Bad Parenting: Root of Society’s Loss of Civility?

Civility, by definition, means perfunctory or formal politeness. Unfortunately, this politeness is something that we are seeing less and less of everyday. From Rep. Joe Wilson’s rude retort during Obama’s speech to Kanye West’s stunt to upstage Taylor Swift at an awards’ show, it seems that American culture is indeed losing civility. The origin of this problem must be uncovered or else the future generations of our nation are in grave danger. Just imagine a chaotic world that has no definition of respect. Ultimately, violence will conquer every nation and basic human values such as respect will be unheard of.

One of the real reasons behind America’s lack of civility is failed parenting. For so many parents, this fact can seem unacceptable or preposterous. However, the truth is that parents are responsible for the growth of every future generation. A recent incident that occurred in a school bus is a perfect example of how children today are rapidly losing their civility. A teenager was unexpectedly beaten up over a place to sit on the bus. What’s shocking about the video is not just the unprovoked violence, but the apathy of most of the other passengers who just sat and watched. Some even encouraged the fight.

In cases such as these, one cannot help but think that parenting and the home life of a child are the factors to blame. Everyone knows that the smallest organization in society is the family. Families are the foundation of every nation. Almost every single member of society has his roots in some kind of family. Every politician, scientist, teacher, student, doctor, nurse, business man and news reporter that make up a society all hail from their own families. We need to understand how important parents are and how each individual’s attitude in life is molded at home.
If you are a parent then you obviously have your work cut out for you. Do not hesitate to act now because there is no better time than the present to instill good and humane values into your children. Not to do this basic parenting task would be a crime toward your family and toward society in general.

“Family first” is a phrase that you’ve probably heard and read a million times before. We’ve done the talk, now are we ready to do the walk? Are we ready to make drastic changes in the environment that we create at home?

Creating a good home life for your children is not as hard as you think. The ingredients of a good home are usually loving parents who are good role models for their kids, children who are respected and are in turn taught how to respect others as well as open communication lines between parent and child. A child who came from a home where respect is practiced will usually reflect the same value in society. On the other hand, an individual who has been exposed to a chaotic home life where rudeness and violence are a daily part of life is likely to carry out these attitudes outside the home.

However, there are still some parents who insist that factors outside the home such as peer pressure and pop culture are the main culprits in today’s lack of civility. What do YOU think?

To Eat or Not to Eat: A Pregnancy Diet Guide

Pregnancy is whole new adventure for any woman. It is a time when everything in the woman’s life seems to be undergoing transformations and there comes a need for her and her loved ones to adjust to these changes. If you’re planning for a child then it’s very important for you to know everything that you can possibly know about pregnancy. One of the fundamental issues in pregnancy is nutrition or diet. If you want your baby to be as healthy as possible then you should study up on the foods that you must eat and those that you must avoid.
Food is a vital matter that you need to consider in order to carry out a successful pregnancy. Let’s begin with the foods that you must try to avoid during your pregnancy.

Unprocessed meat or raw meat

These meats can be contaminated with toxic bacteria that exist in the sea such as Coliform bacteria, toxoplasmosis, and E-coli or salmonella. A great illustration would be sushi. In certain locations in the sea, fish meat (shark, sword fish, tile fish, and king mackerel) is contained with accumulated levels of mercury–mercury that can cause severe brain damage in the baby, affecting the developmental process in the brain. Another case would be when the fish is contaminated with specific industrial pollution. This pollutant, in scientific terms, is called polychlorinated biphenyls or PCB’s. This very toxic chemical can cause an incredible damage in IQ, memory, abnormality and can result to ultimate autism in the child. Before eating fish, study about the environment that you are living in. Contact the health department in your location and find out it the fish meat is safe.

Raw egg

Raw egg contains salmonella and should be avoided. Egg products like mayonnaise, hollandaise sauce, Caeser sauce, homemade ice cream and any food that uses raw egg are also good examples of food to be avoided. Salmonella can cause serious illness and a possible infection in your baby.

You have probably heard that pregnant woman have more appetite for food than a non-pregnant woman. For the most part, this statement is true. However, we often encounter statements that are false such as: “a pregnant woman should eat twice as before in order to carry out a successful pregnancy”. One fact that any expecting woman should know is the need to provide the body with the best nutrition available in the market. This is more important than eating more. A pregnant woman is in need of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals.

