New Parent Report Blog
Are Moms Discriminated Against?
Have you ever been on a job interview and worried that if you mentioned that you had children (or even had hopes of having children) you would not be given the job? Even if you were the most qualified individual for the position, did you fear that even the slightest glimpse of your personal “mommy life” would deter the employer from hiring you? Well, chances are, it would have. In fact, according to one of our own confessors, “moms waste money:”
I’m a woman and a business owner. I don’t hire women who come to interviews talking about their kids or who appear to have young children. Pictures on their key chain, toys in their purses. Sorry, but I have a business to run. This isn’t a day care or a place for moms waste my money by running home for every whimper and stuffed nose.
http://www.truuconfessions.com/channels/Mom/confession/526881
Clearly, that is one office where the pregnancy boom won’t be hitting. Even so, what can mothers do to protect themselves from this kind of blatant “Maternal Profiling?”
“Maternal Profiling” as defined by The New York Times in 2007 and websites such as MomsRising.org, is “”Employment discrimination against a woman who has, or will have, children. The term has been popularized by members of MomsRising, an advocacy group promoting the rights of mothers in the workplace.”
Study Says If You Want Healthy Kids, Work Part-Time
A new study of more than 4500 Australian preschoolers found children of part-time mums ate less junk food, watched less TV and were less likely to be overweight.
The results have sparked renewed calls for family-friendly work policies to promote healthy lifestyles for kids.
Researchers from the University of New England in NSW believe the unexpected finding may be driven by part-time mums being more conscientious on the days they are at home to care for their children.
This could explain why they restrict TV viewing and unhealthy snacks more than other mums, while ensuring their kids are physically active.
“It wasn’t what we expected at all,” said co-author Jan Nicholson, principal research fellow at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne.
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“When mothers work part-time, there’s obviously something about the way the house is run and the way parents are looking after their children that is protective,” Professor Nicholson said.
The study, to be published in the international journal Social Sciences & Medicine next month, also shows full-time working mums tend to have less healthy children.
Toddler Mistakes Gun for Wii Controller, Dies
A mix-up between a Wii game and a .380 caliber pistol led a 3-year-old to pluck the real gun from an end table and shoot herself in the abdomen, ending her life, Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe said.
Cheyenne Alexis McKeehan’s stepfather, Douglas Cronberger, and her mother, Tina Ann Cronberger, both 32, were inside their rural Norene home when the child shot herself Sunday night. Her mother was on the computer just a few feet away, Ashe said.
Douglas Cronberger usually kept his gun unloaded and in a cabinet. However, on Saturday night, Cronberger got out his gun, loaded it and went outside to look for what he thought was a prowler. When he came back inside, he put the gun on an end table in the living room and forgot about it, according to a Sheriff’s Department statement.
The statement also said Cheyenne learned how to use a gun from playing a Nintendo Wii game for days.
Q&A with the ‘Supernanny’
Our favorite modern-day Mary Poppins, Jo Frost, is celebrating the 100th episode of Supernanny, airing on ABC tonight at 9 p.m EST. That’s 100 episodes of tantrums, struggling parents, and tough discipline from the suit-clad, London-born childcare expert enforcing “time outs” with families across America.
In tonight’s 100th episode, Frost revisits some of the most memorable families from the show’s past: the McMillions of Arlington, TX (mom raising three boys while her husband served in Afghanistan); the Weinsteins of Amherst, OH (truckdriver dad David was a raging bull while his wife was a pushover with their four kids); the Lewises of Claremont, CA (Mom had to cope with her husband’s death and raising two toddlers); and the Newsomes of Tallahassee, FL (divorced mom struggling with her kids, a crazy work schedule, and downsized house).
EW.com caught up with the Naughty Step Supremo to talk about those suits, her fear of flying, and what she thinks of kids watching TV.
EW: As you celebrate 100 episodes of Supernanny, what has been the hardest day on the job?
JO FROST: I work so closely with families, every day is a tough day. But that’s part and parcel of what I do. You know going in that you’re not having ice cream. There are days when it’s incredibly tough. Emotionally it takes its toll, physically, mentally. I come home and I am “knackered” as we would say…
Also, I’ve been travelling to meet families for over six years, hotel to hotel. I don’t really like flying. That’s been a challenge for me. But I love what I do. And I have a purpose of what I do and I’m very passionate about what I do…This feels right for me, it feels like what I’m supposed to be doing.
How long will you keep doing Supernanny?
My expertise is in child care, in extreme situations or not, and being a family advocate. I want to continue to do that…But who knows. Everyone has to evolve.
Do you keep in touch with families from the show in the past, or any kids that have now grown up and called to say thanks?
The families have a choice, sometimes they keep in touch and sometimes they don’t. It’s the same — we don’t always have regular chats with our pediatricians. With some families, they regularly email or I’ll get a phone call and the kids will say “hi.”
Father Creates Special Needs Theme Park
A boy’s first ride on a carousel. A 57-year-old woman’s first time on a swing. A no-holds-barred adventure in the water. These are simple joys that for so many people with special needs were out of reach, until a place called Morgan’s Wonderland came around.
Morgan’s Wonderland in San Antonio, the first large theme park created for people with special needs, was created by Gordon Hartman, 46, a former San Antonio real estate developer who said his daughter Morgan was his inspiration.
“Morgan has really taught me that there’s more to life in many ways than what I saw before, being so busy as a business man,” Hartman said.
Hartman’s 16-year-old daughter Morgan suffers from severe cognitive delay. A few years ago, Hartman sold his business and began spending more time with Morgan and her friends, he said.
