My daughter is only 2, but ask her what she wants to be for Halloween and she’ll quickly tell you: “Princess!”

I’ve always been kind of a tomboy so I just don’t quite understand the princess fascination. In fact, I’m a little opposed to the gender stereotypes perpetuated by “The Little Mermaid,” “Cinderella” and many other Disney movies.

So of course I’m now the mom of the ultimate girly girl — the kind who’s already fascinated by high heels, sparkly dresses and anything pink.

I have this great, hand-me-down bunny costume that I really want her to wear. It’s soft and sweet and will keep her a lot warmer on Halloween night than a tutu or frilly ballgown.

At 2, she’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future to be a princess. Heck, some women never outgrow the need. But how long can you dress up as a bunny?

In the last few days, we’ve reached a compromise. She’ll let me put her in the bunny suit under one condition: Only if I put a sparkly tiara between the ears.

What are your kids dressing up as this Halloween?

After inspecting a book that her son checked out from the school library, Oregon mother Taffey Anderson decided never return it, according to a recent Associated Press story.

“The Book of Bunny Suicides” by British author Andy Riley is a cartoon collection that depicts a rabbit that tries to end its life in bizarre ways. Anderson’s 13-year-old son and his friends thought it was funny. His mom, however, did not.

“It is a comic book, but that’s not funny. Not at all,” Anderson told the Albany Democrat-Herald newspaper. “I don’t care if your kid is 16, 17, 18. It’s wrong.”

Anderson is trying to get the school district to ban the book, according to the AP. In the meantime, she refuses to return “Bunny Suicides” because she doesn’t want other children reading it.

A librarian interviewed by the AP described it as “kind of mature, a little twisted and black.” He compared it to the 1988 cartoon book, “101 Uses for a Dead Cat.”

“Every family is different, and the range of community values in fiction, in movies, nonfiction, is so broad it’s astonishing,” librarian Scott Keeney told the AP. “Some families, you’d be astonished at what they allow or disallow on all sides of the open-information-for-children spectrum.”

How do you decide what’s appropriate reading material for your children?

There are days when it seems as though I spend more time talking to my husband on the phone or communicating via e-mail than actually talking in person. We get so busy during the week. Sometimes, sending a quick e-mail to him at work becomes the most efficient way to relay information about the kids, the household or perhaps what to cook for dinner.

We’re not the only ones, obviously. According to a Washington Post story published earlier this week, more families “have compensated for the stress and hurry of modern life with cell phone calls, e-mails, text messages and other new forms of communication.”

And the new technology is actually making families closer, according to a report published by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

“There had been some fears that the Internet had been taking people away from each other,” Barry Wellman, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto and one of the report authors, told the Washington Post. “We found just the opposite.” Wellman said families appreciated the innovations because “they know what each other is doing during the day.”

How much time do you spend talking on the cell phone, texting or sending e-mail to the people in your household?

It doesn’t end in the 10th grade, apparently. While many of us worry about our kids getting bullied at school, it seems that some of us moms do it to each other.

This occurred to me while reading an excerpt from “Queen Bee Moms & Kingpin Dads,” written by Rosalind Wiseman, the same author who wrote “Queen Bees & Wannabes.”

“Queen Bee Moms appear to have perfect lives,” she wrote. “They’re often very charming, and they really, really like being in charge. They’re often coaches, class parents, or heads of the PTA. The hallmark of a Queen Bee Mom isn’t that she’s in a leadership position (not all class parents are Queen Bees); it’s that she has to be in control.”

I think I’ve had my share of experiences with Queen Bee Moms, but maybe I’ve also displayed some of the telltale signs – bossy behavior, afraid to ask for help, can’t admit when they feel overwhelmed.

Along those lines, I found this funny “ninja survival guide” for mommy cliques. Here are some of the tips from the writer, Sonja Stewart:

1. Remember you are not in high school anymore.
2. Don’t use your kids as social movers. Do your own dirty work.
3. Volunteer without overextending. Go ahead and bake cookies for the bake sale fundraiser. Sewing the costumes for the entire school play however, may not be such a hot idea.
4. Don’t gossip.
5. Be nice. It may not have always worked in the adolescent jungle, but in grown up land, it counts for a lot. Ask questions, act interested, and listen.
6. When it gets nasty, leave.

Her best advice came at the end. “I also like to say a little mantra when I feel nervous. You should try it: ‘I am a ninja.’ It works,” she wrote. “Try it next time you’re faced with the catty moms that ‘forget’ to invite your kid to their three-year-old’s birthday party.”

