Free Republic

Two years ago my 9 year old daughter caught me moving the “Elf on the Shelf” around. So I told her the truth that it has been me. But I asked her would you rather not known the truth and continue to have daddy move the elf? She was thoughtful. Now 2 years later we spent Christmas out of the country and it was too difficult to set up presents for the favorite daughter. So I told Santa could not find us and we’d have to work it out after Christmas. Now it is after Christmas and she’s asking. I...

… I’ve never been much for the “boy-mom” thing. Beyond the obvious gender-politics ick, it’s part of what I think of as bumper-sticker culture: the labeling and characterizing of every surface of our lives, for, I guess, fun. Very childish behavior. Making my kids’ putative gender identities a badge that I wear alongside my own? Why is this cute? Anyway, I’ve tried to raise my sons in a spirit of loving gender agnosticism if not neutrality, while of course honoring their passion for trucks, the NFL, and bag-tagging each other at every opportunity. We had a good gentle run, but...

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has faced multiple lawsuits for allegedly infringing on religious liberty during his time as Minnesota governor. Walz encountered legal challenges for lockdown policies that religious organizations argued were discriminatory, placing stricter requirements on churches than businesses. He also encountered pushback after signing a law that stripped faith-based schools of funding for a program that offers free college credits to high school students. Walz determined in a May 13, 2020, executive order that retailers would be allowed to reopen at 50% capacity, but left religious gatherings capped at ten people. After Catholic and Lutheran churches...

Reading for fun sharply declines around age nine in an alarming trend that coincides with years of learning loss since the pandemic, data shows. Only 35% of nine-year-olds are reading at least five days a week compared to 57% of eight-year-olds, according to the latest Scholastic survey on the issue. “The number of kids who say they love reading drops significantly from 40% among eight-year-olds to 28% among nine-year-olds,” the Scholastic report notes. The trend, dubbed the “decline by nine” has concerned researchers, who note that reaching reading proficiency by third grade is a good predictor of academic success. [snip]...

A Long Island couple was indicted on manslaughter charges after their toddler allegedly overdosed on their drug stash – as the local prosecutor called for new laws to prevent similar tragedies. Wilkens Adonis and Daryllee Leibrock, both 38, had already faced a litany of drug and weapons charges after the Jan. 3 death of 14-month-old Joseph Adonis, who was killed by a lethal cocktail of cocaine, fentanyl and heroin. But on Monday, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced a superseding indictment that formally charged the Holbrook couple in the child’s death. SNIP “How many more innocent children must die...

A mom brought her six-year-old daughter into the office with a fever and a sore throat. I asked the little girl to open her mouth and say “Ah.” She shook her head and clenched her mouth shut. “Mom, it looks like I’m going to need your help here," I said. "Could you please ask your daughter to open her mouth and say ‘Ah’?” Mom arched her eyebrows and replied, “Her body, her choice.” Wow. This mom was invoking the “My body, my choice” slogan of abortion-rights activists to defend her 6-year-old daughter's refusal to let me, the doctor, look at...

A new book by economist Melissa Kearney makes a readily apparent but still-provocative argument: Children raised by two married parents do better than children raised by single parents. The difference, Kearney argues, isn’t just financial (although the money matters a lot); the “two-parent privilege,” as her book calls it, is also about parental time investment and familial stability. The problem with the point she makes — and with the firestorm of discussion it’s touched off on the left and the right — is that there are many things that are statistically better for us, but if those things are not...

It seems as though the difficulties of teaching elementary school never end for teachers. Between lesson planning, keeping a group of children together and quiet in the hallways, and dealing with parent complaints, the job is certainly not for the weak. However, it may be more challenging now than ever as diaper changing is added to many kindergarten teachers' ever-growing list of responsibilities. Kindergarten teachers are realizing that most of their students were never potty trained. Many teachers are asking themselves, why now? Up until recently, kindergarten students were fully potty-trained and had been for years, with the exception of...

Georgia parents were arrested for child abuse and negligence after their starving 10-year-old son was found wandering their neighborhood looking for a grocery store where he could beg for food. They said the boy was intentionally starved and weighed only about 36 pounds when he was rescued, nearly the weight of an average 4-year-old. The parents were accused of locking the child inside his bedroom and leaving him alone in the home for “extended periods of time, and on multiple occasions, with no access to lights, food, clothing or adult interaction and/or assistance,” according to court documents. They also allegedly...

Tributes have been paid by 'heartbroken' friends to a TikTok famous mum-of-two who died suddenly after experiencing several months of migraines and 'bouts of illness'Tributes have been paid to a TikTok star who died suddenly after suffering from migraines and "bouts of illness". Jehane Thomas, from Doncaster, died unexpectedly on Friday March 17 at the age of just 30, reports Yorkshire Live. She leaves behind her two sons Isaac, aged three, and her one-year-old Elijah. The mum was well known for sharing her life as a parent on TikTok, where she had over 56.6K followers and 1.2million views on...

