Quickies: American Girl, Micromanager Parents, and Birth Control Studies

• A Father’s Struggle to Stop His Daughter’s Adoption – “In the United States, when an unmarried man has a baby, his partner can give it up without his consent—unless he happens to know about an obscure system called the responsible father registry.”
• All Dolled Up: The Enduring Triumph of American Girl – I have to admit, I’m a huge fan of American Girl. I never got one of the (expensive) dolls, but I grew up reading the magazine, which was full of fun crafts and ideas.
• Why Sit-Down Meals May Be Just As Unhealthful As Fast Food – “Dining out at a sit-down restaurant can mean far more sodium in your diet— and nearly as much saturated fat — as eating at a fast-food joint, according to a recent study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. What’s more, people consumed more calories when they sat down for their meal at a full-service place rather than taking it to go, the study found.”
• 10 Misconceptions About Islam That Muslim Americans Are Tired of Hearing – “Whether it was strange looks at my mother or jokes about my Arabic name, life as a Muslim in post 9/11 America isn’t the cutest feeling. The constant villainization of Muslims in mainstream media makes it difficult to do even simple things such as buy groceries or get through airport security without crude jokes or dangerous assumptions, and with the murder of three innocent Muslim kids in Chapel Hill this past year, it’s clear that stereotyping can lead to even fatal consequences.” From mrmisconception.
• New Horizons: Pluto map shows ‘whale’ of a feature – Despite the terrible headline, it is neat to see these new up-close pictures of Pluto from the New Horizons spacecraft.
• Colorado’s Effort Against Teenage Pregnancies Is a Startling Success – In short, giving free IUDs and birth control implants to teenage girls and poor women has a dramatic effect on the number of unintended pregnancies. I don’t know if I would describe this as a “startling” success but rather an “obvious” success.
• Kids of Helicopter Parents Are Sputtering Out – I found this paragraph particularly alarming: “One kid’s father threatened to divorce her mother if the daughter didn’t major in economics. It took this student seven years to finish instead of the usual four, and along the way the father micromanaged his daughter’s every move, including requiring her to study off campus at her uncle’s every weekend.” That kind of micromanaging should not be lumped in with a cutesy term like “helicoptor parenting” that is blandly (and broadly) applied to any parent who watches their kid too closely at a playground. 

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