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Channel: The Stir By CafeMom: Blogger Jeanne Sager
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Dad Accused of Setting Fire to House With Pregnant Mom and 4 Kids Inside Wanted a 'Fresh Start'

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Post by Jeanne Sager
Sometimes heroes come in uniforms -- military, fire, police. And sometimes they're just people who were in the right place at the right time, like the mystery woman who snatched a 2-year-old from the arms of her father just as cops say he was going to put her back inside a burning building. It's an unspeakable horror, but Wisconsin police say a dad and uncle set fire to a home with four kids and their mom inside in an attempt to wipe out his entire family and start fresh. All three of Armin Wand III's sons -- aged from 7 down to just 3 years old -- perished in the fire. But by some miracle, Wand's pregnant wife Sharon and 2-year-old daughter Jessica are still with us, and cops are crediting an unnamed woman for that. 

Abandon Your Kid at the Park for the Low, Low Price of $350!

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Post by Jeanne Sager
You remember Lenore Skenazy, don't you? How could you forget the mom who let her 9-year-old ride the subway alone and turned the publicity into an entire parenting movement? Well the guru of free-range parenting is back with another harebrained scheme to make good parents feel bad about themselves. She wants to charge you $350 so your kid can play in the park without supervision. Oh, Skenazy will be there for her eight-week "playgroup" ... sort of. She'll sit in a coffee shop about a block away with a cellphone in her hand in case of some sort of emergency.

Aimee Copeland Shows the World That a Flesh Eating Virus Hasn't Ruined Her Life (VIDEO)

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Post by Jeanne Sager
As I watched Aimee Copeland walk slowly, painstakingly, across the stage of Katie Couric's new talk show with just one leg and a walker to help her move, a lump settled somewhere in my throat. It's hard to look at the woman who survived a brutal attack of the flesh-eating virus this year and not be overwhelmed by feelings of sympathy. But as the 24-year-old Georgia college student started talking, I realized I'd gotten it all wrong. Aimee Copeland doesn't want our pity. This is a woman who has stared death in the face and spit in its eye. She is a woman who understands something some people three times her age are still struggling to comprehend.

4-Month-Old's Terrifying Fall Onto Sidewalk Scares Everyone But His Mom

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Post by Jeanne Sager
Picture this: you're walking along, pushing your baby in his stroller and talking on your cellphone. And then, oh no!, the stroller catches on some loose pavement and flips, sending the baby to the ground. Do you throw your cellphone and, quick, grab your baby? Not Peaches Geldof! The British TV presenter and model (you may know her as the unfortunately named daughter of singer Bob Geldof?) caused a bit of a scandal this week when photos were published of her yammering away on the phone as her 4-month-old baby lay on the ground, twisted up in the blankets that had dumped out of the carriage with him. Sounds like Peaches needs to learn one of the most important lessons of parenting. Any guesses?

4 Reasons Parents Should Let Schools Electronically Monitor Their Kids

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Post by Jeanne Sager
If all the teachers losing their jobs over Facebook mishegas didn't already clue you in: our schools have officially entered the age of Big Brother. Now a Texas high school is trying to convince parents that it's a good idea to tag their kids with RFID chips, the kind of electronic monitoring traditionally used on cattle. The administrators of the Northside Independent School District think it will cut down on kids cutting class, but parents and their kids are not happy. I hear them. It's all a little Rockwell circa 1984, isn't it? But as much as I want to join in the sturm and drang, I can't help wondering if radio frequency tracking devices in the student ID cards might actually help parents and schools.

4-Year-Old Given Double Root Canal by School Dentist Without Parents' Permission

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Post by Jeanne Sager
There's such a huge pile of forms to fill out when our kids go back to school that you kind of lose track: am I signing up to be a school trip chaperone here or am I signing my life away? You might be tempted to rush right through them all. But the story of a little boy was given two unnecessary root canals by a dentist in his school's art room -- without his parents being consulted -- should be enough to kill that temptation. Stacey Gagnon did agree to let her son Isaac get a basic examination from a dentist at school. Who can blame her? It seems like smart parenting to me. Which is why what happened to this little guy is so scary.

11-Year-Old Boy May Have Abused Disabled Mom But He's a Victim Too

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Post by Jeanne Sager
You hear sad cases of child abuse in the news all the time. But in a bizarre and sad twist on the standard abuse case, an 11-year-old boy has been arrested this week and charged with beating his own disabled mom to the point where she had to be hospitalized. It sounds like this poor woman, who has battled breast and skin cancers, just can't catch a break. And yet, I can't help feeling badly for her little boy. He might be responsible for beating his mom with an electric cord, but from the sound of it, he's just a little kid who has been failed by the system for far too long.

