Tag Archives: Today Show

In my opinion, the drive to make your child as “smart” as possible, leads parents to do some silly, unproven things like buy the “Your Baby Can Read” DVD set. A.J. has been “reading” since he could hold a book himself. Often he’ll walk away from a toy he likes …

I heard my husband chuckle during the Superbowl when an ad featuring a "Little Darth Vader" came on-screen. I thought it was cute too. Little did we know the star, 6 year old Max Page, was a relatively new actor who was born with a heart defect. In fact, his mom told the Today show that he has a pacemaker and occasionally needs to go to the hospital. The lesson Max can teach parents of children with serious medical conditions and disabilities is not to hold them back or underestimate what they can do physically.

An Alaska mom sent video to Dr. Phil's show of herself putting hot sauce in her seven year old son's mouth and forcing him to take a cold shower after he misbehaved. Once the video went viral, Alaska authorities got involved and now mother of six, Jessica Beagley, faces charges. I hesitate to judge another mom because I don't know what the child did and how often she's tried to correct his behavior. Since I absolutely hate hot sauce I can only imagine the terror this child felt as it was poured in his mouth. As a TV journalist with more than a decade of experience covering child abuse and child deaths, I can tell you the fact that this boy was in a house where they could afford to buy hot sauce makes him luckier than a lot of kids. Beagely made several key mistakes. She got angry, mistreated her child, allowed another child to videotape it and then sent it to a nationally televised talk show to ask for help. What she should have done was talk to her son's pediatrician, teacher, child psychologist, family member, trusted friend or neighbor and asked for suggestions on how to correct his behavior. Or she should have at least asked them to watch the tape and offer their opinion on whether she should send it in. It never ceases to amaze me the things people do on camera and think that it's "normal behavior."

All over Facebook last week, I saw links to this controversial Wall Street Journal article written about the tough, no nonsense parenting approach Chinese mothers have. It's an excerpt from a book, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother," by Amy Chua. I can imagine some American moms and dads were offended by the viewpoint that we are too lenient on our children and that causes them to fail. I was raised in a pretty tough, no nonsense household by American parents. We had expectations of good behavior and good grades. My parents were also very clear that the front door is where democracy stopped and a loving dictatorship began. You can find lots of articles and blog posts blasting Chua. I'm not going to add to the noise. She's a mom on a mission with books to sell. That's my take on it. Although she's getting criticized left and right, she also knows there's no such thing as bad publicity.

This report came just as I was questioning whether A.J. weighed enough. He’s just two months away from his first birthday. That’s when medical experts say is around the time babies should triple their birth weight. Based on those calculations, he needs to gain about six pounds before March 15th. …