Are Parents' Don't Lists Getting Longer?

In spite of the song "Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys", that might be better than letting them be business majors. According to the 2011 PayScale survey, a business degree ranked 59th. Students majoring in linguistics, biology, fashion design, literature, urban planning, food science and philosophy made more money. In mid-career salaries petroleum engineering/$155,000 was #1 - followed by chemical engineering/$109,000; electrical engineering/$103,000; material science and engineering/$103,000; aerospace engineering/$102,000; computer engineering/$101,000; physics/$101,000; applied mathematics/$98,600; nuclear engineering/$97,800; and biomedical engineering/$97,800. The top 20 highest-paying college degrees all require advanced math. The facts "add up".

Something else we shouldn't let children do is eat out too much. This trend has been increasing, reflecting the availability of fast food restaurants and food prepared in supermarkets and convenience stores. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, between 1977 and 2006 calories eaten away from home increased from 23.4% to 33.9%. We also shouldn't serve so much fast food at home. In 2006 almost half the fast food children ate was eaten at home. Fast foods and prepared foods are high in fat, salt, sugar and calories - causing a "growing" problem.

However, there's one thing you can't stop mothers from doing. That's worrying. Recent government figures show that in 2011 it cost an average $227,000 to raise a child from birth to age 17. When the parenting website BabyCenter asked 1,300 mothers what expenses they most worried about, 66% said school or college education. Housing was the second biggest worry/47%. Childcare, family vacations, and healthcare and medical bills were tied/44%. Food/42% was followed by transportation/41%, children's activities/39%, family outings/32%, utilities/28%, baby care/26%, taxes/19%, new baby gear and furniture/11% and other/3%. On the list of worries, worry lines must come under "other".

Nevertheless, there is something mothers-to-be can do. They can take fish oil. In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, 800 women were randomly given 400 milliliters of DHA (one of two main ingredients in fish oil) or a placebo daily from their second trimester through birth. Three times during the next 6 months researchers asked if the babies had experienced cold symptoms in the previous 15 days and if so, how long. The DHA babies not only had shorter periods of cold symptoms, but at 1 month they had 24% lower risk of any cold symptoms. DHA could help parents fight the "cold war".