Month: February 2024

Apparently, it’s a good night for teams getting into altercations with one another in the NBA. Not long after four players were ejected due to a donnybrook during the Miami Heat’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans, players on the Golden State Warriors and the Charlotte Hornets got into a fracas that led to a pair of ejections. The twist: This one happened at the very end of the game, when things were totally decided and the coaches were shaking hands.

Warriors youngster Lester Quinones went up for a layup with his team up, 95-84, and the shot clock still turned on. This didn’t sit well with Miles Bridges, who got a goaltend and then jawed with Quinones a bit. And then, we get the magical moment where the camera cuts to Steve Kerr and Steve Clifford shaking hands all chummy, only for them to look at the fight breaking out, Clifford clearly saying “WHAT THE F*CK,” and both of them running over to break things up.

I want to make sure one player in particular gets their flowers here, and that is Trayce Jackson-Davis, who saw that Draymond Green kept screaming obscenities at the Hornets player who really caused things to pop off (Grant Williams) and ran over and restrained him while laughing extremely hard. Anyway, Quinones and Williams got ejected as the Warriors won, 97-84.

Kid Cudi had some good news and some bad news for fans today. On the positive side, he announced that not only are dates for his Insano World Tour on the way, but he is also almost done with his next record — despite just dropping his recent one, Insano, last month. The bad news is that it might be a little bit until people can hear the follow-up.

“My next album is already about 80% done, and it’ll be out in 2026,” Kid Cudi posted on Twitter. “As always, we’re takin it someplace new. Just wanted to let yall know, expect an album from me every other year… next year is all about filmin. Got a bunch of stuff I need to get done. Film and tv. So I take a year off of music to do it all.”

According to Rolling Stone, Kid Cudi is set to appear in the upcoming horror film, Maxxxine. He also might have some more animated projects in the works. However, this year is also about hitting the road to perform.

Those who are hoping to go to one of Cudi’s upcoming Insano World Tour shows can find more information about getting tickets here.

Check out Kid Cudi’s tweet about finishing his next album and his plans for the next few years above.

Friday night’s game between the Miami Heat and the New Orleans Pelicans saw tensions boil over early on in the fourth quarter. A hard foul on Zion Williamson by Kevin Love led to some pushing and shoving between the two teams, which escalated to players needing to be separated from one another.

It’s unclear if anything got said in the scrum between the two teams, but the thing that appeared to set everything off came when Naji Marshall put his hand around Jimmy Butler’s throat after Butler shoved him (and, it’s worth mentioning, looks like he made contact with Marshall’s neck). This set Butler off, while Jaime Jaquez ran in and tried to go after Marshall, who was pulled away from things by Jordan Hawkins.

Even after the situation looked like it started to settle down, the two teams went at it once again. You can see it around the 37-second mark of the second clip below, but something got said between Jose Alvarado and Thomas Bryant that led to the two of them needing to be separated.

In all, Butler, Marshall, Thomas Bryant, and Jose Alvarado were ejected from the game. And it wasn’t just the teams getting involved, as someone in a Dwyane Wade jersey who was sitting in the stands got tossed, as well.

At the time of the fracas, Miami held an 84-80 lead over New Orleans.

When you have a baby, it’s expected that you’ll take some maternity or paternity leave from work. When you have a teen, it’s expected that you’ll be in the peak of your career, but some parents are finding the need to take a “teen-ternity leave” from work to support their adolescent kids.

It’s a flip from what has become the traditional trajectory for modern parents. Despite the fact that the U.S. is the only developed nation in the world to not have mandated paid parental leave, most parents take at least some time off when a baby is born to recover physically from pregnancy and birth and to settle into life with their tiny new human. Many parents then opt to have one parent stay home full-time during their children’s younger years, as full-time childcare is often cost prohibitive, and raising babies and toddlers requires an enormous amount of time, attention and energy.

Parents often return to work when their kids are in school full-time, and many feel a bit of a respite from the relentlessness of parenting as their kids become more independent and capable of doing things on their own. It’s not that older kids don’t need their parents, but their needs are different. Physical parenting gives way to more complex emotional parenting as kids get older, and for a while, those emotional challenges are somewhat simple.

