Weekend reading pile

It is absolutely gorgeous outside where we live near St. Louis. We’ve been to the drive-in, to a barbecue and otherwise outside throughout the week and it’s been so lovely. Last year at this time it was record-breaking hot, so we are very grateful! If you need some weekend reading, however, here are some topics I ran across…

Is it really possible that 90 percent of parents spank their toddlers at least three times a week, and that two-thirds of them spank at least once a day? If this is true, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sleep at night again. In fact, it’s keeping me up right now. And one in four parents apparently began to spank when their babies were six months old? What the hell is wrong with people?

To help combat spanking and the mentality that supports it, maybe we could pass around these 12 exercises from Joyfully Rejoicing to help us practice mindful parenting. These are great exercises for all of us.

I love this piece from the Huffington Post that ponders how the world might be if we all understood child development.

Here’s a great interview Dr. Laura Markham did with Alfie Kohn about unconditional parenting.

An all-male panel on Fox News has gone on about how working moms are the reason why society is “dissolving around us.” Ugh. If this ruffles your feathers like it does mine, you can tell them here.

This politician is saying we need to burn witches. Uh, really? I know several pagan homeschooling families who might object, sir. Not to mention anyone else with a sound mind…

This information about how many weeks of maternity leave families are guaranteed in various countries is shocking.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia