Yulia Petrova/Moment/Getty Images Middle school is a rough period of time — for both kids and their parents. It’s not always the actual school part that’s the problem; it’s that this chunk of age, from 11ish to 14ish, can feel like a rollercoaster (and not in a great way). There’s so much blossoming independence along with so much uncertainty, and when you mix in their entire peer group going through the same thing, situations are bound to get testy. But there are tons of moms who have been where you are right now, and they have the best middle school...
The Presidential Fitness Test Is Back: Time To Fake Some Period Cramps
StockPlanets/E+/Getty Images Ahhhhh! Oh. Sorry. I was just having this terrible nightmare where my middle school gym teacher was yelling at me to run faster during the one-mile run as I asthmatically struggled to breathe and all my classmates laughed at me. You remember the Presidential Fitness Test, right? That week or so in gym class where the social hierarchy was cemented for another year as the athletic, popular kids excelled and the other kids could, at best, hope to impress during the sit-and-reach? That was awful. Thank goodness Obama got rid of it in 2012 and it can never...
Vaccine Exemptions For Kindergarteners Reach New High According to CDC
Jackyenjoyphotography/Moment/Getty Images Traditionally, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) release vaccination rates for last year’s kindergarteners in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, its chief publication. But this week, in a perhaps unsurprising break with tradition, the agency — under the auspices of noted vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy — the data was quietly released online, with no fanfare. Moreover, the statistics reveal that vaccine exemption rates for 2024-2025 kindergarteners rose to an all-time high — more than 4% on average, though that number varies wildly depending on the state. First, some good news: an overwhelming majority of parents are...
Beyonce Showed Us Moms Can Have It All
Raven Varona via PictureGroup/Shutterstock When I took my seat for the last night of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour — sisters and nieces in tow, ass hanging out like a good Beyhive member — I was thinking about motherhood. After all, this is the tour that heavily featured the star’s own 13-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, and the album that contains both a moving lullaby (“Protector”) and a cover of an iconic song about being cheated on that many speculate is sung from the perspective of Beyoncé’s own mother. But as I spilled out onto the hot Vegas concrete three hours later...