The mother of eight-year-old twins wonders why one of her girls habitually adds “dun-dun-DUN!” to sentences in everyday conversation. The hosts suspect it’s related to the audio element known as a “sting” in television and movie parlance, like this...
If you need proof that language is powerful, here’s some. Researchers at Cornell recently reported that kids are more likely to eat their veggies if they’re told the food has enticing names like “X-ray Vision Carrots” and “Dinosaur Broccoli Trees.”...
Why is it that what you say to your family and what they hear are different? If you say “no,” your child hears “maybe,” and if you say “maybe,” she hears “ask again and again,” and “yes” is just around the corner.” Grant and Martha discuss ways that...
jacket n.—Gloss: Richard Allsopp’s Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage defines this as “the child of a married woman and a man who is not her hustband” or “any child whose paternity is denied.” Note: The term is used in Jamaica and Belize...
nanny visa n.— «The J-1 visa covers a range of temporary jobs in the U.S. including the “Au pair” category commonly known as the “nanny visa.” A “nanny visa” allows a young person to live with a host family and be paid a small wage to provide child...
multi-dadding n.— «Sadie Frost has done it. Ulrika Jonsson does it all the time. Paula Yates did it. And so have I. What we, and countless other women have done, is have children with more than one man. It is fraught, it is complicated but, in this...
