Parenting

Why Jenny McCarthy Doesn’t Matter

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The former Playmate is posing nude again for Playboy. Will McCarthy’s fee bolster the cause of Generation Rescue, her autism research organization that rejects vaccines as dangerous?

Are Vaccines Safe? A Major Media Outlet’s Specious Story Fans the Debate

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The Learning Channel’s website yanked a story that was riddled with mistruths and flat-out errors — but only after major medical organizations complained.

Are Your Kids Safe Alone at the Park?

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Lenore Skenazy, an advocate of “free-range parenting” is proclaiming Saturday a self-declared international holiday: “Take Our Children to the Park…And Leave Them There Day.”

Report: U.S. Is the 25th Best Country to Be a Mom

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Just in time for Mother’s Day, the annual State of the World’s Mothers Report from the Save the Children foundation offers some hopeful news for American mothers: the U.S. moved up six spots in the ranking of the best countries in which to be a mom, to 25th place from 31st last year.

Meet Dr. Bill Sears, the Man Who Remade Motherhood

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Sears, the father of attachment parenting, has converted hundreds of thousands of followers. But are some mothers taking his advice too far?

Q&A with Breast-Feeding Mom Jamie Lynne Grumet

Martin Schoeller for TIME

A conversation with the woman on TIME’s May 21 cover

Why Maurice Sendak Insisted He Didn’t Write for Children

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The famed author and illustrator — who died Tuesday — was among the first writers to capture the intense emotions of childhood, drawing heavily on imaginary worlds. Why, he wondered, do adults stop playing make-believe?

My Sister, My Surrogate: After Battling Cancer, One Woman Receives the Ultimate Mother’s Day Gift

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Melissa Brown survived breast cancer at 26. Advised not to get pregnant afterward, she accepted with joy and trepidation her sister’s offer to be her gestational surrogate.

Dying Mom with Cancer Makes Final Effort to Stay with Her Kids

Michelle Hanavan Photography

Alaina Giordano, the mother with breast cancer who has been fighting a public battle for custody of her children, is on the verge of entering hospice. She is asking her estranged husband to allow their children to relocate with her to Pennsylvania, where her extended family lives.

Why Kids and Tanning Salons Don’t Mix

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Vermont and California are the only two states that ban kids under 18 from using tanning salons. Is it time for more states to follow their lead?