Then the tween years come along. Then the teens. And for some parents, a realization hits that parenting kids through puberty takes almost as much time, attention and energy, as toddlers do. Only now, those needs are much more complicated and consequential.

Taking “teen-ternity leave” from work may not be feasible for many or most parents, but those who have the means to take a break from work to focus on family full-time during their kids’ teen years shouldn’t be judged for it. Raising teens is rarely easy, but for some parents, getting their kids through their teen years is the hardest thing they will ever do.

For one, adolescence is when mental health struggles really come to a head. If you’ve never parented a child with anxiety, depression, OCD, or some other mental illness, consider yourself fortunate. The mental and emotional toll for parents in that boat is immense, and the amount of time it can take to find the right kind of care and manage the various manifestations of whatever they struggle with can be significant.

Another reality of parenting teens that makes going to work challenging is the tendency for teens to spend the better part of the day not wanting to talk and then totally opening up at like 10:30 at night. Late night heart-to-hearts are a hallmark parenting in the teen years, but it can be hard to sustain if you’re having to wake up early and head to work in the morning. And the emotional nature of these conversations requires a lot of thought and energy.

Helping with homework becomes more complicated as parents try to pull their advanced math knowledge up from the recesses of their minds, and then there’s the transportation problem. Until a teen can drive themselves and unless they have their own car, someone has to take them to and from their various activities. It may sound silly to take time off from work just to drive your teens around, but it’s not just the transportation—it’s the transportation on top of everything else.

Is all of this just modern overparenting run amok? Not really.

“We often think the heavy parenting lift is for young kids, who need help getting dressed and more supervised playtime. But once you have a teenager, you realize bigger kids, bigger problems,” Amanda Craig PhD, LMFT, family therapist, mom, and author of the book, “Who Are You & What Have You Done with My Kid?: Connect with Your Tween While They Are Still Listening,” told Parents.

The pandemic, of course, didn’t help matters. Kids who went through that world-changing event during their formative years had their sense of normalcy and safety rocked, not just on an individual level, but a societal one. Research on the brains of teens before and after the pandemic shows there were actual neurobiological impacts of that time period. Teens today have also grown up during a particularly turbulent time in politics with that turbulence shoved in their face continually via social media. It’s not surprising that a lot of young people are psychologically struggling and needing more support from their parents than previous teen generations did.

Maybe a teen-ternity leave—which is really just a different form of parental leave—isn’t a bad idea. Imagine if we lived in a world where it was actually economically feasible for more families.

Millions of American parents utilize daycare centers while they work. Since most people work during the day, most daycare center hours fall somewhere between 7:30am and 5:30pm. It’s rare to find a daycare that’s open after normal working hours.

But one “24-hour” daycare in Houston captured people’s attention—and sparked a debate—when a mom posted about it on TikTok.

Adventure Kids Playcare in Houston isn’t actually open 24 hours a day but it does offer childcare up to 10:00pm during the week and until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights. In the video, the mom drops her daughter off and we hear the employee tell her they close at midnight. The mom later says she picked her daughter up at 11:55pm.

Reactions to the video rand the gamut from “24-hour daycares are a brilliant idea for parents who work odd shifts” to “Moms shouldn’t be leaving their kids at a daycare late at night just so they can go out,” sparking a fascinating and eye-opening discussion.

First, here’s the video that kicked off the whole debate:

@watchingalicia

😅😅🤷🏾‍♀️ #fypシ゚viral #fyp #girlmom #daughter #momsoftiktok #parenting #momlife

The video hit the popular Instagram account The Shade Room where people debated whether this kind of daycare arrangement was a positive or negative, and there was a wide range of opinions on all sides.

Some folks poo-pooed the idea of a 24-hour daycare center in general, which most people were quick to squash. Not everyone works a 9-to-5 job, and not everyone has access to people who can watch their kids in the evenings when they’re at work, so a childcare center that’s open late or all night provides a service some working parents might need.

“The convenience of a 24-hour daycare can’t be overstated, especially for parents working unconventional hours,” shared one X user. “It’s a game-changer for the night shift workers and emergency responders who keep our cities running.”

@arrtnem @MrsJellySantos I approve. Do you know how HARD it is to get someone to watch your kid overnight when youu2019re on call for surgery?

