Enter to win a $1,000 Grocery Gift Card and a personal message from Kristen Bell!

Shop
 Explore 

13 comics use 'science' to hilariously illustrate the frustrations of parenting.

"Newton's First Law of Parenting: A child at rest will remain at rest ... until you need your iPad back."

All images by Jessica Ziegler

Kids grab everywhere.

This article originally appeared on 11.30.16

Norine Dworkin-McDaniel's son came home from school one day talking about Newton's first law of motion.

He had just learned it at school, her son explained as they sat around the dinner table one night. It was the idea that "an object at rest will remain at rest until acted on by an external force."

"It struck me that it sounded an awful lot like him and his video games," she joked.

A writer by trade and always quick to turn a phrase, Norine grabbed a pen and scribbled some words:

"Newton's First Law of Parenting: A child at rest will remain at rest ... until you need your iPad back."

And just like that, she started creating "The Science of Parenthood," a series that names and identifies hilarious, universal parenting struggles. She put in a quick call to her friend Jessica Ziegler, a visual and graphics expert, and together the two set out to bring the project to life.

Here are some of their discoveries:

1. Newton's first law of parenting

A taste of the “gimmies."

2. The sleep geometry theorem

teenagers, science of parenthood, science

There’s plenty of room.

3. The baby fluids effusion rule

Duck.

4. The carnival arc

Can we go?

5. The Archimedes bath-time principle

Clean up the clean up.

6. Schrödinger's backpack

Homework... ehh.

7. The naptime disruption theorem

Who needs sleep. It’s rhetorical.

8. Calculation disintegration

I have a calculator on my phone.

9. Chuck e-conomics

How much does that cost?

10. Plate tectonics

Where’s the chicken tenders?

11. Silicaphobia

Oh good, sunburns.

12. Delusions of launder

When did we get all these clothes?

13. The Costco contradiction

I want them now, not then.

Norine and Jessica's work struck a nerve with parents everywhere.

Norine said almost every parent who sees the cartoons has a similar reaction: a quiet moment of recognition, followed by a huge laugh as they recognize their own families in the illustrations.

But is there more to it than just getting a few chuckles? You bet, Norine and Jessica said.

"Even, at the worst possible moments, you're standing there, your child has just vomited all over you, or you've opened up the diaper and your kid is sitting waist deep in liquid ****. Even at that moment, it's not really that bad," Norine said. "You will be able to laugh at this at some point."

"It gets better. You're not alone in this parenting thing."

From Your Site Articles

Health

This Morning, I Didn't Know What A Binaural Soundscape Was. Now All I Want To Do Is Listen To Them.

The results are astounding.

Image via Pixabay.

A total mind expanding experience is a click away.

I found a hidden gem on the Internet this week: NPR has a Soundcloud set of "binaural soundscapes." Strap on your headphones — it's going to be a surreal ride.Important note: If you have hearing loss, this may not work well for you.

Maybe you don't know what a binaural recording is.

Basically, the deal is, you have two ears.

They are the width of your head apart. And there's a big lumpy meatball in the middle. So your ears hear different things. Then your brain processes these two distinct streams of information and uses them to position stuff in space. Standard stereo recording often uses a couple of mics, but it's not trying to position them in a way that mimics your ears.

Keep ReadingShow less

Science

Only 1% of all Americans get to experience this incredible sight.

It used to be something that everyone saw any evening when they walked out their door.

Photo by Warren Wong on Unsplash

When the light is getting in the way of the night.

Wow. I never thought about how rare this is before, but many people literally can go their whole lives without experiencing the vastness of space and their own smallness.

It used to be something that everyone saw any evening when they walked out their door.

It used to be that when you looked up at the night sky, you would see deep into the farthest reaches of space and time, but now...

Nope.

Keep ReadingShow less

Heroes

Want To Be Happy? You Only Have To Do 1 Thing. Over And Over.

How to encourage that impulse to grow within ourselves, our communities, and our children.

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

The sum is stronger than the individual parts.

Matthieu Ricard says that the way for all of us to live sustainably on this planet is to adopt a culture of thinking about each other. And not just the others who are here right now, but also people we'll never meet.

He tells us some stuff that you're probably tired of hearing. We're exhausting our planets resources. Humanity has completely screwed everything up on this planet.

But stick around because he's going to get crazy surprising.

This is not a speech about recycling.

He points out that our situation is even more serious than you might have known. We're rapidly exceeding the planetary boundaries that make Earth habitable.

Keep ReadingShow less

13 comics use 'science' to hilariously illustrate the frustrations of parenting.

"Newton's First Law of Parenting: A child at rest will remain at rest ... until you need your iPad back."

Norine Dworkin-McDaniel's son came home from school one day talking about Newton's first law of motion.

A writer by trade and always quick to turn a phrase, Norine grabbed a pen and scribbled some words:

1. Newton's first law of parenting

2. The sleep geometry theorem

3. The baby fluids effusion rule

4. The carnival arc

5. The Archimedes bath-time principle

6. Schrödinger's backpack

7. The naptime disruption theorem

8. Calculation disintegration

9. Chuck e-conomics

10. Plate tectonics

11. Silicaphobia

12. Delusions of launder

13. The Costco contradiction

Unbelievable. 😂

Every parent has been there.

Every parent has been there.

Mom and blogger Danielle Silverstein made an "admission" on Facebook: "I really AM a hot-mess mom."

Near the end of the now super-viral post, Silverstein reaches an important realization.

The post has racked up thousands of shares and comments from other parents who want to say, "YES! THANK YOU!"

Kids were tougher then for a reason.

The results are astounding.

Basically, the deal is, you have two ears.

Recording artists have started building these crazy microphone setups that imitate the position and direction of your real ears.

It's like a window into other landscapes. It makes the world feel so close and small and familiar.

First stop: A regular day on a street in Tibet.

Next up, a stop in the Ecuadorean rain forest to hear the song of the orapendula. (It's a bird. I looked it up.)

Let's wrap up with a visit to Dzanga Bai, a clearing in the Central African Republic, where elephants gather as evening closes in.

For more magical journeys, check out the rest of NPR's Binaural Soundscapes.

It used to be something that everyone saw any evening when they walked out their door.

Wow. I never thought about how rare this is before, but many people literally can go their whole lives without experiencing the vastness of space and their own smallness.

Not anymore. We're lighting up our cities like never before.

Over 99% of Americans in the continental U.S. live in areas that are considered light polluted.

Are you scared of total darkness?

How to encourage that impulse to grow within ourselves, our communities, and our children.

But stick around because he's going to get crazy surprising.

And, let's be honest, it's easy not to feel crazy urgent about this, right?

When we consider how we treat our planet, when we're talking about big action, we're doing it because we'd like our kids and grandkids to not live in a post-apocalyptic hellscape.

But then he offers a solution.

An international survey found that the very most perfect predictor of happiness is the quality of human relationships.

But how do we encourage that impulse to grow within ourselves, our communities, and our children?