Sorry, no. Didn't even take the pic...well, I took it from the interweb.

Really, though, does that sound like something a Kentucky boy would take the time to learn? What's this learning? Hell, I'd just walk up there and grab 'em, see what happens.

Prolly wouldn't be good.

ETA: I guess there is technique to consider...

Attachment 46188

Learned since last post:

'Playing with the lion's testicles' means taking unnecessary chances, sorta like 'poking the bear', 'tugging on Superman's cape', etc.

Watched the Wire for the first time last night, heard "Giving a shit when it ain't your turn to give a shit."

Ew. I must not love my kids, because I never would have done that.

No. This woman is crazy, I'm sorry, but ... I have four children and have been the sole human being who changed their diapers, and I have loved my children to an extent that was not always wise ... and I have NEVER, never licked baby poo off my thumb. Did this woman mistake it for mustard?

Yeah, uh, no.

"No wipes at hand" just means you wipe it on the kid's shirt, or your own shirt, or the wall... licking it off is the stupidest way to get something clean.

Unless you are
a. A dog
b. A cat
c. Some melodramatic, sentimental crazy person
d. All of the above

Not the worst parent in the world. Not the worst. There are plenty of worse parents.

But WTF?

I think Diane Levin was just too professional to express her surprise.

Ffs.

Diane Levin probably needed a stiff drink after that consultation.

'A blue bike? Really? ... I questioned whether I was failing as a mother for not raising her to be dainty enough.'
Give me strength.

What the heck is wrong with blue? I had a blue bike when I was a kid. A simple, plain blue bike, no Power Ranger, pirates, or Spider-Man. In my twenties, I bought another blue bike, which I'm still using. I guess you can tell I like the color blue. :D

It's just so weird on so many levels.
1) I don't think kids should be forced along traditional gender roles.
2) Neither does she, so she claims.
3) Even for people who do want to do that, I could see not wanting a pink bike for a boy, or a blue hat and booties for a baby girl, but a blue bike for a girl? Really?
4) The mom's favorite color is blue. WTF?
5) A child psychologist for bicycle color?!?
6) She's so oblivious to how ludicrous this is, she writes it up as an article.
7) And it's published!

It's so weird, I almost think it's a hoax, but she apparently writes parenting articles all the time.

Unless you go to a bike store and pay through the nose for a real bike, you're going to wind up at Target looking at all the junk bikes from China, and they are all going to be hideous monstrosities, covered with stickers and paint jobs for either boys or girls.

My son's first bike was a pink princess special handed down from his sister. We had inherited it from another family. We wanted him to feel like it was his bike, so we let him pick out a couple of cans of spray paint, and he went to town on it. We cut the pink tassels off the handle bars, and he painted it blue and gold. The tires were pink, but he didn't paint those. And he kept the basket on the handlebars.

He really left his mark on that bike.

Yeah, she writes parenting articles all the time... as in, she has a regular deadline and enjoys not getting fired. She had nothing to write about, so she conjured up some "typical" parent dilemma, and called up a psychologist for a quote in the article. It's a bad article, but I don't for a moment believe this woman actually paid for a therapy session over this. The psych quoted in the article is a professor, not a practicing counselor.

Glatt's right though, cheap kids' bikes are painfully gendered one way or the other. It's all black lightning bolts and skulls, or huge pink hearts with enough sparkles to make your eyes hurt. But even then, there are light blue bikes covered in girly flowers and purple butterflies. I know, because I tried to talk my stepdaughter into choosing that one, but instead she went with the gaudy pink monstrosity.