The best in parenting news and blogs from around the Web.

Uggh, another disturbing new trend involving teen girls and the internet. Dozens of tween and young teen girls have decided to poll the YouTube audience to find out how pretty or ugly internet trolls think they are. The girls pose and flaunt, asking strangers to tell them if they're cute. While the girls post videos with headlines reading, "Am I ugly?," the main question for many viewers is whether these vulnerable girls should have such unrestricted internet access. Please, check your kids' YouTube accounts.

Is asking other moms for help really mooching?

So many of us are marooned on Mom Island. We've talked about it before; we love our kids more than anything but sometimes we need a little help. Whether we're a stay-at-home mom who needs someone to watch her kids while she goes to the doctor, or a working mom who needs someone to help out with childcare during an early release day from school, we all need help once in a while. But so often we feel guilty asking for it. Or, if we do bravely ask for it, people will accuse us of being "mooches." Recently, a mom complained that a friend was repeatedly asking her to provide free child care in the name of friendship. In response to that, some moms wonder, if that's not what friends do for each other, then what is it that friends do, exactly?

Sports Parents: Put down the playbook and pick up the pom poms.

The agony of a crushing defeat. The pain of a missed goal or failed tackle. That's nothing compared to the post-game critique by parents. One coach and sports administrator who's interviewed hundreds of college athletes says that for many kids, their worst sports memory involves the play-by-play analysis on the ride home. What made those same athletes feel great? Having a parent say something as simple as, "I love watching you play."

You're not an annoying helicopter parent -- or are you?

If you've ever carried a mobile four-year-old down the stairs because they whined, you might be a helicopter mom. If you've ever wiped your child's bottom even though they can do it themselves, you might be a helicopter mom. If you've ever tied your son's shoes even though he can tie them himself, you might be a helicopter mom. When we think of micromanaging moms, we tend to think of the extremes, the uptight ones from the commercials with their travel-sized antibacterial lotion ever at the ready. But, what about some of the smaller, more subtle ways we hover? Don't worry, there's help. Experts advise that we stop doing things for our kids that they can do for themselves. One idea is to help your child, however young, build her resume. Can he put on his jammies on his own? Put that on a chart with a star next to it. Going to the bathroom without assistance? Put it on a chart with a star next to it. Perhaps our favorite bit of advice is to carve out time each day to sit and have a cup of coffee. If your kids come to you during that time (and it's not an emergency), you calmly explain that you're having coffee and will help them in 10 minutes. This will give you a moment of peace and help them learn some self-sufficiency.

A five-year-old lives his life as one of the youngest transgender kids.

Some kids just feel like they were born in the wrong body. A five-year-old boy in Britain is gaining attention for being one of the youngest transgender children. He first told his parents he was a girl when he was only three years old. At first, his parents thought it was just a phase and largely dismissed it. But, more and more, he got upset when people called him a boy and he started asking to wear girls' clothes. He even got so upset that he tried to cut off his penis in frustration. After meeting with experts, his parents began to let him dress as a girl and grow his hair long. His mom has said “I would love to have my son back, but I want him to be happy. If this is the route he wants to take, if this is what makes him happy, then so be it. I would rather him have my full support." While many have applauded his parents' support, some wonder whether a child that young can really know something so big and monumental.

Dana Macario is a TODAY Moms contributor and Seattle mom to two sleep-depriving toddlers. Once properly caffeinated, she also blogs at www.18years2life.com.

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After a morning filled with activities and errands, there is no better pick-me-up than a cup of warm, sweet coffee. But what to do when there is a tot constantly clamoring for your attention? Enter the babyccino - also known as a small cup of steamed milk and foam.

Babyccinos have gotten a lot of press as of late, after a Brooklyn paper noted that many local parents are ordering the drinks – some with shots of decaf espresso - for their kids, at a price of up to $2 a pop.

Milk-only babyccinos aren’t actually anything new, despite the recent attention they are getting. For years, I have requested them for my kids, as a way to keep them occupied so I can get at least two minutes to sip my much-stronger drink in peace.

The new baby food?

And I have yet to be asked to pay for this ounce of warm milk, although I do feel immense gratitude for the barista - and the coffee shop – who are giving me a moment to catch my breath. But are coffee shops justified if they do charge for it? Absolutely, and kudos to them for the clever marketing.

Kids and milk go together like peanut butter and jelly, so there really shouldn’t be any surprise that kids like these little cups of goodness. Add to it the fact that they come in a cup just like mommy’s, and it’s a guaranteed recipe for success. What is semi-surprising is that some parents are adding shots of decaf espresso to the mix.