A 20-year-old young woman who dropped out of college decided to return to school after a year of working in her boyfriend’s family’s restaurant business. For the sake of her story, we’ll call her Jane. Jane’s parents had set aside 30,000 dollars in a college tuition account for her. But instead, her parents used the money to remodel their kitchen after Jane moved in with her boyfriend, despite her parent’s advice not to. When Jane realized what her parents had done, she was shocked and angry. She asked for access to her college tuition account. Still, her parents refused, citing...

A Reddit user shares that he turned his daughter’s bedroom into a home office after she moved out and decided to live with her boyfriend. However, her boyfriend accepted a job abroad, and she didn’t want to go with him. So, she announced she’ll be moving back in with her parents. The parents were okay with her moving back in. But, the daughter wasn’t happy living in the spare guest bedroom and wanted her original bedroom back. What Makes This Room Special? The original poster (OP) started working for a different company, and they allowed working from home. And, since...

In a new interview with Us Weekly, Marie Osmond opened up about motherhood and defended her choice to not to leave her eight children an inheritance. 'Why would you enable your child to not try to be something? I don’t know anybody who becomes anything if they’re just handed money,' the show business vet, 63, said.... ....She was filming an episode of The Talk when she noted, 'I think you do a great disservice to your children to just hand them a fortune because you take away the one most important gift you can give your children, and that’s the...

Four significant problems are plaguing boys as they seek to navigate the perilous journey to manhood: They are unguided, ungrounded, unappreciated and, too often, uninspired. Boys in particular, lacking positive male role models, wonder what it means to be a man. They are largely unguided in this effort, as 89% of elementary-level teachers are female, and nearly 21% of boys live in a home without a father present. While these moms are performing a herculean task as a single parent, there is no question that both boys and girls do much better in a home with two parents. While girls...

As we told you, Joe and Jill Biden are hosting a special event today to celebrate signing the Respect for Marriage Act. Among the guests is “non binary drag artist” Marti G. Cummings, who, as Libs of Tik Tok found, isn’t just your run-of-the-mill drag artist, but also someone who really shouldn’t be anywhere near kids. We also recently learned of former head of the Twitter Trust and Safety Council Yoel Roth’s history of icky, sexually charged tweets, including several involving young children. We wish we could say that Cummings and Roth were outliers on the Left, but we can’t...

Heather Wallace plead guilty to child endangerment and can no longer work with kids.Heather Wallace's oldest son, 8-year-old Aiden, was driving his two brothers crazy in the car as they all returned from karate one afternoon in October 2021. Wallace asked Aiden to walk the rest of the way home—half a mile in quiet, suburban Waco, Texas—so that he could calm down. For this she was arrested, handcuffed, and thrown in jail. She was charged with endangering a child, a felony carrying a mandatory minimum of two years in prison. "It really brought us into deep trauma," says Wallace. She...

RAISING SUCCESSFUL KIDS Published Sat, Oct 29 20229:55 AM EDTUpdated 10:08 AM EDT thumbnail Esther Wojcicki, Contributor @ESTHERWOJCICKI SHARE Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via Email I raised 2 successful CEOs and a professor of pediatrics—here's the biggest parenting mistake I see 2:52 I raised 2 successful CEOs and a professor of pediatrics—here’s the biggest parenting mistake I see Here’s a wake-up call for American parents: We are doing too much for our kids. This is the origin of “helicopter parenting,” in which we constantly remove obstacles so that our kids...

Elon Musk has blamed America's woke colleges for turning his transgender daughter Vivian against him. In a new interview with the Financial Times, the world's richest man blamed 'neo-Marxists' in elite schools and universities for the estrangement between him and his daughter. He added: 'It's full-on communism . . . and a general sentiment that if you're rich, you're evil.'

As Gabriella Martenson prepared for the birth of her first child, she came to a decision. She wouldn’t tell her child if they’d been born a girl or a boy, and would largely avoid discussing their birth sex with people outside her family and friendship group. “I wanted them to be who they want to be. I don't want to decide that for them,” says Martenson, who was 30 and living in her home city, Stockholm, when she had her first child. “[It’s] just as I don't want to decide what they grow up to do, or who they decide...

“It’s tough to be alive now. I think societal collapse is in the air, it smells like it, and without being pretentious, I hope that’s why these movies matter because that’s the role of the artist is to shine a light on what’s going on.” That’s Timothée Chalamet, an up-and-coming American actor musing on Bones & All, the latest film by the Italian director Luca Guadagnino. The movie was wildly popular at the Venice Film Festival. The audience gave it a 10-minute standing ovation, chanting, “Luca! Luca!” Critics on Rotten Tomatoes ranked it 98 out of 100. One reviewer described...