[UPDATE (1/21/2010): Going to big-people time out.]

While I have been to Africa and have adopted a son from there as the Bottomly’s did our journeys are very different. It was neat to read and follow their path with them to their ultimate dream, a son from Ethiopia.

Check out the book!

“After decades of coddling young children, Johnson & Johnson unveiled its new ‘Nothing But Tears’ shampoo this week, an aggressive bath-time product the company says will help to prepare meek and fragile newborns for the real world.”
— “Johnson & Johnson Introduces ‘Nothing But Tears’ Shampoo To Toughen Up Newborns”

Parents want written updates, too. “We’re forced to tell parents everything the kids have done,” said June Ingraham, spokeswoman for camp Sail Caribbean. “Like, ‘They sailed from point A to point B; they went on land; they took a hike; they got ice cream at a local shop and stir-fry for dinner.’ We put everything in there so that parents can live vicariously.”

“Kids in a Bunk, Parents in a Funk”

And:

“I have parents calling and saying they saw their child in the background of a picture of other children and he didn’t look happy, or his face looked red, has he been putting on enough suntan lotion, or I haven’t seen my child and I have seen a lot of other children, is my child so depressed he doesn’t want to be in a picture,” said Jay Jacobs, who has run Timber Lake Camp in Shandaken, N.Y., since 1980.

“Dear Parents: Please Relax, It’s Just Camp”

I cannot even fathom behaving like that. It seems so self-absorbed, which I guess is the real problem. What starts on the playground continues on to camp, college, and job hunting. {via}

• “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids”: this article may as well have used me as an example. As I read it, it seemed addressed specifically to me: everything always came easily to me so I put in hardly any effort. I didn’t realize my error in sloughing off and sliding by until I was academically suspended after my first year of college—the 1.8 GPA was exactly the wake-up call that I needed. I think my life would have been very different if my parents had read this article and applied its advice.
• “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Fathers”: I struggle with some of these points but I think they’re all invaluable in being the best father I can be. I think its advice is relevant to parents in general, but fathers especially should heed it since they’re generally not the primary caregivers. One point of contention: I think that fighting with their mother in front of them is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, if the fight can be resolved in front of them as well, it could be valuable in modeling a healthy relationship—much more so than growing up with the idea that people who love each other never fight.