Carbohydrates

Rice, pasta and bread are great source of carbohydrates. Other great sources of carbohydrates are potato and corn.

Protein

Meat rich in protein include beef and chicken. Meat can provide a great amount of calories in a day. Beans and dairy products are good providers of protein as well.

Vitamins and minerals

Vitamin B9 is a vital vitamin. Vitamin B9 is known as Folic Acid which helps with nervous system development in your baby. You need to take this in the first trimester of pregnancy. Another important mineral is iron. The purpose of iron is to produce enough blood in your body for the delivery of the nutrition to baby. Calcium and zinc are important for developing the embryo and are best absorbed by the body through the foods you eat.

Learn more about nutrition for pregnant women in http://www.surebaby.com/foods.php.

Maternity Fashion: The Butterfly Sweater

Isabella Oliver has some of the most equisite maternity wear on the market! It almost makes me wish I were pregnant again! Oh no wait, I am STILL wearing maternity clothes!

Ok, I regress.

Check out this fabulous Butterfly Sweater! It could work as a fall piece with just a tank top underneath or a wrap for the office. It’s perfect with a pair of jeans or even with leggings.

I absolutely love this look because it can be fabulously dressed up or dressed down depending on your occasion. It works for the office and a night out! It almost looks like a dress if paired with the right bottom! And it hides the bump perfectly!

Grab one today as it’s on sale for 20% off – $151.20.

A Mother’s National Holiday

Today is November 1, 2009 and it of course marks the first day of a little something I like to call “The time for the greatest sentence in the English language for anyone attempting to raise (discipline, bribe, etc.)  a child.”

Now that Halloween is behind us,  mothers across the country will begin looking to the upcoming holiday season and can officially begin using our favorite phrases. One of the very few weapons we have in our arsenal of parenthood. Three magic little words that can transform a tantrum, a misbehaving lunatic into a wide eyed, fearful little angel.  Words that have been spoken for generations with a promise of results……..Those magical three little words…(Say it with me now…)

“Santa is watching.”

THIS ladies, is why we are beginning what is known as the” most wonderful time of the year.”

Quick Honey Take a Picture of My Sexy Pregnant Ass

While the Japanese may be ahead of us in many areas of electronics, cars, special effects and perhaps even weapons development, they are …I am going to with centuries upon centuries behind…um like the rest of the world if taking naked pictures of women while pregnant is a “new trend.” I recently read this article that discusses the new trend of photographing pregnant women in the nude. While some people say this came into vogue when Demi Moore did it, I am going to say Europeans have been painting women since the Renasaaicnce ages with all body shapes – some with big big curves, some that are just fat and some that were pregnant. We are really kidding ourselves if we think Britney Spears or Ms. Moore started this trend.

But putting who “did it first” aside, I have to ask you, my friends….Really?! I know, I know. Pregnancy is sexy. Pregnancy is beautiful. Pregnancy is natural. Pregnancy is…blah blah blah.  Sure those pictures when you are 18 weeks and you looked like you swallowed a little basketball may be all well and cute and good (provided of course you are still working out with your trainer, still don’t eat carbs, and are a celebrity with a great personal shopper), but by 35 weeks (okay okay 28 weeks) I was feeling pretty whaleish.  Here is something I NEVER said while pregnant “I am feeling so damn sexy lets just capture THIS moment forever.” My pregnancy involved lots of things I did NOT want captured on film.

And while Angelina Jolie claims Brad Pitt made her feel “sexy the whole time” she was pregnant I have two things to say: 1. I am not Angelina, and my husband is no Brad and 2. She is full of shit.

I had a hard enough time taking pictures with my clothes on. Thank God for digital – I was deleting at least 8.6 pics for every 10 that were taken. Call me vain. Call me shallow. Call me anti-feminist, but “naked”, “pregnant” and “photo” really don’t belong in one sentence. (Actually, if you talk to Paris Hilton, and a few other overly trusting celebrities the word “naked” and “pictures” alone don’t belong in the same sentence, but I think that is another post entirely. )

So in sum, it was hard enough to look at myself in the mirror for those 3.2 God aweful seconds between disrobing and the shower – why in the WORLD do I want those 3.2 seconds captured on film? For OTHERS to see. Forever.

Creepy or Cool??? Life-sized Replicas of Babies in Utero.

