rantlust

Posted by bab on December 13th 2007 in Parenting, World
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I just saw this on our local bay area NBC 11 news about a dutch couple giving up their 7-year old adopted daughter because the kid they say doesn’t fit in. They had adopted the South Korean girl when she was four months old after they failed to conceive any children. However after the adoption they did conceive two kids biologically. They have handed over the kid to social workers in Hong Kong where they are currently living (The dutch guy is a diplomat). I am not sure what to say but their actions certainly don’t fit it.

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Posted by anupcs on September 06th 2007 in Business, Parenting, Society, Video
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That reliable source of news for those of us tired with the war and subprime credit crunch, The Onion, has a bit on outsourcing childcare to India and other emerging nations.

This may be in jest but quite a few people I know (including my own extended family members) have been doing this for ages by sending their children to India to their grandparents and such.

[via Saja Forum]

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Posted by anupcs on February 01st 2007 in Crime, Law, Parenting, Politics
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If you thought the recent ban on trans fats in certain cities was indicative of too much government interference in our lives, wait till you hear about the idiotic bill that California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber has introduced recently. Lieber, a Democrat from the city I live in (Mountain View), is proposing to ban spanking of children under the age of 4. She wants to make this a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1000. California would be the first state in the nation to ban parents from spanking their children. This is government interference taken to a whole new level.

I don’t have children (neither does Lieber from what I can gather); so I won’t comment on the ways of disciplining young children. But do we really want the cops to come in to our houses and supervise how we bring up our children? Shouldn’t they be out there solving real crimes?

Fortunately, the press seems to be almost unanimous in condemning this bill and I hope that will influence the decision makers at the State Assembly. Check out the op-eds on the San Francisco Chronicle, The Contra Costa Times and The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

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Posted by tafkap on November 30th 2006 in Parenting
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So the saying goes. But it occurs to me now that it may refer to pulling out somebody else’s teeth rather than having one’s own teeth pulled out. In this case, it was my daughter’s two front teeth. They decided to start shaking a few weeks ago.

I decided to help her along in the extraction process, but as it turns out I found it to be an extremely difficult proposition. Try as I might, I could not get myself to yank at them with any conviction. In the end, it became evident that the wife wore the pants in our household. She managed to get both teeth. My daughter offered more resistance for the second one even though I don’t think it was particularly painful for her. She seemed surprised both times the tooth came out.

I, of course, was in charge of tooth fairy management. My daughter treasures her two dollar bills and has no intention of spending them.

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Posted by tafkap on October 24th 2006 in Internet, Parenting, USA
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Did you know that the NSA’s website has a section devoted for kids? Lovable characters and their skills include:

• Crypto Cat - Cryptography
• Decipher Dog - Cryptanalysis
• Joules - Engineering
• Slate - Mathematics
• T. Top - Computer Science
• Rosetta Stone - Language Analyst
• Sergeant Sam - General Security Service

Helpful links include - “How can I work for the NSA”? Where were all these career options when I was a kid?

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Posted by anupcs on July 15th 2006 in Parenting
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Early Wednesday morning, I got a call from a good friend. She was due to deliver her second child next week but her water broke early. She wanted to know if we could baby-sit her firstborn while she and her husband were at the hospital. I had never really baby-sat a child before. Neither had my wife. There was always one parent or other nearby to take care of the more unpleasant parental duties. But this was a friend in need and couldn’t be refused.

The kid is a trooper and we both adore him. So there was no reluctance on our part to take care of him while his parents were out. We went up to the city that evening but the contractions hadn’t really started going yet. My friend was supposed to go to the hospital the following morning. Our duty was to drop the kid off at the day care after getting him ready in the morning. We were given a crash course in bathing, brushing teeth, changing clothes and changing diapers. He normally doesn’t poop in the morning, assured the father.
(Read more…)

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Posted by renéejo on May 23rd 2006 in Health & Fitness, Parenting
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British post natal mothers are rushing to the nearest park to exercise with their babies and prams (strollers for the American readers). This has observers baffled and curious. They even have a website with all the exercises and programmes for you to try out.

Maybe our favourite singer was only demonstrating powerpramming while bobbling her baby.

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Posted by maria on April 10th 2006 in Humor, Parenting, Rants
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I was very much entertained by the recent blog post by a fellow Ranter. Well, I managed to do the same - but twice in one day!

We were getting ready to go out of town for the weekend, so I thought I would plan ahead and get a full tank of gas after picking up my son from daycare. Trying to be a Supermom and entertain him while I was filling up the car, I left the music on, leaving keys in the ignition. As I was swiping the credit card I thought better of leaving the keys in the car as I am always paranoid about someone jumping in and driving off with the kid in the car. But it was too late! For some reason my car decided to flip out an lock up! No cell phone, no AAA card, just a credit card and head full of panic!

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