TresSugar

Tot Gets Tat: Mom Gets Jailtime?

Natasha Dantzig — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:16:34 PST

Tats on tots? Tattoos are a divisive aesthetic on adults; the thought of a child actually getting their sweet lil skin permanently inked is a pretty unpleasant idea, to say the least. Yet that's exactly what 10-year-old Gaquan Napier did with the full support of his mother Chuntera. According to the law in Georgia, where the family lives, it's illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to get tattooed - with or without parental consent, a fact that Napier claims to have been unaware of when she granted her child permission to permanently mark his body.

This story sounds pretty black-and-white - what was she thinking? - until we learn more details of the reason behind the tattoo. Two years ago, Gaquan was with his older brother Malik when he was struck and killed by a teenage driver at the heartbreaking age of 12. When Gaquan went to his mother and asked her permission to get a tattoo in memory of his deceased brother, Napier said, "It made me feel good to know that he wanted his brother on him."

Napier is currently in custody and facing a charge of misdemeanor child cruelty. In several other states, a child getting inked with the parents' permission is perfectly legal, so do you think this mom deserves to serve time for allowing her son to create a memorial to his big brother?

Hold It! That's What One Teacher Is Telling Students

Rebecca M Gruber — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:40:49 PST

How long can your child hold it? If she's in Stephanie Warner's class at a Brooklyn elementary school, let's hope she can hold it for a while!

The fifth-grade teacher has enacted a new policy to keep kids sitting at their desks and out of the bathroom. At the start of each week, the teacher hands out three bathroom passes to each student in the class. The kids then have three windows throughout the day during which they can use the vouchers to visit the restroom. If the tots still have their passes at the end of the week, they can trade them in for small prizes like pencils and erasers. According to one of the students, the teacher started the new program "because some kids just go for fun. They just want to skip class."

Though New York public schools do not have a bathroom limit policy, parents are up in arms complaining that their children's health - bladder infections and more - is at stake. The school's principal has put an end to the program following the uproar, but I want to know - do you agree with the teacher's reasoning behind instituting the policy?

Fighting Words from Anderson Cooper: Are Stay-at-Home Moms Lazy?

Natasha Dantzig — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:20:40 PST

Oh, Anderson. Generally a bastion of solid journalism and insightful commentary, Anderson Cooper seems to have taken a cue from the talk show circuit with one of his recent shows, pitting stay-at-home moms against their work-outside-the-home counterparts.

The show's clearly-for-ratings title - "Are Stay-at-Home Moms Lazy?" - is drawn from the outburst of one of the guest moms, who declares that women who stay at home with their kids use it as "almost an excuse to be lazy." Anderson follows up this evolved comment with an insightful, "You're saying that stay-at-home moms are lazy?!"

The whole point of the show was to discuss a controversial new study claiming that moms who work outside the home are happier than those who stay at home with their lil ones. Surprise, surprise, the guests weren't able to come to any sort of consensus. Understandably, people aren't pleased with the show's topic and especially not with its producers' choice of title, and they are blogging up a storm about it - which is probably exactly the point. Well played, Mr. Cooper. Welcome to daytime TV.

Is it me, or does this whole argument feel a bit dated? Aren't moms over-judging each other like this?

New Hope For Infertile Men as Scientists Grow Sperm Outside Body

Natasha Dantzig — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:30:51 PST

Go sperm! We tend to think of infertility mainly as an affliction of the fairer sex, but this is far from the truth: the last 50 years have seen an increase in the problem of male infertility coinciding with a huge decrease in reported sperm counts.

A major breakthrough was made recently as German and Israeli scientists grew mouse sperm outside of the body using just a few cells retrieved from the mouse's testicles. Once created, these sperm samples were tested and found to be genetically and chromosomally sound - meaning they could be used in the conception of baby mice.

Scientists are hopeful that the same techniques used to grow the mouse sperm can be applied to humans, with the life-changing result of previously infertile men being able to biologically father their own offspring.

Check Your Library Book Due Dates or Risk a Visit From the Police

Rebecca M Gruber — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:21:00 PST

With all that parents have on their minds, it's no wonder that something eventually falls through the cracks. If you live near Boston, just hope that it's not past-due library books that slip off your to-do list.

According to a mother in Charlton, a few months after she failed to return two of her 5-year-old daughter's library books, she received a surprise knock on the door - from a police sergeant! Once the officer left, the book-borrowing tot burst into tears, thinking her mom was going to be hauled off to jail. Both the mom and police officer said they thought the library's decision to send a law enforcement official to the home went above and beyond what was necessary, but Massachusetts state law does identify late library books as a misdemeanor.

