A Philadelphia doctor found guilty of murdering three babies born alive in an abortion clinic serving low-income women agreed to two life sentences Tuesday, and was sentenced to a third Wednesday. Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, agreed to his sentences and waived his right to an appeal in order to avoid the possibility of being condemned to death. According to ABC News, prosecutors were seeking the death penalty, but because of Gosnell's advanced age it was deemed unlikely that he would live long enough for death penalty appeals which can last decades. According to Reuters, Gosnell was convicted of …

It has gotten more expensive to do most things in life, so we shouldn't be surprised that it has gotten more pricey to go to a high school prom. On average, parents and teens will spend $1,139 on prom this year. This is only a slight increase over last year but a 40 percent increase from the $807 average of 2011, according to a new Visa survey. The list of "needed" items can be endless: dress, tux, shoes (one pair formal and one for the dance?), corsages, limo, dinner, actual prom tickets and after-prom activities. "Prom is the new wedding," said Kit Yarrow, a consumer research psychologist, …

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that about 1 in 5 high-school-age boys in the USA and 11 percent of school-age children overall have received a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, more commonly referred to as ADHD. An estimated 6.4 million children ages 4 through 17 had received an ADHD diagnosis at some point in their lives, a 16 percent increase since 2007 and a 53 percent rise in the past decade, according to a March 31 New York Times article.  The majority of those said to have ADHD are prescribed medications such as Ritalin or Adderall. While…

Spring will be here soon, and with it, events like prom and graduation. Parents may be concerned about how students plan to travel to these events. Specifically, the concern is with “party buses.” What seems like a safe and fun alternative to driving can have some downsides that parents may not consider, according to Tonka CARES, the community coalition working to reduce illegal substance use among youth in the Minnetonka School District. “A lot of times students plan it and parents are sort of surprised in the moment, when prom is like two days away,” said Imogen Davis, Tonka CARES Director…

Most adoptive parents or those waiting to adopt, will likely tell stories of the long and sometimes difficult process they go through to bring a child home. According to BBC News, England's government is attempting to speed their own processes up and provide more support for adopting parents. Government officials want more adoptive parents to come forward to increase the number and speed of adoptions. According to the article, the number of children approved for adoption rose from 3,000 in 2010 to more than 4,000 in 2012, government figures show. But there are still about 4,000 in care …

We all remember some holiday traditions from when we were kids.  When I was a kid, one of my favorites was arguing with my brothers about who got to hang the beloved ornament on the tree. The "Mouse House," as we called it, was special because inside a mushroom was a family of mice, each doing their own thing. We would stick a lightbulb inside the house from a string of lights so you could see what was going on inside. I know, I know, that sounds pretty lame. But it's just one of those things that sticks with me. With all that's going on in the world right now, sometimes it's nice to take a …

Is it OK for parents to use GPS devices or phone apps to track their children? Advice columnist Amy Dickinson told a father this month she adamantly opposes such tracking: I am completely, totally and utterly opposed to installing tracking or monitoring technology on kids' devices without their knowledge. ... You cannot use technology to mitigate the work (or risks) of parenting. ... You should confirm their whereabouts the old-fashioned way—by getting to know their friends, calling other parents to verify plans, and by driving them from place to place and occasionally showing up early. But …

What do you do when your kid (or worse, someone else's) gives you a heaping helping of attitude? Maybe it's a three-year-old prodigy in the Art of Sass. An 11-year-old whose default reaction to any situation is to roll her eyes. Or a kid from seven to 17 who actually knows 100 times what you know about a given topic and doesn't mind flaunting it. What's the best course of action or reaction for a mature adult? Let it slide, or share a piece of your mind with the young whippersnapper? Answer our poll and leave your worst experiences or best advice in comments below!

Teachers in Chicago public schools and 350,000 students returned to class on Wednesday, after a seven-day teachers strike. On Tuesday, the union voted to call off the strike after negotiating a contract in that will secure them a double-digit salary increase over the next three years, including raises for cost of living while maintaining other increases for experience and advanced education, according to the Chicago Tribune. The union did not get the 30 percent base raise it wanted initially, but the group was happy with some of the other results: no merit pay, stopped more stringent …

Makeup, necklines and skirt lengths have sparked battles between daughters and their parents and principals for as long as teenagers have gone to school. While sophomores may have trouble pointing to Libya on a map or naming the Speaker of the House, I’ll bet they can recite verbatim their school’s policy on appropriate classroom attire. I went to Catholic school and remember teachers regularly measuring to the centimeter how high girls’ hemlines were above the knee. Dress code violations resulted in immediate detention or parental conference, but that didn’t stop girls from rolling their …

  Earlier this month, Samara Postuma wrote about how to shop for school supplies—and the potential nightmare that shopping trip can be. My daughter is 1. Her school supplies are food, so I've got that supply (mostly) covered. But my sister is a teacher in the Robbinsdale School District—and parent to two almost-teenage boys. ("We had an $800 grocery bill in one month this summer," she said last week. With a straight face.) As we began talking about school supplies, I learned a few things about the first day of school from one teacher out there for you. Something to think about beyond that …

