Blog Posts by babblestrollerderby

14 years of data from Australia finds that children of mothers who drank moderately during pregnancy (2-6 drinks per week, or one a day) had fewer "emotional and behavioral problems through childhood and adolescence" than children of total abstainers. This being Australia, researchers felt flat out able to say that light drinking mothers had "better behaved" kids (here in the U.S., we might need to refer to them as "differently behaviorally abled") and the study seems sound: kids whose moms drank some during the first trimester may actually be better off.

Me, I take this as personal vindication, because while I gave up plenty while pregnant (the cheeses, the sushi...), I never gave the occasional glass of wine, and I took some flak for it (but not much, because I'm known to bite while pregnant). I always suspected that 30 million French women couldn't be wrong.

;The results of the research were delightfully affirming for someone like me: the children of those moderate and

They deal drugs. They mock their kids. They lose their cool. Today's TV Moms are a far cry from the idealized television moms of yesteryear.

These days, moms on the small screen are more likely to put their own needs first and - unlike earlier generations of TV moms - they don't always seem to know what they're doing.

Can a woman be so drop-dead gorgeous that she's distracting to look at, even in a turtleneck? That's what former Citibank employee Debrahlee Lorenzana thinks.

The 33-year-old single mother was recently, um, canned from Citi because - she says - her employers found her wardrobe to be unprofessional. She feels she was discriminated against for being too beautiful and is suing Citi for sexual harassment.

You know, Debrahlee, we have a lot in common. I'm also a 33-year-old single mother. In fact, I'm quite sure the only reason I'm not dating anyone right now is because I'm too hot. Men just can't handle this. In fact, Friday night, I was hosting a show, and someone said, "You look hot tonight!" And I thought, "Does she mean sweaty?" Cuz I am that hot. HOT.

According to the Daily News , Lorenzana said higher-ups told her, "'Oh, your pants are too tight. You cannot wear turtlenecks. You cannot wear pencil skirts because you draw too much attention.'" Now, I'm not trying to make

You like Ruby more than you like me!" my 8-year-old daughter Jesse screamed the other day during an argument.

Of course, she knew exactly what to say to upset me. No parent wants to be accused of playing favorites.

Although I didn't say it at the time, at that moment, I did like Jesse's little sister more. But that's only because Jesse and I were in the middle of a fight. The truth is that while I occasionally like one of them more than the other, I always love my daughters equally (because how can you measure love anyway?).

Parents are only human, after all. It makes sense that we're going to occasionally clash with our kids' personalities and prefer one to the other.More...

Still, I often fret that playing favorites will exacerbate sibling rivalry and create family tension. Don't most parenting manuals say favoritism is psychologically damaging?

But, after reading Dr. Ellen Libby's recent post on The Huffington Post, "Parents: It's Okay to Have a Favorite Child," I'm

Little girls dolled up with fake eyelashes, caked on makeup, fake teeth, spray-on tans and synthetic hair extensions may be inappropriate, but is it child abuse?

Some critics say TLC's "Toddlers and Tiaras" is exploitative and that the contestants' parents are verging on abusive.

Personally, I can't bear to watch the reality show, which just launched its third season, because I find the whole kiddie beauty pageant thing disturbing. I wouldn't want my young daughters to be judged on their appearances and to be sexualized at such an early age. But, then again, I can't stand bikinis on babies and hesitated before letting my girls playing with makeup , so I'm probably not the demographic for the show.

Based on the ratings, clearly, someone is tuning in to watch -- the second season of "Toddlers and Tiaras" averaged 1.3 million viewers each week.More...

In case you're not familiar with the show, it features tots as young as four as they prep and primp for glitzy, high-pressure

A recent survey by Working Mother magazine found that 57 percent of working mothers feel guilty every day, and 31 percent feel guilty at least once a week. That means almost all working mothers feel guilty at some point.

I'm not surprised by their findings. To be honest, I think the magazine would get similar results if they polled stay-at-home moms or work-at-home moms. Regardless of whether -- or how much -- they work, the moms I know, on the whole, feel guilty.More...

Why? If they work outside the home, moms feel guilty that they can't always go to show-and-tell, volunteer at school, or be at home with their kids during the day. If they work at home, they feel guilty that they're giving short shrift to both their job and their kids. And if they are stay-at-home moms, they feel guilty that they're not setting a good example for their daughters by working or not contributing to the family finances.

As someone who works at home, I feel that in many ways, I enjoy the best of both

Put down that pickle-covered pizza, prego!

A new study by Abigail Fraser of the University of Bristol says too much pregnancy weight gain raises the odds that "your child will show signs of heart disease by age 9."

According to the study, published in the June 1 issue of Circulation, "Children's heart risk increased with any weight gain during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, and with any weight gain over 1.1 pounds per week during weeks 14 to 36 of pregnancy." Any weight gain… into the second trimester?! Oh man, I can remember housing a salad, roll, steak, potatoes and veggies at TGI Friday's during week five - the day I told my Dad I was pregnant. (The steak was made with Jack Daniels. Which is probably why my daughter fell all the time while she was learning to walk.)

After all was said and done over the course of my pregnancy, I gained about 30 pounds. The Institute of Medicine's guidelines suggest women of normal weight gain 25-35 pounds and overweight women gain 15-25

While Memorial Day honors those we've lost in battle, today is a day to celebrate the future. June 1st was proclaimed International Children's Day by The World Conference for the Well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland in 1925. It is widely celebrated in former Soviet nations such as Russia as well as China. Science and technology museums in Beijing spent the weekend getting ready for an influx of children, and in Russia, Andrei Fursenko, the Minister of Education and Science, gave a speech during which he said, "In Russia the attention on this day is focused on each of 30 million young citizens. For us adults this is first of all a reminder of our responsibility."

Child abuse and adoption are two of the most pressing issues surrounding Russian children. According to The Voice of Russia, "Last year, over 108,000 children were exposed to violence, of them 1.6 thousand died at the hand of adults and 2.4 thousand sustained serious harm." On a more positive note, in the past