Parents are OverheatedIt's not as if it's not hard enough being a teenage girl and potentially worrying about how you look compared to supermodels, actresses and your own classmates.
But at Issaquah High School in Washington, girls there know exactly what their peers think of their looks thanks to an online tournament called May Madness in which boys "pit their female classmates against each other and vote on who is the sexiest," according to King5.com. The contest has been a tradition for the past five years.
Girls are urged to "look their finest" during the length of the tournament, which was inspired by a local sports-radio station that rates the attractiveness of models and actresses.
"This kind of thing is sexualizing us girls like we're some sort of trophy," said Devon Keller, a sophomore at the school, told King 5.
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Because it's not happening on school grounds, though, Issaquah High officials can't put a stop to it. Last year parents went to the police
‘Hotness’ Tournament at High School in Washington Has Parents Overheated
By Babble.com | Parenting – Thu, May 9, 2013 10:10 AM EDTFor Mother's Day: The Creepiest Stock Photos of Moms
By Piper Weiss, Shine Staff | Parenting – Wed, May 8, 2013 9:16 PM EDTWhat happens when you enter the search term "Mother" in a stock photography website? You get lots of sunshine, hanging laundry and salad bowls. You also get a month's worth of nightmares. Moms made of plastic, moms wielding weapons, and even worse, moms whose emotions we just can't read. In honor of Mother's Day, we bring you the scariest stock images of our nearest and dearest.
Read More »from For Mother's Day: The Creepiest Stock Photos of MomsHow Can You Stop Your Kids from Multitasking?
By Common Sense Media | Parenting – Wed, May 8, 2013 6:58 PM EDT
Too much multitasking? By Caroline Knorr, Common Sense Media editor
Q. My kids insist that they need their devices while they're doing their homework. But I see them watching YouTube and checking texts. How do I get them to stop multitasking?
A. You're right to be concerned. Recent studies show that multitasking is detrimental to learning and that distractions weaken brain power. Even teachers are reporting that media has hurt their students' academic performance.
At the same time, school assignments often include a screen component -- researching a topic, doing problems on a math site, viewing and commenting on a YouTube video, or just writing a paper. But once kids are online, it's tough to stop.
Lots of parents struggle with how to manage multitasking. Ultimately, you want to help your kids develop their own self-restraint and concentration abilities. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, but here are some ideas to try:
- Try to help your kids understand the value of training
Amanda Berry and the Ohio Abductions: What Lies Ahead
By Parenting.com | Parenting – Wed, May 8, 2013 4:43 PM EDT
© WOIO/19 Action NewsBy Judy Dutton for Parenting.com
I lost my 2-year-old daughter on a crowded playground once: I blinked, and she was gone. Panic rising in my throat, I ran circles around the park's perimeter, screeching her name, before finally spotting her by the swings. From that point on, I vowed I'd keep my eyeballs glued to her in public. A few months later, I lost (and found) her again. So much for that.Call me a horrible mom or call me human, but those few minutes where I couldn't pinpoint my daughter's whereabouts were the most frightening of my life. That's why I can't imagine what it would be like to be the parent of a truly missing child like Amanda Berry-who, in 2003, vanished just a day before her 17 th birthday and remained MIA for ten years. My heart pounds, my knees weaken, and my eyes get teary at the thought.
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But unlike many other kidnapping cases, Berry's story has a happy ending: On Monday, the 27-year-old escaped the
Read More »from Amanda Berry and the Ohio Abductions: What Lies AheadSo what does it mean to be a mom? It's certainly the sleepless nights, runny noses, and finding the answer to "I'm bored!" But it also means life-changing experiences, unconditional love, providing a safe haven, and a lifelong friendship. As Mother's Day is upon us, we asked Shine readers what it really means to be a mother.
-- Ali Swank
Read More »from What it Really Means to Be a MomMultitasking Mama: 10 Tasks I Can Do One-Handed
By Disney Baby | Parenting – Wed, May 8, 2013 1:58 PM EDT
Read More »from Multitasking Mama: 10 Tasks I Can Do One-Handed
10 Things I Can Do One-HandedIt's no secret us mamas have to do it all - multitasking is an art form, one that I know my husband could not master! When people who do not have children say, "I don't know how you do it" or "I couldn't handle that" my response is "You JUST DO IT." And you do, all moms know that.
