The Five Most Common Parenting Rules Today Versus 30 Years Ago
Are you a more laid-back parent than your own parents were? Someone talked to 1,000 people with kids under 16, and 1,000 parents with children over 30. Here are the top five old-school parenting rules we USED to enforce . . . 1. Respect your elders. 2. You don't always get everything you want. 3. Kids have to do chores. 4. You have to sit down and eat together as a family. 5. You have to behave, especially in public. Now here are the five most common parenting techniques today . . . 1. Positive reinforcement instead of punishing them for bad stuff. 2. Giving them room to learn from their mistakes. 3. Giving them space to be playful and silly. 73% of parents today say they try to be more playful than strict. 4. Doing your best to connect with them. That's compared to just 37% of older parents who said they tried to be "friends" with their kids. 5. Helping them identify their feelings and process them.
America Wants to Know These Five Things About Sunblock
Last month, Google Trends put out a list of the top five questions people had about sunburn cures. Now they did the same thing for SUNBLOCK. Here are the top five questions we've been Googling about sunscreen this summer . . . 1. How long does it last? If you're talking shelf life, three years. Or if you mean how often to reapply, it's every two hours. Especially if you're swimming. 2. How does sunscreen work? Some of the chemicals in it reflect UV rays, so they don't hit your skin. Other chemicals absorb them, so your skin doesn't. 3. Is sunscreen bad for you? There's been talk that a chemical called oxybenzone might cause cancer, but there's not a lot of solid proof yet. Harvard recently did a blog post that said stats linking it to cancer could be skewed. They say people who wear a lot of sunblock might have a higher risk of skin cancer, because they just spend more time in the sun. Not because sunscreen is causing it. 4. When was sunscreen invented? Chemists have been working on it since the '30s. A guy in Austria came up with one in 1938 that only had an SPF of two. Then we had SPF 15 by the '70s. And the first waterproof sunblock hit stores in 1977. 5. What's the best sunscreen? "Consumer Reports" does an annual ranking. This year's list includes the Walmart brand Equate Sport Lotion, with an SPF of 50. They also say Hawaiian Tropic's Sport Spray is good.
Do You Prefer Your Ice Cream in: A Cup, a Sugar Cone, a Cake Cone, or a Waffle Cone?
Ordering ice cream in the thick of summer at a busy ice cream shop can be a tense, high-pressure situation. Everyone gets distracted by all the flavors and then gets tripped up by the same question: What kind of cone do you want? A poll recently asked 6,500 American adults . . . and the old-fashioned cake cones didn't get much love. Only 8% prefer cake cones, while 32% want a waffle cone . . . and 16% want a sugar cone. 33% pass up the cones altogether to get a cup . . . and another 2% want "something else," like maybe a specialty cone.
26% of Thank Yous Are Insincere
The U.K. celebrates "Thank You Day" on July 4th . . . just as America is celebrating its Independence Day. So British researchers conducted a study on how and when we show our appreciation . . . and there are some interesting findings. For starters, the average adult will say "thank you" 207 times a month, which is roughly 6.8 times per day. That's a lot of gratitude . . . but some of it is FAKE. On average, 54 of those thank yous are insincere. That's 26% About a quarter of people surveyed think that's a problem . . . because genuine appreciation is "dying out." 33% said they'd still prefer to hear the words, even if the person is just saying "thank you" for the sake of it. And 55% of people claim they have become "more grateful" during the pandemic. (But 26% probably didn't mean it.)
Hero or Bad Dad? A Man Catches a Foul Ball Without Dropping His Baby or Spilling His Beer
I have either witnessed the greatest hero this country has ever seen, or a man who's such a horrible father, that his child should be taken from him immediately. Heck, maybe it's possible to be BOTH? At the Arizona Diamondbacks game on Sunday, a guy caught a foul ball with one hand, while holding his baby AND his beer in the other. He actually LET GO of the baby for a second to catch the ball, then snatched her back up after he caught it. And he barely spilled a drop of his beer.
Popular Songs Written About Celebrities
BuzzFeed released a list of popular songs that you might not have realized were written about celebrities. Here are a few surprising ones . . .
1. "Style", Taylor Swift . . . written about Harry Styles.
2. "Obsessed", Mariah Carey . . . a diss track to Eminem for claiming they dated.
3. "Heart-Shaped Box", Nirvana . . . Kurt Cobain wrote this about Courtney Love's lady parts.
4. "I Kissed A Girl", Katy Perry . . . inspired by a crush on Scarlett Johansson.
5. "Lovebug", Jonas Brothers . . . Nick Jonas wrote it about his relationship with Miley Cyrus.
6. "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over", Lenny Kravitz . . . written about his divorce from Lisa Bonet.
7. "Landslide", Fleetwood Mac . . . Stevie Nicks wrote it about her breakup with Lindsey Buckingham.
8. "Missing You", Diana Ross . . . Lionel Richie wrote it in tribute to Marvin Gaye who had passed away 5 months earlier.
9. "You've Got a Friend", Carole King . . . she wrote it for James Taylor in response to his song "Fire and Rain".
10. "I Need a Girl (Part One)", Diddy . . . partially about his breakup to Jennifer Lopez.
(Hit up BuzzFeed.com to see the complete list.)