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    Laura Rowley

    Laura Rowley

  • Five reasons to avoid gift cards this holiday season

    If you're thinking about giving gift cards for the holidays, it may be worthwhile to look at the findings of a recent poll by Consumer Reports on holiday shopping. A couple of facts jumped off the page:

  • It's Halloween Eve -- Know How to Protect Kids from Predators

    It's Halloween Eve, so many parents are thinking about child safety -- so I thought this was an appropriate post. I volunteer at my kids' Catholic school as adviser to the student newspaper with another parent. As a result of the child sexual abuse scandal in the church, all parent volunteers - even

  • Refund for Baby Einstein Videos

    Parents will be interested in a story in The New York Times this week about Baby Einstein videos. Walt Disney Company is offering a refund of $15.99 each for up to four videos purchased between June 5, 2004 and September 5, 2009. For those who've never seen one, Baby Einstein videos feature bright c

  • Nickel and Dimed on Picture Day

    In the values class I teach at Seton Hall University, we were discussing some of the universal moral themes that researchers believe may be genetically hard-wired (see this article by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker in The New York Times Magazine). These are values that when violated prompt a uni