Jessica Alba 'Psyched' About Giving Birth

Exotic Pin-up/Actress Endorses Hypnosis During Labor

By A. Scott Walton
Apparently, the alluring Jessica Alba doesn't give a flip about the public's perception of her second pregnancy.
Alba and her husband, Cash Warren, are expecting the birth of a sibling for their two-year-daughter, Honor. And the screen siren has spoken openly about how her current pregnancy makes her crave "cheeseburgers, watermelon and pickles".
At some points, she's appeared irked by stalking paparazzi who've followed every phase of her gestation. At others, she's basked in the red carpet attention.
And she's had no qualms about appearing on resort beaches wearing bikinis that put her baby bump on full display.
Most recently, Alba revealed to Us Weekly that she's newly committed to the "hypnobirthing" technique; otherwise known as the Mongan Method.
According to HypnoBirthing.com, the technique dates back centuries and eases the anxiety, pain and fear associated with childbirth.
"What (birth mothers) experience is similar to the daydreaming, or focusing, that occurs when you are engrossed in a book or a movie or staring into a fire," the web site insists.
As Alba enthused to Us Weekly: "It just makes you chill."
"I was freaked out going into my first time going into labor," Alba added. "Like what if I panick? What if I just freak out and I don't know what to do?"
Alba's birth-process revelation was quickly followed in the tabloids by news that former Spice Girl-turned-fashion icon, Victoria Beckham, has already scheduled an Independence Day C-Section procedure in Los Angeles for the birth of her fourth child with soccer star, David Beckham.
This raises a question for expectant mothers worldwide: Is it better to go under the knife, under hypnosis or go au naturale when it comes to giving birth?

Tears of 'Oy!' as Collegians Come Home

Parents Brace for Loads of Laundry, Attitude and Drama

By A. Scott Walton

Attention: all parents waking up to the harsh realization that the party's over now that your collegiate offspring are returning home for the summer (or longer). You are not alone.
Just when you were accustomed to the quiet, the new hobbies or getting your sexy back, here they come. And, according to a new Washington Post report, your kids' neediness and proclivity to childish antics, messiness and outbursts may not have been cured by their months away at college.
It's an ordeal that requires a serious "reality check" according to the parenting consultant/author, Karen Levin Coburn, quoted in the piece.
There are new boundaries to set. And new priorities to establish.
The key to peaceful co-existence while the kids are home from college, Coburn suggests, is realizing how a secure sense of place is what many scholars on summer break truly seek.
“They expect their parents to be totally supportive of their changes — maybe the kid who used to only eat burgers has gone vegan, or cut off all her hair. But they really don’t want their parents to change at all,” she said. “They want things to be just as they were when they left.”
So maybe they're not ingrates invading their empty-nest space after all.
Maybe they just need a hug.

Grandparents Crossing "Digital Divide" To Stay in Touch

Social Media Make Distance in Age and Location Non-Factors

By A. Scott Walton

Did you know there’s actually a Hall of Fame for the "Best Advertising Slogans of All Time"?
Well, it’s true.
And a recent Wall Street Journal report on novel ways grandparents are using to re-connect with their off-springs’ children indicates that AT & T would be smart to revive its “Reach Out and Touch Someone” campaign from 1979.
The story – cleverly headlined, “OMG! My Grandparents R My BFF!" – spins uplifting tales of how the disconnect many grandparents have felt since their kids moved away and started their own families is increasingly being soothed by such applications as Facebook, Twitter, Skype and unlimited text-messaging services.
Retirees are sharing photos and videos of their “Golden Years” activities, and “gathering” for holidays with their grand kids in cyber-space. Teenagers are Tweeting to their grandparents about classroom concerns and growing pangs; bypassing mom and dad in the process.
Some suggest that the current fascination with high-tech devices and networks has made human interaction more fragmented and impersonal.
But what’s the harm in discovering and optimizing the most convenient and inexpensive means available to reach out and show you care?

DEAR, BOTOX MOM. JUST PUCKER UP AND BLOW!

