You may have heard by now that Lego has come out with a new line designed specifically for girls.

And you know, I’m good with that. I think that even though the concept of Lego is universal, not every girl wants to build police cars and assault vehicles and whatnot.

But this?

This seems just a bit too genderized for me. I don’t have a problem with having things like the tree house or the pet house, but why oh why does everything have to have pink and purple? Could they have not launched the new sets with regular colors?

This is an old advertisement from the 70′s (I think) in which the girl, admittedly a bit tomboy-ish looking, is holding a creation built out of standard Lego bricks.

What happened between then and now?

I had my own Lego sets in the 70′s, and granted, it was a “house” set with a kitchen and living room, but I loved it. It wasn’t pink or purple or glittery, and yet it was one of my favorite toys.

Imagine that!

Has retailers crying into their beers and parents doing a happy dance.

I have tried never to buy into the whole “must have” toy thing, although I know a lot of people do because of peer pressure and the like.  If the popular toy happens to coincide with the interests of my child, then great.  But if it doesn’t, I will feel not even a tiny pang of regret.

And is it just me, or am I the only one surprised to read in that article that layaway is back?

Maybe I come from a place of privilege when I say that I’m not a big fan of layaway.

If we can’t afford something, we don’t buy it.  We have had more than one Christmas when we told our son that Mommy and Daddy simply did not have the money to buy him oodles of things.  That he gets a lot from his extended family and we see no need to put ourselves in debt for some toys.  Did he get something? Yes, but one year it was pretty thin.

Again, maybe I know not of what I speak.

Anybody want to set me straight?

Make no mistake about it, I was a pretty stupid, selfish teenager. It was all about ME and what I wanted and the judgements came swiftly and without a lot of thought.

I’d like to think I’ve improved greatly from that time in my life, heck, it might have even lasted into my early twenties.

But I don’t think I was ever as stupid as this:

Great. Now I’m all depressed.

via

Seriously?

People have asked other people to send them the spit-infested lollipop of a sick child so that their child could contract chicken pox?

Good Lord.

First, it’s a federal offense, second, it won’t even work and third, WHAT THE F@&# IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?

I used to give vaccine-deniers some leeway, but after being proven that a certain oft-quoted study was completely discredited, I will allow no quarter.

Vaccinate your damn kids!

That way, your damn kids won’t give a disease that should by all rights be eradicated to an unsuspecting infant or person with a lowered immune system.

Again, WHAT THE F@&# IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?

The American Academy of Pediatrics has advised that they no longer recommend the use of crib bumpers.

Yes, the ones people have been using for YEARS. Pretty much every single crib bedding set at BabiesRUs has a bumper.

Now, I’m not saying that there is no basis for the new recommendation, I’m sure there is.  It’s just that all of a sudden, bam!  Don’t use them anymore! They can kill! I’d heard various things throughout the years about crib bumpers, and when my daughter (briefly, like, two weeks) slept in a crib we had the breathable ones.

But the whole notion of the crib bumpers is to keep their arms and legs from getting stuck in between the slats, as well as in my daughter’s case, to keep her head/body from bumping against the slats and waking her up.  Which she did constantly, which is why we started co-sleeping.  She also would try to climb up on top of the bumpers, as they had to be stretched fairly tightly to stay on properly, thus resulting in something she could get her feet up on.  Scary stuff, much scarier than the supposed risks of us rolling on top of her or something, which has never even remotely happened.  When I sleep with her I am so hyper-aware of her presence that I barely even move.

Neither of my children did well in the crib, and luckily we had bought the convertible kind, because at least we got to use it as a head and foot board for my son’s big boy bed.  Otherwise, total waste of four hundred bucks.

So if you aren’t supposed to use crib bumpers, I wonder what people are going to do?  Will people pay for them but not use them?  Or will all of these sets suddenly go on sale?

Most of you think that in favorable circumstances, it is a good idea to take your children to participate in something like Occupy Wall Street.  18% think it can turn violent too quickly, and 8% feel that no one under the age of 16 should be there. My husband and I debated on whether to take our son to the local Occupy site near us, but decided against it as we feel our toddler would not be able to handle it.  Any aspect of it, violent or not.  She’s a loose cannon, that one.

As for today’s poll, I would like to find out if you think that the recent bill signed into law here in California that schools teach about LGBT acheivements in society is something you agree with.

I’m going to start this post off by apologizing to all the mothers of boys out there who read this blog.

As another person who has a son, I totally sympathize with all of the exclusive stuff that goes on with girls, whether it be clothes, or makeup, or whatever that we are usually not a part of.  It’s annoying.  I get it.

But I HAVE to share this website.

You see, I was searching in vain for quite a long time for easy, quick hairstyles for my two year old and her below shoulder length hair.  I know how to French Braid, but seriously, that can only get you so far.

I stumbled across this website and hallelujah! Finally a place with a bunch of great, easy styles and video tutorials to boot!  I actually found them before the 20/20 spot, but kudos to them, they deserve the spotlight!

It doesn’t hurt that Mindy and her entire family are cute as buttons, either.

59% of you feel that schools can only do so much in the face of bullying, which might also mean that in this day and age, school-time bullying is coming in second to online and virtual bullying.  22% think they give it a shot, but it isn’t enough, and 14% say schools don’t do nearly enough to address the problem.

I was never a bully in school, nor was I bullied, but my personal opinion is that bullying starts at home.  By that, I mean the parents of a bully have fostered an environment where a bully feels free to act out onto other people, and there is only so much a school can do to stop that type of behavior other than having a zero-tolerance policy.  Then again, I sort of hate zero tolerance policies, so I’m torn.  When my son attended public school, I cannot tell you how many parents I saw flouting school rules on a daily basis, and I would always think to myself that these parents were teaching their children by example that rules don’t apply to them.  Man, I hated those parents.

But, on to something a bit fluffier, although maybe as controversial.  The LA Times reports on the Vinci, a tablet, Android-based computer marketed specifically to children from 1 week to age 4.