Extreme Childhood

Believe it or not, many -- if not most -- child prostitutes would rather not sell their bodies to scumbag pedophiles.

They're forced into prostitution, often as slaves, yet, if caught by the police, these children are more likely to receive juvenile criminal charges rather than compassion, help and true justice.

Activist Somaly Mam is doing something about that. The New York Times reports Mam and actress Susan Sarandon are teaming up to convince 47 states to pass Safe Harbor laws. Such laws protect child prostitutes from being charged, prosecuted or imprisoned.

The campaign is led by The Body Shop, a national chain of beauty product stores, and, The Times reports, this push is actually phase two. The first phase was all about raising public awareness, and now company executives are offering their customers petitions to help enact legislative change.

Some are calling this insensitive but at ParentDish, we call it a pure celebration of life.

Holocaust survivor Adolek Kohn never dreamed he would head back to the concentration camp 63 years later, but he did just that, bringing his grandchildren with him.

It was his daughter's idea to make a music video out of the experience.

"We came from the ashes, now we dance," Jane Korman told the Associated Press. She explains that she did it to "awaken people" in the hopes that it "would make them think again about this past."

Seems to us that this is more about the future. And for that, we applaud you.

Marketing savvy or just a remarkable coincidence?

That's what some are wondering about ubiquitous mall clothier Forever 21, which recently launched a maternity line -- available in stores in just five states, all of which happen to have very high teen pregnancy rates.

The Gloss reports that the love21 maternity line can be purchased in stores located in Alaska, Arizona, California, Texas and Utah, all among the 10 states with the highest teen pregnancy rates among girls ages 15 to 19, according to a report issued by the Guttmacher Institute.

The Gloss links to ads for the new line, which feature some of the prettiest, freshest and, dare we say, youngest faces to be seen in maternity clothes in quite some time. The debut also just happens to coincide with the news that teen pregnancy is on the rise for the first time in a decade.

Items from the love21maternity items can be ordered online.

Representatives from Forever21 did not return phone calls at the time of publication.

Related: More Teens Using Rhythm Method for Birth Control

You did it after college, when you were sowing your wild oats. Now, you have a family, but that shouldn't stop you from taking your brood with you to ride the rails and explore Europe with a backpack on your shoulders.

That's what Lisa Bentley and her husband, Greg, did five years ago when their daughters, Zoe and Teagan, were 8 and 4 years old. The family traveled by rail and bus all across Europe for a month, and Bentley says backpacking -- rather than staying in pre-booked hotels and flying from place to place -- made it economically feasible to do so.

"Greg and I had always wanted to go to Europe, and backpacking seemed like it would be the easiest, since we wouldn't have to haul a lot of luggage and we'd be free to get up and go if we weren't happy with where we were," the Sahuarita, Ariz. mom of two says.

It's graduation season and the irony, in my household, abounds.

You see, I teach graduate students at one of the top universities in the country, the same university where my husband was a professor as well. I've authored five parenting books, and I write a column for a parenting magazine. I'm often quoted as a "parenting expert." This is a home where bookshelves line the walls, where we eat dinner together every night, where we run to the dictionary for definitions of words we don't know.

My daughter Annie grew up in a hotbed of education. But high school didn't work for her, so I encouraged her to drop out. I'm proud of her for making the choice and I'm proud of myself for supporting it.

As an educator and this so-called "parenting expert," I understand the ramifications of her actions, and I believe she does, too -- as much as any 17-year-old can. Without a diploma, she can't go to a four-year university. Without a college degree, many doors will be closed to her. Sure, she could go to a community college -- she tried that last semester -- though it didn't work for her, either.

Yet.

If I was trying to justify my feelings and her actions, I could list hundreds of high-school dropouts who've become wild successes: Billionaire Richard Branson, movie star Uma Thurman, labor leader Cesar Chavez , scientist Albert Einstein.

Amazing Mom: Maggie Dammit, journalist and founder of Violence Unsilenced, a website for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

Maggie's Family: Husband: Dave; Kids: Two daughters

Molly Lives In: Rural Wisconsin

Why Maggie Is Amazing: "Be brave and talk about it." These are the words of Maggie Dammit -- her blogging nom de plume -- speaking to women and men who have survived domestic violence and sexual assault. In 2007, Maggie launched the website "Violence Unsilenced" after she interviewed Gloria Steinem for a profile piece about the iconic feminist.

"During the interview, she told me that 30 percent of all arrests in the county where I live are related to domestic violence," Maggie says.

The area is affluent, white collar and nearly recession proof, thanks to a large public university, she says, and the statistic was shocking even to a journalist who had covered the community for many years. She calls the moment "life-changing," because that single fact led Maggie down a path that began with a magazine profile of seven local women who survived domestic abuse and ended with the founding of Violence Unsilenced.

