If you grew up in the '80s, movies like Footloose and Dirty Dancing were both an indelible part of your coming of age memories and the soundtrack of your life. Who can forget what fun it was to watch Johnny teach Baby all the sexy dance moves she was missing out on before her family arrived at the Catskills resort?

Which is why I had to chuckle when I came across a story about a Wisconsin high school banning "dirty dancing" and the predictable student protests that inevitably ensued. "It's our way of culture now. It's how we dance," complained one sophomore.

In the classic high school musical, Grease, dirty dancers were eliminated from the American Bandstand contest with disapproving glares and angry taps on the shoulder from the adult chaperons who also served as judges for the televised dance competition at Rydell High. I always wondered how the flamboyant, middle-aged looking Cha Cha seemed to skirt elimination at every turn.

Today, Cha Cha would have been caught, along with those pesky mooners, as school officials at Menomonee Falls High School have installed multiple security cams in the gymnasium to help identify dirty dancers.

Forty-five year old British legal secretary, Jill Hawkins, doesn't have kids, but she's been a surrogate mom eight times. "I love being pregnant," she says, "It's a compulsion I suppose and I really miss it when I'm not pregnant."

Hawkins claims that, despite her enthusiasm for pregnancy, she has no desire to be a mom. Surely that makes her an ideal surrogate, but my guess is that her emotional detachment is the exception rather than the rule. Most infertile couples who choose surrogacy spend a great deal of time in fear of a breakdown in the agreement.

Take Scott and Amy Kehoe from Michigan. After bringing their twin babies home, the surrogate mom took them back (which she has a legal right to do in Michigan) after learning that the adoptive mom had a history of mental illness and a criminal past that had never been disclosed. While adoptions are no walk in the park, it seems to me that surrogacy presents many more potential pitfalls.

After a string of spiteful, monosyllable caveman interviews that culminated in an even more cringe-inducing Playgirl spread, Levi Johnston is fighting to allow the press to be part of his child's custody battle. Last month, an Alaska judge granted Levi his wish, guaranteeing him another extension on his 15 minutes of fame.

Bristol Palin claims that Levi is an unfit, absent parent. She also wants to keep her baby away from Levi's mom, who is on house arrest for selling Oxycontin. When she filed for sole custody, Bristol asked for a closed proceeding in an attempt to avert the media circus that will inevitably surround an open hearing. Levi claims that the press will keep things honest and his famous would-be mother-in-law from interfering.

For her part, Sarah Palin says that this is an issue between Bristol and Levi, and while she supports Bristol's decision, she has no intention of interfering in the courtroom drama.

So, should Bristol get sole custody? Personally, I'm torn. While I don't think Levi has risen to the challenge of fatherhood (not even close!), kids need their dad -- and even Levi deserves a second chance to be a good father to Tripp.

Happy New Year, everyone! Sometimes things don't work out as planned, and that's what makes life fun and interesting.

The video clip shows what happened when the Duffy family went to cut down their Christmas tree and my husband, Sean -- who also happens to be a professional lumberjack competitor -- accidentally dumped out gasoline from the chainsaw on the way out to the woods. When we finally found a tree we could all agree on, the chainsaw died halfway through the cut leaving us to improvise! Hope you enjoy!

In a recent op-ed in the Canadian National Post, editor-at-large Diane Francis calls on world leaders, especially those attending the UN's Copenhagen Conference, to consider the environmental virtues of China's one-child policy. According to Francis, only government mandated policies restricting women's rights to reproduce will save the planet from what she believes will be an unsustainable global population of 9 billion by the year 2050.

When the now infamous White House social secretary Desiree Rogers revealed to The New York Times that the Obamas were planning a "non-religious" Christmas for the "people's house," she put herself at the center of an entirely different, but no less fiery, controversy -- the Christmas wars.

Early this year, during a luncheon with other former social secretaries, Rogers announced that part of the Obamas' new spirit of inclusiveness (ironically) would exclude references to Christianity during Christmas. Most notably, the Obamas would not be displaying the 18th century White House nativity scene. An Obama official confirmed that there were internal discussions regarding the manger display, but in the end, tradition (along with post-state dinner scandal fatigue) trumped, and the Holy Family was not banned from the East Room after all.

This Christmas, some moms will end up with a Snuggie, or a box of Whitman's Chocolates, or the standby present of a gift certificate to their favorite department store. Truthfully, most husbands really want to give their wives a thoughtful gift, but lack the gene we women are born with that makes it easy for us to know what others will love.

A good friend told me the best parenting advice she ever got: Your child will let you know what she is ready for. So, don't buy her a bike for her birthday if she hasn't asked for one; wait until she expresses a desire for a bike, then buy the bike.