A tip from guest blogger Lucie Amundsen… 

Many of us use television as a way to buy a few minutes here or there to simply get done what needs to happen.

And many of us feel not-so-good about it - at least I don’t.

Another ace up the sleeve is the little-toted Storyline. Just like it sounds, you dial the telephone number and an actor reads a children’s story. The best thing is it’s free (unless long distance charges apply) and available 24/7.

The story honors a monthly theme (For September it’s Grandparents Month) and offers a brief synopsis of the book at their website. You’ll also find a list of other suggested reading around the month’s theme.

While it may seem a little low-tech to me, my kids don’t feel that way. They seem to enjoy modeling me on the telephone. They pace around the house while they listen and nod their heads.

Or it I’m really lucky, my youngest will drop off for a nap.  If a particular story strike them, they’ll call back repeatedly all week.

And while our little Milo will tell you, pressing 9-1-1 when there is no emergency can get a guy in trouble, calling 952-352-1350 is okay. It’s been a way to channel his serial dialing in the right direction while I get 15-minutes to keep the world spinning.

Anybody else tried this? 

From Bodytalk blogger Josephine Marcotty…

The salient question about Gov. Sarah Palin’s pregnant 17-year-old daughter is not whether she should or shouldn’t have had an abortion. The salient question is why is she even pregnant in the first place.

In addition to being an unabashed member of the National Rifle Association and a supporter of the death penalty, Palin is an avid supporter of abstinence only sex education. That means her kids probably received little or no education about birth control — never mind emergency contraception.

Palin’s supporters shrug off the actual fact of the the girl’s pregnancy as “people make mistakes.” Those mistakes, however, have much bigger consequences if you’re a 17-year-old girl who doesn’t quite get how babies are made or how prevent them from being made.

Bristol Palin puts a face on the ample evidence, much of it provided through federally mandated research studies, that abstinence-only sex education does not work. Kids who just get the abstinence only message are just as likely to have sex. And they’re much more likely to get pregnant.

Kay and I have been sitting here tying ourselves up in knots, trying to figure out what we think about McCain’s surprise pick for VP, who went from little-known governor of Alaska to the country’s most famous Mom - and soon-to-be unexpected grandmother - pretty much overnight. The New York Times has already weighed in on the new front on the Mommy Wars.

As working mothers, we’re torn. After all, amidst the consternation over Palin returning to work three days after having a baby with special needs, why isn’t anyone asking if Todd Palin stayed home longer with the baby?

So as we sort our thoughts, pull apart our contradictory feelings (maybe never), here’s a thought from H.J. Cummins, our longtime work and life reporter and now consumer affairs writer….

There are so many things to be said about Sarah Palin, but what washed over me this morning was this: “As a mother, would I put my daughter through this?” And my answer is an immediate, “No.”

That gets us into all kinds of complicated territory: Should a woman turn down a ground-breaking opportunity because of a private family issue? Would I ask this if the nominee were a man?

What I keep coming back to is me picturing my daughter at 16 or 17, and me looking at that little-girl face and saying, “Sorry, honey, but this profound fact of your young life will now be public, for all the world to see, and say horrible things about you.” And that stops me. I can’t imagine imposing that new scale of fear and pressure on her when she’s already struggling with what is happening to her.

…. my four-year-old asks at breakfast.

Phew. Such a simple question. So difficult to answer.

I want to say it’s something you get paid for but then how to explain what her stay-at-home dad does? And then there’s the “work” they do at preschool (Montessori teachers call everything work - as in “put away your work now.”).

I end up telling her a story instead of how I love to write and I’m good at it so I went to the newspaper and they liked me too. And so they said will you work for us and now they give me money for it. And I use the money to pay for food and our house. Long-winded and lame and narrow, I know.

And it didn’t really answer her question at all.

And with that less-than-riveting answer, my daughter gazed out in our back yard and pronounced: “Mommy, that’s a really big spiderweb.”

Her question stuck with me through the morning.

Because you know, it’s a question we ask ourselves all through our lives. I’m lucky enough to love what I do for a living. But there have definitely been ups and downs in my career.

Our enduring quest to answer Zoe’s question - “what is work?” - is why we read books like “What Color is your Parachute.” It’s why something gets caught in our throats when we watch “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” and the bearded, long-haired drifter talks about searching for his “life work” which unexpectedly appears in the form of a flock of wild green and red parrots.

So I asked a couple of people who know a lot about work what they would have said to my Zoe. (more…)

Ah, summer…..sun shining, kids outside. Wait, that’s when Samara Tilkens Postuma notices something…

It is always something isn’t it.

Upon a child’s birth, its breast vs. bottle, working vs. staying at home, preschool vs. Montessori and so on. Most of the time we all do what works for our own families trying to leave our own biased opinions out of it, don’t we? It’d be nice if as our kids got older the arguments over what is better and the decisions over what is best ceased, but it seems that isn’t the case.

My stepson, Tyler, is 9 and entering 4th grade this fall. Imagine my surprise when I watched him and three of his neighborhood friends bike around the neighborhood and he was the only one wearing a helmet. In years past, all the kids wore helmets. And I mean ALL. This year, he’s the oldest one wearing one.

It doesn’t seem to bother him and only once have I even heard one of his friends question him. His friend started to point and laugh saying; “You still wear a helmet? Helmets are for babies!!!” and Ty quickly put the blame on me, (his evil stepmother), “She makes me.” He said pointing at me.

I was fine with that explanation and feel thankful that he willingly puts it on each day when he hops atop his bike but I can’t help but wonder how much longer it will be before he starts asking when he’s old enough to go helmet less.

Helmets weren’t what they are today when my husband and I were growing up. As a matter of fact, I first got a helmet when I was 10, from my pediatrician after a fall on my noggin. But even today my husband and I wear helmets when we go biking because we want the kids to all understand that it’s about being safe and making the right choices.

Is there some sort of magical age that helmets are no longer needed? The way I see it, my two year old is probably safer on his tricycle without a helmet versus a 9 year old boy who wants to ride hands free, going off of jumps. What do you think and how does one approach and encourage this as the kids get older?

Samara Tilkens Postuma
http://simplicityinthesuburbs.blogspot.com