National News

Parents Magazine just came out with its list of the best family cars for 2010. Right now I’m not in the market for a car, but I always like to see what offerings are on the list. In making their choices, Parents looked for kid-friendly, safe, comfortable, affordable, and of course cool-to-drive cars.

They’ve listed fifteen vehicles that offer a range of sizes, styles, and price points.

Best Crossovers:

• Chevrolet Equinox
• Honda CR-V
• Toyota RAV4

Best Hybrids:

• Ford Fusion Hybrid
• Toyota Prius
• Honda Insight

Best SUVs and Minivans:

• Chevrolet Traverse
• Honda Odyssey
• Ford Flex

Are you a chronically late mom? CBS News has contacted Marin Mommies to help find Bay Area moms to interview for their new segment in January on chronic lateness. The segment will feature the book, Never Be Late Again, 7 Cures for the Punctually Challenged (www.neverbelateagain.com). The ideal interview subject is a woman in her 30s or 40s who must balance a job with kids, doctor appointments, chauffeur duties, etc., but anyone who is chronically late is encouraged to apply. You can live anywhere in the Bay Area.

If you're interested or have any questions, please call Diane DeLonzor at (415) 407-7237 or email her at delonzor1@yahoo.com. CBS will want the following information: sex, age, occupation, marital status, and city of residence.

Every Christmas, the men and women of NORAD take a break from tracking the skies and waterways of North America and instead follow Santa Claus on his annual Christmas trek around the globe. You can check out Saint Nick's progress live online at NORAD's special Santa Tracking website, www.noradsanta.org.

NORAD's tradition of tracking Santa's route started in 1955, when a local Sears store in Colorado Springs printed the wrong phone number in a Christmastime advertisement for children to call Santa. The phone number was in fact that of the CONAD (the predececessor of NORAD, which took over the tradition in 1958) operations hotline, and the staff under Col. Harry Shoup responded with good humor and gave the children who called in updates on Santa's position.

Parents magazine’s children’s toy and product recalls finder for 2009 is now available online. If you want to find out if your children’s toys and other items are safe, check out their toy and product recall finder for the most current and up to date information. Recall categories include books, toys, jewelry, clothing, sporting goods, furniture, car seats, bottles, and feeding utensils. It’s very informative and a good way to make sure that your kid’s or baby’s items are safe. Parents magazine recalls 2009.

This weekend, August 15 and 16, all National Parks that normally charge an entry fee will be free to all! This is the third in a series of fee-free summer weekends launched by the National Park Service in an effort to give everyone a chance to visit their national parks in this economically challenging time. Although many are free to begin with, more than 100 national parks normally charge an entry fee.

Around the Bay Area, the parks charging an entry fee include Marin's own Muir Woods National Monument, San Francisco Maritime National Park, and the John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez. Other popular parks within a few hours of the Bay Area include Yosemite and Pinnacles National Monument (south of the Bay Area in Monterey and San Benito counties). A full list of fee-free weekend parks across the USA can be found here.

Every parent eventually faces the dilemma where they have to ask themselves, "Is my child too sick to go to school today?" How sick is too sick to go to school? That's the question addressed in a recent New York Times article by parent and physician Perri Klass, MD. The upshot of the article seems to be that kids with mild colds (no fevers, of course) are more or less OK to go to school, especially in light of all the germs already present in such settings. You'll have to read the article to get the whole story, of course.

New York Times: "The Cough-and-Sniffle Question: When to Keep a Child Home?"

As parents, do we expect too much from our children? Chances are we do, according to Yale psychologist and child psychiatrist Alan E. Kazdin. Just because we think our kids should develop or accomplish things based on expected schedule, doesn't mean they are ready or able to do so. In fact, we tend to overestimate their capabilities for physical and psychological development on a regular basis.

Read about it in Dr. Kazdin's article in Slate, one of our favorite online magazines: "Why Can't Johnny Jump Tall Buildings?"

Forbes has named Marin County number 15 on its list of the top 20 places in the country to raise a family. Rankings are largely based on school quality, followed by other factors like cost of living, air quality, crime rate, and commute time. One thing they ding us for is the astronomical media home price, but of course we know that this factors in things like $25 million-dollar estates in Belvedere as well as less costly homes in perfectly fine communities like Novato and San Rafael.

Read the article here on Forbes.com.

Forbes also declared last year that Marin had the best schools in the nation.