Black Friday, Schmiday. Even with the impending recession, we know you dragged/dragging/will drag your kids to the various malls and outlets in the LA area the whole damn weekend. While you may enjoy the thrill of sabotaging your neighbors shopping cart in hopes of snagging whatever Elmo incarnation is hot this year (call me when he can do my taxes and empty the cat box), your poor offspring cannot be placated with more than......

Unless you've got a 6-11 year-old girl in your life, you've probably managed to avoid the notorious American Girl Place at the Grove (and you consider yourself lucky, indeed). Oh, you've heard tell of their ostentatious parties for little darlings and their little darling dollies (that's around $90 a pop to sip tiny cups of tea and get matching hairdos for each girl and her girl doll) but you've steered clear, right?* LAist Featured......

Photo by r_neches via Flickr Yesterday, parents his the streets of downtown Los Angeles to protest decisions made by the Los Angeles Unified School District who denied space for charter schools, which are still public schools, but are run differently. The LA Times explains: Charter schools are public campuses that are typically authorized by local school districts but run independently. There are more than 100 authorized by the Los Angeles Unified School District, and......

CBS says it is one parent distorting the picture of Kid Nation, a reality show about 40 kids, 40 days and no adults that premieres on September 19th. But news outlets are on the attack with Lisa de Moraes of The TV Column at The Washington Post rounding up the media coverage: The news reports on "Kid Nation" to date are the stuff PR-nightmare legends are made of: charges of thwarting child-labor laws; parents......