bookcase shelf, unread unless my wife or I pull them down to remember what was happening when.
What the kids do pull down, and here is the rub, is their annual elementary school yearbooks. Already, they prefer to relive the intense school time with their friends and ponder their relationships with their buddies. It’s inevitable, but yet another painful reminder that they are slowly pulling away from us, still happy to be in the photos, but not needing to relive the happy family memories as much as their time with their pals.
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Review: Zazoo Photo Clock for kids
The Zazoo Photo Clock is really an amazing example of how technology has evolved and prices have dropped on multi-use photo frames. Where single use photo frames were once several hundred dollars, here is one that is kid-friendly, with a kid-friendly price that does so much more than just play a slideshow of photos.
The Zazoo Photo Clock, invented by an entrepreneur mom, can act like a clock. One of it’s key features is the ability to wake your child with a specific image so they know it’s okay to get out of bed in the morning or after a nap. And it’s specifically designed so they understand the message with the choice of image, whether they can read or not.
The Zazoo can also show photos or even movies with a simple menu system available through a remote or easy to use buttons on the back. And, if your child has MP3s he or she likes, it can play music off a memory stick or an SC card. It’s not meant to be an iPod, but for a small child, it does all the things a big kid gadget would do, but in an easy to manage package. Dads can imagine adding lullabies or other favorites to the playlist, even dad reading a story in the case of dads who are often away.
There are several colors available from girlish pink to eco-friendly green. It comes with a remote control that can easily be used to move from screen to screen. On screen menu graphics, controlled also by buttons on the back, are a little weak in design (think bad engineering graphics) but you don’t really see these unless you are moving from movie to images, or changing the clock settings. On the back of the machine are two inputs for regular and mini-USB, as well as an SD/MMC/xD card reader, so it’s easy to plug in inexpensive flash memory of 2-4 gigs for music, images, or maybe even a movie, if you can put it in the right MP4 format. Note: not all MP4s work, but there is a troubleshooting section at Zazoo.com website.
At $89 (slightly lower at Amazon), there are less expensive alarm clocks and photo frames, but when you factor in all the other uses, for some kids, the Zazoo will be the perfect gift under the tree.
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