Hey, it’s Friday! Let’s have some fun! Let’s have some frivolity! Let’s play Celebrity Dads: The Hottie and the Nottie!

I have only one rule:

You must vote for someone, whether you personally think they are all that hot or not.  It is between the two photos in the contest, not against the idea of Brad Pitt and how good he looked in Thelma & Louise.  Because I, who do not even think Mr. Pitt is particularly good looking, have to concede that he was pretty fine lookin’ in that movie.

Ahem.

I will do my best to find recent photos of each dad, and as au naturel as possible, not dolled up for a movie role.

Now, for our first-ever contestants:

 vs.

more at twiigs.com…

You may want to print out several copies of this just to hand out to family members when you’re feeling a little low, or even print enough to wallpaper the family room. We are all about the crafty family projects around the Manolosphere. Thirsty work, though, so stock up ahead of time!

Stolen from the delightful, yet NSFW gimcrack hospital

The other day, the Munchkin read yet another label on something that said “Made in China.” He then turned and asked me, “Why is everything made in China?”

OK, I’ve got this one covered. “Well you see, son, China is a very big country that is able to produce many things.”

All right, that should be good enough for a five year old, he’ll move onto something else, I’m sure.

No such luck.

“But why do they make so much?”

“Well, there are many reasons why. Uhhhh, they have a large population, which means they are able to pay people less money to work because it is easy to find workers who will work for less money than someone else.”

“That sounds bad.”

Hoo boy.

“It isn’t necessarily bad, although some people do think it is bad. But it works for China and so they do it that way.”

By this time I am sweating bullets because I accepted the assignment, but I’m afraid something is going to self-destruct.  Probably me.  Does my son really need to know about the yen being artifically low, labor abuses, trade agreements, and all the many factors that enable China to produce so much stuff?

Q&A sessions like this are the hardest part of parenting for me because I know that younger children tend to see things in a very compartmentalized way. This is how they make sense of such an overwhelming world, often by placing things in  “good” and “bad” categories.

But it is the nuance of a situation, the various shades of gray, that children need to understand the most. The world is just not that simple.  However, too much information can be just that,  a Charlie Brown teacher “waa-waaa-waaa-waaa” for a kid with no frame of reference about geopolitics, economics, or world powers.

On the other hand, giving an oversimplified, sugarcoated explanation is just as bad, if not worse.

Striking that balance is one of the most important things a parent can do to make sure that their children develop critical thinking skills.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go crawl through some air ducts, descend into a motion-sensitive room on a wire, and hack into a computer. 

Because that’s my other job. 

And it’s a lot easier.

From Oh Baby London via CounterfeitChic

I bet that’s four words you never thought you’d hear together! But quite sensible ones, all the same. From the Hollywood Squares vintage files at lyndesquares:

Peter Marshall: If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?
Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark.

I don’t know about you, but that baby looks pretty calm for someone about to get a Q-Tip shoved up their nose.  Or poked in their eye.  You choose.

Want to see more photos?  Go here! 

Oh, I’ll have a double helping of this.

Recall, if you will, Glinda’s thoughtful post on the concept of the “Alpha Mom.” The Alpha Mom would be described by those who aspire to Alpha-dom as a woman who has it all and runs it with aplomb. She would be described by pretty much everyone else as an insufferable snob, an undermining, competitive bitch, and a complete pain in the ass.

You know the type.

Well, the type, it seems, has a regular column in the Times of London (Mother’s Little Helper is the tagline; you can’t make this stuff up!) and we (as highly professional parenting bloggers) do cast a narrowed eye over the gilded ghetto of the Alpha Mummy column from time to time, holding our noses against the clouds of Coco Mademoiselle (Mademoiselle? Really? I thought you were 40, darling?) and squinting through the glare coming off all that lamé. You’ve no idea the sacrifices we endure for you.

Or the joys.

For lo, in the land of the TeenyManolo there was great joy last night at about 3am, when we saw the comments that regular readers had made on the Alpha Mummy blog. Possessed as we are of commenters both witty and supportive, we could only chuckle malevolently to ourselves as the delightful waves of Schadenfreude washed over us.

The post:

What to do this weekend. Kids.Modern fair.

Instead of spending the whole day in our pyjamas or doing the grocery shopping, this Sunday we’re heading to Dulwich for the Kids.Modern fair. This is the first fair, run by the folks who do the Midcentury Modern fair, but focussed on vintage and new design for kids. Children will be able to make t-shirts, make trays, play with toys, interact with digital wallpaper and more…

Okay, this is more of a post than I’d normally steal and re-post, but I just have to say: that, is, too, many, commas. And when I say that, you gotta know it’s true. Don’t they have copy editors at the Times Online? But the very cockles of our shriveled and dried hearts were warmed by tears of joy when we read the comments, which we are also going to steal and re-post. Behold and cheer:

ps am I alone in wondering if Jennifer’s kids will come home and start to interact with analogue wallpaper, otherwise known as scribbling on the walls….

Posted by: J | 24 Feb 2008 11:51:51

Actually I am spending all day in my PJs AND doing the grocery shopping, thanks to tesco online.

The younger ones appear to be playing in a cardboard box, whatever, I dont really care 🙂

Posted by: J | 24 Feb 2008 11:50:31

Is interacting with digital wallpaper as criminally dull as it sounds?

Posted by: Annamac | 22 Feb 2008 18:22:35

One can only assume so. And no doubt the budding Wallpaper editors will be thrilled to the very core at the chance to colour pictures of old Eames chairs and the like. Except, it seems that even the vast resources of the most respected newspaper in the world couldn’t get a picture of children doing this. I wonder how much they had to pay the two grups in the shot?

I mean, seriously, people (there go those commas again!) when the best you can think of to do for the weekend is to take your kids to a cunningly-disguised trade show, it’s time to stop breeding.

I think shoes for your toddler that are able to double as reflectors is an interesting concept. 

Apparently, so does Roberto Cavalli:

Just slap these babies on your child, and have no fear, as long as it’s a sunny day the helicopter will be able to locate you in no time flat!