The events of recent months tell us we must all do that, no matter how incorrect the social scientists believe such behavior to be. Every mother must ask herself -- do I really know my child? Do I understand how he spends his time, what he needs, whether he is masking some hidden hurt?

I think about the next female that might look over at him in a car. A faceless girlfriend. He is too adorable for words, with his dimples, endless brown eyes and that shaggy surfer hair that curls just right. He is no longer the fat baby who hated being in his car seat.

Regardless of how it happens, it only takes a few seconds for curious children to get into medicine that could make them very sick or worse. That's why it's important to take a look around your house to make sure all medicines and vitamins are up and away and out of sight.

Through all the dark shadows that Russia has cast with its ban on adoptions by Americans -- on the affected girls and boys, on the U.S. citizens seeking to become their parents and on the process of international adoption itself -- a thin glimmer of light is struggling to emerge.

I am always surprised by what strangers are willing to say, especially in front of my children. Most people mean well, but Miss Manners could have a field day with what I have encountered.

An analysis of the television shows most favored by children and adolescents in 1992 showed that one in four conversations addressed some aspect of sexuality. That was 20 years ago. Anyone out there think TV has less sexual content today or that it has become less explicit?

Our daughters are awash in princesses and pink. Is this pinkification and princess obsession harming our girls? Is being a princess a career? I put these questions to Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture.

n my role as a friend and a clinical psychologist, I must say that if I hear the phrase "boys are easier than girls," one more time, I may just bang my very cerebral and emotional head against the hardest wall that I can find. I am frustrated. Parents may believe that teenage boys are easier than girls because they just don't understand their sons. It is as simple and complicated as that.

It's one thing to refrain from gender-stereotyped gift-giving as a parent, but another to raise girls who cherish toy machine guns and boys who cradle baby dolls like the girls and boys Photoshopped -- yes, Photoshopped -- into the Swedish catalog.

In order to make sure boys aren't relying on pornography to develop their sexual values, we all need to shift from "The Talk."

Why is it OK for girls to be "tomboys" while boys are often ridiculed?

I knew my son was happy at college when he dug out his Elf costume to bring back to school after fall break.

Upon hearing that our second child would be a boy, I walked out of the doctor's office, crossed 8th Avenue and stepped into a Mexican restaurant to drink something with tequila in it.

Video Game Industry, could you do us this favor? Could you try, try try to accept that this kind of sexism is real. That it's not just denigrating to women and girls, but it's denigrating to men and boys as well.