The Perils of Parenting in the White House

Consider the perils of parenting in the White House.

There is a movie theater, a bowling alley, a horseshoe pit, a swimming pool, five full-time chefs and dozens of household staff members ready to dish up ice cream at all hours. There are trips to foreign lands, dinners with kings and celebrities, swarming paparazzi and blaring motorcades, all with the potential to transform sweet little children into bossy, self-important ones. (Or lonely, dysfunctional ones.)

What are presidential parents to do?

Lay down the law, according to the newest parental unit in the executive mansion. President Obama and his wife, Michelle, might not be in Chicago anymore, but they say the old rules still apply when it comes to their daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.

More from The New York Times...

Study: Hormone May Predict Baby Blues

Measuring levels of a hormone midway through pregnancy may predict a woman's risk of postnatal depression, according to a new study.

In the study of 100 women, levels of the pCRH hormone at 25 weeks helped predict three-quarters of those who developed the "baby blues".

More Work for Moms During Tough Times

Potty Training Using Baby Signs

The people behind the Baby Signs program are promoting the use of baby sign language to encourage earlier potty training, which saves money for parents and reduces problems for toddlers.

I was a big fan of using sing language with my son when he was a baby and was amazed at how quickly he caught onto it. It was a great communication tool for us before he used words to communicate. However, he didn't potty train until he was using words to communicate, so we never tried sign language to encourage earlier potty training.

Have any of you used sign lauguage to encourage earlier potty training with your child?

Parenting Coaches

"Today's" Al Roker talked with Laura Berman Fortgang, a veteran life coach, and Anne Sedler, one of her clients, about how counseling can help people reach their parenting goals.

Parent coaches help with normal child rearing challenges like bedtime rules, temper tantrums, potty training and eating problems.

Fortgang says, "A coach helps parents come up with new solutions when they are stuck."

10 Simple Momolutions

Everyone makes New Year's resolutions, but sometimes, even keeping the resolution can become something we resolve to do.

iVillage resolves to make your job as a mom easier. So read on to find out what resolutions iVillage moms are making this year, and get a simple iVillage momolution solution that will make keeping the resolution (and keeping your sanity) a piece of cake.

Nighttime Illness Soothers

If it's time for turkey and dressing and Santa and his reindeer, it's also cold and flu season. Parenting.com explores the reasons why kids get sicker at night and seven remedies for their symptoms.

Also, don't miss The Six Most Annoying Things Kids Say, Baffling Kid Behavior Explained and No More Whining.

Raising Boys to Become Gentlemen

Baby's First Savings Account

So you have a new baby and want to start saving some cash for him or her since they're too preoccupied with other things right now to do it themselves?

Here are a few tips.

The Best Places to Raise Kids

Businessweek has released its second annual rankings of the best places to raise your kids. This year, they went state by state and selected towns with at least 50,000 residents and a median family income between $40,000 and $100,000.

The list was then narrowed down using the following weighted criteria: school performance; number of schools; household expenditures; crime rates; air quality; job growth; family income; museums, parks, theaters, and other amenities; and diversity. School performance and safety were weighted most heavily, but strong weight was also given to amenities and affordability.

Click here to see A-I on the list. Click here for the entire list (scroll down to the pictures).

Teaching Babies to Stay Asleep

This is interesting: parents are learning they can turn to sleep trainers that effectively teach babies to stay asleep. Check out the video and let us know what you think.

Protecting Babies from SIDS

Q&A With Kate Gosselin

Kate Gosselin, star of the reality series Jon and Kate Plus Eight, answered a few questions over at momtourage.com. Some of the topics include how she balances life, alone time and keeping eight kids on a healthy diet.

Dads Consider Themselves Parenting Equals

Here's an interesting survey - more than two-thirds (70 percent) of married dads in America consider themselves equal parenting partners with their wives, and 69 percent say fathers are evolving to meet the needs of today's world.

A question for moms: How involved is your husband? Let us know in the comments below.

PETA: Use Breast Milk in Ice Cream

This is one of those stories we couldn't make up if we tried. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is urging Ben & Jerry's ice cream to replace the cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement released by a PETA spokesperson.

"PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says.

Ben & Jerry's response? Classic. In a statement, the company said, "We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child."

PETA points out that using cow's milk for Ben & Jerry's ice cream is a hazard to their customer's health.

"Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer," the statement says. "The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America's leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow's milk to children, saying it may play a role in anemia, allergies, and juvenile diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease-America's number one cause of death."

Read the full statement from PETA here.

Probing the Complex Mother-Infant Bond

It’s probably not surprising that mothers excel at recognizing and interpreting the moods and emotions of their infants. Although infants can’t speak, mothers seem to know what their babies are thinking: they smile when their baby smiles and they frown when their baby is upset. Research suggests that the mother’s ability to understand the needs of her infant is very important for establishing a secure mother-infant relationship.

Study: Parenting Style Influences Infant's Stress Response

Parenting style starts to influence a child's ability to deal with stress as early as six months of age, a new report says. The findings, published in the September/October issue of Child Development, show that parenting and genes influence how a child deals with stress, and that parental actions could put infants at risk of developing poor responses to such situations.

Airline Antics

Apparently flight attendants get frustrated while traveling with children, too. Mikki M, in a post on momtourage.com, writes that she was THAT mom.

"I was the mom in the aisle drying up spilled apple juice," Mikki writes. "I was the mom trying to mix a formula bottle while my two year old squirmed on my lap waiting for me to start the Elmo video. I was the mom that got up when the fasten seat belt sign was on because my child had to go 'potty' for the fifth time. I was the mom that kept pulling the bag out from under the seat in front of me and bothering that passenger while they tried to sleep. I was the mom that desperately tried to keep my two year old from waking everyone up to say 'hi.' I was the mom who finally got her child to take a nap 10 minutes before we landed. Finally, I was the mom that organized, planned and plotted pampered, soothed and consoled assisted, apologized and got creative. I was that mom!"

Read the rest of Mikki's drama-filled story here.

Reigning in Grandparents' Gift-Giving

A Baltimore Sun reader is looking for advice to keep grandparents "from going completely overboard with expensive, elaborate, space-consuming gifts that don't reflect our parenting values."

Kids’ Playgroups Can Fuel Mama Drama

As a new mom hoping to feel less isolated in suburban Los Angeles, writer Helaine Olen joined a playgroup with her infant son. But instead of finding the support she craved, she was stunned to encounter junior-high-style gossip, cruelty and cliquishness.

“Women don’t suddenly become nice just because we’ve had kids,” observes Olen, 43, now the mother of two sons and living in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. “If you get a group of 10 women together, chances are there’s going to be one bad seed, and that’s all it takes to destroy the group.”

Of course, many new moms find that playgroups are an invaluable source of comfort during their initiation to the often-overwhelming world of modern motherhood. After all, where else could you find people willing to sit through two hours dissecting breast-feeding schedules or interpreting the meaning of baby bowel discolorations?

More... (msnbc.com)