Back when my daughter was in high school, she went through a school-skipping phase. Blissfully unaware, I would send her off to class and she would immediately head in the other direction. This situation was brought to my attention by the helpful folks in the truancy office, who informed me that if she didn't get her butt into class, they would arrest me! Fortunately things didn't go that far and nobody went to jail.

But for a father in Fairfield, Ohio, his wayward daughter's refusal to complete her education did land him in jail. Brian Gegner is serving a six-month sentence because his daughter Brittany failed to get her General Equivalency Diploma (GED) after dropping out of school. But here's the twist - Brittany is 18-years-old and a legal adult.

Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus ordered Gegner to jail on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor because he failed to follow a previous court order requiring him to ensure his daughter got her GED. Court administrators admit this type of punishment is rare, but say that despite the fact that Brittany is an adult now, her case remains active because she was a juvenile when the problems began.

When the time comes for a child to leave home and go out into the world, many parents find they don't quite know what to do with themselves. To ease the loneliness of an empty nest, some parents might get a dog, begin traveling more or sell the house and downsize. A dad in Utah found an even better way to keep himself occupied and to stay connected to his law school bound son: he went to school with him.

58-year-old Tom McLelland says he had been thinking about getting a law degree for years and decided to go for it when his son Ryan enrolled in Ohio Northern University. Some young adults might not appreciate having dad along for the ride when going away to school, but Ryan saw it as a plus. "We could help each other a lot better," he said.

The pair graduated together this past Sunday and have plans to return to their home state of Utah to open a practice together. Tom hopes to work in labor and employment law while Ryan, who is a father himself, plans to focus on family law.

"I'm a little nervous," Tom said. "I'm looking forward to a new challenge in life."

Are they funny? Are they creepy? Are they a little bit of both? Yeah--that last one. Pictures of manbabies have surfaced on the web, and they're a hit. Ah, what will they think of next?

This is the kind of thing that, when I see it, gives me a chuckle but also lets me know I have too much free internet surfing time on my hands. Still, these pics are pretty funny and perhaps worth a look. The idea is to take a picture of a man and his baby and switch their heads. The head of the baby is made bigger and the head of the man is made smaller to match the body sizes of both. Weird but true!

PopSugar was the first I've seen to get hold of the photos, which you can check out in a slideshow here. Want to get in on the action? All you have to do is provide your own family photo. While this seems more appropriate for Father's Day than the impending Mother's Day holiday, I thought it best to alert you to this site for your viewing enjoyment asap. ENJOY! Or, should I say, "Manjoy?"

And, yes, that is a normal picture of a man and his baby. You'll have to check out the ManBabies website if you want the real thing.

In a recent NY Times article we were introduced to online programs that allow parents to track their children's grades. Many parents are choosing products like ParentConnect, Edline and PowerSchool to assist them in conversing with their children about their grades.

As the Times article points out, it cuts out the middle portion of the conversation. The parents know what the grade is, good or bad. There can be no hiding of the grades or pretending they're something other than what they are. ParentConnect allows the parent access to the grade, and lets the child know that information is out there, and that discussion is sure to follow (especially if the grade is less than desirable).

Such programs are currently being utilized by 10,000 schools in all but one of the states. Studies have shown that parental involvement can have an effect on grades, and with test scores being more important than ever these days, many are turning to such sites to assist them in their quest for kids with good grades, even though several of these sites have been around for ten years.

Seems Tom Cruise has reversed his opinion about post partum depression. He's also gone public with his change of mind and heart. In a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, for whom you'll recall he jumped all over a couch as he professed his love for now-wife Katie Holmes, Cruise admits what he said about Brooke Shields in his other most-famous moment back in 2006. His harsh comments about Brooke Shields turning to medication--specifically anti-depressants--to treat her post partum depression came under fire from all sides.

Now Cruise confirms that what he said came out the wrong way, that he was raised by four women with babies and that he doesn't want to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't be doing or believing in. He insists what he said about Shields "came out wrong, it's just not true." Cruise has since apologized to Shields several times.

The damage, however, seems to have been done. Cruise was attacked by the media, mothers and feminists everywhere. His career seems to have taken a back seat to his rantings. In the interview Cruise comments that he regrets saying a lot of what he did and talking about Shields at all. Say what you will about Tom Cruise, and perhaps he's just trying to save face, but it does take some guts to come out and say you're wrong about something, especially when you admit it to the whole world.

By the way, remember the Tom Cruise from the pic? The young cutie? Hrd to believe how far he--and we--have come after all these years!

