Relax: Nothing you plan for your kid, or worry about, will ever come true

By Marla Jo Fisher, The Orange County Register

Have you ever noticed, when people are preparing to have a baby, or, in my case, adopt a couple of ready-mades, they spend a lot of time thinking about the future?

Seriously, people who have never thought past making it to the store before it stops selling beer are suddenly fantasizing about watching their son play in the major leagues, or worrying about him getting electrocuted because they didn’t cover the outlets while he was still in the womb.

I can still remember one of my friends, who got rid of all her houseplants while she was pregnant, because she read that some plants have poisonous leaves.

Well, after eight years of parenthood, I’m here to tell you to relax.

Because nothing...

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Finding the right time to tackle homework affects how likely it is to be done

By Priscilla J. Dunstan, McClatchy-Tribune

There’s a time and place for everything, including homework. Often, finding the right time to tackle that homework pile effects how likely it is to be done. Not all children are able to come home and study: some need to have some relaxation time, while others will never get it done if it’s not tackled straight away. Your child’s dominant sense will give you great insight into how and when to set the homework schedule.

Tactile children need to move. Don’t expect them to come home from school and get down to homework. They will need to let off steam — by running around or throwing a ball — before they can sit down and concentrate. Let them have a snack and play a bit before guiding them to...

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Mom wants to ease background check rules for school volunteers

ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press Writer

Wendy Cross wants to chaperone field trips and join other parents in supervising activities at her children’s school in Grand Rapids, Mich. But because of some bad checks she wrote a decade ago, that’s out of the question.

Cross, 36, is barred under a school district policy that requires would-be volunteers to undergo criminal background checks and disqualifies anyone with a felony record.

Now Cross is circulating a petition, signed so far by more than 300 other parents and community members, to lift the blanket ban.

“I’m a whole different person, how I used to be then to where I am now,” says Cross, who has four children in the Grand Rapids public school system. “Children...

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Infant formula recalled due to bug contamination

MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer

WASHINGTON — Drugmaker Abbott Laboratories said Wednesday it is recalling millions of containers of its best-selling Similac infant formula that may be contaminated with insect parts.

The voluntary action affects up to 5 million Similac-brand powder formulas sold in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam and some Caribbean countries. The company said the products may contain a small beetle or larvae, which could cause stomach ache and digestion problems.

The recall does not affect any liquid formulas or other Abbott-brand products.

A company spokeswoman said Abbott uncovered the insects last week in one section of a manufacturing plant in Sturgis, Mich.

“We immediately shut down that one area and began an...

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North Ridgeville mom wants bus stop returned

A North Ridgeville mom is hoping whoever took a bus stop built for her daughters from her front yard yesterday afternoon will reconsider and return it.

Carrie Adams said the partially-built bus stop was taken sometime Monday between 2 and 3:30 p.m. Her entire extended family spent all weekend building the structure, which she said has a 6-foot by 4-foot floor, one eight-foot wall and three six-foot walls. …

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Police say mom robbed bank, picked kids up with school on the way home

By the Associated Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Police in southern Oregon say a woman charged with robbing a bank in Grants Pass stopped to pick up her children at school on the way home.

The Grants Pass Daily Courier reported a woman walked into an Umpqua Bank branch shortly after 2 p.m. Monday, handed the teller a note demanding cash, and then rode off in a car driven by a man.

Police say a witness description of the car and license plates led to the home of 37-year-old Erica F. Anderson, who was arrested on robbery and theft charges after returning from picking up her daughters at their elementary school.

Authorities say 19-year-old Joshua K. Deeter Tseu drove the car and was arrested on the same charges.

It was unclear if either has an...

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Toy recall, report signals small-battery dangers

LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO — Swallowing button batteries can be fatal or cause serious harm, and research suggests that severe injuries in children, though relatively scarce, are on the rise.

The dangers are highlighted in a new medical report about 10 cases at a Utah hospital, including seven that caused severe damage, and in last week’s recall of more than 1 million Chuck E. Cheese battery-containing toys. There are no reports of children injured by the Chuck E. Cheese toys, but the toys were recalled because swallowing batteries can be so dangerous.

Button batteries are widely used in dozens of household products including toys, games, remote controls, musical greeting cards, cell phones, watches and lighted shoes. Batteries pose a...

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Economy forcing families to make college compromises

DAVE CARPENTER, AP Personal Finance Writer

CHICAGO — Sending a child to college takes more than good grades and a big check these days. More than ever, it requires compromising on where to attend or taking on a mountain of debt — or both.

Two-plus years of economic malaise have made four years of college that much harder to pay for. This has prompted many families to delay or alter their plans.

It’s not just that tuition and fees are still rising 5 percent or more a year. Grants and financial aid awards, too, have failed to keep pace. The resulting price tags are as high as $55,000 a year at elite colleges and $28,000 for some students to attend their state universities.

College-bound students clearly are factoring cost more heavily into...

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Heading Home: Safe clothing and accessories for newborns

By Laura A. Jana MD, FAAP, and Jennifer Shu, MD, FAAP, HealthyChildren.org

The following is an excerpt from “Heading Home With Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality” (Second Edition):

You’ll want to always take safety into account when choosing baby clothes.

Fortunately, there aren’t too many hazards lurking out there when it comes to baby clothing if you just put the necessary forethought into your purchases. An organization called the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) provides safety standards for clothing as well as other baby and consumer products, and routinely issues recalls to alert the public about potentially unsafe items. In addition to directing you to the CPSC website (www.cpsc.gov) for the purpose of identifying...

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Antiques provide naming inspiration

nameberry.com

For a number of years, when I wasn’t writing about names, I was writing about antiques and collectibles for a syndicated newspaper column. But of course when I was thinking about antiques, I was still also thinking about names.

Looking at the field of antique furniture, for example, I found that when it came to early British cabinetmakers, the names were relatively unexciting. George Hepplewhite. Robert Adams. Thomas Chippendale. Thomas Sheraton. Nothing too juicy there.

But with the Early American cabinetmakers and clockmakers it was quite a different story. Lots of antiquated Biblical names, more than one Chauncey, Ebenezer and Lemuel, a few virtue names rarely heard in modern times (Prudent, Noble), a couple of Latinate names and a...

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