Happy Mother’s Day to rational moms everywhere!

WE know we have it hard. Well, the research is now catching up to prove it. LiveScience.com posted 5 Scientific Reasons Mom Deserves Mother’s Day. Included here are some insightful findings based on recent scientific data. For example, moms today get less help and are expected to do more. Moms feel more pain. And, researchers have discovered that, although our genes come 50% from dad and 50% from mom, for some unknown reason mom’s genes have a more significant effect on the person you become.

One stark example: While you were in the uterus, if your mother had a very stressful experience, you’ll be at greater risk for anxiety disorders. And a new study on rats, out last month, indicates that your mother’s diet during pregnancy affected your genes.

More surprising, studies are showing that what your mother ate when she was a child, the toxins she was exposed to, and other experiences before and during pregnancy affect how the genes she passes on to you actually get expressed in your body.

Another study, reported this year in the journal Child Development, shows a profound impact of nurturing by mothers in the early years, too. A child who has a strong relationship with Mom during preschool years tends to form closer friendships in grade school, the research revealed.

So give yourself a pat on the back today, moms. You deserve it!

I love sugar. I really really love sugar. I generally think of dinner as something I have to endure to get to dessert. In March of this year I stared a monthly cookie/dessert exchange where my friends and I get together under the pretext of exchanging cookies/desserts and their recipes but it’s actually just an excuse to sit around with my friends, talk, laugh, and eat a lot of sugar.

After a particularly good Cookie Exchange I updated my Facebook status with “Jessie is loving the sugar high from Cookie Exchange this afternoon.” A couple of my friends commented on my status informing me that there is no such thing as a “sugar high”.

This seemed crazy to me, I thought it was common knowledge that eating a lot of sugar gives you a buzzed feeling and makes you hyper. Kids go crazy and run around like Tasmanian devils at birthday parties and holidays because of all the sugar, right? Wrong.

» Continue reading “The Myth of the “Sugar High””

Steven Levitt, of Freakonomics, gave a fascinating talk about car seats. Apparently, for kids over the age of two, car seats don’t really work much better than the regular old seat belts that are in our cars—free!

I’m a huge fan of Levitt, and getting to see him, in all his nerdly lispiness, is really a treat. This video also sums up for me what we’re trying to do here.

How much money do we need to spend as parents to make sure we’re doing our jobs right? How much do we trust agencies that tell us they are working for the protection of our children? How do we examine information from various sources to filter for the truth? How do we separate rumor from fact?

And most importantly, how much do we need to worry? I’d like it to be less. Or at the very least, I’d like to focus my worry on the right targets.

» Continue reading “Julie’s First Post: What Am I Doing Here?”