parenting

This Tiny First Order Stormtrooper Just Stole Our Hearts

Last October, we found that you could take one of the Jakks 48 inch First Order Stormtroopers and turn them into an amazing costume for your kid. Since then, costumers have been snapping them up for that very purpose, but Jim Brock just outdid them all. Seriously, we’re dying from the cute. It’s a fantastic…

Micah Hayman figured out that the best way to get his son to stop crying was Imperial March. Parenting done right. [Nerdist]

Toddler Singing The Imperial March Shows Off Parenting Done Right

This is awesome: Jonathan Liu had been watching Star Wars with his children, and after putting his two and a half year old daughter to bed, he found that she really liked it. Liu writes about introducing Star Wars to his kids over on Geek Dad, noting that she’s particularly a fan of Darth Vader…

The Most Excellent Ways To Cosplay With Your Baby

Many cosplay-loving parents find ways to dress up with their independently-mobile children, but it gets even more interesting when they find a way to incorporate an infant into their costume through baby-wearing. 1. Batman and Robin, Batman The Robin and Batman. Image credit: Wrap Your Baby The dynamic duo are always ready for adventure, and…

The Totally Insane Way That Breast Milk Works

I know breast milk is good and all, but when I became a mom I was kinda shocked at how much it was cited as a cure-all for anything that ailed my newborn. It turns out it’s not just because of the nutritional value. My baby’s immune system is communicating with mine THROUGH MY NIPPLES.…

This Fake Baby Car Seat Is Designed to Help Governments Spy on People

As governments look for new ways to spy on people, the commercial surveillance business is getting creative. One of the weirder offerings: a video and audio recording device hidden inside a baby seat. A report on surveillance equipment sales to the Colombian government from Privacy International shows a flyer for the baby car seat, modeled…

The Case for Unlimited Tablet Time for Toddlers

This sounds extreme, but first let me ask: how many parents do you think actually keep track of their kids’ screen time? If the TV is on but one of the children wanders out of the room, does that count? What if they’re following along to a yoga video? What if the kid borrows Mom’s…

Google Is Making a Porn-Proof Search and Other Kid-Friendly Products

As much as parents want to protect their kids, it’s damn near impossible today to totally block access to the internet. Google is moving forward with plans to create child-friendly versions of its most popular products to help kids under 12 go online safely. Google’s VP Engineering Pavni Diwanji, who leads the project, talked about…

Whipsnade Zoo Has A Baby Elephant With The Tiniest Little Trunk

After a 22 month long gestation period, an elephant at the ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in England gave birth to the most adorable baby boy ever. The gestation period is so long, in part, so that the infant can do things like walk around on its own almost as soon as its born. The birth, according…

How to Build a Breast Pump That Doesn’t Suck

On Sunday afternoon 10 harried but happy teams of hackers shared their inventions in Shark Tank-style five-minute presentations. The goal? To reinvent a clunky necessity of modern parenting: the breast pump. Engineers, healthcare workers, students, moms, and lots of babies gathered at the MIT Media Lab hackathon to tackle this sticky problem. The vibe was…

This Secret Treasure Room May Be The Best Birthday Present Of All Time

When Sarah Goer and her husband discovered a disused storage space attached to their son’s room, they decided to convert it into a Secret Treasure Room. For years, they concealed the room’s entrance with a dresser, waiting for the perfect moment – their son’s fourth birthday – to reveal its existence. Here, Sarah describes how…

Hero Dad Builds An Amazing Interactive Spaceship For His Son’s Bedroom

MAKE Magazine’s Jeff Highsmith wanted to build his 4-year-old son an interactive model of an Apollo spacecraft. The result was the surprisingly complex play area seen here – but to really appreciate the thought and effort that went into this project, you really must watch the making-of video. Seriously, this’ll blow you away. Here’s Highsmith:…

This Newborn Seal Pup Was Kidnapped Before Even Exiting The Birth Canal

In this slightly uncomfortable video captured by Earth Touch, watch a female fur seal give birth near Capetown, South Africa. And then watch another female kidnap the infant pup before it’s even left the birth canal. Fair warning: the video is fascinating but not for the squeamish. So, let me get this straight: first the…

Dad saves a kid from getting hit by becoming faster than a superhero

Old man strength. The ability to fix anything broken inside the house. The impeccable sense of direction. The never ending wallet. Dads are basically real life superheroes. Especially this dad, who probably activated the secret powerful dad mode God code you get when you become a father that made him instantly realize the trajectory the…

Seeing this dad’s Saturday mornings will convince you to not have kids

Enjoy peace and quiet? Like it when you get to unwind? Maybe you look forward to a weekend filled with nothingness. If you have kids, all that alone time gets replaced with blaring pop music wondering what certain animals sound like and dolls getting smashed on your shoulder. Every damn day. What a wonderful trade…

Awesome dad builds giant luge track in his backyard for his family

When life gives you snow, don’t just make a snowman. Make a giant luge track in your backyard for the whole family! A Dad in Minnesota does that every year to have some fun with winter and the track is pretty impressive with great slopes, windy turns and expertly designed snowbanks. Just look at his…

What happens if you gender-swap characters when reading to your kids?

If you switch the genders of characters around while reading to your kids, do they get confused? Or do they just take it for granted that Tolkien was writing The Hobbit about a girl named Bilbo? Image by Lanimalu. Over at Last Word on Nothing, Michelle Nijhuis explains what she did to change The Hobbit…

Fantastic parents convince their kids that toy dinosaurs are real

Kids will believe anything so why not let them imagine and wonder and dream and believe in magic? We all have to become semi-responsible, half functioning adults some day so let kids be kids, right? Refe Tuma and his wife certainly think so. Every November, Refe and his wife try and convince their kids that…

Swedish Kids Say their Parents Are Too Tech-Obsessed

In a recent study, 33% of Swedish parents surveyed (521 total) admitted that their phone and tablet use was a sore point with their kids. The children said that their parents spend too much time on the devices. And experts are weighing in about the developmental damage this could cause. The study results also indicated…

Lovely Mom Draws Awesome Pictures on Napkins for Her Son’s Lunch

If you didn’t know, Mother’s day is a few weeks away (May 12th this year) so it’s a pretty good idea to tell your Mom you love her. Though you should do that everyday! Especially if you’re the sons of amazing Nina Levy. She turns regular ol’ lunch napkins into wonderful pieces of art. Just…