Actually, it's my former neighborhood. Apparently--and please pardon me, as there may be just a teensy little bit of bile forming in the back of my throat (and it's NOT morning sickness)--the creator of Melrose Place are considering another such type show set in, gag, Park Slope. For those of you unfamiliar with the Slope, it's in Brooklyn, New York. The people who live there think it's the bomb--the epitome of making it in, well, at least Brooklyn if not New York.

People move from Manhattan to Brooklyn, specifically, to have their babies and clog the sidewalks with their OBNOXIOUS (note, I didn't use the word annoying--it's not annoying; it is, in fact, OBNOXIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!) double-wide strollers and brag to each other and anyone else endlessly about how wonderful they are from all their righteousness and do-gooding. None of which is mixed with an ounce of altruism.

And I used to be one of them. Well, sort of. I fled to Windsor Terrace (sort of like the older cousin of the Slope whose been around the block and knows better) long before I thought about babies--my own, anyway. See, you can't live in the Slope without at least one kid. They'll scorn you otherwise. Seriously. And regardless of cost, they must have the best of everything--you will be snubbed for a simple Maclaren umbrella style stroller like the one I have when you could have shelled out $800 for whatever Euro design is hot this week. I'm basically considered a bad parent by these people because I don't have one. But mine folds up. Easily. With one hand.

My father was an intelligent and physically capable man who could fix just about anything. If he couldn't fix something, he would just build a new one. In other words, he was good with his hands. But every night at dinner, my father would sit back with his hands in his lap and let my mother cut his meat for him.

Even as a child, I found this confusing and strange. When I asked my mother about it, she said she did it because he liked her to do it. That didn't really clear things up for me. But in reading this article, I realize that my mother's mothering of her husband wasn't all that unique. Pepper Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, says women who take care of their husbands as if they were children - cutting their meat, picking out their clothes, washing their backs - are bending to societal pressures to be the ultimate woman. "We've been taught that the way to show love is to do for others," she says.

Psychotherapist Tina Tessina blames it on the hormone oxytocin. "It makes women feel tender, close and cuddly to their newborn and other children, and maybe husbands, too." Tessina, author of Money, Sex and Kids: Stop Fighting About the Three Things That Can Ruin Your Marriage, says that endorphins can also contribute. "Endorphins flow heavily in new mothers, and [they] are the same hormones we feel when we connect to a husband. It's pretty easy to confuse the two."

And while some experts say this kind of nurturing can work for some couples, at least one former nurturer doesn't recommend it. "As a woman who mothered her husband for too many years, I can report it's about the worst thing a woman can do," says 55-year-old Linda Franklin. "It makes your man lazy, unwilling to be proactive in his own health care and for the most part a boy who refuses to grow up. It took me a long time to understand you can be compassionate and loving without being smothering and controlling."

Another good reason not to mother your husband: it confuses the hell out of the kids.

One of my best girlfriends had a baby last year, and we've been making plans for her impending visit here since the day her baby girl was born.
"We'll take walks in the forest!"
"We'll sip lattes and carry matching purses!"
"We'll talk about our long-lost days of debauchery and disheveledness!"

We've been talking about this event for nearly a year now, but she hasn't come to see me yet. Airline prices have been so high, and, well, maybe we'll wait for a seat sale.

Finally, I asked: "Can't your husband help out with the fare?" He is working full time, after all, and he makes a good living as she stays home with their baby.
"Well,"she paused,"You know, I look after my own expenses, he looks after his."

It's the way it is with them: they keep their finances completely separate, and she, the stay-at-home-wife, is expected to cover any incidentals and luxuries with her own moneymaker. That moneymaker tool, however, is a little hampered by the daily grind of life with a baby: it's difficult to establish a high-flying career when one has a baby attached to one's breast at all times.

My friend's situation made me wonder. Financial arrangements within marriages aren't a topic of everyday conversation amongst most of my friends, but (having never been married myself) I've been assuming that most couples just divide the bacon 50/50. Evidently, this isn't the case, and as I probed more of my married friends (for research purposes) I learned that most of them keep their own bank accounts.

In many ways, I guess it's prudent. But it seems to me that marriage, in its shiniest light, should connect all life's big forces: love, sex, children, money.

Over at about.com, they have some common-sense advice about the best financial practices within a family unit . Number one? Maintain separate accounts.

It makes sense, I guess, but it's not very romantic, is it? But I'm beginning to understand that in long-term relationships, very little is.

