1) The mom who wrote a lovely letter for her daughter’s stepmom
Mom-stepmom relationships (or nonrelationships) can often be messy. So, reading Candice Curry’s open letter to her daughter’s stepmom Ashley Parish was a breath of fresh air. Excerpts:
“I never wanted you here. You simply were never part of the plan… I didn’t want help from another woman to raise my child… I doubt you planned to mother a child that you didn’t give birth to…
“In my mind you would be a terrible beast and my daughter would not want you to mother her at all…
“I wanted to resent you but you made it impossible and I quickly grew thankful for you.
“You’ve accepted our daughter from the very start and have unconditionally loved both her and her daddy… You put her relationship with her daddy above yours and only a brave and courageous woman knows how to do that with such grace…
“Because of you and your courage to mother our daughter the way that you do, she will be a better woman. She will grow up with more love than I could have ever imagined…”
Read the entire letter on Candice’s blog Women With Worth: https://womenwithworth.wordpress.com.
- The father of the “nutty” airline executive
Last month, everyone heard about Cho Hyun-Ah, the 40-year-old Korean Air executive who threw a tantrum in the plane when she was served macadamia nuts in a bag and not on a plate. She was said to have demanded that the plane go back to the gate at New York’s JFK airport so a senior flight attendant could be removed.
The flight attendant claimed that the executive made him kneel in apology and poked his hand with the flight manual book.
Outrage over the incident led her to resign from her position as head of cabin service. The New York Times reported that the exec’s father, Cho Yang-ho, chairman of the airline, apologized publicly: “Please blame me; it’s my fault. I failed to raise her properly.”
He also stripped his daughter of her other titles in the family conglomerate, calling her behavior “foolish.”
3) Speaking of airplanes… the considerate parents of twin baby boys
Anyone who’s ever had to suffer through a long flight with screaming babies will appreciate this.
Reddit user Gigantomachy posted about how parents handed out little bags of candy to everyone on one flight. The sweets came with a note: “Hello! We’re twin baby boys on our first flight and we’re only 14 weeks old! We’ll try to be on our best behavior, but we’d like to apologize in advance just in case we lose our cool, get scared, or our ears hurt. Our mom and dad (a.k.a. our portable milk machine and our diaper changer) have ear plugs available if you need them. We are all sitting in 20E and 20F if you want to come by to get a pair. We hope you have a great flight!”
4) Parents who have participated in Jimmy Kimmel’s YouTube challenges
For several years now, Jimmy Kimmel has been encouraging parents to prank their kids and post the results on YouTube. There’s the Halloween candy prank in which parents tell their kids they ate all their Halloween candy (The kids usually freak out. “You ruined my life!” one little boy cried.) and the “Hey Jimmy, I gave my kids a terrible present” Christmas challenge.
Some parents wrapped half-empty bottles of juice, cans of soup, a hotdog, an old banana, pickles and a sponge. “You broke my heart,” one boy said after opening his present and finding a Barbie doll inside.
The montage of clips is hilarious that we ended up spending a chunk of our holidays watching them. We love parents (and kids) who have a sense of humor.
Some tantrums were horrifying but there were surprisingly sweet moments too: the little ones who didn’t get mad about the candy (“It’s okay, it’s fine,” one kid said before hugging his mom. “We’ll get some more next time, don’t worry,” said another.); the older brother who told his sister to be appreciative of the half-eaten sandwich their mom gave her; and the cute little girl who really liked getting deodorant for Christmas.
Watch the videos on Jimmy Kimmel Live’s YouTube channel: https://www. youtube.com/channel/UCa6vGFO9ty8v5KZJXQxdhaw.
5) The parents who invented Dinovember
Refe and Susan Tuma just wanted to excite their kids. In 2012, they came up with Dinovember, their month-long quest to make their four children believe that their toy dinosaurs come alive at night.
It has become a tradition since then. Every November, they let the dinosaurs take over their house, having crazy adventures—from attacking a box of cereals and playing with eggs to drawing on the wall and breaking a vase.
Refe wrote on medium.com: “Why do we do this? Because in the age of iPads and Netflix, we don’t want our kids to lose their sense of wonder and imagination. In a time when the answers to all the world’s questions are a web-search away, we want our kids to experience a little mystery… Childhood is fleeting, so let’s make sure it’s fun while it lasts.”
The idea, which they call an “imagination invasion,” was such a success that other parents did the same thing. Dinovember has become a worldwide hit and has even spawned a book, “What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night.”
Follow @dinovember on Instagram and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/dinovember).