"children" news and stories

And you thought the green-beret'd Girl Scouts and their cookies were enterprising little kids?

In Victorville, CA, the latest trend at schools is an underground sugar trade. With candy and other "bad" snacks banned from school campuses, kids are selling contraband Snickers and Twinkies right out of their backpacks.

According to Jim Nason, principal at Hook Junior High School in Victorville, it's become quite a lucrative business for the dealers. Kids bring things like candy bars, soda, and even energy drinks from home in their "sack lunch" and turn around and sell them for a healthy profit, with some kids walking around school with upwards of $40 in cash.

While I understand this is a bit of a problem for the schools and parents, I have to hand it to the kids -- at least we can count on them to be very good businesspeople when they grow up.

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My husband and visited our favorite local Rio Grande Tex-Mex restaurant on Monday evening. It had been a very long day of traveling back from Park City, Utah and a very long weekend of being surrounded by families enjoying the slopes. Now, I'm not one of those kid haters; they were all very cute with their mini skis and fuzzy hats while they zoomed past me on the beginner's slope.

As we scoured the bar for an adult place to unwind, we quickly realized all the seats were taken and we'd have to actually get a table. Well, no sooner do we get seated and order our margaritas than the hostess sat two women and two children next to us. Wait, I need to rephrase, the women sat and the kids ran all over the place yelling and jumping like wild monkeys. I wish I were exaggerating, but as we sat there the kids, who were between the ages of 8-11, made about ten squealing trips from their table to the tortilla machine, the bathroom, other tables with kids and more. Their moms just sat there sipping margaritas and acting oblivious to the behavior. My jaw dropped, as my chair was bumped into repeatedly, and other patrons stared in disbelief.

This wasn't a one time occurrence for us. I'm starting to witness this more and more in restaurants lately. Is this just something you're numb to once you have kids? Or are kids in charge at restaurants these days? Whatever the case may be, I needed a couple of rounds of Cuervo to get through that meal!

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Park Slope, Brooklyn, has gotten a reputation in the past few years for being, well..a stroller mecca, to put it mildly. The tight-knit community, safe streets, and good schools make it a natural choice for couples looking to raise a family.

The stroller news - moms taking over coffee shops to hold "Mommy and Me" playgroups - seemed to have died down, until a January blog post by Park Slope columnist, blogger, and mom Louise Crawford. The proprietors of Union Hall, a neighborhood bar that features local bands, hung a sign that read, "No one under 21 admitted. Please, no strollers."

The owners cited liability and safety as the reasons for the new rule, saying that the bar's bocce court and open stairwell didn't mix well with kids running around shoeless.

According to Crawford, who was featured on a recent NPR story about the issue, the bartender has since loosened the ban, and now wants to start a late-afternoon group specifically for moms and their babies.

I'd imagine that the bartender had little choice in the matter, though - those Park Slope message boards can be ruthless, and one person is only so strong when they're staring down a half-dozen moms and their Baby Joggers.

The Times article had a quote from a woman who was incredulous at the "cubes, crayons, and candy" at the top of the bar. For the record, a bar I frequent in Philly, Tattooed Mom, serves up toys and Dum-Dum pops alongside PBR and shots of Jim Beam. And while I thoroughly enjoy these nods to childhood, that's all I need...a nod.

What about you? Do you think it's too harsh to ban kids and strollers from a neighborhood bar? Or is it completely legitimate to ban whomever you want from your bar, especially if you're worried about their safety?

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"Hey, your kids are obese!"

Out of politeness, we normally don't point and scream such obvious statements to the people around us, but we just might have to. It seems that many parents are in total denial about their own children's obesity.

Research firm Knowledge Networks conducted a survey of 2,060 adults then collected height and weight measurements on the children from their parents to calculate body mass index. The comparison of what parents said about their children's weight -- "about right," "slightly overweight," "very overweight" -- was different from what the research firm calculated.

That's slightly alarming, given that obese children are susceptible to diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol problems. Overweight children are likely to grow up to be overweight adults with the same issues. What's more alarming is that children are open to changing their dietary habits to improve, but if their parents don't help them because they can't even see a problem, well, then, that's a problem.

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In my regular life in Philadelphia, I do all my own cooking. I've been living with a roommate for the last few years, but we have never gotten in the habit of sharing the task of cooking or mealtime. On occasion I'll have dinner with friends and we'll share in the cooking, but when it comes to breakfast and lunch, I am always on my own.

One of the joys of being at my parents' house for the holidays is the fact that the cooking gets shared. Last night my mom and I made a pot of chicken soup together and it was wonderful to share in the chopping, stirring and clean up together. This morning I was sitting at the dining room table when I heard my dad rustling around in the kitchen, opening the fridge, getting out a pan and breaking some eggs. He popped his head around the doorway, looked at me and said, "Scrambled eggs with cheese?"

I nodded emphatically and within a couple of minutes the plate you see above had appeared in front me. I took a bite and sighed in happiness as the taste of the tender eggs and sharp cheese moved across my tongue. Then I said, "I think eggs just taste better when someone else makes them for you!"

What are the foods that just taste better to you when someone else makes them for you? Is there some comfort food from childhood that one of your parents still makes for you? Have you taken to making that same food item for your own kids?