A cyclone in Burma, an earthquake in China….for days, I’ve been reading about disasters on the other side of the world without being able to comprehend the depth of the human toll.

Until yesterday. I was driving home from work with the radio on.

MPR’s Melissa Block spent the day in Sichuan province with a young couple whose apartment building collapsed. Inside was their child, not yet two, and his grandparents who were taking care of him. The mother had just left for her work at a department store when the earthquake hit. Her son’s last words to her were: “Mama, don’t leave. Stay with me.”

The frantic parents found an excavator which they led to the building for the painstaking search through the rubble. You could hear the parents’ heartrending cries: “Wang! Wang!”

By the time I got home, I was bawling in the car.

Click here and then on the headline “Couple Frantic to Find Loved Ones” to listen.

And here for a story on how China’s one-child policy means many parents have lost an only child in the quake.

Cribsheeter Amy sent us a link to an interesting article from the Washington Post.

It poses the question, how much do you tell your teenager about your “past transgressions?”  Should you tell all so they learn from your mistakes? Let them learn from their own mistakes? 

Most of us are many years out from having these conversations - but it gives us plenty of time to think it through.

You can read the article here.

How about some of you seasoned parents out there. How did you handle these conversations? Or you newbies - what do you think you’ll tell (or not tell) your teens?

WCCO TV’s Frank Vascellaro guest blogs for Cribsheet on ideas for getting rid of the pacifier…

Bribes, threats, pleas, even a scheme involving our pediatrician.

We  tried about everything to get our son Joe to give up his pacifier, the nuk ; or as he called it,  the  “bah-bah”. Finally, when Joe was nearly four, and his teeth were actually starting to protrude like a baby chipmunk, we pulled the plug. 

It wasn’t pretty, for Joe or us. However, I am here today to save you the pain, emotional turmoil, and sleepless nights we endured at the Vascellaro home.

I’m a TV reporter and anchor at WCCO. My names is Frank Vascellaro. I  work with wife, Amelia Santaniello. We’re the first married couple in Minnesota to co-anchor a daily news program. More importantly, we are the parents of 5 year old twins and an 8 year old boy.

And as you gathered from our experience with Joe, we’re interested in offering up solutions to parenting problems. We do regular segments on all kinds of real life issues ranging from taking away the pacifier, to paying for college.

Thursday night at 10 on channel 4 we’ll air a story showing tips and strategies for taking away the nuk.The issue gets a little complicated. The American Academy of Pediatrics says you should give your newborn a pacifier to lower the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. However, the academy of pediatrics doesn’t say how, or when, to take it away.

So, we spoke with a pediatric dentist about how long is too long and the dangers of using a nuk for an extended period of time. I’ll tell you now, there are no hard and fast rules, but there are some decent guidelines. Read the rest of this entry »

Canadian children’s book author Melanie Watt was at Wild Rumpus recently, reading from her Scaredy Squirrel series and drawing to the delight of her young audience, which included my Zoe. Here’s a Q&A with Cribsheet.

Where’d you get the idea for Scaredy Squirrel?
I wanted to write about a book about facing our fear of the unknown. A squirrel felt like a good character to embody this because they are fearful and alert creatures. I needed an animal with a special hidden talent that he could only discover by jumping into the unknown and so, a squirrel who is actually a flying squirrel was for me a great jump start to my story.

The nut tree is a nice metaphor for a home, shelter, food and safety, all of these factors and observing our society and how we are bombarded with warnings all around us, all inspired me to write Scaredy Squirrel.

Is there a little bit of Scaredy Squirrel in you?
Read the rest of this entry »

Relationships reporter, Gail Rosenblum is working on an article and would like to tap from our vast base of parents and their anecdotes.  The topic this time? Gender determination and wive’s tales -  here is Gail’s query:

When you were planning to get pregnant, what is the funniest thing someone told you about how to make sure you got the girl or boy you were hoping for? Was it something you should eat? A certain sexual position? And how accurate was that prediction? We might like to use your story in an upcoming Source article, so please include your full name, age, city of residence and a daytime email or phone number. Thank you!

You can reach Gail @ grosenblum@startribune.com