Everyone knows that a winning smile is priceless, but in order to make sure you’ve got a set of bright white pearls, top notch oral care and hygiene is essential. That’s why we’re giving you the chance to win a Macleans Bright Sparks pack!

Babble has three Family Prize Packs to give away, each valued at over $130. The prize includes a Science book, a Science kit, an Invisible Zinc junior clip on, Macleans Advanced toothpaste, Macleans Junior Jaws toothpaste, Macleans Junior Jaws toothbrush, Macleans Flex toothbrush — basically everything you need to make sure your kids will actually want to brush their teeth!

Why all the science merchandise? It compliments the Macleans Bright Sparks website, which is a fun little site where kids can learn interesting science facts, jokes, play games and more. Perfect for their education and their teeth — what could be better?

To be in with a chance to win one of the Family Prize Packs, all you have to do is tell us in the comments section if your child still believes in the Tooth Fairy, and what you’ve done to keep it that way. If they’ve worked out the truth, how did they?

Terms and Conditions apply.

Today in the journal Sleep, researchers report that men who suffer from insomnia are four times as likely to die as men who sleep well. The study looked at 1,741 people with an average age of 50 and followed them for between 10 and 14 years.

They found that men with reported insomnia (verified in a sleep lab) were four times as likely to die during the course of the study. When hypertension or diabetes were added to the picture, the men were seven times as likely to die as the ones who reported no sleep difficulties.

It’s no surprise that sleep affects health — not getting enough zzz’s has been linked to memory loss and other chronic medical conditions. But the researchers say they were astonished to see such a big difference in mortality rates.

What did the scientists deem as “insomnia” — how many hours of rest did the men need to be considered good sleepers? And what about women?
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In the olden days (say, anytime before 1970), dads-to-be weren’t allowed in the delivery room. Instead, they had to bide their time in the waiting room before they could break out the cigars. Think of Ricky Ricardo and other sitcom dads pacing in the waiting room as their wives did the hard work off-screen.

But times have changed and nowadays, most fathers I know would never agree to miss out on the big event.

I certainly wasn’t planning on going through labour without my husband by my side. After all, it wasn’t just my baby I was having. It was ours and I wanted him to be part of the experience. But I was admittedly, a bit nervous that he would be grossed out by the actual event.

Sure, he was quite familiar with my body by that point, but he had never actually seen a baby come out of my vagina before. How would he take it? Would he ever be able to see me as a sexual being again?
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In an excellent post on Suburban Turmoil, Lindsey Ferrier tells mums a thing or two about stepparenting. Actually, she tells them 15 Things Mums Should Know About Stepmothers.

She is right on. At the risk of oversimplifying, her message is this: we’re not all evil. We won’t hurt your kids, or go out of our way to make your life worse. Many of us really love your kids.

Like Lindsay, I’ve been a stepmother for 8 years, and a mum for 6. Being a stepmum isn’t easy: it’s a tough balancing act. If like me, the first kids you parent are your stepkids, you get the work of learning to be a parent at the same time that you have to learn when to stand aside.

You can — in fact you must — love your stepkids, but you can’t ever be their mum. That’s an awkward distance.

Mums don’t make it easier when they resent the stepmother or the new children she brings into the family. It’s hard enough for blended families. Lindsay points out that 70% of blended families split apart. Second marriages are at least as likely to fail as first marriages.

Of course I understand the impulse to resent a stepmother. The thought of another woman parenting my kids gives me the heebie jeebies, too. But making an effort to understand and accept the stepmum can make things much smoother for your kids.
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Scientists think they have unlocked the chemical triggers that cause puberty: a reaction in the KISS-1 gene. That awkward period of intense growth and change has long been a mystery. We know what happens, but we don’t know what triggers it to begin.

Now researchers have found a chemical reaction in the brain that they believe starts that period of growth spurts, pimples and mood swings.

This could be great news for parents worried about the increasingly early onset of puberty. Knowing what triggers these changes in the body could be a first step towards finding out why it’s happening earlier. Hopefully, that will lead to finding ways to slow it down again. No one wants to take their 7-year-old bra shopping.

