The Bad: The Horrid Mistreatment of Migrant Children & Families 2018 will be known as the year in which kids were forcibly separated from their parents upon seeking asylum in the United States from war-torn and drug-cartel infiltrated countries. Several thousand children were stuck in detainment centers that were privately owned and staffed by un-vetted, unqualified caretakers. Some of these migrant children are still not reunited with their families. Two children died in detention centers....

Risk calculation is like the Apple’s Preview application, it’s a program that’s always running in the background. And it doesn’t apply just to your kids; it applies to your own safety (which, paradoxically, you come to care about largely in the context of your kids). Maybe you’re a little more cautious now about jaywalking in front of buses than you used to be, since, if you don’t time it right, that’s one less parent for your kid....

The biggest problem with baby sleep guidelines is that they’re based more on how much babies naturally sleep on average than research about how sleep affects their health and development. That’s because there’s not a whole lot of research out there to draw from. The most comprehensive study on the topic is only helpful if your baby was born in Switzerland between 1974 and 1993 (so not at all). Still, it’s the most widely cited study, so you might want to know it says that an 11-month-olds sleeps about 14 of every 24 hours, with 2....

How much toilet paper? is described as “a simple calculator for how much toilet paper you need to survive the pandemic,” and it’s terrific. There is no more second-guessing if you can or can’t use more sheets per trip or not. For the calculator, you add in how many rolls you have in the house, move the slider along for how often on average you use the toilet, and it will tell you how long you have before you run out....

To what extent does interactive learning software improve test scores? In and of itself — absent meaningful social connection and ongoing reinforcement — a piece of educational software won’t typically lead to a long-term outcome like sustained test score improvement. If you measure topic comprehension or ability to perform a task or apply knowledge immediately before and immediately after a software intervention (intervention is a fancy diagnostic word for some different procedure that you don’t normally do), a solid portion of subjects in the test group can often – assuming well-designed, engaging software – outperform subjects in a control group where the intervention did not occur....

“Our job as parents isn’t to provide certainty in a time of uncertainty. Our job is to help kids tolerate the uncertainty,” explains Dr. Jerry Bubrick, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute. Kids aren’t stupid. Nor are they obtuse. They hear you discussing the increasingly dire COVID-19 news, they see headlines on your social media feed, and they understand that to a large extent, the stuff they once enjoyed doing is no longer in play....

Prep Time: An hour or so to build the slide. Once built, just the 5 minutes or so it takes to get the kids in full snow gear every time you want to use it. Entertainment Time: An hour, or until they want to come in for hot chocolate.Energy Expended by Child: Loads of physical energy. What You Need: Adult- and kid-sized shovels.A ton of snow, obviously.Sleds. The lighter the better....

Parenting advice is worst when it’s unsolicited (whew). But instead of freaking out about what awful busybodies people can be, check out some ways to deal with it. Nicely. They Aren’t Bad People You’re initial reaction to unsolicited advice might just be, “Holy crap, what an asshole!” But it’s important to remember some of these people aren’t really trying to be assholes (though a few absolutely are). Most people offer the advice to be helpful, however misguided that help is....

Keeping marriages and relationships healthy is a very real concern for many couples who are hunkering down right now. Stress is extremely high. Everyone is feeling cooped up. Couples are trying to react to this new normal. Volatility is high in the stock market but there’s even more so for many at the home front. In fact. looking at the situation, most experts agree that a post-COVID-19 world will see a spike in two things: babies and divorce rates....

“There is no question that when people talk about wagons, 240s come up as a staple of the genre,” says Dave Samuels, who runs Wagonmeister, a Palmdale, California-based company that repairs, restores, and resells Volvo 240 wagons and sedans for customers across the U.S. “And the 240 is certainly an honest car,” says Samuels. What he means by that is that you know exactly what you’re getting, no more and no less....

She shares what parents need to know about nursemaid’s elbow, in terms of how to fix it and how to avoid it. It’s Not a Fully Dislocated Elbow Nursemaid’s elbow is not the same thing as a dislocated elbow, although it’s close. Rather, a radial head subluxation occurs when the bone called the radius begins to dislocate from the elbow joint, but stops short. “There’s a joint in the elbow, made up of three little bones, and one of the bones is called the radius,” Weiss says....

Four Ways to Take the Edge Off a Baby’s Teething Symptoms Give them the finger. The simplest way to provide relief it to apply pressure with your fingers to the sore area.Freeze a ring. Teething rings are inexpensive and can seriously distract a baby from their discomfort… especially if there’s a big temperature change.Dampen a cloth. A clean, damp cloth provides an alternative sensation to plain old fingers—and it is very portable....

But parents need babysitters more than ever. Quarantine keeps families cooped up together around the clock. Parents working from home have to juggle work and housekeeping responsibilities while helping kids with remote schoolwork. It’s a stressful and demanding time for parents. They need a break more than ever. That’s where virtual babysitting comes in. What is Virtual Babysitting? While traditional in-person babysitting isn’t an option, modern connectivity tools allow babysitters to care for children remotely....

My daughter is nine-months-old. She’s my first kid and so far I love being a dad. It’s really great. I didn’t know I could love another person like this and that kind of blows my mind. But the thing is that over the last couple months I’ve been getting pretty lonely. Like, I haven’t seen my best buddy in forever and I don’t know what to do. I expected that the first month or so was going to be all about the kid and my friend did visit once....

If you tend toward the second example, you’re not alone. The everyday, ongoing stress of taking care of kids while, you know, attempting to function as an adult, can make even the most emotionally healthy person turn molehills into mountains. But that doesn’t mean taking things personally is a habit you should hold onto. Janette Marsac, a therapist in New York City, says taking things personally is essentially attributing a negative outcome directly to yourself rather than to their actions or behavior....

“There is no hard and fast rule on when you can start introducing visitors to your newborn, nor is there a hard and fast rule on when you can take your newborn out into public,” explains pediatrician Dr. Jarret Connor. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t best practices, starting with simple caution. But even the most cautious parents who refuse to take their new baby into the snorting, coughing masses will still face the onslaught of lookie-loos at the doorstep....

Despite the enormity of the task ahead, work has never been more important. Bottom lines are going to get slashed. More people will lose their job. This is a scary truth but a truth nonetheless. Working from home while caring for kids is like walking a tightrope while juggling knives that are made of smaller knives that are also on fire. But parents who are working remotely or working from home need to abide by one rule: over-communicate with your employer....

So with all of these changes come tests to your own sanity. How you will make it through every day becomes a challenge. And sometimes those challenges are unexpected. It’s not only the worries on the days you have your child. Sometimes the worst times are when the depression sets in on the days you don’t have your child. You may have escaped the difficulty of the toxic relationship you were in, but you didn’t escape the loneliness you felt when you were in that relationship....

That’s a shame. For one, some people are really turned on by dirty talk and, if that includes to your partner, well, then you probably want to give them the pleasure they want. For another, done the right way, dirty talking can really take sex to the next level. It not only tells your partner what you don’t enjoy, what you do, what you really do, but it also makes you more present in the moment....

“Parents are justifiably worried about the effects of weight stigma and health consequences that are associated with obesity,” says Stephanie Manasse, Ph.D., a psychologist and director of the Child and Adolescent Program at Drexel University’s Center for Weight, Eating, and Lifestyle Science. “However, making any comment about a child’s body is unlikely to be helpful, and is much more likely to backfire.” Instead of protecting their girls, this brings judgment into their homes and puts it in the mouth of the man whose opinion matters the most....