Having just participated in the vote declaring the United States independent of Great Britain, John Adams wrote his wife Abigail in 1776, predicting that July day "will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival ... with pomp and parade; with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other."
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Boys at the top of the pecking order -- either by birth or because their older siblings died -- score higher on IQ tests than their younger brothers.
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I've made a lot of bad rules in the decade I've been a mom, from irrational threats ("No graham crackers in the house ever again if you eat them in the living room even one more time") to forbidding human nature ("You may not fight with your sister"). But occasionally I've come up with rules that work better than I'd ever contemplated. These made-up rules have an internal logic that defies easy categorization, but their clarity and enforceability make them work. Several of them are not, technically, rules at all, but declarations of policy or fact. And they're all easy to remember. A few personal favorites, plus those of other moms:
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Two-thirds of parents said they are very concerned about sex and violence the nation's children are exposed to in the media, and there would be broad support for new federal limits on such material on television, said a survey released Tuesday.
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