One of us here at Babble.com.au HQ just had a Doppler on her 18-week preggers tummy – and couldn’t get this song out of her head!

They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore, do they? More’s the bloody pity – modern music is just so rubbish, comparatively speaking, don’t you think?

And now, to make me sound like even more of an old fart…

I can remember this song so clearly – even though I would only have been about five or six years old when it was playing incessantly on the car radio. What a winner! And that little Tony DeFranco? Such cute stuff. We love all their moves – but the one Tony does at 1:57 is our absolute fave.

Anyone else remember this? And does anyone know what year it was such a big hit in Oz?

Newborns seem to be getting smarter and smarter by the minute. First, fetuses learn how to distinguish external sounds during the last trimester; then infants start sending explicit messages with their cries; and now, we discover that babies are born with regional accents.

An international team of researchers studied the cries of 60 newborns, 30 of which were German and 30 of which were French. Across the board, the sound of the babies’ cries followed a clear pattern. According to Reuters, “French newborns tend to cry with a rising melody contour, while their German neighbours prefer a falling melody shape — patterns which the researchers said fit with characteristic differences between the two languages.”

It makes sense that a baby would learn to mimic her parents’ voices as early on as possible, in order to better communicate with them. But little do these bundles of joy know – well, actually, come to think of it, of course they know – that a blood-curdling wail is always an effective attention-getting device… in any language.

Photo: minti.com

The other day, a co-worker, knowing that my kids do not watch scary or violent films and that we eschew excessive competitiveness, said I was raising marshmallows.  While I disagree with him for a number of reasons, he is correct in that I am doing my best to raise kids who don’t find violence amusing or acceptable.  That’s why, when I came across an article about the recent gang rape of a 15-year-old Richmond, California girl, I found it especially interesting.

A woman writing at Moveovermommy.com, who also happens to be a lawyer working with children from broken or troubled homes, offered some insight into the sorts of kids who could watch such an atrocity, let alone participate. She says that these are “boys and girls who have faced so much turmoil in their short lives, have seen so much ugliness in their family and neighbourhoods and have received so little support that their sense of humanity (to the extent it ever existed) left them long ago.” Read more »

Every few months something crops up on the Internet linking the way people care for their pets to their would-be parenting skills. Everyone runs with it. We parents fight it. The cycle continues.

So what makes this one different?

Washington Post advice columnist Carolyn Hax isn’t talking about neglectful dog owners who aren’t fit to raise a poodle – never mind a person. She said this week that ” dog-rearing style is a deadly accurate predictor of child-rearing style.” Read more »

A father has turned in his own teenaged daughter for growing pot inside the family home.

The 16-year-old girl kept her wardrobe locked – which she told dear old Dad was a move to keep her siblings from borrowing her clothes (not a bad excuse, we’ll give her that). But according to Click On Detroit, when he decided to try his key against the lock, he found it didn’t work.

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There’s a big headline over at Us Weekly that’s intended to make Jon Gosselin look bad. For the first time ever, it had the opposite effect.

Turns out Jon and Kate Gosselin are finally in the same boat as the rest of us – just with eight kids and oodles of dollars earned pimping said kids to the world. They have to split their holidays.

The headline, by the way, reads: Jon Gosselin to Spend Thanksgiving With Hailey, Not the Kids. Turns out Kate will take the kids for turkey day, so his girlfriend has invited him over so he won’t spend the day alone.

Yes, Virginia, it happens to the best divorced couples out there. Sometimes meted out ahead of time in the custody agreement, sometimes left up to parents to hash out together, the holiday plans for divorced couples tend to get more complicated as the holiday season progresses.
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Pregnant women, beware. This is one of those reports on a study that will make you want to tear your hair out. Why? Because you’re sort of damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Still, here goes:

Researchers looking into antibiotics use during pregnancy have found a link between birth defects and the medicines commonly used to treat urinary tract infections. Oh, but wait. Allowing bacterial infections to go untreated during pregnancy has also been shown to harm the fetus.

The advice?

Don’t avoid antibiotics, just talk to your doctor about your choices. (See? You’re ready to start yanking on hair.) Read more »

Two adult women stood outside a Pennsylvania, USA courthouse for four and a half hours with giant signs: “I stole from a nine-year-old on her birthday! Don’t steal or this could happen to you!”

A little girl had placed her gift card on a shelf while a Wal-Mart employee assisted her – ostensibly with her purchases. The women – 56-year-old Evelyn Border and 35-year-old Tina Griekspoor – grabbed the card and took off.

Talk about stealing candy from a baby.

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Mum and Dad delight in rediscovering old chums. High-schooler James uses it to make plans, publish funny photos and check out the spunks who are friends of friends. But now, 10-year-old Abigail wants her own Facebook page. Should you let her?

Both Facebook and MySpace require users to be thirteen, but…come on. Site administrators may not know that a portion of their users still have Dora the Explorer dolls languishing on their beds and, even if they care, will most likely not find out. Is this a bad thing? Opinions from experts fall all over the map, as CNN found out when it recently raised the question.

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Think your kids are stressed?  According to the American Psychological Association, you don’t know the half of it. The APA just released their Stress in America survey and for the first time ever, they included young people in the study. Not only did they discover that kids are more stressed than you might think, they also found that parents are often clueless about what their kids are worrying about.

More than 1,200 kids aged eight to 17 were polled about issues relating to stress and, not surprisingly, 44% said that they worry about doing well in school. What is surprising, however, is that 30% of those surveyed admit to worrying about money. No, not their pocket money – kids are worried about the family finances.

More interesting stuff after the jump Read more »