Owls

By the Seat of Our Pants

Read Lisa Belkin's New York Times article, "Keeping Kids Safe From the Wrong Dangers."

Best Quotes:

"There is an inherent hypocrisy in our attempts to control our odds — putting the organic veggies (there is no actual data proving that organic foods increase longevity) in the trunk of our car (researchers tell us there is 'evidence' but not 'proof' that car emissions accelerate heart disease), then checking our e-mail on our cellphone at the next red light (2,600 traffic deaths a year are caused by drivers using cellphones, according to a Harvard study)."

___

"And while we certainly make constant (mis)calculations in our adult lives, we seem all the more determined yet befuddled when it comes to the safety of our children. For instance, the five things most likely to cause injury to children up to age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are: car accidents, homicide (usually at the hands of someone they know), child abuse, suicide or drowning. And what are the five things that parents are most worried about (according to surveys by the Mayo Clinic)? Kidnapping, school snipers, terrorists, dangerous strangers and drugs.

'Parents are just bad at risk assessment,' said Christie Barnes, a mother of four and the author of 'The Paranoid Parents Guide.' 'We are constantly overestimating rare dangers while underestimating common ones.'"

___

"[W]e put them in that car and we drive — to the orthodontist, to school, to their friend’s house two blocks away — because 'if I let them walk and they were abducted I would never forgive myself.' This despite the fact that the British writer Warwick Cairns, author of 'How to Live Dangerously,' has calculated that if you wanted to guarantee that your child would be snatched off the street, he or she would have to stand outside alone for 750,000 hours. And while we are busy inflating some risks, we tend not to focus on others — like the obesity and diabetes that result when children are driven someplace when they could walk, or when they play video games inside instead of playing in the park."

Little Bugs

KidRaising

Bloomberg Businessweek has named Redmond, Washington as one of the "Best Places to Raise Your Kids: 2010," citing its close proximity to Seattle, $100,000+ median income, 34 parks and "excellent schools," as reasons. Shoreline and Bellevue are the Washington runners-up.

Graphic: Bloomberg Businessweek

Women & Poverty

In 2009, 29.9% of families with a single woman as head of household (4.4 million) lived in poverty, compared with 16.9% of families with a single man as head of household (942,000).

PRNewswire

What I Am

The Only Child

Read The New York Times article, "The Only Child: Not a Loner?," about new research on the social lives of only children.

"[W]hile we tend to think that siblings teach one another conflict resolution and other interpersonal skills, new research says they are no better off socially than children without siblings." -Pamela Paul, The New York Times

American Families

Read The New York Times Op-Ed piece, "How to End the Great Recession," by Robert B. Reich.

The Playground

Discrimination Against Mothers

"[M]others in the real world struggle every day because they still get paid, on average, 27% less than men and 17% less than women without children. In fact, most of the structural discrimination against women is discrimination against mothers.

Why is this still happening?

Well, first off it's because of bad policies in Washington.   Our public policies are stuck in the 1950s, despite the fact that we have a modern labor force now that's 50% women.  But discrimination against mothers is also cultural. Even though study after study has shown that mothers are great workers, most individual workplaces and businesses fail to meet the needs of families in how work itself is structured." -MomsRising.org

The Self-Sufficiency Standard

"Diana Pearce, a senior lecturer and the director of the Center for Women's Welfare at the University of Washington's School of Social Work, conducts research on the level of income necessary for individuals and families to meet their basic needs." -The Seattle Times

Watch the video.

Use the Self-Sufficiency Calculator for Washington State.

Don't Eat Vegetables

Imogen and I were discussing hips yesterday. I told her women have them "for when 'you' have a baby. (Then backpedaling) But you don't have to have a baby, only if you choose to when you're grown up. Do you think you might want to have a baby when you're grown up?" She said (with authority), "If you don't want to have a baby, you don't eat vegetables."

Hard to be a Kid

"Mom, I'll handle this.
It's really hard to be a kid."
-Imogen

Bracelets

Swinging on a Star

At the Sol Duc

Golden Slippers

Grammy bought these fancy dress-up shoes for Imogen at the Goodwill last week. She had to promise she would only wear them at home.

An Invincible Summer

Photo by Al

Kinetic Skulpture Race

That Good Fight

"We get sold a lot of things simply by dint of being women living in the West under late capitalism. If advertisers had their way, our insecurities would have insecurities by now (and our hair would still not be any shinier, bouncier, or softer). The fusillade of manufactured needs to which we are subjected is a bullsh*t system, a happiness shell game, with charge cards, and that system deserves to be questioned and, yes, critically unpacked. (And it is, refreshingly, by us [Jezebel] and so many other blogs.) Taking ads out of their context is a way of making them puny. It dispels…their "aura." And it is absolutely part of that good fight."

From:
Sauers, J. (2010, August 24). The Reason We Keep Showing American Apparel Softcore. Jezebel.

Retrieved August 25, 2010, from Jezebel: http://jezebel.com/5620770/on-american-apparels-sexist-brand-imagery.

Radiant Heart

Yesterday

A Childhood Summer

Imogen

Gwyneth & Imogen
July 22

Wise & Wonderful

Immy & Deia, July 19

Bright & Beautiful

Deia & Immy

Photo by Summer

The Home Fires

In 2008, 27% of U.S. children lived in families where no parent had full-time, year-round employment.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Maternity Peeve

Need a Mortgage? Don’t Get Pregnant

Read The New York Times article featuring Elizabeth Budde, a 33-year-old oncologist living in Kenmore, Washington, then take action at MomsRising.org.

Work Party

Imogen helped (tolerated?) a work party in Port Angeles on Saturday. When I told her about it she said, "Party?! I want cake!"

Photo by Paula

Of Sweetness and Spice

Little Goddesses

Tootsie Doll

Forks Old-Fashioned Fourth of July Kiddies Parade

All I Touch on the Way

The Namesake

Imogen Cunningham
Photographer
Seattle, May 1965

Music and Movement

Toddler Dance Party Series

Ages 1-5

Port Angeles Library

10:15 am on the last three Fridays in July: July 16, 23 and 30

Get your groove on while singing and dancing at the library’s toddler dance party series. Did you know that music and movement help toddlers prepare to be better readers? -nols.org

Child Care Check

Red Day

Art Rocks

Encouraging Togetherness

Imogen celebrates her birthday with family and friends at the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts

"Dancing in a circle is an ancient tradition common to many cultures for marking special occasions, strengthening community and encouraging togetherness."

-Circle Dance, Wikipedia

She Carved Her Way

Emilie Brzezinski

"Throughout her marriage to national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Emilie pursued her career as a sculptor. 'She was always quite clear this was an important part of her,' said Mika [Brzezinski, her daughter]. 'She carved her way--literally.'" -The Reliable Source, The Washington Post

"After marrying, she sculpted for 25 years while raising a family, then had her first solo show in 1981 in Washington, D.C. [when she was 49]." -Wikipedia

Photo: The artist with "Family Trees," 2010; Kouros Gallery and The Washington Post

Walkability

Walk Score: Rate the walkability of your home

Of Recklessness & Water

Tongue Point, Mid-May