Would the possibility of a visit from the police department make you more diligent about returning books to the library on time?

Where Is He or She Now? An Update on the Great Genderless Baby "Storm" of 2011

Natasha Dantzig — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:13:46 PST

Boy or a girl? Generally one of the first questions parents answer about their lil ones, it's the one that Toronto parents Kathy Witterick and David Stocker opted to skip completely when their baby was born nearly one year ago, on New Year's Day. Named Storm, an appropriate moniker for a child that was the subject of more than a little controversy, the baby's parents publicly announced that they would not be revealing Storm's gender in The Toronto Star. Unsurprisingly, the family has faced its share of haters, critics, and detractors over the past year who feel that the family is more than just wacky - that they're doing actual psychological damage by imposing their extreme beliefs on their innocent lil ones.

Today, as Storm's first birthday approaches, the lil one is thriving. With two doting older siblings - including big brother Jazz, whom his parents identify as "gender independent" thanks to his affinity for pink, fairy birthday parties, and dresses - and a community of supportive friends, the family is sticking by their commitment to raise their children with "the freedom to choose who they want to be, unconstrained by social norms about males and females." What do you think? Inspiring trailblazers or irresponsible parents?

Chelsea Clinton Kicks Off a More Public Life on TV

Annie Scudder — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:51:16 PST

Chelsea Clinton sat down with Brian Williams on his nightly Rock Center show to explain why she's leaving behind her "deliberately private life" for a journalism career. But before she got personal last night, Chelsea reported on former-educator Annette Dove, who has committed her life to helping impoverished children in Pine Bluff, Arkansas with hot food, tutoring, and someone to talk to.

After her inaugural "Making a Difference" report, Chelsea went on to discuss why she's putting herself out there for the first time. She said, "For most of my life, I did deliberately lead a private life and inadvertently led a public life." But after her grandmother, Dorothy Rodham, passed away in early November, she decided to change course. Chelsea explained that her grandmother had a core adage in life: that life is not about what happens to you, but about what you do with what happens to you. Chelsea said her grandmother had recently been "challenging me to do more with my life, to lead more of a purposefully public life. That being Chelsea Clinton had happened to me and that I had a responsibility to do something with that asset and opportunity."

See Chelsea's full segment below and tell us whether you're looking forward to more from her.

Procreate For Better Health?

Natasha Dantzig — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:32:09 PST

Forget about apples; maybe it's really a baby a day that keeps the doctor away! Two recent studies point to the health benefits of having children, and the first study, conducted at the University of California, San Diego, goes so far as to say that the more the merrier! Researchers followed 1,300 women from California and concluded that women who experience at least four pregnancies are less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than those who have never given birth - mothers of large families are half as likely to die from a stroke.

A second study, conducted by Australia's Deakin School of Health and Social Development found that childless women appear to be in poorer general health, and rank lower on measures of vitality, social functioning, and mental health. Researchers asked themselves what came first - were the women in poor health because they didn't have children, or were they childless because they were in poor health to begin with?

Does the possibility of improved health make the idea of procreation more appealing?

How-To: Check Your iPhone Data Usage

GeekSugar — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:22:01 PST

Wondering just how much data you're pulling down in a given month on your iPhone? There are a few ways to check your usage, one being to head to AT&T's wireless website, log into your account, and create a billing report (under " Bills and Payments," click "Create Billing Report," and "Data Usage Trend"), which gives you a detailed graph on how much data you're using. You can also estimate how much you use with your provider's online data calculator. Find your usage for AT&T, Verizon, or by signing in to your Sprint account.

However, this third way only requires you and your iPhone to see how much data you're devouring. Find out what to do after the break.

Pizza Is a Vegetable? Congress's Latest Bill Seems to Think So!

Rebecca M Gruber — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 07:03:05 PST

Somebody call Jamie Oliver, because US legislators need a quick lesson in nutrition. Earlier this year, the Department of Agriculture introduced new school meal nutrition standards created in the wake of our childhood obesity epidemic. Among the lunch-line changes were new standards limiting the use of potatoes and sodium and increasing the use of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in the cafeteria.

Congress, it seems, doesn't agree with the revised standards. This week, the legislative body put forth its latest spending bill - including budgets for the USDA - that will put tater tots back on school menus and consider pizza containing two tablespoons of tomato paste a vegetable. Yes, the simple presence of tomato paste allows a white flour, fat-laden meal to classify as a veggie. Congress argues that the USDA's recommendations were too expensive to enforce.

What do you think? Should cuts be made elsewhere to ensure that kids receive healthier meals in school? Or is it OK to consider pizza a vegetable?