Poll: Teens, tweens dub Miley Cyrus "worst celebrity influence"

After a few years as every tween's dream idol, Miley Cyrus now tops a different list --  worst celebrity  influence, according to a poll on the AOL tween/teen blog, Just So You Know. After some questionable career choices, chronicled here, here and here, 16-year-old Miley is off the pedestal and in the doghouse with her fans. Nearly 44,600 kids voted -- or as one commenter, defending Miley on a blog, said,  "400 tweens (who) voted 100 times."

Maybe the worst part of it is who she beat out for this award: Britney Spears, who admittedly was not mother of the year for a while, got 27 percent of the vote; Kanye West, who interrupted Taylor Swift's speech on the MTV Video Music Awards, with 19 percent; Vanessa Hudgens (nudie photos) at 9 percent; and Shia LaBeouf, who really loves his mom and also was arrested for DUI, 3 percent.

After the craziness of her dropping out of Twitter, and now the craziness of someone saying he will kill a cat if she doesn't get back on, it's not been a good week for Miley. Even her little sister is getting into the act.

I know it's difficult for Miley to grow up in a goldfish bowl as she tries to assert herself as more than a teen star. It might help for her parents to try to help her through this awkward phase rather than just being her buddy. Because, heaven knows, they don't want this on their hands.

-- Sherry Robinson

[Associated Press]

Sexy tween Halloween costumes: Four words that should never go together

If you've been to a Halloween party lately, you know that women don't dress as Snow White or Santa's Helper. They go as Slutty Snow White or Santa's Sexy Helper, anything that shows a lot of skin.

Partygoers will tell you it's about looking your best and showing confidence, not to mention you can dress like a sleaze for a night without getting called one, like that scene from the Lindsay Lohan movie, Mean Girls.

Sure, I understand all that. I've actually succumbed to it. A few years ago I went to 13 Ugly Men's Halloween party wearing a tube top -- for a skirt!

But I draw the line when it comes to young girls, particularly those who still have the figures of yardsticks.

Take Noah Cyrus, Miley's little sister who's 9. She recently was seen wearing a super short number with high-heeled black platform boots. Supposedly, she's a vampire or a witch. It's really hard to tell.

Regardless, as the mother of a young daughter, I find it totally inappropriate. Those boots belong on strippers and that skirt begs for some leggings underneath. Talk about scary.

I'm no prude, but I don't think fourth-graders should go around looking like adults, even in the name of  Halloween. It's bad enough these days that high school girls look like they're in college. Elementary students should never be described as sexy. I guess it's too much to expect the young daughter and sister of celebrities to dress as Tinker Bell or a cheerleader. Remember Miley's photo shoot for Vanity Fair or more recently in Elle?

Still, I would hope that regular moms think twice before allowing their tween to wear a costume that screams sex appeal. Dress kids as kids and, if they must, save the sexy stuff for themselves.

-- Susan Thurston, Times mom

[Mean Girls from Paramount Pictures; Noah Cyrus from the Associated Press]

Pasties for Preschoolers

We must put an end to sexy clothes for children! Sing it, Sister!

Young girls are constantly inundated with social messages that concentrate too much on their looks! Preach on!

Let’s combat this social injustice by putting our infants in nipple-tasseled onesies! Ame--WTH?

Clothing designer Suzi Warren said in a recent ParentDish article that her nipple-tassel shirts and “C is for Condom” tees are actually a protest against sexually inappropriate clothing for children.

"There is nothing very sexy about a baggy, lap neck, long sleeved t- shirt for a 6-month-old. So by embellishing this style of garment with printed nipple tassels, the result is not that the baby becomes sexualized by the tassels, but that the tassels are made benign and silly by the baby. In fact the more inert, innocent and unaware the infant is, the more ludicrous the contrast becomes."

Um, okay?

"The trap set to ensnare girls into a life-time of preoccupation with their looks is a subtle one. My garments are not part of this trap because they are about a subtle as a blinking brick and are aimed at parents of children too young to read or speak.”