A few weeks ago my brother came over and I was in the kitchen, holding Little L. She has moments when she only wants to be held and just won't stop crying when she is put down.
I was getting M's dinner ready so I reached up to get a cup, walked to the fridge, opened it, reached in, got out a gallon of milk, unscrewed the cap, poured the milk, capped it, grabbed a straw from the cabinet, and then gave to my son. My brother stared at me in absolute amazement saying "That is crazy! How did you just do all that with ONE HAND?"
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I looked at him and said "Anything you can do, I can do one-handed. I don't have a choice!" and we both just laughed. But naturally thatLil' Globetrotters: 10 Baby Names Inspired by Cities
By Disney Baby | Parenting – Wed, May 8, 2013 1:58 PM EDTOur middle child is named Sydney. Not necessarily after the city in Australia, although he does consider himself quite famous knowing that an entire city shares the same name as he. While we named our son after an uncle, it is neat to know that we could travel halfway around the world and find a place with a name so familiar to us. It got me thinking about all the city-inspired baby names, and so I searched to see just how many names have been inspired by cities, and it turns out there's quite a lot. Here's 10 of my favorite city-inspired baby names I found. By Andrea Howe
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Read More »from Lil' Globetrotters: 10 Baby Names Inspired by CitiesTwo Boys Suspended For Pointing Pencils Like Guns
By Elise Solé, Shine Staff | Parenting – Wed, May 8, 2013 12:58 PM EDTA 7-year-old boy, who was suspended for two days after playing a game of make-believe with his friend, returned to school on Wednesday.
Read More »from Two Boys Suspended For Pointing Pencils Like Guns
More on Yahoo! Shine: Kindergarten Boy Suspended for His 'Distracting' Mohawk
On Friday, Christopher Marshall, a second grader at Driver Elementary School in Suffolk, Virginia and his classmate were playing with their pencils, pointing them at each other and making machine gun noises when a concerned teacher pulled them into the principals' office.
More on Yahoo! 1 in 9 middle and high schoolers suspended during school year
"I got a call from Christopher's school at 12:30 on Friday," the boy's mother, Wendy Marshall, 34, a stay-at-home mother of five, told Yahoo! Shine. "His teacher told me that Christopher and his friend were playing with pencils, making machine gun and 'bang bang' noises. I asked if they were pointing the pencils at anyone else, if they were angry or hostile, disrupting class, or refused to stop when asked and the teacher said no.What It's like when Your Child is Mentally Ill
By Redbook | Parenting – Wed, May 8, 2013 10:38 AM EDTBy Chrisa Hickey, REDBOOK.
Read More »from What It's like when Your Child is Mentally Ill
If you're a mom like I am, I bet your heart aches at the thought of a sick child who needs help. But some illnesses aren't outwardly apparent, and others are so misunderstood they seem downright scary. That's why, during National Children's Mental Health Awareness Week, I'd like you to meet my family.
It might help to first imagine that you have an 11-year-old son, and that he's sick. You're not sure what's wrong, but you know it's serious. Your pediatrician recommends you see a specialist, but when you call the only two in your area, neither one has an appointment available for eight weeks. When you finally get in to see the specialist, he puts your son in the hospital for two weeks of testing and observation, then diagnoses him with juvenile onset diabetes. You know the word, but you're not sure what the prognosis is or the treatment your son will need. The doctor recommends you relinquish your parental rights of your son to the state, as that is the onlyDon't Judge Me: The Day I Considered Running Away from My Family
By Babble.com | Parenting – Wed, May 8, 2013 10:04 AM EDT
Read More »from Don't Judge Me: The Day I Considered Running Away from My Family
runaway momHave you ever wanted to run away from your family? I think many of us would say, "No! Never!" out loud to others, because that sounds so terrible, so selfish. But maybe some of us have had those feelings before. Feelings that well up from a deep and dark place within us that tell us that things would be better if we left. Run away, and don't look back.
According to CNN, there are an increasing number of mothers who not only have those feelings, but who actually act on them. They run, or walk, away, and leave their families, their children, behind.
It's not an easy thing to talk about. If we are the mother having those feelings, it's not something that most of us would share with our best friends, or our families, our children, our husbands. Much less talk about to the world. And so my hands shake as I write these words, but I think it is important to share my story, because maybe in sharing, someone else will feel like they aren't so alone in the world.
There was a day when I wanted
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