Naked Data and Bullying: Momma Data Debuting on Parent Dish

Got some good news.  No, I’m not pregnant or signing a deal for my own reality show.  I’m happy to announce I’ll be writing a new column over at Parent Dish – Naked Data! Don’t say I didn’t warn you – you know I’ve been talking about bringing the sexy to the science.  So basically I now get to rant and rave about parenting research in two locations.  If you’ve never ventured over to The Dish, go ahead, check out their redesign. 

Don’t miss Research Reveals, a section devoted to yes, providing a brief summary of recent studies covering pregnancy to grandparents.  If you look under Your Kids – you’ll see it at the end of the topics under each age group.  I’m psyched to join the team of columnists that includes some who you probably know from the parenting blogosphere – like Lenore Skenazy, she of Free Range Kids fame and Katherine Stone of PostPartum Progress, the doyenne of postpartum depression.  Anyhow, this new assignment does not spell an end to this blog.  I will keep flushing out the bad data here, promise. 

Speaking of which, my first post on Naked Data debunks bullying. I know, you may be sick of the topic already given all the celeb revealingt how they were terribly bullied as children.  So I’ll only give you a sneak peek: 

Bullying is everywhere right now. The playground. The locker room. The chat room. The national news.  It’s also on every parenting website, most state legislatures and even the calendar (October was National Bullying Prevention Month). Hurry, you might still find a bracelet.

Of course bullying is cruel and intolerable. Don’t get me wrong, I applauded the dad who walked onto the bus with a bat to threaten the kids teasing his daughter with cerebral palsy. The recent suicides of teenagers who’d been tormented deserve every bit of outrage. I still shudder thinking of the mean girls from high school. I’m no friend of bullying. But the sheer volume of attention makes it seem no kid is safe anywhere, anytime. Surveys show most parents worry about it.

But before you start homeschooling your kids, let’s get a few things straight….

You’ll have to go to Parent Dish to read the rest of No Child Left Unbullied, sorry.  If you go and snoop around, tell me what you think.  And as always, let me know if there’s some study that’s getting under your skin or some media report that’s getting under your skin.