Do you live in a place where the happiest mothers are supposed to be?

How easy or difficult is it to measure a mother’s happiness?  Can you even quantify this? Apparently, an NGO foundation, Save The Children, has done this and has released the  2011 World Mother Index. The results are astounding.

From the study, it says that  the happiest moms are said to live in the following places:

• Norway
• Australia
• Iceland
• Sweden
• Denmark
• New Zealand
• Finland
• Belgium
• The Netherlands
• France

Norway ranks the highest based on factors like the following:

• Highest income ratio between male and female
• Highest contraceptive prevalence rate
• Low infant mortality
• Good maternity leave policies

Because of the current economic conditions and high birth related rates among its counterpart, the US ranked 31 in this list. The United Kingdom is at number 13 while Canada is at 30th.

In contrast, while many European countries belong to the Top 10, the bottom ten includes countries from places where hardships and violence towards women are very rampant and obvious:

• Afghanistan
• Niger
• Guinea-Bissau
• Yemen
• Chad
• DR Congo
• Eritrea
• Mali
• Sudan
• Central African Republic

To learn more about other countries’ ranking, you can download the PDF files here.

According to Save the Children, there were 164 countries included in the rankings. Exceptions only mattered where there exists a population of less than 250,000 people. This, I think is a good indication of the current state of women all over the world and would be very useful to a lot of countries.

Belated Happy Mother’s Day from Tykecoons!

There are a lot of mothers with really young and curious kids who have given up wearing jewelry because of the safety hazards it carry. With a baby in tow, they can easily grab and eat the necklace or bangle the mother is wearing and this will definitely choke the child or worse, suffocate him to death.

I’m not sure if you will find this idea good or bad… but I wonder what other parents think of this collection of non-toxic jewelry from Chewbeads.

It has literally created beads that kids can chew on, without their parents having to worry about choking, for one thing. Yes, these are literally edible accessories created by a mother who had that dilemma.

The accessories are made of non-toxic and soft, edible material. Not quite sure if it has any sweet taste to it, but I’m betting it’s the same for when toddlers chew on those teethers. By the way, this is also made of BPA-free, 100% silicon material…and you can clean it in a dishwasher.

Chewable accessories….For mothers with young kids who want to grab and put anything they find in their mouth, does this sound like a brilliant idea to you? Or would you keep NOT wearing jewelry while the baby is still in its grabby phase?

The collection comes in affordable prices, between $11 to $30, which isn’t at all bad. The other thing I’m not sure about is the way it fits into a mom’s fashion style, though. The colors are very light and dainty…not all moms like that, right?

After you have a baby, especially a first child, life becomes busy in ways most never dream of.  There isn’t much time to do much else than taking care of your newborn and their needs.  Especially during those first few months, it is almost impossible to keep in touch with friends.

However, even after life settles back down into a more comfortable routine keeping in touch with friends still may be placed on the back burner.  There are a million and one excuses, and it does happens but picking up that telephone and calling can have some great benefits for you.

Even though you may other things that seems to take over the forefront in your mind, making some time to catch up and get together with good friends can really make a lot of difference in how you feel.  While even if your own parenthood status among your friends is more unique, and have more childless friends, call them and just catch up.

Be assured that while your friends love you and your child, and may ask some questions about your child try not to overload them with all the little details.  While it is tempting, and we have all been there more than likely your friends are more interested in hearing other news about you.  Especially if it has been a while since you last talked.  Sure, that potty training is really exciting, but generally speaking you friends more than likely don’t need (or want) all the details.

That’s not to say you should put a complete ban on talking about your child (or children), but keep it minimal.  While it may be assuring that your friends will more than likely one day have kids of their own, and eventually understand the want to talk about them, now try to keep the baby talk minimal.

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Image via CrunchBase

It’s true that we all handle our emotions differently, the backlash faced by this mom over Twitter is astounding.  While many of her detractors have let up, others won’t.  They blame her for the death of her son, who had fallen into a pool he had drowned.

The other day I wrote about a family who was trying to make something good out of a horrible tragedy. 

Due to what this mom is going through right now, I’m not writing out the handle.  Obviously, if one is inclined it’s easy enough to find anyway. The blogosphere is taking the story and running with it, for better or worse.  While many are taking the side of the mother in question, others are being outright ruthless.

Many people have a support network online, and it can be the only place some can turn with their problems.  While this case is an extreme one, it shows that both social reaction and technology doesn’t seem to be running at the same pace. 

While many bloggers may turn to their audience with problems and concerns, not everyone finds that an appropriate place to vent.  While many are simply writing about a bad day at work, or maybe forgetting some mundane thing at the store, this case features a real mom with very real pain. 

It’s obvious that not everyone was receptive.  Perhaps in part due to the initial tweet that had made the accident sound as if she was writing it before doing anything, or maybe people are just cruel.

What is your view?  Should this woman have ‘expected’ this type of backlash?  Or are some just taking this to extremes?

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Donovan O'Neill with his family

It’s not too difficult to feel bad for this dad. He did what many, many parents have to do- bring a child of the opposite gender to the bathroom.

Unfortunately for Donovan O’Neil, three security guards apparently didn’t take kindly to him bringing his daughters (ages one and three) to the bathroom at all.

The department of Social Services in their area doesn’t have a family bathroom. At age three, most kids after saying they have to go potty it means you have about five seconds to find one (at least in my experience).  So, naturally  due to his wife being busy he took his daughters to the restroom.

“He banged on the (stall) door like he was a cop,” said Donovan O’Neil. “He was just really inappropriate about it.”

The scene that occurred Friday morning turned ugly, O’Neil said, when the guard reprimanded him outside the bathroom in front of a crowd.

“We would just like an apology, that is all,” said wife Ashleigh O’Neil, the girls’ mother.

From WTop

While,  the reaction of the guards was overdone in a way you can see where they were coming from (doesn’t make it right).  However, there are moms that do the same exact thing and they aren’t  accosted. Instead it’s understood and  not a huge deal.