Families and Parenting

140 posts

When Toilet Paper and Social Media Collide

Charmin toilet paper has recently ramped up their advertising in an attempt to either sell more toilet paper or completely freak out the public. Charmin has a history of unusual advertising. Their most famous ad campaign featured people who stalked grocery stores to furtively squeeze toilet paper.

Advertising toilet paper is a tricky business. You want people to be aware of your product without thinking too much about it. They should associate your product with cleanliness. You don’t want them concentrating too much on why they need toilet paper. This will only lead to unpleasant images associating with the product. Continue reading →

Today in WTF: Deaf Boy Asked to Change his Sign Name

Your name is part of who you are and how people identify you as different from another person. Hunter Spanjer, a deaf pre-school boy from the corn belt, has a registered sign for his name. His name in Signing Exact English sign involves him crossing his index and middle fingers and shaking his hands up and down. Problem is that the Grand Island, Nebraska school district thinks it looks like a gun and therefore violates their ‘weapons policy’. The school district has asked that Hunter change his name sign. (Note to Grand Island School district: bringing your hands to school is not the same as bringing a weapon). Continue reading →

QOTD: What is Your Earliest Memory?

Yesterday Nurse Wretched asked a very good question: what is your earliest childhood memory, and how old were you?

Her question was prompted by having read this article by Bill Briggs.

The earliest memory that stuck with you likely came when you were “…3 1/2 years old, according to numerous past studies. At that age, the hippocampus, a portion of the brain used to store memories, has adequately matured to handle that task, experts say.” Continue reading →

When Hoarding Hits Home

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I get no pleasure from watching the television shows about hoarders. For most,the shows will motivate them to clean and toss away unneeded junk, making them feel better about their lives. For me, it makes me want to curl up in bed and take a nap. Why is this? My father is an honest to goodness, pathological hoarder and my mother in her codependency has become a willing participant. Growing up in the household, I developed tendencies to want to hoard, but work on fighting them daily.

I’m not sharing this to shame my parents or make fun of them. Although, the fake Christmas tree left standing in June, that my mother will buy ornaments for year round, has become an absurd joke between my sister and I. I share this, because there is a side most don’t necessarily see on these shows. And that is the humanity behind the hoards. What has brought people to live in homes where they literally have to crawl over things to get from one side of the house to another. Continue reading →

German Court: Your Parents Are Monsters For Circumcising You

I may not be all up to date on the latest male grooming habits but I feel pretty confident in saying that circumcising baby boys is really not a big deal.

Germany, however, has a different view of things. That country, which is best known for producing its own homegrown not-at-all-disgusting flavor of pornography, has declared war on Poland circumcision. A German court this week managed to make Europeans look like the same radical assholes that Rush Limbaugh always makes them out to be.  Continue reading →

LOL Feminism with Elizabeth Wurtzel

Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation, has written an article for The Atlantic about “1% wives”, the rich women with nannies who lunch and shop and are ruining feminism by staying out of the job market. In Wurtzel’s mind, educated women should be in the workplace, pulling their own weight. All I could think while reading it was “Oh, Elizabeth. I always thought you’d be more likeable once you had time to mature a bit.”

I doubt whether the women she is speaking of really had all that much career potential to begin with. A woman who spends her free time shopping at Chanel and getting facials at Tracy Martyn probably wasn’t going to set the workplace on fire. However, Wurtzel labels women who do not work outside the home as women who are hurting feminism, and that is a concern. It’s an excellent example of a feminist getting distracted by an easy issue, rather than addressing the difficult questions that modern women face. Most women don’t fall into the “1% wives” category, and it’s nonsensical to spend time ranting about the few, rich women who are frittering their lives away when the vast majority of women face tougher questions. Continue reading →

On Father’s Day

As I mentioned in the comments earlier, my family never really celebrated Father’s Day. Both my parents were pretty committed Lefties and the general consensus was that both Father’s and Mother’s Day were Hallmark holidays created just to sell us all more crap. Nevertheless, every year when Father’s Day rolls around I can’t help thinking of my Dad and wishing I could call him, tell him happy Father’s Day and hear him say, “That’s today? Thanks for nothing, kid.” My Dad died in 2001. Continue reading →

My Big Fat West Virginia Wedding

Reality television has exposed many parts of the world that were previously hidden or unknown to society at large. “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding” revealed the lifestyle of the English and Irish gypsy culture. The show ostensibly focused on the outrageous fashions that gypsies often chose for their weddings. The series also showed many realities and misconceptions about gypsy. It also exposed the prejudices that gypsies face in everyday life. I was unaware that they faced such deep, ingrained prejudice on a day to day basis. Continue reading →