Three for Thursday

Item #1: ESPN’s “Outside the Lines”

ESPN ran an intriguing segment on Mother’s Day about how pregnant college athletes are sometimes forced to forgo their scholarships or feel pressure to have an abortion if they become pregnant in order to keep their sports scholarship. A University of Nevada athletic director interviewed in the piece likened pregnancy to an injury from which an athlete will recover.

Typically, when a college athlete gets hurt, his or her scholarships aren’t typically revoked, she said. Pregnancy, this director argued, should be considered as a temporary medical condition. A University of Pittsburgh law school professor added that revocation of scholarships based on pregnancy is “a blatant violation of Title IX,” referring to the landmark federal legislation prohibiting gender discrimination in high school and college sports.

Watch a snippet of the ESPN segment here.

UPDATE: As a result of the ESPN segment, the NCAA will review its policy for scholarship athletes who become pregnant, the New York Times reports.

Item #2: Snarky Parents Now Have Multiple Online Options

Not so long ago, I sang the praises of the snarky parenting web site Babble, which has all sorts of anti-sanctimommy features that just tickle me silly.

Now they’ve got competition in the form of Offsprung whose motto is, “Your life didn’t end when you became a parent.” Offsprung offers a number of blogs and includes a feature called “Ask Alternadad,” written by Neal Pollock, author of Alternadad where he fields parenting questions, like this one:

“Dear Alternadad, My son has recently graduated up to the next size car
seat, but alas I have trouble fitting it into my ‘hipster’ car, a
convertible Camaro. I can’t stand the idea of neutering myself and driving
a minivan. What words of wisdom do you have to avoid such a
terrible fate?

Jeff N

Jeff:

I could have a robot answer this one for me. In robot voice, say it with
me: DO NOT GIVE UP YOUR BELOVED CAR JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE A KID. If you were having your third kid, I’d say make some concessions, but if it’s just one, you’ve got to find some way to squeeze it into the car.”

Item #3: What Happens in Vegas . . .

. . . stays with my EIGHT-YEAR-OLD? My son Jonah received an invitation in the mail to “take advantage of great rates this summer” and to enjoy some Golden Nugget Las Vegas nights.

Apparently Vegas is targeting a new demographic.

E-mail Meredith