Well, we knew when Barbara Walters got ahold of Kate Gosselin for the annual roundup of the "10 Most Fascinating People," it wasn't going to be a rah-rah, kissy-kissy celebration. 2009 has been particularly rough on the mother of twins and sextuplets, who has been blamed for everything from the dissolution of her marriage (she was "too hard" on Jon), to the exploitation of her own kids. Still, it was depressing to watch the mother of eight recount the toll the year has taken.

Describing Kate as "a woman who...is just like any other wife and mother, except she's done it all on camera," Barbara went on to ask if Kate if the children knew they were famous.

According to Kate, 'famous' was not a word the family used at home. And while a good portion of America might watch watch DVDs of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" to see the televised demise of a family, the kids themselves "watch DVDs of our show and it's memories for them," Kate said.

And how are the kids doing now that their father has shut

Getty ImagesFour smart-sounding (but wrong) ideas:

Myth 1: Touching your baby's soft spot can hurt his brain.

The fontanel, or soft spot, at the front of your baby's head is a skin-covered opening in the skull that pulsates, frightening some parents. "There's a presumption of vulnerability, but the brain is actually quite well protected," Adesman says. The front fontanel typically closes at about 1 year of age, while the smaller soft spot in the back of the head usually closes at 2 months to 3 months.

Myth 2: Babies should be bathed daily.

The truth is, bathing removes moisture from your baby's delicate skin, which can make it dry and irritated. Plus, sitting in soapy bathwater can irritate a girl's urethra and potentially lead to urinary tract infections. As long as you keep your baby's diaper area, neck and other skin creases debris-free, you can do full baths just two to three times a week, Adesman says. If your baby enjoys nightly tub time, splash away-just skip the

With holiday parties, dinners, and gatherings popping up all over the place this month, you may be looking at your enthusiastic little one and thinking There is NO way.

Today MrsManners gives us some great tips for turning our toddlers into better house guests.

From: MrsManners

It's getting close to your first holiday event of the season, and you are having a panic attack. You are worried that once you leave the house, your child will have forgotten every last bit of manners you have taught her.

Well, being toddlers, they reserve the right to do that, but there are a couple of tricks you can use to help before you go out to a friend or family member's house, especially those who don't have toddler-proof homes.

1. Practice Before You Go: Practice, practice, practice. Make a game of it. Pretend like you are going out to a friend's house and go through the house and talk about all the things that you can and can't do when you go out. For example, if you are a parent who

Maybe it's the holidays crushing down on me like a thousand pounds of tinsel. Maybe it's the fact that before I moved to New York, I drove across the country 13 times for one reason or another. Lately I've been dreaming of a road trip. Me. Open road. Driving. Alone. Or with a friend who doesn't want anything from me but conversation and maybe gas money. All that danger and country to get into.

Then I saw this video about two moms doing the same, and sweet as they are, I felt embarrassed. I mean, what is this? Carpools gone wild? Thelma and Louise take a spin around the block and get back in time to make dinner?



This is the opposite of what I'm craving, which, infeasible as it may be, involves vast unknowns, hairpin curves, run-ins with shady strangers, and changing routes on a whim. I'm not saying I'm running out the door tonight--or any night, for that matter. I've got a family full of its own crazy surprises. I get what is wonderful (and rare) about that. But nights like tonight,

Women interested in natural childbirth have more methods than ever before to choose from, including HypnoBirthing, the Bradley Method, and others. But with the rising popularity of these approaches to birth, whatever happened to Lamaze, the group that taught women breathing techniques for labor?

Will you be able to handle labor pain? Read 8 must-have tips to manage labor pain here.

"Many people are under the impression that Lamaze disappeared, but actually Lamaze has shifted its approach," says Jada Shapiro, a certified Lamaze childbirth instructor in New York City and co-founder of Birth Day Presence. "Lamaze is no longer a childbirth method, as much as a philosophy that provides a foundation and direction for women as they prepare to give birth and become mothers. Lamaze is at the forefront of the evidence-based care movement. Its mission is to promote, support and protect natural, safe, and healthy birth through education and advocacy."

In other words, Lamaze has changed with the

Major retailers like Target, Kmart, and Toys R Us are all advertising huge sales this season. The bad news is they're also scaling down their inventory from previous years, so they're not stuck with extra stock if shoppers don't show up in droves. Low prices paired with low inventory means must-purchase items are practically guaranteed to sell out, so we've put together a list of gifts you should buy early if you want to get them under the tree in time.





Zhu Zhu Pets

We'll start with the toughest purchase of the lot. Zhu Zhu Pets are the biggest toys of the year, and stores started selling out soon after their debut this summer. Kids fell in love with the motorized hamsters, and got hooked on building customized houses, slides, cars, and roads for them to scoot around on. The hamsters and their accessories were once readily available online, but now, even Toys R Us is tapped out. Not altogether extinct, Zhu Zhu Pets are still available through Amazon.com, but third-party sellers are

Ah, the irony. Just when we get our heads around the idea that we're overparenting our kids into apathetic nubs, we find out that we're still underparenting in one crucial area. That's right, even after the sexual revolution, the rise in teen pregnancies, and the spread of HIV/AIDS, it seems that parents are still talking to their kids about sex far too late.

According to Time magazine (the same publication that brought to light the woes of overparenting just three weeks ago)-a study recently published in Pediatrics shows that at least 40% of teens ages 13-17 only talked to their parents about sex, pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases after they had become sexually active.

The findings, while disheartening, are also extremely interesting for this simple reason: when asked whether or not they had talked about sex and sexuality, the parents and teens in 141 families enrolled in UCLA's Talking Parents, Healthy Teens program had very different answers. Specifically,

by Abby Margolis Newman (Saving the World One Teen at a Time on Mommy Tracked)

I have to confess: I was a witness to my teenage son's first kiss, and it was bizarre, to say the very least. There he was, pulling the girl close to him with one hand, tenderly caressing her jawline with the other... and then, the kiss. It was fairly brief, but then as soon as he pulled away, she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a much bigger smooch. My first thought was: wow, that's a beautiful girl; my son could have done a whole lot worse. Then I thought: Oh my god! That's my son, kissing a girl!

No, I wasn't hiding under the bleachers at the high school, spying on him. My 14-year-old son, Aaron, was on stage, under bright lights and in front of an audience when this kiss occurred: he was playing Captain von Trapp in a production of "The Sound of Music," and the beautiful girl was the actress playing Maria. As Aaron drew this girl toward him for that first kiss, my palms