According to CNN, a new record was set for the priciest VHS tape after a near-mint, sealed 1986 VHS tape of Back to the Future sold at auction. Hearing this immediately brings up two questions: who would pay that much money for a VHS tape and who still had a sealed copy of the original VHS? As it turns out, Tom Wilson — aka the actor who played Biff Tannen from Back to the Future — still had a copy on VHS, sealed and untouched....

More specifically, whether we can expect six more weeks of winter, or if spring is just around the corner. Scientific inaccuracies aside (Punxsutawney Phil is notoriously not an accurate source for weather predictions), the day actually has far more significance, across many cultures, than just being a day a rodent comes out of the ground. Groundhog Day is more interesting than it appears – the day is based on astronomy, and even has links to Christian and Pagan holidays....

What’s In the Bill? The new infrastructure bill allocates $15 billion over the next five years to replace lead pipes across the country. The bill also has another $200 million over the same period to help schools eliminate lead contamination in their water. A tweet from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge acknowledges this funding and notes specifically that lower-income communities generally face greater consequences from lead in drinking water....

As far as we can tell, Grint is the first actor who portrayed one of the Weasley kids in the series to have a kid of his own. James and Oliver Phelps, the twins who played Fred and George; Bonnie Wright, who played Ginny; Domhnall Gleeson, who played Bill; and Chris Rankin, who (briefly) played Percy have yet to reproduce. This makes them quite unlike their fictional parents, who likely started early in order to have such a large brood....

Hospital Bag for Dads: What to Pack for the Birth of Your Child

To be clear: Cheap toys go on sale daily, almost hourly. But the big-ticket items are harder to find. Quality toys, even harder. Which is why here, we’re focusing on the stuff your kids covet, but maybe your wallet says: Hell, no. Check back daily. Robot Toy Deals Kids use the 440 snap-together parts to create their own mythical creature (whom we shall call a unicorn). They can then program the magical horn with different colors to customize their creation, plus they can create new, custom actions with the prp (pose, record, play) function....

“I always tell parents that they are the one that makes it difficult,” says Stacey Honowitz, supervisor of the Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit for the Florida State Attorney’s office and author of Genius With a Penis, Don’t Touch. She adds that’s it’s critical that parents don’t try to ease their way using euphemisms. A penis by any other name is a taboo, and taboos stand between kids and learning....

Where Can You See The Draconid Meteor Shower? According to EarthSky, the Draconid meteor shower is set to peak on Oct. 7, 2020. However, it will still be visible in some areas on Oct. 8. The publication says the best time of day to watch the stars shoot through the sky is during the early evening hours or when the night falls, and it’s dark out. The meteor shower will bring shooting stars across the sky, and EarthSky explains that the shower is created from a comet’s debris, specifically the 21P/Giacobini-Zinner comet....

Many of these seemed devoted to questions of infant transport. For untold hours, I researched strollers and infant car seats, hoping to find the conveyances that would most safely shepherd my charge through a hostile world. I created decision matrices, cross-referenced ratings, studied product recall notices. Anything less than the best choice, I reasoned, would leave me and my as-yet born daughter doomed to a life of hazardous inconvenience. Small wonder that, as research has found, first-time parents are one of the population sectors most at risk for the onset of obsessive-compulsive disorders (with “thoughts of accidental harm” triggering much of the attempts at anxiety reduction)....

It’s hard to talk to a 2-and-a-half-year-old girl. They have no world experience and a short attention span. Conversations with them mostly boil down to My Little Pony, “that’s mine,” and “leave me alone.” My daughter Felix is this age. She also craves stimulating narratives, so she’s rather well-acquainted with the television. When she’s watching, you could stick her with needles and she wouldn’t react. She loves the TV. But I needed something different....

One of the questions most first time home buyers tend to ask is: “How long does it take to close on a house?” The truth is there isn’t a definitive answer. Typically, it takes 30-60 days. However, between your offer, loan approval, and escrow, there are a lot of events and contingencies that could occur to disrupt this time frame.. “Once your offer gets accepted, generally speaking, most loan contingencies are about 17 days” says Yawar Charlie, a Director of Real Estate at Aaron Kirkman Group....

One of the consequences of moving away from a pension-based retirement system is that most of us now have to be our own actuary. There are a lot of parents out there who couldn’t pass a high school algebra exam if they had to (no judgement) and now their retirement rests on getting a complex math problem just right. Thankfully, there are some handy rules of thumb that help you gauge where you’re at in the savings department....

Fortunately, there’s a way to measure whether your child’s tantrums are uncommon. The temper tantrum scale, developed by Lauren Wakschlag, Ph.D., of Northwestern University in Chicago, identifies normal tantrum behaviors and duration. Her study also highlights red flags parents can use to determine whether their children are acting out more aggressively than expected. Meet The Temper Tantrum Scale Answer the following questions with “never in the past month”, “less than once per week”, “1-3 days per week”, “4-6 days of the week”, “every day of the week”, or “many times each day”: How often does your child…...

“When they come to me, it’s normally because dad feels like mom is not doing enough, and he should be able to come home and relax and not be an engaged parent, or mom doesn’t want to stay home anymore because it’s not as rewarding or satisfying as she presumed,” says Racine Henry, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Staten Island, New York. Every couple is different. But the key to making a marriage work when one parent is a stay-at-home mom and one parent goes to work, is expectation management and empathy....

Michael Addis, a psychology professor at Clark University and author of Invisible Men: Men’s Inner Lives and the Consequences of Silence, says it’s normal to feel a little weird when you break social norms and stereotypes about your own vulnerability. But making simple changes to your communication style — and even just accepting the awkwardness — can make a significant, positive difference in your family dynamics. Looking for ways to demonstrate vulnerability with your kids, without feeling awkward?...

A relationship check-in is exactly what it sounds like, a regular meeting where you and your partner discuss what’s going on in your lives and talk about whatever issues you’re grappling with. Sounds simple, right? It is, but it also isn’t because to do it right requires consistency and work from both partners. But if you make it a normal part of your schedule — and use the time wisely and ask the right questions — your relationship will benefit....

But it’s a question that will inevitably spill from the mouth of a curious child so, no matter how difficult, it’s worth trying to explain Because, to a child, “I love you” is one of the most common phrases they hear and say. And it’s good to know what the things you say and hear mean, even if said things have an assumed meaning and concept that people have been trying to explain since loud grunts were our preferred method of speaking....

Fatherly, My son is 12-months-old and I’m pretty sure he hates me. He doesn’t like me to hold him and when his mom leaves the room I can’t calm him down at all. He’s a huge mama’s boy and my wife is the only one who can do anything with him. She’s really really tired because she can’t let go of him and there’s basically nothing I can do because he hates being with me so much....

Sleep Training Usually Happens Twice Some time between your infant’s fourth and sixth month, most parents initiate the process of sleep training. It will be emotionally charged and a little draining, but after about two weeks, baby is likely to be sleeping fairly well on her own. So it may come as a surprise to discover a year-and-a-half later, your toddler seems to have forgotten those hard-earned skills. “There is a massive amount of development happening for two-year-olds as they sleep,” says pediatric sleep specialist Rebecca Kempton, M....

The big key to making kids more receptive to a regular bedtime is getting them to exert themselves during the day with games and activities. “It’s totally worth it to wear toddlers out before bedtime,” stresses clinical sleep psychologist Lynelle Schneeberg, a Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Yale School of Medicine. “I think the best way to do this is to offer lots of outdoor play or any type of ‘large motor’ play....