I am all for a revolt on the short shorts and tube tops for preschoolers, but I’m not quite sure if putting my infant in nipple tassels is the most effective way to show my support for this particular protest. I realize real change has to start somewhere, but I’m not sure birth is the place to announce, “I’ve Done F**k All Day.“ While I’m irony’s biggest fan, there’s just too many w’s in the Ewww factor of this fashion statement.

 Which is considerably better than too many X’s, because according to Twisted Twee's, X is for X-rated.

Tracey Henry, Suburban Diva

[Twisted Twee's tassel T-shirt]

Jon Gosselin: Quote of the Day

"I took a lot of abuse from her. I was put down." -- Jon Gosselin,  star of Jon & Kate Plus 8, defending himself and discussing his marriage, in excerpts from the special, Primetime: Family Secrets, set to air at 10 p.m. Tuesday. He was striking back after Kate's comments on Larry King Live last week.

[TLC publicity photo]

Pole dancing doll -- can Miley Cyrus version be far behind?

Ewwwwww -- I keep looking at this and thinking it can't be real! Some are even questioning its authenticity. I mean, no toy company would actually make a pole dancing doll for children, would they? There is such a USB toy for adults but that one is dressed in a bikini! If this is for real, we told you it was only one step to this after Miley's performance.

-- Sherry Robinson

[Gizmodo image]

Quote of the Day: Ryan O'Neal hits on daughter at Farrah Fawcett's funeral

"I had just put the casket in the hearse and was watching it drive away, when a beautiful blond woman comes up and embraces me. I said to her, 'You have a drink on you? You have a car?' She said, 'Daddy, it's me — Tatum!' I was just trying to be funny with a strange Swedish woman, and it's my daughter. It's so sick." -- Actor and Father of the Year Ryan O'Neal telling Vanity Fair how he hit on his 45-year-old estranged daughter Tatum just after the funeral of Farrah Fawcett. Tatum O'Neal confirmed the exchange for the mag.

-- Sherry Robinson

[Photos: Ryan O'Neal -- Associated Press; Tatum O'Neal -- handout]

World's oldest woman to give birth dies

Maria del Carmen Bousada, a Spanish woman who lied about her age to a U.S. fertility clinic in an effort to have children, died over the weekend. She was 69 and leaves behind her 2-year-old twin boys.

It was in 2006 when Bousada told a clinic in Los Angeles that she was 55, the maximum age the clinic would perform the procedure on a single woman. Says an Associated Press story: "Guinness World Records said the 66-year-old was the oldest on record to give birth and the case ignited fierce debate over how much responsibility fertility clinics have over their patients."

In an interview, Bousada said the clinic did not ask for identification and thought that because her mother lived to be 101, she would live long enough to raise the children. Bousada had lived with her mother for most of her life. When the older woman died, Bousada decided to finally have children. Bousada told the British tabloid News of the World: "Often circumstances put you between a rock and a hard place, and maybe things shouldn't have been done in the way they were done, but that was the only way to achieve the thing I had always dreamed of, and I did it."

Dr. Vicken Sahakian, director and owner of the clinic, told the AP that when he learned that she had lied about her age, "I figured something might happen and wind up being a disaster for these kids, and unfortunately I was right."

Sahakian maintains that nothing from the procedure would have caused her death. She was implanted with a younger woman's eggs and donated sperm and hormones were used to rejuvenate her uterus. Those hormone treatments last three weeks but Sahakian said they were not a cancer risk.

Bousada's brother said that she had died but would not give a cause. A Spanish newspaper, using an unnamed source, said that "she had been diagnosed with a tumor shortly after giving birth."

The debate will certainly rage on about older women giving birth and how much fertility clinics should be responsible when they perform these procedures without getting all the information.

What do you think? Could the procedure have ultimately led to her death? And should she have even tried to have babies at 66? As tired as I am now, I can't imagine trying to keep up with toddlers in my 60s.

-- Sherry Robinson

Summer camp horror story No. 1

The other day my husband picked up my 8-year-old daughter from summer day camp with the city of Tampa Parks and Recreation. She was withdrawn, upset and pale.

Turns out, she says that she and a friend had been threatened by another 8-year-old, upset about some problem with the computer. As my daughter tells it, the girl said: "You better tell your friend to watch it, because I've got a knife in my backpack and I'm going to get it and stab her."