For three years, Salt Lake City dad Craig Lasson had no idea why his son, Isaak, couldn't breathe. Doctor and after doctor prescribed antibiotics for what appeared to simply be another sinus infection. Boy, were they ever wrong. Turns out poor Isaak had a wheel-shaped Lego up his nose. The Lego, swaddled in a ball of fungus, had caused the 6 year-old problems eating, sleeping and breathing for three years until a new doctor finally discovered the tiny toy in his schnoz. When asked by the doctor whether he'd put anything in his nose recently, Isaak responded, "I put some spaghetti up there, …

Would you let your child forgo the traditional classroom and learn by computer instead? Lately, I've noticed a large amount of advertising for K-12 online school programs through MTS Minnesota Connections Academy and Minnesota Virtual Academy, among others. I decided to find out more. Minnesota public school students may enroll in a full-time online program or they may choose to take supplemental courses (taken in place of a course period during the regular school day). According to the Minnesota Department of Education, all online courses offered through certified programs are: Taught by …

The cities of Maple Grove and Lakeville recently held festivals. In Lakeville, it was Pan-O-Prog; in Maple Grove, it was Maple Grove Days. Each town hosted a "Diaper Derby" or "Crawl-a-Thon" as part of the festivities. The Star Tribune recently covered a baby race during Kaposia Days in South St. Paul. Let's be honest, a crowd of crawling babies is pretty much the cutest thing you'll ever see. So it's understandable why parents show up and why photographers click away. But is it healthy? I seriously doubt the babies are getting anything from it, except maybe a ribbon to nibble on. So clearly …

Whiz, boom. Ooh, ahh. Yawn.  As we age, we tire of fireworks. But it takes a few decades, and most kids are not there yet. So we pack a blanket or a sheet to sit on and head for another fireworks show, whether at a festival or for the Fourth. Even if we're bored, the kids aren't. What is the line between teaching kids your values, and letting dislikes or "been-there-done-that" restrict the richness of their young lives? Take Disneyland and Disneyworld. Maybe they don't have quite the pull they did when I was a kid. But I got to go to each one once during visits to cousins in California and …

Sunday is Father’s Day– a great day to celebrate the bond you have with your dad and shower him with gifts and attention. But, are fathers being cheated? First of all, Mother’s Day comes first in the calendar year, and dads are left with a seemingly secondary holiday. Mother’s Day is known as the biggest holiday for cards and a big day for flower sales. So what’s left for dads? A big retail surge of ties and grill utensils? Congress declared the second Sunday in May as National Mother’s Day in 1914. Richard Nixon declared the third Sunday in June as National Father’s Day 58 years later. What …

Understanding I risk putting words in someone’s mouth, I’d like to have a chat with the Class of 2012 on behalf of parents everywhere. I’ll be brief. Most of us would give extremities to be in your position. Young, talented, ambitious, energetic, brave and with no strings tying you down. We understand you’re excited. We were too what seems like not so long ago. That’s why we want you to slow down and enjoy every minute of this precious time in your life. Before you embark on whatever adventure the world has in store for you, savor the small things that we promise you’ll come to miss one day. …

Would you drink raw milk or give it to your kids or others? People who say yes have been running into government regulation and law enforcement in Minnesota lately. They include a Richfield mother who got a stern letter from the state Department of Agriculture (see first YouTube video), and two farmers who are facing charges, as reported in the Star Tribune.  I'm a past customer of one of the farmers, though it wasn't raw milk I bought. Michael Hartmann's farm in Gibbon, MN, in the 1990s distributed pasteurized organic milk called under the Minnesota Organic Milk (or M.O.M.'s) brand name. …

A couple weeks ago, our Parents Talk discussion was on creepy kids toys. Many agreed that a clown, anything having to do with a clown or anything resembling a clown was straight up creepy. Well, an actor in the Swiss city of Lucerne has set himself up as the "evil" birthday clown. According to the Huffington Post and the Austrian Times, for a fee, parents can hire this psychotic clown—played by actor Dominic Deville—to leave menacing, booby-trapped letters for their children. He will also tease through text messages and phone calls. Deville warns the children they are being watched and that …

The son of one of my friends killed himself last week. My friend found him. When I heard that on Monday, I had a rush of emotions: disbelief, despair and anger. Five days earlier, I read a story about a woman whose son, Dustin, committed suicide in fall 2011. The story was by Mike Schoemer, St. Michael Patch local editor. At the time I read the St. Michael story, I felt a tremendous amount of empathy for Dustin's mother, Gretchen Harrington. But it wasn't until I heard about the death of my friend's son that I felt some of the anguish of a suicide survivor. I cried for my friend, who came …