Last week’s state Supreme Court ruling — that both spouses in a lesbian marriage should be listed on a child’s birth certificate — wasn’t just the only legally logical way the court could have come down on the issue, although it is that. And please don’t write to tell me all about how babies [...]

When you are a child, the worst thing a parent can tell you is “Maybe later.” “Mom, will you play tea party with me?” “Maybe later.” “Dad, want to play Monopoly?” “Maybe later.” This popped into my mind as my kids asked me if we could bake Christmas cookies last week. Their homework wasn’t finished, [...]

  I  am fascinated by the letter war that’s erupted in response to a dad who says he was so opposed to Cedar Rapids’ speed cameras that he paid his daughter’s ticket when she got one on the condition that she stay away from downtown. It’s an odd eddy in the round-and-round we’ve had about [...]

  Two studies jolted our comfy complacency to its core today. The first bolt hit the journal “Pediatrics,” where a new study concludes that exposing 4-year-olds to even small doses of SpongeBob SquarePants can suck the smarts out of their little noggins like an animated Dyson. Somewhere, Squidward Tentacles is saying a big fat I [...]

Dads matter. That ought to go without saying. But despite the hard work of pro-father groups, this odd idea persists that if moms are the bedrock of our nation’s families, dads are the shifting sand. At first glance, the numbers would seem to support that bias. Today, one child in three doesn’t live with a [...]