'X Factor' Contestant Jillian Jensen Sends Powerful Message to Her Bullies (VIDEO)

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Post by Jeanne Sager
When Jillian Jensen took to the X Factor stage and admitted she'd been bullied through middle and high school, it could have turned into yet another "stay strong kids, you'll make it" message. Which is all well and good -- we can use as many of them as we can get. But when the teenager broke out into a performance so powerful Demi Lovato was moved to tears and even Simon Cowell was blown away, the dynamic shifted. Jillian's raspy rocker rendition of Jessie J's "Who You Are" is about to become an anthem for bullying victims everywhere. But it's also an in-your-face wake-up call to the bullies of the world that makes me wonder if we've been approaching this whole bullying thing the wrong way. Check it out:

Military Dad Goes to Starbucks to Watch His Wife Give Birth

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Post by Jeanne Sager
When it came time to give birth, my husband was right by my side the whole time, and the moment when our daughter came into the world was a magical time we got to share. He often tells me he wouldn't have missed it for the world. Army Spc. Tomek Boley wasn't quite as lucky as my husband. He was serving in Kuwait when his son was born, but he didn't have to miss his little boy's entrance to the world. He got to watch the whole birth from a Starbucks! Can you just picture how that went down? "Hey you, with the grande skinny mochaccino, get your eyes off my screen, that's my wife you're looking at!"

Navy SEAL Killed in Embassy Attack Becomes Another 9/11 Hero (VIDEO)

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Post by Jeanne Sager
The sister of Glen Doherty, the Navy SEAL killed while trying to protect Ambassador Chris Stevens (who was also killed) during the attack on the American embassy in Libya this week, has said she wasn't expecting her brother to be "another victim of 9/11." And yet it's looking as if Doherty and the three others who died, including Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and another as-yet-unnamed American, are victims of 9/11 both literally and figuratively. These men died on another 9/11, September 11, 2012, 11 years to the day after two planes flew into the World Trade Center. And their names could soon join the long list of men and women who have given their life for this country in the events that have come in the wake of the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history.

'Glee' Recap: The New Rachel Is a Whole Lot Nicer and She's in Good Company

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Post by Jeanne Sager
Remember the Glee we all fell in love with four seasons ago? The show with the band of misfits in the choir room who sent us scurrying for iTunes? It's baaaaack. The season four premiere was dubbed "The New Rachel," but it might as well be the new Glee. Graduation and the inevitable mass exodus of New Directions talent have forced Mr. Schue to hold open auditions, and new blood is flooding into McKinley's offbeat extracurricular. Trying to stretch out the same old Finchel love story into college and making it a main storyline wasn't going to work, and the return to the roots of the show comes off as the perfect way to bring us back into McKinley.  Picture a Rachel Berry who isn't a whiny, stuck-up beeyotch. A Mercedes who is just looking for acceptance. A Puck with hidden depths and you get ...

'Teen Mom' Jenelle Evans' Addiction Is Just as Dangerous as Amber Portwood's

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Post by Jeanne Sager
There's been much ado about Teen Mom star Amber Portwood and her addiction to opiates this week. But with Amber safely tucked away in an Indiana prison where she's getting help to kick her vices, it's time to turn our eyes to another Teen Mom struggling with an addiction that will always keep her away from her child. Jenelle Evans. 'Memba her? By some miracle -- and the help of a good lawyer -- the North Carolina mom has managed to keep her own struggles with drug abuse and more than a few of her own brushes with the law from landing her in the pokey like Portwood. But make no mistake, Jenelle is still struggling with a major addiction. His name is Kieffer Delp, and she just can't get enough.

Giuliana Rancic's Baby Photos Bring Hope to Infertile Women (PHOTO)

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Post by Jeanne Sager
When you've been struggling with infertility, the magazine covers of happy celebrity parents showing off their new baby can feel like a pile of salt being poured on your wounds. But Bill and Giuliana Rancic's Life & Style cover with son Edward Duke Rancic may be the exception that proves the rule.  Right down to a tagline that screams, "Meet Our Miracle Baby," the story being told by Bill and Giuliana right now is one of hope for couples who desperately want to become parents. Because, let's remember, they've been there too.