I do. I love hanging out with my daughter, running errands, talking to her, reading books with her and going swimming together. But when I hear her sweet little high-pitched voice cry, “Wanna colour with me?,” I cringe. I don’t know what it is about coloring that irks me so much. I used to love colouring, but now that it’s become a team sport, I like it less and less. Is it that I’m not allowed to colour on my own page? Call me obsessive, but I want My Little Pony to be completed with a cohesive colour scheme. I mean, it’s called My Little Pony, not Our Little Pony, for chrissakes. When we colour together, I hear myself saying ridiculous things just to avoid bruising my daughter’s fragile four-year-old ego. “Yes, purple goes with orange, baby. That looks… pretty.” Do I want to colour with you? Sure, I’d love to decorate Hello Kitty’s beauty parlor together. I love ramming into your broken, nubby crayons with my bloody knuckles as we secretly fight over who gets to fill in the open spaces. Parenting is fun!

If you think playing dolls is tedious, or if making Thomas the Tank Engine chug down the track has you thinking you’d rather chug beers instead, you’re not alone. One-third of parents think playing with their kids is BO-RING.
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Want to raise tolerant, caring kids? The kind of sensitive human beings who look past others’ faults to see the inner light shining from each person they meet? Of course we all wants our kids to be saints.

The trick to success on this is simple: stop washing them.

OK, so I just made that up. But there is real live science from Northwestern University demonstrating that people become more judgmental when their hands are clean. That’s literally clean, not figuratively. That’s right. They could be guilty as sin, but give your darlings a moist handwipe and they’ll become abruptly more puritanical about the foibles and failings of others.

Just one more reason to let your kids eat a little dirt now and then.
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Little boys: are they gun-loving Kings of the Hill who want to run around, argue and dominate? Or are they delicate, shy mama’s-boys who want to slip on red heels and pose in front of the mirror?

Third option: boys, like girls, are kids, who come in all shapes, sizes, styles and personalities.

My vote is for the third option, but that kind of thinking often gets me patronising looks from others. Haven’t I noticed boys tend to move in packs, the others want to know. (Yes, that is often the case.) Can’t I see that girls prefer one-on-one (mmmhmmm. I’m quite familiar with such behaviours as well).

But, devil’s advocate, have you, patronising-look-giver, never known boys who focus only on their BFFs? Or girls who organise a game of tag or monster or — yes, it has happened — King of the Hill? See? Lots of options!
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Pregnancy and childbirth can really do a number on your body (can I get an Amen!). Some of the weirdness — line down the middle of your torso, darkened face, extra kilos (ha!), bloated face — eventually goes away. Other stuff? It’s pretty much here to stay (I mentioned the extra kilos, yes?).

For a lot of women, the permanent markings like stretch marks and c-section scars have a huge psychological impact.

One study of 100 women found that nearly half suffered a negative self-confidence related to stretch marks and scars. Only a quarter of them were satisfied with advice their doctors and midwives had given them regarding the matter. Half the women dressed in order to hide their stretch marks. More than one quarter had been worried about stretch marks during pregnancy and two-thirds received no advice at all regarding them.

Now, important to note is that the study was funded by a group selling products they claim improve the appearance of stretch marks or lessens and prevents them. So of course the stats are all doom and gloom. Still, the fact that half of the women surveyed aren’t all that excited about their stretch marks isn’t so surprising.
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Motherhood isn’t easy. Not only do we have the weight of our children’s futures on our shoulders, we have to contend with the opinions of everyone on how to do it. If our kids do anything wrong, we’re blamed. Even if our kids don’t do anything wrong, we’re blamed for not giving them even more.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I wailed to my own mum, “People see that I’m pregnant and they keep telling me what to do: what to eat, what to wear, how to give birth, how to take care of my baby! I don’t want all that advice.”

My mother nodded sagely and said, “Getting advice from strangers during pregnancy is good practice. The only thing you will ever get more unsolicited advice on is how to raise your kids.”

She was painfully right. Advice from strangers is one of my least favourite parts of being a mum.
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