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Pop Culture

Little girl having an adorable meltdown to football is every anti-sports person everywhere

Every team needs a mascot.

Little girl having an adorable meltdown to football is every anti-sports person everywhere
TikTok/Wikipedia

You win some, you lose some.

Lots of people love sports. Many tolerate them. Some can’t stand them. And for those in the third category—myself included—two-year-old Mara Grace understands how you feel.

Thanks to Mara’s mom, Rylee, a video has gone viral on TikTok showing the adorable toddler have a wholehearted UGH moment as her father, Alex, watches football in the background.

According to Today, Alex, who is “obsessed” with football, had high hopes of making his daughter into a football fan, going so far as to buy baby jerseys. Sorry, dad, she ain’t interested, and her level of detest is both hilarious and super relatable for anyone who’d rather watch literally anything other than giant people running around trying to get a ball from one side of a field to the other.

The clip shows Rylee asking Mara, who is already visibility perturbed, “you don’t like football?”

As Mara shakes her head emphatically, dad can be heard in the background saying, “You're gonna have to learn to like it."

@ryleelainegrace It’s the dramatic ending for me 😂 #fyp#football#nfl#toddlersoftiktok#drama♬ original sound - Rylee Grace

Apparently those words were hurtful, because Mara’s eyes fill up with tears as she insists that what she actually likes is the superhero cartoon series “PJ Masks.” Kids have an admirable way of liking what they like unapologetically.

“PJ Masks” apparently has a humanoid octopus girl for a villain, so Mara is clearly in the right here anyway.

Rylee patiently reiterates that “Daddy’s watching football,” to which an exasperated Mara exclaims, “I DON’T WANT FOOTBALL!” Yes, you can hear the all caps in her voice.

Mara’s wail is the battle cry for anti-sports people everywhere. When we look at a game, we don’t see a dazzling display of athletic prowess. We see torture. Bleak and utterly boring torture that slowly drains our soul for what feels like hours. Hours.

Poor little Mara might be in the minority, but she is not alone, especially among the younger crowd. A recent study revealed that only 15% of Gen Z consider themselves “avid” sports fans, compared to the upper 20% of millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers. Gen Z also had the largest group of folks who were proudly part of the “not a sports fan team.” There are several theories as to why young people aren’t that interested—whether it’s not having the attention span to watch hours of a game due to short forms of content for entertainment or a lack of interest in aggressive competition.

Not to rag on sports—they do provide belonging, excitement and a sense of camaraderie to those who enjoy them. And that’s lovely. But that kind of joy can come from many different sources. For Mara, it’s “PJ Masks.” For me, it’s musicals—yes, I know, the only people more obnoxious than sports fans are theater nerds. For someone else, it’s something else. No matter what, there are always gonna be people who loathe the thing you love. Sadly for Alex, that person is his own daughter. Hopefully he didn't spend too much on those sports jerseys.

As for Mara, she is the official mascot for Team No SpOrTz!

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Science

Astronaut shares the profound 'big lie' he realized after seeing the Earth from space

This change in perspective could change humanity.

via Rubén Moreno Montolíu/Flickr

Our home, from space.

Sixty-one years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to make it into space and probably the first to experience what scientists now call the "overview effect." This change occurs when people see the world from far above and notice that it’s a place where “borders are invisible, where racial, religious and economic strife are nowhere to be seen.”

The overview effect makes man’s squabbles with one another seem incredibly petty and presents the planet as it truly is, one interconnected organism.

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Pop Culture

Special ring that tells people you're single created for folks tired of dating apps

The Pear ring is a new "social experiment" trying to connect folks IRL, not online.

Photo by Michael Discenza on Unsplash

Dating never stays the same.

Why, it feels like it was only yesterday when dating apps were the shiny new trend in the singles world. However, with life becoming increasingly more virtual, many people are looking to become less dominated by screens. As a result, folks are once again hoping to find love from an authentic connection IRL. Swiping just isn’t as romantic (or cutting edge) as it used to be.

That’s where the Pear ring comes in. Self dubbed as the “world’s biggest social experiment,” this $25 brightly colored blue ring offers something classic, with a twist. Basically, folks wear it out to signal they’re single and ready to mingle. Almost like the opposite of an engagement ring, really.
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Family

Wife cooks nachos for 'picky' husband who refused to eat her salmon. But she has a point.

Should she be cooking two meals?

via TheMamaBrianna/TikTok

Brianna Greenfield makes nachos for her husband.

A viral video showing a woman preparing nachos for her "picky" spouse after he refused to eat the salmon dinner she cooked has sparked a contentious debate on TikTok. The video was shared on April 26 by Brianna Greenfield (@themamabrianna on TikTok) and has since earned over 2.5 million views.

Brianna is a mother of two who lives in Iowa.

The video starts with Brianna grating a massive hunk of cheese with a caption that reads: “My husband didn’t eat the dinner that I made…So let’s make him some nachos.”

