Betsy Hart's blog

By BETSY HART
Scripps Howard News Service
21-SEP-06

I've been taking note of how I interact with other people's kids for a few months now. Ever since Jeffrey Zaslow wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal, "Why Don't We Reprimand Other People's Children?"

My 7-year-old asked me this week, "Mom _ when are we going back-to-school shopping?" My answer: "We're not, you have enough clothes. We're done." She didn't seem too upset by this news.

It's not that I'm great at saying no to my kids (though yes, I confess I've written a book that talks in part about the importance of that very subject.) But I am getting better at it. I have to. There are four of them and one of me.

Late last week I was called by a national news program to discuss the Forbes.com story causing all the fuss, a column by Michael Noer which cautioned men: "Whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career."

· Thursday June 22, 2006 by Betsy Hart

By BETSY HART
Scripps Howard News Service
22-JUN-06

Recently I penned a column discussing whether women should initiate pursuit of a man. (Answer: No, if he wants you and is worth having he’ll pursue you.)

In the column, I referenced the relationship book “He’s Just Not That Into You,”? by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo. Here’s what a dear reader wrote to me, concerned about that reference:

By BETSY HART
Scripps Howard News Service
15-JUN-06

"Does Fatherhood Make You Happy?" Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert asks in Time magazine this week in anticipation of Father's Day on Sunday.

Gilbert eventually arrives (well, sort of) at the right answer: It's the wrong question to ask.

But it's the perfect question for our "all about me" culture. Isn't everything I do in life supposed to make "me" happy _ right now?

A few months ago I was put on antibiotics for a skin condition.

Okay, it's adult acne. My secret is out. Look, I absolutely refuse to deal with acne and wrinkles at the same time. I can take a pill for one of the conditions. This is not a difficult decision to make. Go figure.

Anyway, the first few rounds of the prescription I simply had filled without thinking about it. Why? Because my health insurance covered them. Who cared if it was close to $200 - yes, you heard right, $200 - for a 30-day spree of these little yellow pills. It was no skin off my nose - or pimple on my skin!

Here’s a recent cover story in the Chicago Sun-Times: “More Pregnant Women are Saying: Give Me the Drugs _ These Days, Laboring Moms Choose Epidurals to Cope With the Pain.”?

Gee, do ya think?

Sun-Times reporter Jim Ritter reveals that today only 6 percent of women in large hospitals, and 12 percent in small hospitals, now opt-for drug-free births. That’s down from 27 percent and 50 percent, respectively, as of 1981.

Now I get it.

More than once during summers past, I bemoaned the rise of the increasingly
“camped”? child. Especially when I lived on the East Coast, it seemed virtually
every little one I knew was permanently encamped at math camp, baseball camp,
computer camp, “my parents really need me to go to Harvard”? camp you name it.
It was as if no one sat around the neighborhood pool, read books, ate popsicles

ARRRRGH! Now the McCartneys?

I remember that great scene in "When Harry Met Sally." Harry describes to Sally some wild sexual fantasy he's had fulfilled in a dream. Then he asks Sally, his girl "friend" to describe her dream life. She says she has the same sexual dream all the time: She starts describing the scene and says something along the lines of "and then I just ripped off my clothes." Harry says. . . "yeah, yeah, and then?" She responds - that's it - it never gets any farther.

Two new studies out make me think researchers have a lot of extra time on their hands. The first, from the University of Michigan, says that if you want romance on a date, go to a movie — but choose the move carefully. One is, “surprisingly,”? a lot more likely to feel romantic after seeing a “chick flick”? like “The Bridges of Madison County”? than if you see “Godfather II.”? Gee, do ya think? Link below.