What?? Seriously? My daughter walked away from the threatening girl, but did not tell anyone in charge.

My husband took up the incident with the counselors and checked on my daughter's friend. The girl in question was pulled out of camp, her backpack searched (nothing found) and sent home. She was not allowed to come back the next day, but returned after that.

Meanwhile, my daughter is like, what is going on? And I'm like, how can I send her back there? I have awful thoughts in my head about the girl sneaking any blunt instrument into her backpack and using it against another camper. And then I think, it's probably just something she heard and it's not really something to worry about. And what I really want is for the kids to be constantly supervised so things like this don't happen -- or escalate.

But come on, isn't my daughter too young for this? We had a long talk about sticking with her friends, staying away from the girl and keeping an eye out for counselors. She went back today without complaint, with the girl in attendance, too. (She did worry that the girl would make up stuff to get her in trouble for payback. I'm like, well, yes, that could happen.)

This Momma is worried sick. So are her friend's Mommas. Can't we just enjoy the summer?

-- Amy Hollyfield

[Jupiterimages]

OctoMom Nadya Suleman now regrets having all those babies

We've been wondering when the OctoMom, Nadya Suleman. would reach this point, this moment of clarity.

After the visits to Dr. Phil, the kid juggling in the park and the smackdown with Jon & Kate Plus 8's Kate Gosselin, Suleman now says that she should not have had eight children at one time.

"I screwed myself. I screwed up my life and I screwed up my kid's lives. What the heck am I gonna do?" she says while noshing with a friend at the Melting Pot, no kids in sight, while a Radar online camera rolls. "I have to put on this strong facade and I have to pretend like I don't regret it. I can't regret it now because I love them and they're here. What was I thinking? That was selfish."

Yes, for months since the octuplets were born, many people have wondered what OctoMom was thinking. She gives us a little clue in this video -- she wanted the sperm donor to be in her life. But after the sixth child, could she not see that it was not going to happen?

She's right about a few things. She was really selfish to do this. And she may love the kids but she really has hurt them. And now the older kids are asking about their dad. But she says "it's not my business" to go and interrupt the donor's life by telling the kids that he is their father.

It's good she's had this epiphany but now it's time to forget the cameras, the 15 minutes of fame, the reality TV shows. Now is the time to take care of these kids. We all regret some of the things we do, but then we know we have to do what's right for the kids. Let's hope she figures out what that is, and does it -- out of the limelight.

-- Sherry Robinson

Disney/Pixar's 'Up': Take the kids -- and some tissue

I really thought I knew what to expect when my family went to a screening of Disney/Pixar's 10th film, Up. After seeing the trailers, I was sure that it was just about a grumpy old man and a kid who become friends in the end after going through some adventures. And it is that -- but it's so much more.

And because of that, Mommas, you better take your tissue. Because I'm talking sad here, like Nemo's mom kind of sad.

Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) decides that he doesn't want to stick around and watch developers take control of his tiny home. He attaches hundreds of helium-filled balloons to his colorful little house and sets off for South America. Once in the air, an unexpected knock on the door leads him to  8-year-old Wilderness Explorer Russell (Jordan Nagai), who has come to Carl's home to earn his "Assisting the Elderly" badge. Once Carl reluctantly lets him in, the wild plot really takes off.

There are some portions of the movie that made me feel like sobbing. A scene at a doctor's office went over the kids' heads but left the adults silent for a moment. Each time you started to get down, the filmmakers would find a way to lighten up the story. Kids and adults laughed loudly in all the right places -- yes, there is some bathroom humor but just a little. And the adventure keeps you on the edge of your seat as the characters begin to realize that sometimes, the most memorable moments of your life are the everyday adventures you have with the people you love.

As my 10-year-old son said, there was more emotion in the film than just laughter.

This movie may not be for every kid. There are only two female characters -- and one of them is off screen after about 10 minutes. So the princess crowd may not enjoy this flick as much as the boys do.

The bottom line is that you should take your kids to see Up, whether in 3D or regular. While it will leave you feeling down in some places, you'll cheer for the heroes and laugh loudly at the funny scenes. In the end, it's worth a couple of tissues to see a good movie.

-- Sherry Robinson

[Photo: Disney/Pixar]