I was getting a mani/pedi the other day and there was a mom in the salon with her two young girls and they were both getting the works. If I had to guess, they were close in age to my kids—probably not quite three and not quite five. Which, to me, is not quite old enough for a professional mani/pedi. Anyone else agree?

Jerad Wheeler, an officer with the DeKalb County Police Department in Georgia, is guilty of kicking a woman in the stomach— a woman who was nine months pregnant, according to Altanta’s WSB-TV news. Read full story

From the “What were they possibly thinking?” section of the news comes this story from Fort Wayne, Indiana, where four children, ages four to seven years old, were rescued after being strapped to the hood of a moving car. Driver Aaron Stefanski and passenger Jessica Clark, both 29, allegedly strapped the children to their vehicle at a Fort Wayne liquor store and drove off, reports CBS affiliate WANE. Read post

Should you hear a knock on your door in the middle of the night, chances are the last thing you expect to see when you answer is a toddler. But for Traci Gilbert of Denver, that’s exactly what she found: a 3-year-old covered in snow standing in her doorway after a car thief found and evicted him from the vehicle, reports the Huffington Post.

For most kindergarteners, a bad day would mean not getting what they wanted for snack time or having to sit next to the kid who always picks his boogers, but one Georgia kindergartener recently discovered a new meaning of bad day when she was arrested and handcuffed by police officers following an alleged tantrum at school. Read full post

I have a four-and-a-half-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl. They bathe together a lot. I know there will be a time when this is not OK, but I’m just not sure when that is…. Read post

Two children, a baby and a toddler, were locked in a hot van in Katy, TX, while their father shopped in a gun store, reports KTRK Channel 13. The children, a five-month-old boy and a 17-month-old girl, are fine; the father has not been charged. Read full post

Babies are still dying of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome each year, meaning that the Back to Sleep campaign, while successful, isn’t the complete answer to solving the tragic medical mystery of SIDS. An article published online today in the journal Pediatrics looks at other potential causes of SIDS.

Warning: This post is going to ruffle some feathers. Or tutus, I should say. But I am fascinated by this topic and really want to hear your thoughts. So here goes… Last week a friend took her daughter to a five-year-old girl’s birthday party that involved makeup application, up-dos, runway strutting and paparazzi-like photo shoots. Five years old. Read full post

I tend to tread very lightly with reprimanding other people’s children, even if it’s warranted. Honestly, I have almost no mom balls at all when it comes to this stuff. But maybe that’s because I haven’t really been put in the position to show them. My friend emailed me about a park incident with her daughter that made me so mad I could scream. And I don’t know what I would have done in her shoes… Read full post

by Erin Zammett Ruddy for our Mom Without a Filter blog.

We thought we’d seen it all with a toddler in a Pretty Woman-themed prostitute getup in Toddlers and Tiaras. But Lifetime’s reality series Dance Moms has shocked us again, with the instructor asking the child contestants to dress in nude bikinis while performing a Vegas showgirl routine on stage. Read full post and see the shocking video

While I’ve never really understood the public’s fascination with celebrities’ mundane daily activities (so they shop for groceries… so what?), this past week’s huge news on the celeb-sighting front is, in my book, actually news: Beyoncé publicly breastfed her infant daughter, Blue Ivy, while dining in a restaurant with hubby Jay-Z, and it’s caused a bit of a stir. Read full post

There are many things I love doing with my children, but building a castle out of Duplos or being “the bad guy” and getting locked in the playroom closet do not top my list. Is that so bad? Read full post

While Nick was unclogging the drain in our sink over the weekend, he said, “you know you could probably learn how to do this.” My response: “And you could learn to write thank you notes.”  Read Full Post

That’s right, the new hot beverage is all the rage with coffee shops’ littlest customers and their parents in need of a jolt and a five-minute break. The kiddie cappuccino is typically served as a small cup of steamed milk and foam, and lately some parents are adding decaf shots of espresso. The little ones might love it, but the taste isn’t sitting well in everyone’s mouth.

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