Dads hoping to score this weekend might want to take a pass on the big game. A poll of moms found that 80 percent of them would rather spend Sunday tackling their men in the bedroom than watching the Super Bowl. After hearing this news, men across the country are busy trying to figure out how they can make both happen -- maybe a little homemade halftime entertainment? Do you think your guy would forego the game for sex?
Competitive sports leagues for kindergartners?!
C'mon kids, stop acting like a bunch of babies. You're six and seven years old -- it's time to start taking your sports seriously and let your competitive juices flow, already. Unless you're a girl, then you'll never be as competitive as the boys and you need to go find your own team. The mother of one seven-year-old girl was outraged when her daughter's coach called to say her daughter, Anna, was no longer welcome on the team. His reason? The team would eventually (either this season or next) be moving to a more competitive league, where girls and boys no longer played together. The coach noted that although Anna was a better player than her five-year-old brother, Carson, Carson was still welcome on the team. The coach also noted that another girl and some boys had been cut to make the team more competitive. Aside from the issue of whether or not girls can be as competitive as boys, do you think there should even be "competitive" teams when we're talking about kindergartners and first-graders? Given how few kids grow up to play professional (or even college) sports, and given how many kids grow up and struggle with their weight, should we even have competitive teams that cut kids before high school?
Jenna Fischer loses weight like a real mom
For many of us, pregnancy weight gain is nine months up, nine months down. In Hollywood, it seems like it's nine months of the same, followed by 2 weeks down. In the postpartum period when many of us mere mortals are still using a peri bottle, starlets can already be found flouncing on a beach in a white bikini. How?! That's just one of the reasons why we love Jenna Fischer -- she attended an awards show recently (four months postpartum) and still hadn't lost all of the baby weight. Gasp! Four whole months. "Let me please stand in solidarity with all of the women who are not a size 2 six weeks after leaving the hospital. I thought, you read all of the stuff in magazines like, ‘Oh, I breastfed my baby and I am so skinny now.’ I am breast-feeding my baby and I am not getting any skinnier! I think I’m just going to be a little bit bigger for a little bit longer,” she told US Weekly, “and that’s fine with me.” Jenna, that's fine with us, too. In fact, we love you all the more for it.
Is car culture harming our kids?
Unless we live in a fairly dense urban area, we drive. We drive and we drive and we drive. But, what effect is all that driving having on our kids? For most of us, the first concern we might have about car culture involves the decrease in exercise we get when we're all sitting in the car. But, what about other impacts the car has on kids? Some argue that by living in suburbs or rural areas, where people have to drive nearly everywhere, we're taking independence away from our kids. If kids need a ride in order to go to the store, a movie, or to play with friends, are we depriving them of their autonomy? Many of us move to the suburbs for our kids -- for better schools, bigger houses and more grass. But, if the kids can't get anywhere on their own are we really making things better for them? Do you have coffee shops, schools and libraries within walking distance? If not, do you miss that?
Marketing to kids
We all know that kids recognize brands and logos, often before they can read. However, it's always interesting to see what ideas and impressions they take away from these logos. A new video's gone viral, showing various corporate logos, while a five-year-old gives her thoughts on each of them. She may not know Starbucks, but she knows that green mermaid means the "coffee place." She also knew that the BP logo meant gas and recognized GE as the place where her grandpa works. We love that she described the Olympics interlocking rings logo as "baby toys." What logos did your kids first recognize?
Dana Macario is a TODAY Moms contributor and Seattle mom to two sleep-depriving toddlers. Once properly caffeinated, she also blogs at www.18years2life.com.