— (@)

But a lot of the debate centered around parents leaving their kids at a care center not to work, but to go out at night and socialize. Some people felt strongly that it was inappropriate for kids to be up well past a standard child’s bedtime waiting for their parent to pick them up. Some felt that a parent should have a babysitter come to the house so the child can sleep in their own bed and not be kept awake until late. On the flip side, others pointed out that a late night playing with other kids at a licensed, reputable facility would be fun for a lot of kids, and it may actually be a safer option than hiring a teenager to come stay at your house while your kid sleeps.

Others debated the appropriateness of a mother leaving her child at a facility late at night to go out on the town in general, stating that work is one thing but going out for purely social or personal reasons is another. Interestingly, this element of the discourse seemed to center entirely around mothers, which could be a whole other discussion for another day. Some people claimed that a mom dropping her kid off to go out late is being selfish and putting her needs above her child’s. Others pointed out that all mothers—or parents—need breaks sometimes, and no one can judge what another parent does without knowing their full circumstances. As one commenter wrote, “Not everybody has a village.”

The final fascinating split in this debate were the parents who feel unsafe leaving their children with anyone other than immediate family versus the parents who feel it’s good for kids to have other caregivers and socialize with kids they don’t know. The varying levels of trust or mistrust, comfort or fear parents have when it comes to their children offers some insight into how differently people view the world. Is one side right and the other wrong, or is it merely a difference in perception and personal preference?

If nothing else, hopefully the breadth of the discussion opened people’s eyes to different viewpoints and to life circumstances they may not have considered. Often we can get stuck looking at and judging things through our own lens, forgetting that there’s a whole big world of diverse situations we may not even be aware of that might make one person’s “nope” another person’s “yes, please and thank you.”

If you’re a Taylor Swift fan in the London area, you might be in luck. In a new job posting, the Victoria & Albert Museum is looking for a super Swiftie to serve as an advisor when it comes to (possibly) building future exhibits. According to their website, applications close on March 7.

“Successful candidates will meet curatorial experts at the V&A, share knowledge about their specialist subject, learn about the history of these objects and why they are relevant to art, design and the future of creativity,” the job description reads. “Candidates will also have the chance to go behind the scenes at the V&A to view relevant items from the collection.”

The Victoria & Albert will also “cover reasonable travel costs to the museum for the curatorial meeting, and successful candidates will receive a V&A Membership as part of the role.”

Some other important information is that it is a zero-hour role, which means that hours are not guaranteed, according to Rolling Stone. The salary is listed as a “competitive incentive,” so a specific amount is unknown.

Even if being a Swiftie is not your area of knowledge, the museum is also looking to bring on advisors who know about Crocs, drag, emojis, and more. (They have already hired experts on Legos and Pokemon cards, as past examples.)

For those who are considering applying and feel like a qualified enough Taylor Swift fan, you can find more information here.

Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Kahan are finally giving fans the crossover that they’ve been waiting for. Months after the two had covered each other’s songs (Rodrigo with Kahan’s “Stick Season,” him performing “Lacy”) on BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, they have a new surprise.

Although it’s not the collab that some might have expected, it will be pressed on a special 7″ colored vinyl that is going to be available in stores on April 20 for Record Store Day 2024. There will be 15,000 copies in total.

The cover image is a sweet polaroid of the two, with Kahan smiling wide. It has “Stick Season” written in Rodrigo’s signature purple and her name in cursive black. It also is just another way that the two performers are honoring and appreciating the other person’s talent.

“The song is so beautiful, and it highlights what I love so much about Olivia’s lyricism. It’s very dynamic and it just makes you feel an emotion we’ve all experienced before,” Kahan told BBC Newsbeat a while back. “I was hoping she wouldn’t see it in case it was bad. She’s going to find out eventually. I hope she likes it, I was so honoured by her and so inspired by her.”

More information about Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Kahan’s RSD vinyl can be found here.

The title of dad or father is a sweet and respectful way to acknowledge a child’s special bond with their male parent. It signifies love and respect and shows appreciation for his role in their life. But the title works both ways. The term dad reminds fathers of the responsibility to guide and protect their kids.

The importance of the unique role dads play in their kids’ lives is why a father named Steve was upset with his wife for repeatedly using his first name when referring to him with their preteen children.

