Go wild
By Rachel Krueger
An interview with my Current-Self re: Where the Wild Things Are (the film), conducted by my Previous-Self (who had not yet seen it).
Previous-Self: I am nervous about this movie. I carry my generation’s obligatory love of the book, and the trailer looks terrible. Speak to my nervousness!
Current-Self: Calm [...]
Conflicted about candy
By Jodi A. Shaw
Navigating your way through the grocery store requires slightly more skill than usual this time of year. Maneuvering the cart around the mountains of Hallowe’en candy displayed in the entryway and randomly throughout the store becomes an exercise in both agility and self-restraint.
On my routine weekend trip to the Co-Op, I [...]
Fostering Harmony
By Bev Schellenberg
My eight year-old son has wanted a pet since he was old enough to say “dog.” However, our household is already complete with four humans, my daughter’s cat, Angel, and our family dog, Cinnamon, a behaviourally-challenged Miniature Dachshund-Miniature Pinscher cross. With his ninth birthday quickly approaching, my son began pushing the [...]
What about the kids?
By Bev Schellenberg
Now here’s a thought: According to the crown prosecutor in the case of Christopher Pauchay, the father of two children who froze to death while in his care, it’s important that people care for the children they have. Marylynne Beaton says the three-year sentence handed down on Friday, March 6th, sends an important [...]
Exploiting the First Girlz
Since 2007, the company that brought us Beanie Babies has been steadily feeding the glutted toy market a line of new dolls, the Girlz. Not surprisingly, more than a few of Ty’s Girlz bear passing resemblances to famous femmes. The red-headed Lucky Lindsay is as dead a ringer for La Lohan as you can get [...]
Don’t put that in your mouth
By Jodi A. Shaw
Recently, a friend asked me for my “secret” to a healthy diet. I was confused, so she explained how she admired my food preparation practices and efforts to eat organically. I was still confused, so she added, “You never seem to have to worry when there’s food crisis.”
She was referring, [...]
Thankyou, Robert Fulghum
By Bev Schellenberg
Students young and old have returned to school, a yearly phenomenon as certain in September as rainfall in Vancouver. Depending on where you stand on the conveyor belt of life, you likely fit somewhere between ecstatic-that-school-has-begun (as in the case of most parents, some students, and some more senior mall-frequenters) to unfazed-and-basically-unaware (as [...]
A job only parents can do well
Marni Ko
Last week, “Living” looked at the newest study to conclude the obvious — little kids do best when taken care of by the loving, involved parents who brought them into this world in the first place.
It’s not the first study, nor will it be the last, on this important issue. For over 10 [...]
Babies need Mother Care, not Other Care
Marni Ko
It’s not much of a surprise. On March 26, 2007, the findings of a United States study, the largest, most comprehensive, and longest running study ever undertaken, were published by the National Institute of Health. It concluded that the more hours a pre-kindergarten aged child spent in daycare, the more likely teachers would later [...]