“If I don’t feed him, he literally won’t eat,” she wrote. “This used to irritate me. Now I just blame his mother for never making him try salmon,” Greenfield wrote. The video features Meghan Trainor’s single “Mother” playing in the background.

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New study shows spanking hurts kids' mental health and is less effective at teaching lessons

Why is it wrong to hit an adult or an animal but OK to spank a child?

Photo by Kat J on Unsplash

Yet another study shows that spanking isn't good for kids.

Whether to spank your child or not is one of the oldest debates among parents. Many live by the age-old wisdom that to “spare the rod” is to “spoil the child,” while others believe it’s wrong to resort to violence to punish a child when so many alternatives exist.

It also begs the question: If it's wrong to hit your spouse or pet, why is it acceptable to hit a defenseless child?

The 2021 American Family Study found that support for spanking has declined in the U.S. over the past few years. In 2015, 54% either somewhat or strongly agreed with the practice, but that number dropped to 47% in 2021. Thirty-five percent of respondents disagree with the practice and 18% neither agree nor disagree.

A new research study from the Parent and Family Research Alliance in Australia led by Professor Sophie Havighurst and Professor Daryl Higgins from Australian Catholic University makes a strong case that people should stop using corporal punishment to discipline their kids. The study “Corporal punishment of children in Australia: The evidence-based case for legislative reform” analyzed countless studies on the topic and found spanking ineffective and harmful.

The study was published to urge lawmakers to make corporal punishment in Australia illegal. Sixty-five states across the world have made corporal punishment illegal, protecting 14% of the world’s children.

The study defined corporal punishment of children as using physical force to cause pain, but not injury, to correct or control a child’s behavior.

The most startling meta-analysis published in the study found that "only 1 out of 111 statistically significant effect sizes was associated with a link between 'spanking' and a positive child outcome," while 110 were found to be associated with adverse outcomes.

The one positive outcome was in a 1972 study of children of the U.S. military living in West Germany that found those spanked showed less amphetamine and opiate use as adults.

However, the remaining 110 significant results found that spanking had adverse effects, including: “reducing trust and connection with those they are closest to, lower self-esteem, more internalizing and externalizing behavior problems including aggression, mental health difficulties, and increased risk for later substance abuse, antisocial behavior, and violence.”

A meta-analysis found that when children are spanked, they are less likely to internalize the moral implications of the behaviors that led them to be disciplined. It also found that non-physical discipline was more effective at teaching “alternative behaviors,” “developing a child’s conscience,” and advancing their “emotional development.”

Another meta-analysis cited in the story found that corporal punishment in childhood was associated with mental health problems, low self-esteem and antisocial behavior.

In the end, the studies show that corporal punishment is counter-productive when it comes to raising healthy, happy children. But it will take much more than a study to get people to reconsider their views of corporal punishment because they are deeply rooted in many cultural traditions.

Looking for some non-physical alternatives to discipline your child? Here’s a great place to start from WebMD.

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Identity

Woman’s experience scheduling an EEG highlights the unconscious bias of textured hair

Though her scalp was exposed for the procedure, they still insisted she take her twists out, making it harder to get to her scalp.

Sadé Naima|TikTok

Woman can't schedule EEG due to unconscious textured hair bias.

Getting a medical procedure done can be scary, or at the very least nerve-wracking, no matter how many times you've had it done. It's something that's outside of your normal routine and you're essentially at the mercy of the medical facility and providers. Most of the time, the pre-procedure instructions make sense, and if something catches you by surprise, it's usually easily explained.

Sadé Naima recently had an experience while attempting to get an EEG that wasn't easily explained away. In fact, the entire situation didn't make sense to the TikTok creator who experiences migraines. Naima uploaded a video to the social media platform explaining the sequence of events that happened after her doctor referred her to receive an MRI and EEG.

An MRI uses a magnetic field to generate images and an EEG uses electrodes that stick to your scalp to create images of your brain waves.

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Heroic train conductor spots and saves 3-year-old autistic, nonverbal boy lost on tracks

He was dangerously close to the third rail.

via MTA info/YouTube

An MTA employee rescues a 3-year-old child on the tracks.

Five Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees are hailed as heroes for their quick thinking and diligence in the April 6 rescue of a young boy. Locomotive Engineer William Kennedy was operating a southbound Hudson Line train near Tarrytown, a few miles north of New York City, when he noticed an unusual object on the northbound track.

That “object” was a 3-year-old boy.

Kennedy sent an emergency call out to all trains in the area, catching the attention of a northbound conductor, Shawn Loughran, and a trainee. Loughran slowed down his train as he approached the child, who was straddling the electrified third rail.

When the train screeched to a halt, Assistant Conductor Marcus Higgins didn't waste a second. Leaping down the tracks, he sprinted 40 yards ahead of the train, scooping up the young child like a guardian angel.

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