Parenting

Now That 15-Year-Olds Can Access Emergency Contraception, Can We Get Rid of Those Terrible Subway Ads?

After an election season infused with contraception-bashing partisanship, on Tuesday the FDA lowered the age at which a person can access Plan B One-Step to 15. The federal government had required that women under 17 years-old obtain a prescription for emergency contraception, but in early April, a ... More >>

Think Being a Working Mom is Preferable? You Might Be a Working Mom

The question of the workplace and work-family balance is proving to be a particularly hot topic this week. Former Lehman Brothers CFO Erin Callan published a wistful essay in Sunday's New York Times, where she says she wishes she'd had more of a life beyond work. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's new b ... More >>

Pamela Geller Jihads against Vaguely Creepy Breastfeeding Doll on Dr. Drew

When we last saw Pamela Geller, she was doing what she does best: trying to offend as many people as possible with anti-Islam, hate-mongering transit ads while saying she does it all for her love of Islam. So imagine our surprise when she posted a YouTube clip of herself this morning on HLN's Dr. Dr ... More >>

Socialism Starts With Your Kids' Allowance, Preacher W.S. McBirnie Warned in 1965

Each Thursday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from thrift stores, estate sales, and flea markets. Teach Your Child Free Enterprise! Author: Dr. W.S. McBirnie Date: 1965 Publisher: Voice of Americanism, Glendale, CA Discovered at: San Jose, CA, ... More >>

Should New York Bullies Face Criminal Charges?

As the story now goes, 15-year-old Felicia Garcia threw herself in front of a train in Staten Island as dozens of horrified students watched on Wednesday afternoon after getting tormented by several members of her high school's football team.The alleged bullying followed a weekend party, at which sh ... More >>

Breastfeeding Porn: Like Regular Porn...But With Milk

A New Jersey woman is suing an Iowa-based marketing company after a video it shot of her breastfeeding her daughter was converted into "breastfeeding porn" and circulated across the Internet.Until today, we didn't know "breastfeeding porn" was even a thing. So, naturally, we spent a good chunk of ou ... More >>

Cyberbullying Bill Now A Law (That Does Very Little To Keep Punks From Bullying Kids Online)

There's good news and bad news for any cyber-tough-guys out there whose brand of bullying involves being a prick from behind the safety of a keyboard. The bad news: Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the much-anticipated "Cyberbullying Bill" into law this afternoon. The good news (for cyber-pricks, anyway ... More >>

'Why Women Still Can't Have It All:' What's Wrong With Sticking a Baby in a Briefcase?

Women still can't have it all, at least according to Anne-Marie Slaughter's new Atlantic cover story. The article basically details women's difficulties with career-family balance, but says that better balance ("having it all") can be achieved if broad changes take place. As with any article tha ... More >>

BREAKING: Parents Don't Know How To Talk To Their Kids About Drugs

This just in: Parents don't know how to talk to their kids about drugs, according to media reports. As detailed recently by The Associated Press, medical marijuana legalization efforts have complicated "the drug talk" between moms, dads, and teens. "Parent-child conversations about pot 'have beco ... More >>

Bloomberg Flogs Breast Milk on the Subways

This new city ad extolling the virtues of nursing has appeared on the IRT 2 and 3 trains, and probably elsewhere in the system. For those of us accustomed to the rather gruesome TV ads disseminated by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the new subway ads come as a shock and a plea ... More >>

What Makes Cyber-Bullying Laws Work?

Andrew Cuomo had decided to fight cyber-bullying, and recent reports indicate that he and several legislators are working to OK a bill before the legislative session's end. This isn't the first time cyber-bullying legislation has come up in New York. However, uncertainty about how to handle this k ... More >>

Babies are Assholes: The Problem With Attachment Parenting

By Jef Otte The baby wakes up and he's hungry. He wants some food and he wants it right fucking now. Unfortunately for the baby, there are a number of things that need to take place before that can happen: He needs his diaper changed, he needs to get strapped into his high-chair and his food needs ... More >>

Bloomberg Backs Breastfeeding: Report

In an article titled "Mike: Do What's Breast for Baby" (no, really), the

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Talks Cyberbullying

We often write about the latest efforts of the Manhattan District Attorney to sentence criminals and stop crime in the city. His news releases alert us to crime activity throughout the borough, but today, we thought we'd update you on DA Cy Vance's initiatives to address a different kind of crime sc ... More >>

WORDS HURT

Ben Marcus discusses The Flame Alphabet

Melissa McCarthy Tells Me About The Bridesmaids Stomach Cramps Scene

​ The hilarious Melissa McCarthy hosted an event last night for the reinvention of Ivory, which we talked about in between covering slightly more insouciant things. Like, hasn't Bridesmaids been wrongly labeled "a gross-out comedy" when there was basically just that one poopy-in-the-sink (and ... More >>

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Proud Parents of Twins

​Mariah Carey gave birth today at 12:07 p.m. to twin babies, a boy and a girl. To top it off, today is also Carey and Nick Cannon's fourth wedding anniversary! And they listened to "We Belong Together" after the twins were born, according to Carey's rep. I'm verklempt. No word yet on what the twin ... More >>