My sister recently got a 3D ultrasound which was not widely available just 2 years ago when I was pregnant.  I thought about getting one then, but didn’t see the need for it. I suppose if you are a high risk pregnancy, you may actually want to take a closer look at your unborn baby for medical reasons. But just for kicks and giggles??? I didn’t find it compelling. Plus, you never know what those sound waves are REALLY doing to your fetus.

Recently, I saw this article on ultrasound waves turned into life-size replica molds of unborn fetuses.

A  Brazilian student Jorge Lopes @ Royal College of Art design in London has pioneered the conversion of data from ultrasound and MRI scans into life-size plaster models of living embryos using a method called rapid prototyping.

‘It’s amazing to see the faces of the mothers. They can see the full scale of their baby, really understand the size of it,’ said Dr Lopes.

‘The technology can be also be used as an emotional tool for parents whose fetus might be deformed or needs treatment,’ added Hilary French, who heads the School of Architecture and Design Products.

A good way of understanding how rapid prototyping works is to imagine a printer that prints plastic powder instead of ink.

Then as it prints layer upon layer, it slowly builds up a 3D model.

Think of all the things you can use this for unrelated to babies?

Ok….so you tell us …. Is this creepy or cool?? What do you think????  Would you do this?? Or should we just leave the fetus alone???

C-Section : Risks & Rewards

I just finished reading one of the ten thousand articles I have read in my lifetime about C-section versus vaginal birth and frankly I am completely tired of it.  The one article I am about to rip to shreds can be found here.

First of all, do I think doctors perform way more c-sections than they probably should because they don’t want to be inconvenienced by a call at 3 am or because some annoying patient needs to “pencil in” having a baby into their spa weekend/nanny/work schedule?  Absolutely. However………….

1. I find it completely intolerable to say that women should/do feel ‘less of a woman” because they deliver via C-section. I mean really people? Really? Do we have to be so hard on ourselves that making a human is not enough!?! Read more

Top Baby Names of 2008

On May 8th, The Social Security Administration released the TOP Baby Names for boys and girls in 2008.

Jacob and Michael were the #1 and #2 for boys and
Emma and Isabella, the #1 and #2 for girls.

See table below from the SSA

Rank	Male name	Female name
1	Jacob	Emma
2	Michael	Isabella
3	Ethan	Emily
4	Joshua	Madison
5	Daniel	Ava
6	Alexander	Olivia
7	Anthony	Sophia
8	William	Abigail
9	Christopher	Elizabeth
10	Matthew	Chloe
Note: Rank 1 is the most popular, rank 2 is the next most popular, and so forth.

Read more

Home Birth vs. Hospital Birth? What do you think?

It seems that the battle over birth continued with this a study led by OSU assistant professor and midwife Melissa Cheyney.

The study compared birth records in Oregon’s Jackson County from 1998 through 2003 to attempt to find whether a correlation existed between poor health outcomes and homebirths.

A link between the two factors was not found. It did however find ongoing conflicts between doctors and midwives with physicians asserting that only hospital births were safe. This finding is in line with a 2008 American Medical Association resolution (pdf), which stated:

The safest setting for labor, delivery and the immediate post-partum period is in the hospital, or a birthing center within a hospital complex.

Personally, I couldn’t imagine having my baby at home. She was 10 lbs 02 ounces, measured 21 inches long and refused to come out naturally. After 3 hours of serious pushing, she had not dropped at all and refused to fit through my pelvis. I think her head circumference was 15 inches. On top of it all, I tested positive for strep, needed to be on antibiotics during birth and ran a fever. There is no way I would’ve done this at home. Why risk the life of my child or myself?

On top of it all, the day after she was born, at 2AM, the nurses rushed it to take her away because one of her blood tests showed signs of infection which indicated possible spinal meningitis. Birthing at home, for me? No thanks!

Have you given birth in a hospital or with the help of a midwife? What was your experience? Did you experience tension between doctors and midwives?

Is There a Pregnant Women’s Curfew I Don’t Know About?

I’m 6 ½ months pregnant, young and single and I want to go out and hangout at bars, concerts, beaches, etc. with my friends. But it seems like everywhere you go people are giving you dirty looks like what are you doing out of your cage!?

I don’t get it!

Is it assumed that once you’re pregnant you should stay home and knit baby clothes?? It’s not like I’m drinking or going to rave parties……or even trying to pick up men. I’m just going out with friends and enjoying my time out until I can’t.

Everyone knows that once you have a baby you can’t go out whenever you want to so why can’t I do it now???

Next Page »