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 You know what my sisters and I did to entertain ourselves when

we were kids? We played with used syringes we found in the dumpster behind the hospital. And that was on a good day. When there were no syringes we played with the cinder blocks holding up our trailer.

I mean, no offense to my parents – I just grew up in the '70s. And in the '70s people didn't worry about things like “rules” or “death.” Used syringes were on every kid's birthday wish list. At least that's what my Mom told me each year as I opened my presents.

On Saturday, shrouded in the post-coital glow of a late-night Cardinals win, I took my three little girls to the October Owls and Orchids event at the Butterfly House.

When I was little, if you would have taken me to a dome filled with beautiful flowers and butterflies... well I would have just pooped kittens right there on the spot.

Any mom who has breastfed knows that, well, it's not as easy as it looks. In the earliest stages there can be problems with your baby latching on. It takes an enormous time commitment (on top of everything that is new parenthood). It's difficult to breastfeed if you are going back to work (you'll have to pump, and some workplaces still don't have adequate facilities for pumping moms). And you likely won't sleep for more than three hours at a time for as long as you're doing it.

And those are just the practical concerns. Add in society's seemingly endless enthusiasm for judging new and seasoned moms for breastfeeding in public, and you've got the potential for causing some serious pearl-clutching, even if you don't end up on the cover of a national magazine because you dare to breastfeed your toddler, or make headlines because, horror of horrors, you fed your hungry baby in public.

But given all of this, breastfeeding moms are a resilient bunch, and that's a good thing. The rewards of nursing to mom and baby are significant.

To get our little ones to eat healthier, parents pull out all the stops in encouraging kids to make better food choices.

During the Olympics, one of the biggest controversies besides McKayla Maroney’s “not impressed” smirk and Usain Bolt’s legendary status claim was the first commercial from Ragu’s “Long Day of Childhood” campaign. You know the one – the ad in which an eight-year-old finds solace in a bowl of spaghetti after walking in on his parents performing their own mattress Olympics.

The spot stirred up a bowlful of controversy for Ragu. I for one was highly, highly offended by the ad. Mostly because everyone knows jarred spaghetti sauce isn’t the solution to a problem. Gin and Haagen-Dazs is the recommended dinner for drowning your sorrows.

Futhermore,