One day, while he and Morgan were in a swimming pool, Hartman said he had a realization that helped put his life into perspective.
“There were some other children at the other end of the pool, a couple of kids playing with a ball back and forth and you could tell Morgan wanted to play with them,” Hartman said.
But because of her inability to communicate properly, Morgan and the kids were left on opposite sides of the pool. So Hartman decided to make sure there was a place where couldn’t, shouldn’t or can’t were not a part of the vocabulary.
He raised $30 million, including $1 million of his own, to build Morgan’s Wonderland, which is scheduled to officially open on April 10 but has already been open to some visitors.
Women Lose 90% of Their Eggs By 30
Article Courtesy of The Washington Post
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS NEW DATA? HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU CONCEIVED YOUR FIRST CHILD?
Whether you are aware of your incessantly ticking biological clock or not, the absolute last thing that any woman of steadily advancing childbearing age wants to hear when she flips on the morning news shows is: Women lose 90 percent of their eggs by age 30.
Thirty? Life has hardly begun at 30! Gulp.
The hard truth is that decades of research have proved that a woman’s fertility declines over time. But now it appears that the old biological clock may start ticking much earlier — and faster — than once thought.
A study from the University of St. Andrews and Edinburgh University, published last month by PLoS ONE, tracked the human ovarian reserve — or a woman’s potential number of eggs — from conception through menopause. Using a mathematical model and data from 325 women, the researchers found that the average woman is born with around 300,000 eggs and steadily loses them as she ages, with just 12 percent of those eggs remaining at the age of 30, and only 3 percent left by 40.
“That’s a greater percentage of loss at an earlier age than had previously been reported,” says reproductive endocrinologist Robert Stillman, of Shady Grove Fertility in Rockville. “One might be able to argue whether there are 12 percent remaining at age 30 or 22 percent or even 40 percent, but it is still clear that there’s a very rapid loss in the number of eggs available as women age and that the smaller pool of [older] eggs is also more likely to” contain a higher proportion of abnormal eggs, he adds, pointing out that from the mid-30s on, the decline in fertility is much steeper with each passing year.
Hot Dogs Considered Lethal
Article Courtesy of DiscoverMagazine.com
Pediatricians have declared that the trusty ol’ hot dog is in need of a makeover, setting the stage for one of the biggest engineering challenges known to man and causing some to worry, “Is it the end of the hot dog as we know it?”
The cylindrical sausage has been deemed a choking hazard by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which published an official statement on choking risks in the journal Pediatrics that included concerns about the snack clogging a child’s wind pipe. The pediatricians pointed out that 17 percent of all food-related asphyxiations among children are caused by hot dogs.
Talking about the proposal for a choke-proof hot dog, a doctor explains to USA Today:
“If you were to take the best engineers in the world and try to design the perfect plug for a child’s airway, it would be a hot dog,” says statement author Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “I’m a pediatric emergency doctor, and to try to get them out once they’re wedged in, it’s almost impossible.”
New ‘Egg Timer’ Test to Determine Ovulation
The test – nicknamed the “egg timer” – detects approximately how many eggs are left in a woman’s ovaries, letting them know how fertile they are.
Medical Director of IVF Australia, Associate Professor Peter Illingworth, says the test will allow women to plan when it is appropriate to move into complex fertility treatment.
“The test is particularly helpful for women who’ve had cancer treatments or women who’ve had surgery on their ovaries, as this allows women to assess the effects of that treatment on their future fertility,” he said.
Professor Illingworth says it could offer reassurance to women who can continue trying to have children naturally.
“What the test will do is identify those younger women who may well be at serious risk of not having children easily when they’re older,” he said.
“It will identify women who are at risk of having a premature menopause for example and allow women to plan how active they should be about fertility treatment.”
Infertility information support and advocacy group ACCESS has welcomed the new test.
Cure for Peanut Allergies?
The largest ever trial to find a treatment for potentially fatal peanut allergies is to give sufferers tiny amounts daily to build up tolerance.
The Addenbrookes team will give increasing doses of peanut flour to 104 British children, up to the equivalent of five nuts a day.
Twenty out of 23 sufferers in an earlier study became able to eat more than 30 peanuts safely.
The new £1m three-year trial could lead to a widely available treatment.
About one in 50 young people in the UK suffers from peanut allergies which can cause breathing problems, itching and, in severe cases, a potentially fatal inflammatory reaction called anaphylaxis.
The new trial funded by the Department of Health’s Institute of Health Research will involve more than 100 seven to 17-year-olds.
They will be given daily doses of peanut flour, starting at about one milligram, added to yoghurt.
“This is going to be the largest trial of its kind in the world and it should give us a definitive idea of whether the approach works and whether it’s safe,” said Dr Andrew Clark.
Marshmallow Test is A Lot of Fluff
Article Courtesy of The Daily Beast
Judging a kid’s ability to delay gratification by whether they eat a marshmallow or not is a ridiculous way of predicting their future achievement, say Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman.
No behavioral game has gained more publicity in the last year than Dr. Walter Mischel’s “marshmallow test,” an assessment of children’s impulse control. Four-year-olds are put at a table in a blank room, with a marshmallow in front of them. They’re told that if they can wait until the experimenter comes back, they’ll get two marshmallows to eat. Writing about this in The New Yorker last spring, Jonah Lehrer reported that preschoolers who waited the full 15 minutes grew into teens with SAT scores that were, on average, 215 points higher than the tots who ate the marshmallow in the first 30 seconds.
