We Recommend

Baby Einstein

I recommend Baby Einstein not as an excellent educational tool (though it certainly is) or as a great way to trip out next time you've got some really great pot and some free time (although that sounds good, too). Baby Einstein is a sanity saver and my guilty pleasure. TV- modern society's universal babysitter.

Pop in a video and your infant, as young as three months, will roll their eyes up in their head and hang their tongue out of their mouth, unable to swallow their own drool. This parade of everyday toys and colorful objects is like LSD for babies. They eat this shit up! Watching a pinwheel spin or a chicken cluck- heaven on a stick. This adds to the guilt factor for parents since it seems less like educating your child's visual senses and more like drugging them into submission. You find yourself as a parent sounding alarmingly like a crack addict. "Just a little more and then I'll put it away. Just a little more..."

Baby Einstein videos are often set to classical music in an effort to persuade parents that they really are doing something good for their kids, like feeding them Cocoa Puffs with extra Vitamin C. The videos also prominently feature toys that the Baby Einstein company is quick to tell you (before and after the video) are available through their website in order to encourage babies to become consumers as soon as possible. But really here's the truth: It's TV and it's a great distraction when you need five minutes to shave your legs before someone at the grocery store calls "STAR" magazine to report a sighting of Bigfoot.

Kushies: Diapering for Dummies

Remember your Mom yelling in frustration when she pricked her finger yet AGAIN with one of those enormous, deadly looking diaper pins? Okay, maybe you don't remember per se but you get the picture. Akward, bulky, difficult and likely to sustain injury. Makes cloth diapers seem like ancient history. Enter modern companies eager to cash in on the natural health and beauty and environmentalist movements and poof! Great, easy cloth diapers that won't draw blood.

Kushies are one of many kinds of all-in-one diapers out there on the market. They come in sizes small to large, fitting a child anywhere from 10 pounds and upwards. (So not recommended for newborns- especially during the liquid poop stage). Simply slip them on... velcro... you're done. I'm not kidding. When it's soiled, simply unvelcro and throw it in the wash. These diapers can be machine washed and dryed on low, although I prefer to air dry them to increase their longevity. There are also companies that manufacture flushable liners so no more shaking poop out of the diaper into the toilet. Simply remove liner and flush. They've made it so easy there is absolutely no excuse for not using cloth.

They can be a little pricey up front- about ten dollars a diaper. But after using them only a month, they'll have paid for themselves in savings. If you've been thinking about cloth diapers but didn't feel brave enough to go through what your Mom went through, never fear. Kushies are here.

Parent Hacks

We've been subscribers to the feed on this site for awhile and always find interesting or at least wildly funny tips for raising kids here. Parent Hacks refers to shortcuts or helpful tactics for rearing children and can include anything from resizing diaper wipes as a money saver to discussions about ways to circumvent a two year old tantrum. The Hacks are contributed by readers and fellow parents, many of whom sport blogs of their own filled with parental wisdom and wisecracks. There are also periodic recommendations and reviews of pertinent kid products in all genres, from books to cleaning supplies. Hacks are posted several times daily and a thorough search engine can lead you to articles not just on Parent Hacks but on other related sites in the blogosphere. Yours truly has finally gotten around to submitting a hack and I'll let you know if and when it gets posted. Until then, surf the archives or subscribe to the feed to get your daily dose of Parent Hacks. You never know when the ability to remove crayon stains from a load of whites might come in handy.

Rescue Me

George made me watch this show because he assured me it was excellent. The first time I watched FX's Rescue Me, I thought it was okay. The second time I found it interesting, the third time engaging and now I'm hooked. It's all Dennis Leary, too (who's up for an emmy for his work on the show by the way). You'd think a show about New York firefighters in a post 9-11 scenario would be, shall we say, cliche and soap opera dramatic. And it would be if Dennis Leary didn't play the main character, a full fledged alcoholic, philandering asshole who somehow manages to be endearing while at the same time being homophobic, racist, irresponsible and a general jerkoff. While there are some 9-11 references, the show has moved well away from sentimentality over the incident and focuses on the current lives of the group of firefighters in the house. There is occasionally some hero type stuff running into burning buildings and such, but it is immediately tempered with a fist fight, a cheating husband or a tall bottle of Jack. These guys may be doing heroic acts on a daily basis, but they make up for it at by really fucking things up at home.