Do you think I should get you a Valentine?

I'm going to be seriously upset if you spend money on roses that die and please remember I hate the creams. In fact we don't need chocolate, there's still some from Christmas.

I was talking to her not you, my sweet husband pointed to our six-year-old daughter, Ainsley.

What?

You got a laptop and we're going to dinner. You're not getting me anything are you?

Do you want me to?

No.

Actually, I like to get roses and I would love more chocolate, Daddy. I'll make you a card. How come I can't go to dinner?

You get all those cards from your friends at school. Valentine's is for Mommy and Daddy to go to dinner. You get to go to Nana's

But, I want to be your valentine.

Okay, Daddy can be your valentine. Zack will you be my Valentine?

Mama!

Isn't it romantic?

Check out this worthy article, Marry Him, in The Atlantic by Lori Gottlieb. She makes the case for settling for Mr. Good Enough.

From Ms. Good Enough to Mr. Good Enough - Happy Valentine's Day!

To understand where we're going it's helpful to understand where we've been. Check out this flickr photoset called Mom's World. It's a photo-essay of a woman, Dotty, in the 1950s who documented her life. It's beautiful and fascinating.

Watch it with your daughter, she'll be equally transfixed.

I'm running a contest over at BlogFabulous to give away one hardback copy of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61), by Eckharty Tolle.

This is the book Oprah's teaching her online course on beginnning March 3. Leave a comment on the entry to enter. Winner will be drawn out of a hat and announced on Monday morning.

by Tracee Sioux

About a year ago I took a stance that all girls should have access to the HPV (human papillomavirus virus) in my article HPV Vaccine, Right of All Girls To Health.

While I stand by my original logic, I've come across two bits of information that have me reconsidering the benefits of such a vaccine.

Did you see Christiane Northrup, the OB/GYN author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing on Oprah?

Northrup expressed that no one has conclusively proven that cervical cancer is caused by HPV, the virus that causes venereal warts.

From the interview, which can be found on Oprah.com.

"That vaccine is of great interest to me because there are over 100 different HPV types and this vaccine only targets four of them, and although they are associated with cervical cancer, nobody has ever proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that HPV is the cause of cervical cancer, Northrup said.

Dr. Northrup says only 3,500 women a year die of cervical cancer. "And the number decreases every year, so we're doing very well with Pap smears and other screening tests. So you should keep having those," she said.

But Dr. Northrup has some apprehension about the vaccine itself. "I'm very concerned about vaccinating girls 9 and over, every single one of them, with two vaccines," she says. "And I'm a little against my own profession. My own profession feels that everyone should be vaccinated."

Dr. Northrup would rather see the attention HPV is receiving directed elsewhere. "You see HPV associated with abnormal Pap smears in women who are on immunosuppressant drugs who have had kidney transplants or who have HIV disease. So it seems that that virus is associated with cancer in those whose immune system is already depressed, you see. So it's like a marker for a depressed immune system. Where I'd put my money is getting everybody on a dietary program that would enhance their immunity, and then they would be able to resist that sort of thing."

The other issue that got me thinking is the research I recently did on Precocious Puberty.

Something is amiss when an entire generation of girls are maturing earlier than all the generations of women before them. We don't know if early maturation is going to effect our girls post-puberty, into pregnancy, lactation and menopause.

Perhaps until we discover what factor, whether hormonal, social, environmental or chemical, is causing girls to develop early, we should add as few unknown substances to their little bodies as possible.

I am sick to death of inappropriate commercials popping up during family or kids programing.

Here's the thing - We're a captive audience during commercials. I shouldn't have to spend so much time hollering "Ainsley close your eyes!" while watching television.

The FCC is a literal joke. They will take zero action ever. Well, they'll fine Janet Jackson for someone else ripping off her top on national television - but that's it.

In a letter responding to my complaint of a commercial of violence of a sexual nature so disgusting it turned my stomach the FCC responded that "each network was responsible for the content of their own commercials."

Essentially the government agency we've assigned to make sure nothing lewd gets shot across the airwaves to pollute my or my children's brain has decided the entertainment industry is allowed to show whatever they like during commercials.

Who made that stupid rule?

That's got to change. Which brings us to a group, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which is trying to take action with the film industry which seems to violate age-appropriate whenever possible.

From the press release: Led by CCFC, a coalition of twenty-one advocacy groups is demanding that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) comply with the Federal Trade Commission's recent recommendation for explicit restrictions on the marketing of PG-13 films to young children.

In a letter sent last week to MPAA CEO Dan Glickman, CCFC urged the MPAA to develop a policy that would restrict the advertising of PG-13 films on children's television; prohibit restaurant toy giveaways or other food promotions aimed at young children for PG-13 movies; and insure that any toys released in conjunction with a film carry an age recommendation consistent with the film's rating.

This past summer, CCFC filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission that Transformers - rated PG-13 for "intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language - was being marketed extensively to preschool children through television advertising, food promotions and licensed toys. Last week, the FTC acted on CCFC's complaint by urging the MPAA to adopt guidelines for the marketing of PG-13 movies.

“Transformers is just one of a string of violent, PG-13 movies marketed to preschoolers,” said CCFC’s co-founder and director, Dr. Susan Linn. “For too long, the film industry has undermined its own rating system by bypassing parents to target young children directly with marketing for films that the industry itself has determined warrant parental caution.”

“Transformers is just one of a string of violent, PG-13 movies marketed to preschoolers,” said CCFC’s co-founder and director, Dr. Susan Linn. “For too long, the film industry has undermined its own rating system by bypassing parents to target young children directly with marketing for films that the industry itself has determined warrant parental caution.”

It's enough already. The CCFC does not accept corporate funding, but relies on donations if you're looking for a worthy cuase.

For more on my experience with the FCC read Misogynistic Violence for Breakfast.

by Tracee Sioux

Have you seen that show Honey We're Killing the Kids? The show you a family with terrible eating habits, fast forward what they'll look like when they're 40 and predict their life expectancy?

Of course they pick families with such terrible habits you can walk away feeling like you're doing a super parenting job just because you introduced fruit.

For a better indication of how you're doing you can take the RealAge Healthy Kids Test. Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Michael Roizen you know, from Oprah and YOU: The Owner's Manual: An Insider's Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger have put together a Healthy Kid quiz. You can enter your kids' nutritional information, exercise habits, computer and television screen time, academic and social exposure and it will give you a score between 1 and 10.

It will also tell you how old your child will feel when they are 30 if they keep up the habits you're teaching them. For instance, When Ainsley is 34 she'll feel only 30 if she keeps her current habits through her lifetime.

It will then give you advice on where you need to make improvements. Ainsley got an 8 which put us above average in the kids' health department. (Zack got a perfect 10, I wonder why when most of my answers were the same?)

We need to work on flossing and visiting the dentist, having more dinners together, swim lessons and stress management to improve our score.