3 Stupidest Parenting Articles I've Read This Year!10.0101There is so much positive, helpful news and research about parenting out there...but every so often I come across something really, really....stupid! Here's my pick of the stupidest articles I've come across so far this year...

1. Teaching Babies to Read. A Dumb Idea?

"Reading requires several physical and mental abilities to be developed before it can be learnt. The child must be able to hear the differences in the phonic sounds correctly; they must be able to reliably track their eyes across the page; they must be able to sit still and concentrate; and they must be able to comprehend what is being read. These are all skills that improve with age"

Really? Says who?

This goes against a huge amount of research that says otherwise. This article actually references a study by infant researcher Dr. Robert Titzer and a national panel of reading specialists, who suggested that most of our reading problems would be eliminated if we started to teach it earlier. There's also some great research from the experts at the Doman Institute who achieve great results with early readers - check that out here.

So don't believe this myth that babies can't or shouldn't read. Because they can and they love it.

2. Political Correctness Leaves Child Hungry

"I was informed that because the center participates in the USDA federal lunch program, my son could not eat his 'outside' food at the center because that would be considered discriminatory against the other children. To eat foods not available that day to the other children is a form of discrimination according to their directives from the USDA.

Therefore, because my son did not like any of the food offered to him, and even though his packed lunch was nearby, he was sent to his afternoon kindergarten class having eaten nothing. This was to happen three times during the three weeks my children attended the Center."

This is just insane. I don't even know what to say...

3. Too Dumb to be a Mom?

"Three years ago, a 21-year-old mom in England was denied custody of her premature newborn after social workers determined that she wasn't intelligent enough to care for it. Now, she's making a last-ditch effort to get her child back."

What is really stupid about this case, is that this lady had done nothing wrong. The reason the State gave for taking away her kid was that she wasn't intelligent enough - but she wasn't even in the category of mentally challenged. So what's that about? In the US there are parents who have serious problems with alcohol, drugs and abusive behavior -- these parents get custody of their kids over and over again, even when the State already knows about these offenses.

Something's not right there...