Do mommy cliques really exist? What’s your experience?

Sometimes in the midst of sleepless nights, toddler tantrums, endless carpools and teenage angst, it’s hard to remember why we wanted children in the first place.
Tonight my third-grader reminded me. He came into the kitchen and said, “Mom, I’m writing a book. Wanna know the title?”
“Sure,” I replied.
“It’s called ‘Cindy: More Perfect than the Moon.’”
I put down the dishcloth and looked into his blue eyes. “Sam, that sounds wonderful. What’s it about?”
He showed me the title page covered with tons of tiny hearts. “It’s about you, Mom and how much I love you.”
Of course I pulled him into a huge hug and told him I couldn’t wait to read it.
As he walked off he said, “It’ll be a mostly true story.”

We’ve certainly heard a lot about the presidential and vice presidential candidates’ roles as parents. What we haven’t heard, however, are their views on work life policy, New York Times reporter Lisa Belkin points out in her blog, “Motherlode: Adventures in Parenting.”

“Ask people with children what most shapes their worldview, and being a parent would likely be high on the list,” Belkin writes. “And yet we don’t make our political decisions as ‘parents,’ don’t base our vote on the candidates views of how to help families juggle life and work, don’t see parents as an interest group.”

Belkin interviewed Ellen Galinsky, president of the non-partisan Families and Work Institute. Galinsky thinks its time for voters to ask about the candidates’ position on things like workplace flexibility, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the “time famine” that many working parents experience.

How does your perspective as a mom, dad or grandparent influence the way you vote?

I would like to tell parents about a local mathematics tutoring program, currently held at Gonzaga University during both semesters of the school year. It’s held on Saturdays, about three times a month, from 10-11:30 a.m.

The tutors are handpicked engineering and mathematics students from Gonzaga. The program is geared toward students in grades 3-12, and they will take anyone (from any school district) who can make it there.

The tutoring is done individually or in groups of two or three. This is not a classroom format, so it’s tailored to meet individual students’ needs. The tutors will teach the students anything they need to learn, but the goal is to teach them the mathematics they’ll need for the future they envision for themselves.

I would like to take a moment to mention again that the main math curricula in Spokane Public Schools are reform curricula: “Bridges,” “Investigations in Number, Data, and Space,” “Connected Mathematics” and “Core-Plus Mathematics.” Mathematicians and math advocates have criticized reform curricula, especially these ones, for their lack of rigor and clarity and their illogical approach to the subject. If your children take solely reform classes – and without some sort of intervention, remediation or tutoring – they are likely to require costly intervention before they begin college classes, a trade, or a job requiring any sort of arithmetic.

I encourage you to speak with people who are well trained in actual mathematics and run your questions past them. You also can take a look at my blog on education, specifically these articles:

Birth of reform = demise of skills
The “Laws” of Learning
What’s Wrong with Education?

The Gonzaga tutoring program is run at no cost to parents. The organizers ask only that if you sign up, then you make sure your children are there. Space is limited, and the tutors are volunteering their time.

If you’re interested in this program, please call Andrew Holguin at 998-7752.

Youth shouldn’t wait until high school to study a foreign language, according to numerous experts including Mary Lynn Redmond, an associate professor of education at Wake Forest University and a member of the National Network for Early Language Learning.

“Children should start learning a foreign language in kindergarten and continue through high school,” Redmond says in this WFU press release. “Learning languages helps increase listening ability, memory, creativity and critical thinking - all of which are thinking processes that increase learning in general.”

I think a lot of parents are paying attention to studies and people like Redmond. While playing in various parks this summer, my kids and I kept meeting children who spoke another language besides English. Spanish was especially popular. I figured they were watching “Dora The Explorer” and learning a few phrases.

Another mother told me it was more intentional than that. Jamie Henneman, owner of Lazy Lightning Ranch in Rice, Wash., travels all the way to Mead so that her 4-year-old son, Beau, can learn Spanish at Villa Vista Language Academy. Although it’s a two-hour drive from her farm, she believes it’s worth it. Learning a second language not only develops thinking skills, she told me. It also exposes Beau to another culture and expands his world view.

This discussion over coffee one afternoon led me to check out Villa Vista and write a story about the benefits of learning a foreign language. Some people complain that there isn’t much culture in Spokane, but while researching this article, I discovered so many schools and communities committed to teaching children about other languages and ways of life.

How about your family? Have you considered learning a foreign language together or enrolling your children in a language school? Those who do it say it’s one way to expose their kids to diversity.

Besides studying another language, how else can we expose our children to other ways of looking at the world?