The Upper Breast Side Mom Club Fighting One-Time All-Male Manhattan Lodge

​The battle between breast-feeding "emporium" The Upper Breast Side and the once man-only "lodge"-cum-apartment building the Pythian is too perfect. The store, which sells pumps and outfits for new mothers and houses a unified safe space, charged its building owners with discrimination after t ... More >>

Dixie is So Gay: Surprising Census Info About Gay Parents in the South

The Times has a great piece today that defies a lot of the common stereotypes of what it means to be gay in America. Since 1990, the Census has been a gold mine of information about LGBT couples for creative demographers. Despite the lack of any question about sexual orientation (hence, no info on s ... More >>

Ayelet Waldman Joins "Tiger Mother" Fray to Talk About Ayelet Waldman

​Everyone's talking about the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua (who is maybe not that bad after all!), and her iron-fisted approach to parenting. Now Ayelet Waldman, the author of Bad Mother, has joined the discussion with a piece in the Wall Street Journal about her own parenting style. Because apparen ... More >>

Parents Talking Parenting, Chinese Mother Edition

​Are Chinese mothers superior to Western mothers? Yes, says Amy Chua, a Yale Law professor writing this weekend in the Wall Street Journal; their strict discipline and refusal to acknowledge their kid's desires and individuality inevitably result in high-performing academic star-children, if w ... More >>

La luna

Mom Sues Store After Getting Kicked Out for Breastfeeding

​A New York woman is suing Lily O'Brien's Chocolate Café in Midtown for throwing her out because she was nursing her five-month-old daughter. Julie Acevedo-Taylor and a friend were there with their kids. When they started breastfeeding their babies, management demanded that they stop. When th ... More >>

Forever 21 Launches Maternity Line, Basically Forcing Teens to Get Pregnant

​Forever 21, purveyor of cheaply made, brightly colored teen-wear, has launched a maternity line. It's only in five states, three of which have some of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country. In a store that's aimed at the teen and tween demographic, it's likely that this is a specifi ... More >>

Teenage Sailor Abby Sunderland Might Be Lost at Sea, is Definitely in Trouble

​These kids! They want to do things like sail around the world by themselves -- which is very ambitious, and brave, and awesome, and also, crazy! -- and we let them, and then they get into trouble! Like Abby Sunderland, the 16 year-old from Thousand Oaks, California who is trying to circumnavi ... More >>

Albany Makes Kids Stay in Booster Seats Until Age 8; Runnin' Scared Says, "Enough!"

​It's a wonder modern children survive past their teens, overprotected as they are from dirt, walking, etc. Now we have the state demanding parents keep their kids in car booster seats until the age of eight. The old law let children out of the ass-cradles when they reached seven, but the new ... More >>

Join State Senator Liz Krueger's Subway Breastfeeding Caravan!

​You may have heard that last week a mother suffered the indignity of a ticket for breastfeeding her kid in a parked car on East 27th Street. Scoundrels! say we; but at least lactators have the subways, if state senator Liz Krueger and the Breastfeeding Mothers' Subway Caravan have anything to ... More >>

No Breathing Life into Third Ice Ages

Sitter Arrested in Baby Bucket Drowning; Kid Care Biz Was Unlicensed

Kristal Khan, 28, a former teacher from Trinidad and Tobago who runs the child care center where that kid drowned in a bucket yesterday, has been arrested on charges of endangering the welfare of a child. Her operation appears to be unlicensed, though it is thought to have cared for only two childre ... More >>

Octomom To Become a Porn Star?

Nadya Suleman--the world famous Angelina-looking octomom who popped out eight implanted embryos, making a lifetime total of 14--now finds herself pregnant with possibility. She just got offered "a deal of up to one million dollars plus a year of health insurance for her family" by Vivid Entertainmen ... More >>

Federal Court Defendants Joel Klein & Ray Kelly

Our Education Mayor remains silent about police abuses of students in public schools

The City Pitted Kids Against Artists in the East Village

. . . And the kids lost the battle of P.S. 122

Will Christine Quinn Stand Up to Commissioner Kelly?

Two probable mayoral candidates have some unfinished business about school thugs

Paper Clips

G.I. Joe, You've Been Replaced

High-minded toys for your little hipster

'Making Grace'

Changing Station: Clothes for a Pregnant Britney

Superwoman 2.0

Your biological clock. Your student loans. Your girly paycheck. Hey, you're having it all.

NyQuil, Yes. Morning-After Pill, No.

Bush welcomes next wave of teen mothers

Much Better Than That Thing With Kevin What's-His-Name

Who's Minding the Kids?

Anatomy of a Baby's Death in New Jersey

The Daddy Shady Show

Upstanding Suburban Citizen Eminem Sets the Fatherhood Standard

Cat Power

Mother Jones's Diary

Saving Babies

Fighting to Reduce Infant Mortality Among Immigrants and African Americans

'The Crippled Workforce'

Making Room for Women in New Media

A Couple of Startling Facts

A Couple of Startling Facts

And Baby Makes Two

Nannypacks

Public issues stay private as Park Slope parents plumb underclass