Just goes to show—all parents have their moments. Even heads of state get frazzled and occasionally forget about the kids.
In a colossal oopsie, British PM David Cameron and his wife must have been sipping too many shandies when they left the pub without their 8-year-old daughter Nancy in tow.
On screen, such parental bloopers are hilarious. Home Alone banked on the joke more than once. But in real life, such forehead slapping moments can quickly turn into missing persons catastrophes (think Madeline McCann).
For devoted dad David Cameron and his wife Samantha, the Incident at the Plough Inn will be hard to live down. After a weekend in the countryside, the Camerons were apparently "distraught" when they realized their daughter wasn't with them.
Any parent knows what an ordeal it is to travel with young children, what with packing the kitchen sink for a single day trip. No doubt it must be doubly so when you hold a political office and travel with a convoy.
According to the BBC report, the Camerons and two other families broke for lunch. The PM, who rode with bodyguards, assumed Nancy was riding in the other car with their two other children, 6-year-old Arthur, 22-month-old Florence.
Fifteen minutes later, pub staff at the Plough Inn were bemused and unsure how to handle the situation.
"It's not like you can look up David Cameron in the phone book and then ring to say, 'You've left your daughter behind.' It's frightening the Prime Minister of Britain can forget something so important as his own daughter."
Does this incident show the PM's humanity or his fecklessness? Have you ever 'forgotten' your child anywhere?
What does math have to do with obesity? Quite a lot, it seems. New research from the University of Missouri has found an unlikely link between math smarts and children's weight.
According to lead researcher and associate professor in the MU Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, Sara Gable, there are "complex relationships among children's weight, social and emotional wellbeing, academics and time."
Having followed a national sample of more than 6,250 children from kindergarten through fifth grade, Gable then compared data on academic, interpersonal skills and emotional well being vis-a-vis weight and measurements.
Interestingly, boys and girls who were obese from the start of kindergarten through to fifth grade performed worse on the math tests than those who were never obese or whose obesity only emerged in later grades.
In addition to this unusual link, researchers also found a correlation between obesity and lack of social skills, feelings of sadness and anxiety. Self-esteem is clearly a factor that shapes a child's emotional wellbeing, but more research is needed to pinpoint exactly why and how weight affects academic performance.
Martha Payne is a true foodie. When the 9 year old from Argyll, Scotland started a blog called NeverSeconds, little did she know she would prompt a revolution of her own and gain accolades from the likes of Jamie Oliver.
Martha had been snapping pics of her school lunches and posting them on her blog, which she used to raise money for Mary’s Meals, an international movement against world hunger.
Along with the photos, Martha, who goes by VEG 'Veritas Ex Gustu'—truth from tasting, described and evaluated the meals in terms of health rating, portion size, even pieces of hair (thankfully few!)...
The Jamie Oliver protege occasionally raised questions about the food served. “I'd really like to know where the chicken [in a fajita] comes from so I am going to write to the lady in charge to ask. I know it comes from a hen but I'd like to know where the hen lived.”
Needless to say, although the school itself was supportive, the Argyll and Bute Council was less than thrilled with the cafeteria menu from Lochgilphead Primary School being made public.
At one point the Council even ordered Martha to stop posting photos, suggesting it was a tad ashamed of what it was dishing up. Following pressure from Martha's followers and Mr. Oliver himself, council leader Roderick McCuish since revoked the order.
For VEG the grassroots initiative has been worth it. At the time of writing, her page on Mary’s Meals had raised over $125,000 in donations. So there you have it, one little kid making a humongous difference.
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