SECOND PRIZE: AN EDUCATION

[New York City] is launching a campaign to motivate public school students by giving them free cell phones and upgrading features if they do things such as show up to class and behave.

February 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Subscribe to RSS

WHAT, LIKE WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TO DO?

via Parents magazine:

When dads set limits and expectations for their preschoolers' behavior, their kids had a 25 percent lower risk of being overweight than those whose fathers were more permissive, according to a study in Pediatrics. Surprisingly, mothers' discipline styles had no impact on a child's body mass, the researchers say. 

ON NEWSSTANDS NOW

Freelance Dad, aka Gary Drevitch, has an article in the current issue of Men's Health/Best Life called "Translating Contractor-Speak," about the lies lying contractors tell when they move you out to fix your kitchen.

For example:

When a Contractor Says… “Your job is substantially complete. Just a few final touchups left.”
He Really Means… “We’re going to be a couple of months. Why don’t you go get me a sandwich?”

February 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Subscribe to RSS

LEAST INSPIRATIONAL SPORTS STORY. EVER.

ESPN the Magazine writer Eric Adelson has revisited an article he wrote a few years back about Detroit Red Wings icon Steve Yzerman, specifically the hockey legend's relationship with a cancer-stricken Colorado boy.

Turns out, though, the closest the boy ever got to having cancer was a toddler-era tumor near his lymph nodes. But to Yzerman's credit, he told Adelson that despite being duped for several years by the boy's father, "I'm not going to stop reaching out. . . . Actually, I think I might do it more often."

Click here for the full story of a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Dad. It's the FD.com Must Read Story of the Week.

CATCHING UP WITH PARENTING MAGAZINE

To provide you, our reader, with the best information possible, Freelance Dad subscribes to nearly every parenting magazine under the sun. Occasionally, the issues pile up and we need to tear through them a stack in a late night, marathon session, as we did last night when we scanned the past three or four issues of Parenting magazine. Wondering what you've missed if you haven't been keeping up with the book? Here are a few headlines:

"Is your [breast] milk safe?"

"Too Early for Deodorant?"

"Is coffee okay for kids?"

"1,940: The average number of children hurt by elevators every year"

PUBLIC SERVICE NOTE

An Associated Press article online today is the first we've ever seen that actually provided a pronunciation for phthalates. So, if you had  "thowl-ates" in the pool, you're a winner!

Oh, and speaking of phthalates? If you've shampooed or powdered your baby any time recently, his urine is probably sick with them.

February 4, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Subscribe to RSS