The father vented about the situation and asked if he was wrong in a Reddit post with over 10,000 responses.

“My wife recently started using my first name when referring to me to our preteen kids, as in ‘Steve’s gonna pick you up from school tomorrow,’” the father wrote on Reddit’s AITA forum. “I asked her not to when I first heard it, saying I don’t really like when you use my first name to the kids. Can you say ‘your dad’ or ‘dad’?”

The mother initially replied, “Steve is your name, I don’t see the problem,” but later came to his way of thinking. The problem for Steve was that she didn’t stop the habit altogether. She continued to refer to him as Steve and after he brought it up again, she gave a relatively weak apology.

“It’s totally subconscious. It’s not like I mean to,” the wife responded. “You’re probably going to have to remind me again like 50 times.”

The husband was upset that he got such a wishy-washy response to his request. “That’s not really acceptable,” he told her. “If you hear me and respect my wishes, it doesn’t need an excuse or hedging; you can just say OK.” The wife got upset and doubled down, saying she “can’t control” referring to him by his first name while talking to the children. He ended the conversation by saying he’s “sure” she will “try” to stop but feels sure the issue will crop up again.

Is he wrong to have a problem with his wife referring to him as Steve in front of their kids?

“She’s spent all this time referring to you as ‘dad,’ but now it’s Steve and she says it’s subconscious and she can’t help it? That’s not how people’s brains work. I get that it’s now a habit, and perhaps it is very hard for her to remember, but that does not explain why she started in the first place,” godsonlyprophet responded to the post.

Some saw something nefarious about the mother’s behavior.

“My immediate reaction is she is distancing herself from you and trying to lessen/remove you from co-parenting. That something is definitely not right here,” Airable_Sun_5891 wrote.

Some people said he should give his wife a break.

“It is completely natural to momentarily slip up and not call you by your title of ‘dad’ and call you by your given name. You’re lucky she didn’t call you by another family member’s name because have you heard of the phenomenon where we mix up the names of people we love,” Expensive-Lie1127 wrote.

The overall thoughts of the commenters were that the wife should do her best to refer to Steve as the dad in front of the kids because that is the title he prefers. It shows respect as a co-parent and spouse and is an excellent example for the kids. Respect is the foundation of a good marriage; when it starts to wane, it can open up a complex set of problems.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but what if what your eyes behold is objectively…not good? In what appears to be a creative way to spend quality time together for a married couple, things go hilariously wrong. Ted Slaughter, uploaded a video to his TikTok page of an activity he and his wife did together.

Slaughter’s wife seems to be holding the phone so you can clearly see what appears to be a painting of Slaughter, who is sitting at the other end of the table in front of an easel. The text overlay on the video says, “husband and wife paint portraits of each other (gone wrong). But what could possibly be wrong, sure his wife’s attempt isn’t art gallery ready just yet but it’s not bad.

Based on the critiques the man had of his wife’s painting, surely his looks much closer to professional level work. Right?…Right?

Slaughter starts off strong after viewing his wife’s artwork, “that’s awesome,” then come the minor critiques. “I mean, I’m a little elfish around the eyes,” to which his wife laughs, “I know you are not critiquing this right now.”

After a few giggles between the two, it was time for the big reveal. The impromptu art critic turns his painting around to reveal his work of art to his unprepared wife and it’s…something. It’s so much of something that his wife nearly stops breathing. You hear her off camera take in a breath to laugh but nothing comes out for what seems like a good 60 seconds before the sound of her laughter catches up. Commenters also had some thoughts.

“He said Elflish then showed you a gremlin lol,” one person writes.

“One portrait is of Picasso. The other portrait is of Beetlejuice,: someone else says.

“I was wheezing with you. You paint a majestic elf and he gives you an orc,” another laughs.

The portrait is something words cannot describe. You must see it for yourself below:

@ted.slaughter

My wife and I painted portraits of each other… what could go wrong? #painting #portrait #funny #laugh #fyp #viral #husbandwife

My mother died from ovarian cancer when I was a young child.

I’m in my late 30s now, and I’m still navigating this loss as I move through life. I’ve lived most of my life without my mother at this point, but I still miss her.

