Family

Things That Make Men Cry

Filed under: Family

BBC News has polled male readers about the events that make them cry.

I won't lie to you, a lot of these are pretty standard, and hence lame. You have your weddings, your kid moments, blah blah blah. But then you stumble upon items like this ...

18. "Being told by the girl that you love that she wants you dead."

... and you're hooked.

Full disclosure: I'm a soft touch, so I can't even bear to make fun of the guy who cries at Cool Runnings. There are also men who cry at bagpipes (I do, too, just for very different reasons). A plurality of opinions are in play, so another highlight is: "Realising the entire universe is interconnected in mind-boggling ways." (My pal Danny is making a shirt with the words "Shut Up, Hippie" on it just for people like this.)

The one you'll really want to read is after the jump, though.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at August 8, 2008 11:05 AM | Comments (4)

Five Places to Watch Fireworks

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For my first fourth in these fair parts, I want to get my explosions on. Being the newcomer, I polled a host of locals for watch sites and came up with the following five.

Agree? Disagree? Got a different suggestion? Feel free to sound off in the comments. For now, here are five suggestions:

FIVE PLACES TO WATCH FIREWORKS

Photo by Ward Rubrecht

1. On a boat on White Bear Lake
If you own a boat already, you're golden. If not, there are rental places. While you'll pay a pretty penny, the fireworks are more likely to be pretty.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at July 3, 2008 11:57 AM | Comments (4)

Egg hunts this weekend

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When I was doing my weekly list of things to do over the weekend for Stephanie and Meredith's show on FM 107.1, I came across Minneapolis Parks' list of all the Easter egg hunts taking place in the city's parks. I picked out the ones happening this weekend; get your eggin' on after the jump.

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Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 20, 2008 11:29 AM | Comments (0)

Only certain disabilities need apply

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Minneapolis novelist Ann Bauer today has a column in the Washington Post describing her efforts to help her 19-year-old son, who is autistic, get a job. It's a fine, bittersweet commentary on trying to navigate life's milestones with a child whose world is ordered a little differently. In one of the most gut-twisting passages, Target rejects the young man because his handicap isn't "visible."

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at October 30, 2006 2:35 PM | Comments (0)

Compare and contrast

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Of nanny nutritionists and our collective disdain for generation next

One of the "most e-mailed" stories in today's New York Times is an examination of the tension parents and nannies must navigate over the provenance and nutritional sanctity of the little loveys' breakfast bowls and snack packs. The story feints at edginess, making cursory nods at the inevitable class elements and the fact that as cultural currency the topic is firmly wedged between right-thinking and hand-wringing.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at September 28, 2006 2:22 PM | Comments (2)

Daddies Dearest

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Father's day tribute breaks the Hallmark mold

H.J. Cummins' work/life column in today's Star Tribune is a short, sweet ode to the influence our fathers have on our career choices. This one actually broke me up, especially the bit about Ray Wells Jr., who, Cummins reports, "was 18 and a Golden Gloves boxer when his daughter, Tene, was born."

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at June 16, 2006 12:56 PM | Comments (0)

Caveat Preemptor

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What the headline declares, the story takes away

The lead headline in today's Slate? "Feminism Makes You Unhappy: Here's the Proof." It's effective packaging, I'll grant you that. But the story debunks the headline, creating a sucker punch effect--and one I'm getting pretty sick of. The Underlying message: All of this wimmin's lib stuff is the social equivalent of margarine. It seemed like progress, but turned out to be misguided--and it really gums up the pipes.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at March 7, 2006 2:42 PM | Comments (0)

Suffer the Children

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Yes, Virginia, it is cheaper to run a Romanian orphanage

I don't know whether to laugh or to weep over this morning's Star Tribune. The glimmer of good news? Tucked into the wimmin's pages is a report on the high, high cost of child care in Minnesota. According to a new report, child care eats 28 percent of a low-income family's paycheck; 40 percent, in the case of many single parents. For many households, lower and middle class, it's a larger expense than housing.

Minnesotans with infant children pay more, as a percentage of their incomes, for child care than anywhere in the country, according to the study. On average, single parents with median incomes pay $4 of every $10 they earn to afford child care for infants. Two-parent families pay $1.52 for every $10 they earn -- just ahead of Massachusetts, at $1.48 per $10 earned.

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at February 14, 2006 12:41 PM | Comments (1)

It's the Jelly Residue

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NOT the wholesale lack of societal support, or the cost of good daycare

A new study shows that parents are at greater risk for depression than non-parents, according to the heretofore undiscovered (by us anyhow) online publication LiveScience.com.

"Parents have more to worry about than other people do--that's the bottom line," said Florida State University professor Robin Simon. "And that worry does not diminish over time. Parents worry about their kids' emotional, social, physical and economic well-being. We worry about how they're getting along in the world."

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Posted by Beth Hawkins at February 8, 2006 3:24 PM | Comments (0)