The site, which posts essays written by survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, is by turns compelling, distressing and empowering. The landing page warns readers that the stories they find there may be so brutal as to trigger an emotional response in someone who has experienced a similar trauma.

It is sometimes difficult to read, but Maggie believes there is power in sharing the stories, both for the women who endured the abuse and for those who may believe it is the kind of thing that happens to strangers, not to friends or loved ones.

"So much of the way that abusers exert control is through shame and secrecy. 'No one will believe you if you tell,' so everyone stays silent," she says. "If we all keep talking about it, if we can shrink those degrees of separation [between people] and get people personally involved, we take away the power. [Since I began this work] I have had friends and family coming out of the woodwork, confessing about what happened to them."

Maggie is a firm believer in the cathartic power of writing as a path to healing, and she is careful to maintain Violence Unsilenced as a safe place for survivors to bear witness -- only supportive comments are allowed. In addition to compassion and empathy from readers, support also comes in the form of organizations geared toward helping those currently in abusive situations, as well as those who have survived such relationships.

The blogosphere is the perfect environment for a site like Violence Unsilenced, she adds, because of the desire for community and support among those who blog. Indeed, the woman who designed the website did so for free, and plenty of other bloggers pitched in, as well.

"The day we went live we had 5,000 hits, and we have a wait list of between four to six months for posting," Maggie says. "I believe in the validity of this medium, so often misunderstood." The wait list is because Maggie only posts two survivor essays a week to give each writer a chance to be heard.

Maggie also has a personal blog, Okay, Fine, Dammit, where she is equally fearless in her sharing of the truth as she sees it. In her distinctive, lyrical prose she writes about motherhood, alcoholism and family relationships, but she does so while mindful of the privacy of her husband and children. She also tries to be conscious of how much her children see her on the computer, but it is a very fine balance.

"You can't write about life if you're not living it," she says.

Maggie's Friend Sarah Says: "I'd consider myself lucky if I turned out to be half the mother Maggie is ... She affirms over and over what supportive, expansive, good motherhood is."

Recognition: Maggie received a 2009 Community Service Award from the Madison, Wisc. organization Domestic Abuse Intervention Services. In 2010, Violence UnSilenced was a Bloggies finalist. In addition, Maggie has received three industry awards for her print journalism on a variety of subjects.

Maggie's Guilty Pleasures: Swedish fish and really bad TV

Maggie's Best Advice: Doesn't really like advice, but loves wisdom.

Katherine McWilliams, author of the play Babel, also contributed to this story.

Related: Amazing Mom: Diane Granito

Want to see who else made the list? Click here for the rest of AOL's 2010 Amazing Moms!

Amazing Mom: Marian Robinson, first grandma of the United States

Marian's Family: Husband: Fraser Robinson, married 31 years, died in 1991; Kids: Michelle Obama, Craig Robinson

Marian Lives In: Washington, D.C.

Why Marian Is Amazing: If it wasn't for Marian Robinson, Barack Obama would probably not be President. While the Obamas were barnstorming across the country campaigning, Michelle's mom retired from her part-time job as a bank secretary to hold down the fort at the Obama's Chicago home, in effect becoming Malia and Sasha's surrogate parent. She took them to school, ferried them to piano and dance classes, ran the baths and cooked their meals.

"I am standing here breathing in and out with any level of calm because my 70-year-old [mother] is home with my girls," Michelle told voters in Ohio on one of the dozens of campaign trips she made in 2008. "There's nothing like Grandma."

And her mother concurred. "If somebody's going to be with these kids other than their parents," Marian told The Boston Globe, "it better be me."

And then when the first family moved to Washington, the Grandma-in-chief moved as well, albeit reluctantly, to help her beloved granddaughters with their transition.

"They're dragging me with them, and I'm not comfortable with that," Marian told CBS 'Sunday Morning' last year. "But I'm doing exactly what you do. You do what needs to be done."

Although the move was supposed to be a temporary one, it seems that the first grandma is enjoying living at the White House. She still accompanies her granddaughters to school, helps with homework and baby-sits when needed, but has lamented that now that Malia and Sasha are growing up, she's "beginning to feel left out," according to The Associated Press.

To fill the time, Marian attends the plethora of White House functions, including the annual Easter Egg Roll, and traveling with the Obamas to Russia, Italy and Ghana last year, her first time overseas. She's also been spotted at the Kennedy Center enjoying the Alvin Ailey dance troupe.

Marian also keeps her living quarters a bit away from the rest of the family, with hers on the third floor of the White House and the rest of the clan one flight down. But she doesn't eat with them every night because, she says, "Michelle's family" should have time together.

