Posts Tagged ‘babies’

Wednesday Wild Card: Twin Troubles

After the dust had settled on the excitement of our own pregnancy, now years ago, the question of careers was quick to rear its head. That is to say in these days of less specific gender roles, a marriage like ours of equal opportunity parenting, a relationship built on an attempt to balance the partnership, the question of who would be taking the parental leave was not necessarily a given. Would The Wife take six months and leave six for me? Would she take it all and put her career on hold? Would we take six months together? A new baby was going to be a handful, we realized, and we had best maximize the benefit for ourselves and our new kid. Perhaps if we had been faced with the prospect of twins, those questions would have been the same, but the answers would been a little different. And I’d like to think that like an Ottawa couple making news this week, we would have pushed the system to the benefits of our offspring.

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Full text from November 19, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Encounters of the Mind, Skepdad thoughts

Toys for (Really) Young Scientists, Bug Jug

I think it would be fair to say that I have something of an askew fascination with insects. Having (unofficially) minored in entomology in university, I took every undergraduate course offered by the school filling the gaps in my schedule left whilst studying the arguably less critter-filled world of molecular genetics. Had I been gutsy enough to pursue the passion over the practical (a conversation for another day) I might today be writing a more scientific exploration of some rare lepidopteran mating habit instead of a sure-to-be overlooked fluff editorial on plush, bug-shaped children’s toys. But, alas, such is life. And being in the curious position of father, writer, and science-buff I thought it useful to put otherwise wasted talents to better gain and continue the mission of bringing critical thought to the next generation by looking at my own experiences locating toys for aspiring scientists.

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Full text from February 12, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Encounters of the Mind, Reasoned Education

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To Shampoo or Not to Shampoo… ?

My wife was kind enough to point me towards a news article (appearing from various news sources) today about a supposed connection between baby care products such as shampoos, lotions, and powders and a common — though marginally studied — group of chemicals known as phthalates. I started scanning some of these alarmist-style news reports and immediately was struck by the typical “ohmygods the sky is falling” reaction of some — many — of the articles.

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Full text from February 4, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Encounters of the Mind

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Infant Independence and Sleep

One of the unexpected bits of advice we were given leading up the the birth of our child was to avoid routinely putting our baby to sleep. A registered nurse instructed us that “if baby doesn’t learn to sleep on her own when she’s young, it will only get harder as she gets older. Put her to bed when she seems tired or drowsy, not after you’ve lulled her to sleep in your arms.”

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Full text from September 6, 2007 by Brad
Filed as: The Three Eyes

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THE SKEPDAD BLOG is a place for rational, science-minded fathers to express their thoughts, opinions, and ideas about bringing up kids to be critical thinking adults in a world filled with superstition, mysticism, and pseudoscience.

MINIBLOG: Obama Trend - What does the election of Barack Obama mean for the course of science and science education in the US in the coming four years? How will this impact internationally? Discuss.
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MINIBLOG: Purity - We watched a documentary last night on TLC about the Purity Movement. Nothing like a good old fashioned biblical excuse to wrap one’s daughter in a bubble of ignorance and second class gender roles like a “sign this contract with your dad re: sex” to set society back a couple centuries. It’s as if they’re [...]
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MINIBLOG: Brain Games - I’m researching. (Or that’s what I’m calling it.) I picked up one of those “intelligence” and “brain training” games for my PSP last week. How smart will I become thanks to this five dollar exercise? Look out world: I’m about to release unlimited potential of my hitherto confined mind. *sigh*
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MINIBLOG: Drinking Skeptically, October 22 - If you haven’t made plans to attend the Edmonton Skeptics’ Pub Night tonight, there’s still time. See you there.
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TWITTER: skepdad thinks you should check out the second edition of the Skeptical Parent Crossing, Blog Carnival... >> 15 hours ago
Brad adds: As of October 2007, I'm soliciting interest for skeptics in the Edmonton, Alberta, Canada area who are interested in forming a skeptical society to contact me. Please do so through this blog or via Facebook (through the Edmonton Skeptical Society Group).

Or visit our new website: www.edmontonskeptics.org
The universe is wider than our views of it.
- Henry David Thoreau