baby and parenting news

Can you imagine being told by your employer to train your breasts to stop producing milk during a specific time frame? According to a former teacher in Carmel, CA, that's exactly what happened when she told her manager that she needed 15 minutes each morning to pump.

The Monterey Herald reported that in a lawsuit filed in late October, Sarah Ann Lewis Boyle said she was discriminated against and forced to pump her breasts with little privacy until the baby was weaned. When it came time for her job evaluation, she received very low marks, and her two-year contract with the school district was not renewed.

Of course, this isn't the first instance of workplace challenges for pumping moms, and it won't be the last. While being told to "train" your breasts to halt milk production seems like a pretty extreme directive from an employer (and downright cruel to the baby), it got us wondering: if you pumped at work, what was your experience like? Vote in the poll below, and then share your personal experience. We want to hear it all — the good, the bad, and the ugly!

popsugar poll

How Did Your Employer Handle Your New-Mom Needs?

They went above and beyond to accommodate me.

So-so. I had a place to pump, but I wasn't entirely comfortable with it.

Terrible! I can relate to the former teacher who's suing her school district.

Elmo's World was turned on its head this morning, as Kevin Clash, the voice behind the beloved Sesame Street monster, was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old boy. The puppeteer is currently taking a forced leave of absence from the iconic show.

The Emmy-winning creator of the show's most popular character denies any wrongdoing, saying, "It was between two consenting adults and I am deeply saddened that he is trying to make it into something it was not." Meanwhile, Clash's accuser, who is now 23, has hired the same attorneys used by one of the victims in the Jerry Sandusky case.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind the show, is standing behind its star employee, stating that they've met with the accuser and find his claims to be unsubstantiated, but that Clash "exercised poor judgment and violated company policy regarding Internet usage and he was disciplined." They went on to say that "Elmo is bigger than any one person and will continue to be an integral part of Sesame Street to engage, educate and inspire children around the world, as it has for 40 years."

The allegations are certainly disturbing, but will they affect your decision to let your kids watch the show?

popsugar poll

Will you stop watching Elmo and buying Elmo products based on the allegations against the Muppet's puppeteer?

Yes — I'm just not comfortable with the character now.

No — Kevin Clash is only the voice of Elmo; he's not the character.

No — I never liked the character anyway, so my opinion doesn't change.

Grandparents love to say that they have the best of all worlds — they can enjoy their grandchildren and they can hand them back to their children when it's time for things like potty training and discipline. But the today's grandparents are also experiencing a new role — that of babysitter for their grandkids.

A new study released in the September issue of the Journal of Family Issues finds that more than 60 percent of grandparents who don't live with their grandkids provide grandchild care, and they do so for at least 50 hours a year — 70 percent have done it for two years or more. The care, which ranges from Saturday-night babysitting to daily after-school care, not only helps build stronger bonds between the generations, but it lifts the financial burden on cash-strapped families. In addition to providing care, 62 percent have provided financial support to their grandchildren in the past five years, averaging $8,289. For some families, there's no one quite as reliable as a grandparent to watch their tots, so we want to know how much you rely on them!

popsugar poll

How Many Hours a Year Do Grandma and Grandpa Babysit Your Kids?

Not at all

20 hours per year

40 hours per year

60 hours per year

70 hours per year

Grandparents are our primary caregivers

We all have our guilty pleasures, but when a new life comes into play, it's time to give them up . . . or so we thought. A recently released study from the Center For Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality was intended to evaluate the breakdown of substance use during pregnancy by race. But the outcome that shocks us most is that one in five women smoke while they're pregnant! Of those, Caucasian women are most likely to smoke, followed by black women, and then Hispanics.

When it comes to consuming alcohol, Caucasian and black women are about equally likely (12 percent) to imbibe during pregnancy, while Hispanic women are least likely.

Back in 2009, expectant mom Rebecca Gayheart caused a stir when she was spotted smoking, and in a more recent (and perhaps less extreme) example of pregnant celebs behaving badly, Kourtney Kardashian was seen with highlighted tresses. Now we're wondering . . . did you give up your bad habits when you were pregnant?

popsugar poll

Did You Give Up All Your Vices When You Got Pregnant?

Yes — nothing could be more important than my baby's prenatal health.

Most of them — though I did cheat once or twice.

No — guilty as charged. There are a few things I should have been better about.

You've plugged up your outlets and covered the corners of your tables, but have you ensured that your TV is safe for your toddling tot? We're not talking about the programs you choose to show your kids, but the actual device itself.

Yesterday, a 13-month-old Chicago toddler was playing in his apartment when he "tagged" the TV as part of a game. Instantly, the TV fell off of its perch, crushing and killing the child. This was the fourth time in as many months that such an accident has occurred in the area, and it is part of a growing national trend of tipping furniture injuries. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says that "one child dies every two weeks when a TV, furniture, or an appliance falls on him." The solution is easy and inexpensive — tip-over straps and anchors can be purchased for as little as $15.

popsugar poll

Did You Secure Your Furniture to the Wall as Part of Babyproofing?

Yes — We babyproofed everything we could think of!

No — We hadn't thought about babyproofing the TV!