A few weeks ago, Christopher Ratte took his 7-year-old son Leo to see a ballgame in Detroit. Upon arriving at Comerica Park, they bought some refreshments - a beer for dad, a lemonade for Leo - and settled into their seats to watch the Tigers. But what should have been a fun day of father-son bonding turned into an unbelievable nightmare when a security guard spotted Leo and his lemonade. Turns out that what dad purchased wasn't regular lemonade, but hard lemonade. If you don't know about hard lemonade, you are not alone. Christopher Ratte had no idea that the beverage his son had been sipping on for nine innings contained 5% alcohol.

Ratte explained his mistake to the security guard who promptly confiscated the lemonade and called the cops. Leo was taken to a hospital where he was examined and found to have no alcohol in his blood.

"Obviously, I made a mistake in buying this lemonade, which I didn't realize was alcoholic," Ratte said. "I probably should have read the label carefully, so I'm not critical of the police who were concerned. I just thought they overreacted terribly."

Just how much did they overreact? Instead of releasing Leo to his parents, he was taken into custody by Wayne County Children's Protective Services and spent the weekend in foster care. When he was finally released to his mother, his father was ordered to move out of the house. Christopher Ratte spent spent two weeks in a hotel before the case was dropped and he was allowed back home with his family.

CPS may have dropped the case, but Christopher Ratte has not. He and his wife have filed a formal complaint with the CPS ombudsman's office claiming the treatment they received was excessive.

This story makes me angry, sad and a little scared for families living within the reach of Wayne County Child Protective Services.

When I was growing up, music was a big deal in my house. My parents were music-lovers and the soundtrack of my childhood was heavy with Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers and, oddly, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Band. I would spend hours in my room, playing my parent's records and gazing at album covers. I'm sure it made my parents happy to see me enjoying the same tunes they enjoyed, but it didn't last forever. Eventually, I discovered Donny Osmond, the DeFrancos and later, all manner of horrible disco music. It must have been awful for them.

David Bowie knows a thing or two about musical suffering. He and his wife Iman have a cute little 7-year-old daughter named Alexandria Zahra and her taste in music could not be further from her father's. Dad is famous for his innovative music and has enjoyed a long and successful career. But Alexandria prefers her music a little fluffier and is a fan of pop princess Hilary Duff.

According to Iman, Bowie would rather leave than listen to that. "Two weeks ago Alexandria was listening to Hilary Duff songs. David just leaves the room. He thinks she should be listening to underground music," she told The Sun.

Bowie should take heart in the knowledge that his daughter's musical tastes will likely change as she grows older. And since disco is dead, it really couldn't get worse, right?

According to a survey conducted by ITV, Britons are ruder than they used to be. They spit, they swear, they don't say "please" and "thank you". A third of the respondents blame this anti-social behavior on a lack of manners and 90 percent blame the lack of manners on mom and dad.

"I suppose it's part of the breakdown in society -- the fact that we stopped having respect for figures in authority partly because those in authority didn't command it," etiquette coach Diana Mather says.

If the fault lies at home, shouldn't the solution also be found there? Almost 75 percent of those surveyed think not. Instead, they believe that instilling manners should be the responsibility of teachers and taught in the classroom.

I can see the logic - if mom and dad are lacking good manners themselves, how are they going to pass them on to their children? But to me, parenting is all about on-the-job training. If mom and dad don't already have a grasp on etiquette and socially-acceptable behavior, they can certainly take it upon themselves to learn.

Now, if you want to give teachers some extra work, how about teaching shoe-tying? Come to think of it, there is probably a book for that, too.

Thirteen years ago, University of Iowa professor Gigi Durham began research for a book about the sexualization of young girls. Immersing herself in the same world our girls live in, she sought to reveal the motive behind the marketing of sex to 8 to 12-year-olds. Surely it didn't take 13 years of research to understand that it is all about money.

Her new book, The Lolita Effect, explores why and how the adage "sex sells" doesn't just apply to adults anymore. She believes that this sexualization of tween girls is part of marketer's larger efforts to create cradle-to-grave consumers. "A lot of very sexual products are being marketed to very young kids," she said. "I'm criticizing the unhealthy and damaging representations of girls' sexuality, and how the media present girls' sexuality in a way that's tied to their profit motives. The body ideals presented in the media are virtually impossible to attain, but girls don't always realize that, and they'll buy an awful lot of products to try to achieve those bodies. There's endless consumerism built around that."