Here are three things I’ve learned since losing Mam:

1. Grief is not linear and is not solely expressed through tears.

Someone you love has been taken away from you, and your heart has broken into pieces. It’s natural to grieve, but we all grieve differently. Grief shows up in anger, sorrow, guilt, fear, and sometimes peace. It is unpredictable and, at times, exhausting.

I cried when my mother died, and I cried at her funeral when my school choir sang “Be Not Afraid.” I didn’t cry much in the immediate years that followed — not directly as a result of Mam’s death, but probably indirectly related to it. I certainly felt fear and anger and other emotions related directly to my loss.

Then sadness hit me like a ton of bricks one day when I was in my early 20s. A compassionate friend asked me about Mam, and as I hadn’t spoken about her to anyone outside the family, I broke down. It was a good release. The years have brought many stages of grieving.

Mother’s Day is never easy. Shopping for my wedding dress without my mother brought up intense feelings of loss. And sometimes it just hits me hard, on a regular day, yanking me out of my pleasant thoughts. A mother in a dressing room with her daughter, and they’re trying on clothes together, admiring how the other looks. The mother telling the daughter how beautiful she is.

Or a friend of mine, meeting her mother for lunch and I can’t even imagine what that would be like! I can’t even fathom the amazing joy of having lunch right now with Mam! And then I get that heaviness in my chest and my stomach feels bad.

There’s no closure. My grieving stems from having loved so deeply. I have learned to tune into the emotions I’m feeling and to acknowledge the love, the pain, and the loss.

2. There are no replacements.

Nobody can replace your mother. We love our mothers in our own individual ways. Our mothers care for us when we’re sick, guide us in life the best ways they can, listen to us, and love us unconditionally.

For a mother, her child is always her first priority. And we sense this. We feel it. We know it, even if she doesn’t say it.

My mother was beyond happy when I was born a healthy baby girl. I was told that she called me her little angel. She carried me in her womb for nine months.

By the time I was born, we had that unbreakable bond, and she knew me from that first second of my existence. There’s never going to be a replacement for that person who loved me probably more than she loved herself. The joy in her eyes when she saw me, the warmth of her arms wrapped around me, the pain in her eyes when she had to say goodbye are all ways that I remember the deep love she had for me.

Mam prepared lunches for me every day to take to school, named muffins after me because they were my favorite, and surprised me with the best doll she could find when I was a few years old. She repaired my soft toys when they tore, taught me to have manners and sit up straight, wiped my eyes when I cried and my nose when I was sick.

Today I look for certain qualities in people. I look for a warmth, a radiance, a compassion and kindness that Mam had. I look for humor, a voice of sense, and strength of character. These are traits that my mother had. I find some of them in others.

But it’s never the same. There’ll never be another Mam. She’s irreplaceable on so many levels.

3. There are other people who will love you and other people for you to love.

Family members and friends will love you. They might not know exactly what your needs are or how to address them, but it’s worth reaching out to them. People struggle with different things.

Perhaps family members cannot love you or be there for you, and we may have to look around, let go, and reach further than we might want to in order to find the people who really love us, but there is someone out there to love you, and there’s someone in need of your love.

I was blessed with the kindest, most devoted father who gave my brother and me all the love and care we needed. My dad is a gem in my life. He calls me to hear my news and to share his. He worries when I’m not feeling good and is overjoyed when I’m happiest. He listens to my concerns and trusts me to make the right decisions.

My dad has helped me so much in dealing with my loss, through caring for me and loving me unconditionally. I have the most wonderful fiancé who loves me to no end. And I’ve friends in my life who I know truly care about me.

I’ve been blessed with a lovely family, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t reach out to others. I’ve reconnected with old friends after years of distance. I’ve discovered things I have in common with others and opened up to new friendships.

Having people to love is truly healing. I was a kindergarten teacher for 10 years. I loved the children in my care, and they showed me so much love in return. By spreading love, we invite more love into our lives. Try volunteering or working in a school or a hospital. There are people everywhere in need of love.

Our world is so big and yet so small now in this age of technology. We can reach out to others across continents.

Our mothers were the first to show us the true meaning of love. In honor of our mothers, let’s spread that love wherever we can.

This article was written by Carmel Breathnach and originally appeared on March 5, 2017