TV viewers sound the alarm after witnessing injections

By a. Scott Walton
Here’s your reward, "Kerry Campbell", for being such a pathetic parent that you would inject a child’s lips with Botox to help her win beauty contests, and then have the gall to rationalize why you did it on national TV.
You win a quick trip to child custody court if you ever want to see your precious daughter "Britney" any time soon.
Thanks to mounting public outcry after the Campbell’s appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America”, and the mom exposed how and why she performs lip-plumping on her 8-year-old, San Francisco’s Human Services Agency reportedly stepped in to rescue the child from further potential harm.
Major questions loom before mother and child are re-united. Reportedly, the Campbells may have actually appeared on “GMA” under assumed names. And the actual location of where they live is under investigation.
Regardless of how this tabloid tale plays out, it should aptly be referred to as “Beauty and the Beast”.

ARNOLD AND MARIA: SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION

Used-up action hero flops as a faithful father figure
By A. Scott Walton

1ST DEGREE: Having a baby out of wedlock.
2nd DEGREE: Having a baby out of wedlock with one of your employees.
3rd DEGREE: Having a baby out of wedlock with one of your employees, while married to someone else.
4th DEGREE: Having a baby out of wedlock with one of your employees, while married to someone else and putting your nuclear family (a wife and four kids) through the media intensity of your two terms as Governor.
5th DEGREE: Having a baby out of wedlock with one of your employees, while married to someone else and putting your nuclear family (a wife and four kids) through the media intensity of your two terms as Governor; AND keeping your “baby mama” on the payroll for ten years.
6th DEGREE: Delivering the lousiest 25th wedding anniversary present known to mankind.
No, after 25 years of marriage, Maria Shriver won’t be standing by her he-man now that’s been revealed he fathered a child by a domestic worker in 2001. She’s walked away from former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and has not said, “I’ll be back.”
Who can blame her?
Once Shriver vs. Schwarzenegger goes through divorce court and the results of the settlement leak out, we’ll see who the real “Terminator” is.

As Adoption Rates Dip, Atlanta Agency Steps in to Reduce Qualms

Organization Helps Adoptive Parents: MyFoxATLANTA.com

If you're among the relative few Americans currently considering adoption, there is help and information available to help you make the right decision.
And there is encouraging news out there about how responsible adults can transition out of foster care as well.
IF YOU HAVE HELPFUL THOUGHTS, COMMENTS OR RECOMMENDATIONS, FEEL FREE TO SHARE...

CNN's "Don't Fail Me" Special Pinpoints Problems in U.S. High Schools

By A. Scott Walton

Soledad O’Brien’s latest documentary for CNN depicts what occurs when some of America’s best and brightest high school students compete to build multi-functional robots for a national competition.
What “Don’t Fail Me: Education in America” doesn’t show explicitly is how poorly “above average” American teens would fair in a similar contest against kids their age from China, India or Scandinavia.
But statistics spell out the likely outcome: since American high school students ranked 17th in science knowledge among 34 industrialized nations, and 25th in math, the results would be crushing.
“Don’t Fail Me”, which premieres Sunday, May 15 (8 p.m. ET) spotlights the glaring deficiencies in U.S. education that Xerox Corporation CEO, Ursula Burns, describes as a cause for domestic “panic”.
U.S. Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, that American kids are falling so far behind in math and science that foreigners are poised to claim millions of technology-oriented jobs in the U.S. very soon.
The special, which will re-air periodically, follows three teams of high school juniors and seniors from Tennessee, Arizona and New Jersey as they strive to prove their skills in robotics. Along the way, they must overcome isoloation and their parents’ apathy, cluelessness or expectations for over-achievement.
In each case, the featured students suffer disappointment and the itchy question, “What’s next?”.
On a positive note: CNN’s “Don’t Fail Me” special points out how dedicated and enthusiastic some U.S. teens are about making the best of all the educational opportunities available to them. But on the discouraging side, “Don’t Fail Me” spells out how few and far between such students are.