Woman Is a Convicted Murderer But Judge Decides She's Still a Good Mom

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Post by Jeanne Sager
Riddle me this: if you committed a bloody murder while your three kids are in the next room, would you consider yourself a good mom? You wouldn't think I'd have to ask this question, but I do. Because a judge in Iowa has decided that Tracey Richter is not only a good mom -- despite having killed a man while her then-toddler kids were a room away -- but her honor has deemed the convicted murderer deserves parental rights that include their dad being forced to bring them to prison for visits. Wait, make that make them travel to prison in Iowa all the way from their home in California to visit the mom who -- yes, I'm going to repeat it -- cared so much about their well-being that she murdered a man while they were in the next room. And they say the nuclear family is breaking down ... apparently not so folks!

Acne-Scarred Teen Gets Ultimate Revenge on Mean Girls (VIDEO)

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Post by Jeanne Sager
The mean girls used to call her Pizza Face because of her cystic acne, but it's that acne-ridden face that inspired teenager Cassandra Bankson to upload makeup tutorials to YouTube to help other teens learn to feel good about themselves again. And it's thanks to those YouTube videos that Cassandra got signed as a model who was hired to walk the runway at New York's Fashion Week for Boy Meets Girl this week. It turns out mean girls have nothing on a girl who was raised to believe in herself. Because that's what got Cassandra Bankson from a high school where everyone picked on her to a runway at the epicenter of the fashion world. She's got a mom who has had to face the same mean girls that mothers of daughters everywhere -- myself included -- fear. Only Jennifer Bankson didn't let them win.

Freak Hide and Seek Accident Kills Little Girl and There's No Understanding It

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Post by Jeanne Sager
The phrase "helicopter parent" is hurled at moms and dads all the time as an insult. But if you've been watching the news lately and you haven't felt the teensiest temptation to switch into hover mode, you're a better person than me. Let's talk, just for example, about the little girl who died in her own home this week while playing an old-fashioned game of hide and seek. I had to talk myself down to reality after this one, that's for sure. So far it looks like Kylee Mills Simmerman crawled into her bean bag chair to hide. The 3-year-old's family looked everywhere for her, but by the time they found her, she'd suffocated.

Mom Finds Out 7-Year-Old Is 'Dead' From Facebook (VIDEO)

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Post by Jeanne Sager
  I'm not sure if I'll ever get over the look in my daughter's eyes when she realizes someone is being mean to her. I suppose one day the look will disappear as she gets older, wiser, more jaded, but after 7 years as a mom, I still struggle to explain why people do cruel things. I wonder how Patricia Quintana explained to her 7-year-old why someone created a Facebook page that said he was dead. Little Javier Ramirez is -- fortunately -- very much alive. But his mom started getting strange phone calls recently from hysterical friends who'd seen a memorial page on the social media site that said her son had been killed in a car accident.

New Test Could Catch Autism Earlier Than Ever

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Post by Jeanne Sager
Think new parents are already obsessed with milestones? A new test for autism that could diagnose kids on the spectrum as young as 6 months could be the proverbial gamechanger for parents. On the other hand, the eye test could be drive parents absolutely bonkers. The booming scrapbooking industry makes it petty darn clear we are already obsessed with tracking our kids' milestones. Add in the most popular stories about autism that pervade the media, telling of a baby who was bright and bubbly only to lose that personality in the toddler years when their developmentally quite suddenly goes off the rails ... and you have parents who hyperfocus on what their kids are doing right as they try to assure themselves their child isn't one of the one in 88 kids to end up on the spectrum.

Mom Accused of Stealing Thousands From Army Son Serving Overseas

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Post by Jeanne Sager
Take it from me, becoming a victim of identity theft feels like you've been violated. But I'm starting to realize there's a strange comfort in knowing that it was a stranger who hijacked my credit card. Scott Davis, on the other hand, has been told by cops that the person who stole his tax refund and thousands of dollars from his bank account while he was serving our country overseas as a member of the Army was none other than his own mom! I think that ranks right up there among the worst betrayals of trust, how about you? Cops say Jennifer Fletcher, 42, had promised her son that she'd file his tax returns. The poor guy was overseas and didn't exactly have access to an H&R Block, so turning to his mom was kind of the obvious choice, right?

10 Words You Should Never Use on Facebook

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Post by Jeanne Sager
The more time you spend on Facebook, the more you have to wonder: when did mothers stop teaching their kids the difference between what you say in polite company and what you say behind closed doors? The sort of sayings most of us would have been uneasy about uttering out at the grocery store or even in a bar have become the norm for Facebook statuses, and I've had about enough! If your mom and dad didn't teach you that you shouldn't be telling the world about that time you ate bad Chinese food and ... (you don't want to know what goes there), then it's time someone did. So here it is, a definitive list of words that should be avoided on Facebook. Read it, bookmark it, use it ... your "friends" will thank you!
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