Jun
17
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
The concept seemed horrible enough — parents selling public access to their children’s private lives. And making a lot of money from it. But I had to watch at least one episode before I could rip into the show.
I’m referring, of course, to Jon and Kate Gosselin, of TLC’s reality show, “Jon & Kate Plus 8.” They are the Pennsylvania couple with two sets of multiples: twin 8-year-old girls, and 5-year-old sextuplets.
Peeking into their lives is a little like looking in a funhouse mirror: All the expressions are exaggerated, but there’s a recognizable resemblance.
As most of the world knows by now, Jon and Kate’s marriage is on the rocks. There are cutting, snide remarks, eye rolls...
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Jun
09
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
When a school principal gets a call from the police, it usually means that a world of hurt is about to hit the school.
Mike Beczkala, the principal at Parkview Elementary in Columbia, Ill., got that phone call around 11 a.m. three weeks ago. The news upended the community: Two students — fourth-grader Garett Coleman, 11, and his younger brother, Gavin, 9, had been found strangled in their bedrooms May 5. Their mother, Sheri Coleman, 31, also had been strangled. Two weeks later, the boys’ father, Chris Coleman was charged with the murders, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
It was the sort of news young children carry with them long before they can truly comprehend it.
The day of the phone call,...
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May
22
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
I’m ashamed to admit it, but there are times when I am too engrossed in “House” or “Gossip Girl” to get my 6-year-old back in bed.
I’ll tell my husband: “She’s still up and wandering around.” He’ll respond, rather logically: “So, put her to bed.”
After years of losing the bedtime battle, I just can’t summon the patience or energy most nights.
So, we have a sleep-deprived, cranky kindergartner most mornings.
Of course, it is all my fault.
If I were being graded on my mothering, I’d get an “F” on bedtime. And, probably also on letting the younger one watch too much TV while I’m trying to work. And, mostly certainly on...
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May
05
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
At the Burger King in Mecca, an American was standing in line in front of my sister.
She said she could tell instantly by the way he ordered his Whopper: hold the mayo, no pickles, extra ketchup. The man behind the counter looked at him like he was an alien.
In this holy city in Saudi Arabia, you can’t really expect to get it your way. It took me a few days on my family’s religious pilgrimage to figure that out. As critical as I can be of Saudi Arabia’s track record on human rights and gender equality, I brought some of my own cultural prejudice on this trip.
Growing up in the United States, I had never prayed alongside hundreds of thousands of people, from all parts of the world, all walks of...
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Mar
30
Posted by
besttech
The prom invitation from hell has the students at John Burroughs School in St. Louis a bit overheated.
The junior class, which hosts the prom, voted for the Seven Deadly Sins as its theme. The invitations calling all “sinners” and beckoning them to “hell” went out about three weeks ago. The invitations feature illustrations of the various deadly sins (the one for lust has a buxom woman in a long red dress) and a fiery pentagram. It states: “Let the Sin Begin.”
It looks to me like a flier for a cheap nightclub.
Andy Abbott, who will take over as head of school this summer, admits there was a lapse in judgment by the adults in the party-planning process who approved...
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Feb
17
Posted by
besttech
Beth Harpaz had a bad feeling about her son’s middle school prom. For good reason, it turns out. Her 13-year-old, “Taz,” got busted for arriving with a group of friends trying to smuggle alcohol into the dance.
When she got the phone call, she was in the middle of a massive house-cleaning project. She dropped everything and stormed off to the school, grimy and furious. When she arrived, she could feel the chaperones’ eyes on her and imagined their looks said it all: “No wonder her son is a delinquent. Look at her.”
Harpaz, a veteran Associated Press reporter, has written about the incident in an honest and witty book about parenting: “13 is the New 18: And other things my children taught me while I was having...
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Jan
30
Posted by
besttech
It was the final booty shake for a gaggle of pink-sequined, glitter-eye-shadowed pre-tweens at the St. Louis Galleria last weekend. Club Libby Lu closed it doors after eight years of transforming little girls into life-size Bratz dolls.
Libby Lu charged $25 to $40 per child for its “makeover” birthday parties. I hate to see any employee lose a job, but I’m not going to miss the message of those 98 stores nationwide.
I stumbled into this store a few years ago when my little girl wanted a purple clip-on ponytail for her birthday. I thought it would be ages before she’d be interested in “Hannah Montana” style.
But this month, she was invited to a birthday party at Libby Lu, where she fell...
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Jan
18
Posted by
besttech
Some people regret overeating or drinking too much on New Year’s Eve. I over-resolve.
Every year, I make a list of half a dozen ambitious goals.
My theory on this is that resolution-makers are also list-makers. We like to see things written down, prioritized, numbered and crossed off.
Even if I can never finish my list or stick to my resolutions, writing them down gives me a sense of control over life’s chaos. On any given day, I have a work list, an errands list, a grocery list and a master “Things to do: URGENT” list.
And I still manage to be disorganized.
My husband finds tiny scraps of paper all over the house with lists scribbled on them....
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Jan
08
Posted by
besttech
If I walked into my neighbor’s kitchen and helped myself to a snack in her fridge, she’d think I’d lost my mind.
I’ve never been inside any of my neighbors’ kitchens, nor have they been inside ours. It’s a far cry from how I grew up, where our small ranch house was constantly filled with neighborhood kids and cousins.
No one thought twice about rummaging through our fridge. Researchers Will Miller and Glenn Sparks believe the decline in “refrigerator rights” relationships in America is directly connected to our increasing anxiety, incivility and stress.
In their “Refrigerator Rights: Our Crucial Need for Close Connection,” they make a convincing case that too many of us have...
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Nov
12
Posted by
besttech
By Aisha Sultan St. Louis Post-Dispatch
When Tom Westcott’s daughters come home from grade school and see him in the study, they immediately want to play.
Westcott hates to turn them down, so for a few minutes he escapes the freelance projects and chases his girls outside.
Three months ago, it would have been the highlight of his workday.
Now it’s a reminder of disrupted routines and unsettling worries.
Westcott, of Manchester, Mo., had worked as a senior account executive for a large advertising agency for 17 years. In July, he lost his job in one of several rounds of layoffs.
“The biggest worry is...
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