Durham doesn't just point the finger at the big, bad marketers and suggest we wait for them to change. She shares five media-created myths of sexuality and gives practical advice on how to battle them. Her first suggestion is to start the conversation early. "There's this hesitance to talk about these issues, especially before kids reach adolescence," Durham said. "But often, when parents finally do bring it up, it's too late. Kids have already had their sexual understanding shaped by media. We need to be having a lot of open discussions about the sexualization of childhood and what constitutes healthy sexuality. I don't think we should neglect our responsibility as adults and leave them to navigate this terrain on their own."

As the parent of a seven-year-old girl, I can attest to the fact that Durham knows of what she speaks. I am regularly appalled at the images and ideas Ellie is exposed to and welcome some good, solid advice on combating it. The Lolita Effect will be released May 1 and I intend to read it.

Los Angeles Galaxy soccer star David Beckham was just trying to be a nice guy when he passed his sweaty soccer jersey to a young fan in the stands after a game in Honolulu last February. He had no way of knowing that his kind gesture would end the friendship of two boys and have their parents threatening legal action against each other.

Only Beckham knows for sure who he meant to have the jersey, but Eric and Yoshika Kerr are certain it was intended for their 10-year-old son. They say he lured Beckham over by holding up a sign during the game. When the game was over, Beckham came over to where the boys were sitting together, pointed at their son and handed up the jersey.

Wilfred and Yoshika Ho have a different story. They say their 9-year-old son got his hands on the jersey first and therefore it is his. "My son got the shirt, their kid started trying to pry it away," said Wilfred Ho.

Enter the lawyers. After a failed attempt at sharing the jersey, a lawyer for the Kerrs' sent a letter to the Hos' demanding the return of the jersey. The Hos' responded through their own lawyer, stating they are the legal owners.

The Galaxy's general manager, Alexi Lalas, regrets the situation and has come up with his own solution: "My suggestion is that the judge get a pair of scissors, cut the thing in half and give half to each," he said.

If that doesn't work, maybe they could all just grow up, realize it's just a shirt and LET IT GO.

I've been wanting to build a treehouse for my kids for quite a while now, but after reading this story I think there's one feature I'm definitely going to add -- a lock. A father in Florida went out to check on the treehouse he'd built for his daughter and found something rather unexpected waiting for him: a bag containing guns and ammunition.

Along with the pistol, rifle, and sawed-off shotgun were two knives, empty cigar containers, and an empty Crown Royal whisky bag. It sounds like someone was having a party up there and not the good kind, either. "I feel threatened," said Tom O'Connell, who built the treehouse for his thirteen-year-old daughter and her friends.

It's fortunate that it was O'Connell who found the cache and not his daughter. "Some kids could have got a hold of this and there could have been a very tragic ending here," said Bob Carpenter of the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. The handgun was reported stolen last December.

In addition to pointing out that, sadly, even treehouses need locks these days, this shows that we, as parents, need to make sure our kids know what guns are and what to do if they come across one. Even if you don't approve of gun ownership and would never have one of your own, kids still need to know that guns are dangerous and are definitely not toys.

There is plenty of info out there about talking to your kids about drugs -- if you're completely opposed to recreational drug use. A lot of people, however, understand that marijuana is not the same as heroin or methamphetamines. In fact, one could easily argue that smoking pot is far less destructive and dangerous than either smoking tobacco cigarettes or drinking alcohol.

So what do you do if you, as a parent, have smoked marijuana in the past -- or even do so currently? Do you 'fess up and hope kids can understand that different drugs are, well different? Or do you fail to mention your use and just say no? Whichever way you go, traditional thinking would be that you portray your own drug use as a gross mistake and hope your children see the error of your ways.

That's not the only answer, however. What if people treated pot the way they do alcohol? What if parents explained that pot is for grown-ups only and that once they reach adulthood, they can decide whether or not to try it? Well, if that sounds like the healthy, logical way to go, there is help out there for you.

Just a Plant is a children's book that introduces children to marijuana. It tells the story of a young girl who stumbles upon her parents smoking a joint one evening after bedtime. The next day, the mother takes the daughter out for the day to teach her about the drug. They visit a farmer, doctor, and various other characters on their journey of discovery.

Now, before you worry that this is going to encourage children to rush right out and score some ganja, the book explicitly teaches that marijuana is for adults only, "Like driving a car or drinking a glass of wine. You can make a choice to try it or not when you are an adult."

Personally, I've never tried marijuana (or other recreational drugs) and have never had any interest in doing so, but I also don't think it's such a bad thing. I've certainly seen first hand that other, more acceptable drugs -- alcohol, especially -- are more destructive. If you are a parent who feels similarly, this book might be worth checking into.