250 Kids Die in Harsh Peru Winter

Kids stress us out—but we still find them rewarding

(NEWSER) - Ask parents if their children make them happy and they’ll likely say yes. So why does almost every study on the subject show that having children tends to make people less happy—and that, in fact, many parents love their kids but hate parenting? In an extensive New York article , Jennifer Senior explores how parenting, and Americans’ reasons for having children, have changed over the decades. More»

Singer-songwriter welcomed elder child in 2007

(NEWSER) - Sheryl Crow has adopted a baby son. "I have some exciting news to share with you guys," the singer-songwriter announced on her website. "Wyatt has a new little brother!" Wyatt is the child Crow adopted in 2007, notes PopEater . The new addition is 5-week-old Levi James. More»

Forget about the Ramones education and teach manners instead

(NEWSER) - David Hochman tackles the question surely foremost on every parent’s mind: “Am I raising a douchebag?” Sure, you want your kid to be hip, and you might think it’s cute when your offspring “can tell which Ramone is Dee Dee and which one is Joey.” But beware: The signs of impending jerkishness may start small. An assessment of an 8th birthday party as “unbelievably lame,” for example, or a declaration that “these taquitos taste like turd,” he writes in Details . More»

(NEWSER) - Get the most out of your shorts and flip-flops now, because the area between the Appalachians and the Rockies is in for a brutal winter, the Farmers' Almanac warns. "The middle part of the country's really going to be cold—very, very cold, very, very frigid, with a lot of snow," the venerable publication's managing editor tells the AP. "On the East and West coasts, it's going to be a little milder." More»

(NEWSER) - Diarrhea kills 1.6 million children under 5 every year—more than AIDS or malaria—and gets a fraction of the funding. But a deceptively simple new treatment may mark a breakthrough, Time reports. Zinc supplements appear to dramatically decrease diarrhea-related deaths—one afflicted village in Mali hasn’t had a single death since the pills arrived. Zinc “has totally taken off,” a researcher says. “It looks like real medicine and is not given out for free.” More»