Will Your Son Be a Rapist?

Yesterday, Avital Norman Nathman wrote a post on The Frisky about her wishes for her six year old son. She wrote:

My son turns six next week, and among all the other wishes I have for him, I have a silent hope that won’t be shared at his birthday party. It’s one that swims in the depths of my mind, surfacing occasionally when awful things happen that force me to think about it: I wish and hope and pray that my son won’t grow up to be a rapist.

Her concern resurfaced after a video was released showing teens joking about a rape in their community, among their friends. Joking, laughing, showing a horrible, unfathomable lack of concern or respect for the victim. Avital wrote about the role that rape culture plays in allowing something like this to take place in Steubenville, but that could also allow it to take place in just about any other place in our male dominated world.

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Facebook vs. Breastfeeding 2012 Year in Review

Four years ago, I wrote a post about facebook deleting breastfeeding pictures and addressing some of the issues people were discussing. I gave three reasons people may want to post breastfeeding pictures and three stupid reasons for wanting to ban breastfeeding pictures from facebook. Since then, facebook has said that breastfeeding pictures are allowed, yet they continue to delete, delete, delete. Here are just a few examples from this year compiled by Jodine Chase from Human Milk News...

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Baking Christmas Cookies: Heritage, Tradition and Bonding

We've been baking and eating a lot lately (who hasn't, right?).  There are many, many cookies out there -- from the Canadian and European sides of our family. Many that we love to make or buy each year.

But this year, I came across a recipe for a bunch of different varieties of cookies based on a simple ice box cookie recipe. The fun part is that two of them matched my kids heritage (and my taste buds) perfectly.

Take a look at what we've been baking.

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Conversations We Need to Have: Teens and Mental Health

Following the tragic shootings in Newtown, Connecticut last week, there are many conversations we need to having. Many actions we need to be taking. Some of those conversations, however, are taking the wrong turn.

Instead of talking about gun control and gun safety, people are talking about 'those crazy people'.   I want you to know that "for every time a gun in the home was used in a self-defense or legally justifiable shooting, there were four unintentional shootings, seven criminal assaults or homicides, and 11 attempted or completed suicides" (source: National Institutes of Health). In other words, that gun you own to "protect" your family is 22 times more likely to hurt or kill them than to protect them.

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What is a Mompreneur? What is a Dadpreneur? Are They Equivalent?

When you hear the term 'mompreneur' what image do you conjure up in your mind? Apparently, it can mean all kinds of different things.

According to wikipedia's crowdsourced definitions, a mompreneur is "a female business owner who is actively balancing the role of mom and the role of entrepreneur." So, basically, any mom who is an entrepreneur (unless maybe she admits she has absolutely no balance in her roles?). This is consistent with the definition provided by MOMpreneur magazine.

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