Life at the White House is certainly a far cry from her humble beginnings. Born one of 10 children in heavily segregated Chicago, Marian showed her independence early by choosing to become a secretary rather than a teacher, her parents' preference, although she only started working full time when Michelle was in high school.

The Robinson home was working class. The family lived in a four-room apartment and Michelle and Craig shared a bedroom until they were teenagers. She was a no-nonsense, yet loving mother, who encouraged her children to aim high. She brought home math and reading workbooks to ensure her children were ahead in school and insisted on chores to promote discipline and responsibility.

"My mom's big mantra was making sure we felt good about ourselves. The values they taught us were honesty and integrity," Craig Robinson told The New York Times.

All the hard work paid off. Both went to Princeton; Craig went on and earned an M.B.A and Michelle graduated from Harvard Law School.

"She talked to us endlessly about any and everything with a level of openness and fearlessness that made us believe that we were bright enough to engage with an adult," Michelle says admiringly of her mother to Essence magazine.

Marian's Daughter Michelle Obama Says: "She has a very full social life, so much so that sometimes we have to plan our schedule around her schedule," Michelle said of her mom during a luncheon last year for Congressional spouses.

Fun Facts: Mrs. Robinson is one fit grandma. She ran the 50- and 100-yard dashes in the Illinois senior games when she was well into her 60s and also practiced yoga taught by her younger brother, Stephen Shields, 57.

Surprisingly, she's not as strict with her grandchildren as her daughter is. "I have candy, they stay up late -- come to my house, they watch TV as long as they want to, we'll play games until the wee hours," Marian told The Boston Globe. "I do everything that grandmothers do that they're not supposed to."

Marian's Grandma Advice: She says that bedtime at 8.30 for her granddaughters is "ridiculous," and TV for one hour, "is just not enough time." And as for Michelle's insistence on organic and healthy food, well don't even get Grandma started on that one.

"That's not my thing," she told the Globe. "Well, see, I grew up when you had good food, right? I can't change that at this late day and time."

The secret to her fried chicken is crumbled Ritz crackers in the batter, dunking the pieces in ice water before frying and copious amounts of salt and oil.

"If you're going to have fried chicken, have fried chicken."

Related: Amazing Mom: Melinda Gates

Want to see who else made the list? Click here for the rest of AOL's 2010 Amazing Moms!

When singer Amy Winehouse's ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil was thrown in the clinker back in 2007, his mother said she was "delighted!"

Mom was happy because now she didn't have to worry about him. All Blake needed was a little dose of jail time.

Two years ago, I found myself driving over the Bay Bridge in order to bail out my then 23- year-old son Alex from the San Francisco County Jail. During his second year at the very liberal Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, he'd begun reading anarchist texts. His politics went from very liberal to no politics at all. As he told me, the definition for anarchy is "No leaders," so the fight for no government interference began to guide him.

The day before my drive, Alex had been arrested at an anti-war rally and charged with nine felonies. Before leaving the house, I'd called the intake officer, discovering that one of the felonies was carrying a concealed deadly weapon. As I drove, I clutched the steering wheel, wondering incredulously, "What weapon? What had he meant to do? Who had he meant to hurt? How can you stop a war in one place with a weapon here?"

When we saw this photo of Noah Cyrus, teen sensation Miley Cyrus' 9-year-old little sis, in an extremely sexualized Halloween getup, we just gasped.

Dlisted, who published the photo, calls for a slap on papa Billy Ray Cyrus' wrists.

Little Cyrus vamped it up for Jamie Lee Curtis' Halloween party -- Curtis was dressed as Mother Nature, according to Dlisted -- but sadly, this grade-schooler turned heads for all the wrong reasons.

What do you think?

Dear AdviceMama:

My daughter is 10 years old and wants to be a fair maiden for Halloween. She fell in love with a costume in a catalog two months ago and insists it was meant for her. She's dreamt about it, talked about it and has even shown it to all her friends.

The problem is, her dad feels it's too sexy and is refusing to buy it. It's also expensive, and we really can't afford it.

She is heartbroken and has been having fits, tantrums and doing everything under the sun to get us to give in. What should we do?

Signed, Unhappy at Halloween

Dear Unhappy at Halloween:

Mother Nature was very wise in designing children. Their size (small) and stature (dependent) ensure that they are bound to experience frustration on a daily basis. What better way to master a skill than to get lots of practice?

As painful as it is to watch our children suffer when they can't have what they want, if we want them to grow up to be happy, resilient adults, we need to help them manage their feelings when life doesn't go their way.

There are only two outcomes to frustration. One is adaptation and the other is aggression.