Recently in The Media Category

As toddlers, all three of my boys took turns dressing as Laa-Laa for Halloween. As you might know, Laa-Laa is the yellow, female-ish Teletubby. (We recycle. They also all trick-or-treated as a bat, Harry Potter and a ninja.)

I'm guessing Dr. Phil - who recently advised the mother of a five-year-old boy to discourage him from playing with dolls -- would have steered us away from that wardrobe decision. Had we asked, he probably would have suggested dressing them as the male Tinky Winky character. (No, wait. Tinky Winky carries a purse. That probably wouldn't sit well with him, either.)

Dr. Phil is ruffling feathers with the advice he posted on his web site: "You don't want to do things that seem to support the confusion at this stage of the game," he wrote. "Take the girl things away, and buy him boy toys."

Phil, Phil, Phil.

Do you really want parents to send their kids the message that they can't be comfortable in their own homes? That they should pretend to be something that they're not? Yikes.

"Take the girl things away, and buy him boy toys." Hmm. Would he have suggested taking away my Tonka trucks and Matchbox cars?

It's odd that someone who studies human behavior and relationships is ignoring the fact that gender roles are changing. One day, when that little boy has a baby of his own, his spouse will be grateful that he knows how to change a diaper.

Sometimes we parents hear the buzz about something - in this case MTV's series "Skins" - and we make our determination based on that buzz.

I decided to check out the inappropriateness of the non-reality-show aimed at teens first-hand, and actually watched an entire episode. I felt like a voyeur, eavesdropping into the world of messed-up teens.

It seemed more like sneaking into R-Rated movie than simply watching something on television. It's easy for people to say "Well, parents shouldn't let their kids watch it." But with services like On Demand, all episodes are there for kids to watch any time, such as the time between school ending and a parent getting home.

Yes, I know some teens are already doing the stuff portrayed in the show - drugs, ridiculously casual sex - but if young people regularly see these things they begin to relate to their favorite characters and think that it's what everyone is doing.

I'm not really one for censorship, but MTV needs to follow the same advice we give our teens every day: Be careful.

In what may have been a turning point for my teen, I took him and a friend to see "The Social Network" this past fall. Although there were a few uncomfortable moments, it was a fantastic film, as noted by the National Society of Film Critics yesterday, when it dubbed the movie the best picture of 2010.

While many parents are cool with their kids seeing violent movies but shield them from movies with real-life themes, I'd much rather sit through an awkward scene or two and spend time talking about the real issues they'll face in high school and beyond.  

During the car ride home and for the next hour or so, the three of us talked about the movie, and the way it depicted its characters in shades of gray. No one character is all good or all bad. They were all good guys yet they all kind of sucked in their own way, which makes for a much more interesting story. And a more interesting life, really.

I've kind of forgotten for what Ricki Lake was once famous. Now she'll be known as that lady who didn't know the difference between Juvenile Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes.

During a book-promoting appearance on "Good Morning America," a show famous for consistently falling behind the "Today" show in ratings, Lake mistakenly stated that Juvenile Diabetes is preventable. (She later submitted this correction.)

As my friend whose toddler son has Type 1 Diabetes gently notes, having Type 2 Diabetes would suck, too. But because they essentially have the same name people often get them mixed up.

Although we shouldn't specify how people contract various diseases (HIV from a blood transfusion or HIV from unprotected sex, for example) these really are two separate diseases: One is curable and preventable and one is not.