“There is no reason on earth to have these drinks and introduce caffeine to a younger population,” said TODAY chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman on Wednesday's "The Professionals" segment, noting that even decaf drinks have a small amount of caffeine. “But will it hurt them? No.”

"They have plenty of time to be an adult," agreed fellow panelist and former ad-exec Donny Deutsch.

What's wrong with a a good, old-fashioned hot chocolate?

Rachel Elbaum is a London-based writer and mom to two milk drinkers.

Get your TODAY Moms fix right here:
The French are better parents? Excusez-moi!?
Duggars talk about their miscarriage, next pregnancy
Child's toy freaks out Al Roker
Moms get a fashion show, and it's about time

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The best in parenting news and blogs from around the Web.

World War III could very well start over parenting disputes. Joining the Chinese and the French, the Italians have now entered the Axis of Superiority. How are the Italians better than us, you grumble? Their kids are culinary champions. Yet another expat rings in on the ways another culture is better when it comes to raising kids. This time, the mom in question lives in Rome and claims that leisurely mealtime experiences are an important part of the culture and the kids are expected to partake. While some restaurants here have instituted brat bans, she claims that even the top-rated restaurants in Italy welcome wee ones with open arms. She credits the Italians' love of all children as part of the reason it's possible for parents to gobble up all that delicious pasta without forking out for a sitter. We want to be annoyed but now we're too busy trying to decide whether we want gnocchi or ravioli for dinner.

Guten tag, it's Oktoberfest at your local preschool.

Ooh, look! An itty bitty beer stein for itty bitty hands. A preschool in Cincinnati has come under fire from one irate mom after they served the kiddos apple juice in shot-glass-size beer steins as part of a German celebration. The lesson was part of the school's program to teach kids about other countries. The mom had no problem with the lederhosen-wearing accordion player the school brought in, but strongly felt it was crossing a line to have preschoolers simulating alcohol consumption. She let the principal know what she thought about the matter, in such a manner that got her removed the premises. Do you think the mom has a valid concern or is it just a bit of harmless fun to let kids drink juice from a beer stein?

Crying baby on the plane makes for an emergency exit situation.

While we give kids miniature beer steins in honor of Germany and the Italians have perfected dining with kids, it seem that flying with small kids sucks no matter what country you're from. Flying with babies and small children is its own form of torture. Flying with a baby who won't stop crying could be classified as an "enhanced interrogation technique." A mom in Vietnam recently resorted to extreme measures as she struggled with her upset babe while the plane sat on the tarmac. Desperate to escape, she asked the man next to her to open the emergency exit door. He agreed. Poor guy, not only did he have to listen to a baby crying next to him, he then got fined $950 for trying to get that sad kid (and himself) a bit of peace. The mom didn't get to escape and nobody even got to use the slide, which makes us wonder if everyone on the plane was crying by the end of that little escapade. Also, it apparently costs airlines $10,000 to get one of those slides stuffed back in the plane.

Teacher has students send cards to inmate charged with possessing child porn.

When teachers encourage their students to send cards to lonely people, we say "aww." When we find out that those people are lonely because they're in prison and have been accused of possessing child pornography, the "aww" quickly turns to "Eew!" An elementary school teacher in Queens might lose her job after it was discovered that she'd encouraged her students to send holiday cards to her boyfriend, who's doing time at a high-security correctional facility. Just to make sure she fully crossed that inappropriate threshold, she also encouraged them to include their names and addresses on them, so the inmate could "reply." Eek, no.

Drinking while parenting.

Fans everywhere have been saddened by Whitney Houston's passing. While the world is disappointed about the loss of a great talent, we can only imagine what her daughter is going through right now. Whitney's public struggle with addiction has some thinking about the children of addicts all over the country. An estimated one in ten kids in America have a parent with an alcohol use disorder. This week is Children of Alcoholics Week. Some say that, as a culture, we've turned a blind eye to parents with addiction, and jokes about "mommy's little helpers" and flip comments about our kids driving us to drink are masking more serious problems.

Dana Macario is a TODAY Moms contributor and Seattle mom to two sleep-depriving toddlers. Once properly caffeinated, she also blogs at www.18years2life.com.

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C'mon kids, hop in the car!

Long drives with the kids can be hellish... or heavenly, depending on your perspective (and your children's attitudes). It's the latter for Al Roker, who says family drives are one of his favorite weekend activities.

TODAY's weatherman called the trips an "underrated pastime" and a great way to spend time with his kids. After all, he says, it worked for his parents when he was a kid. Sometimes the simple family activities are the best.

But even if there's no time for daylong jaunts, the father of three said short drives are beneficial, too.

"The other day I was driving my daughter and some of her friends to an event, and it was fun because you become invisible," he said in an interview with Parade magazine. "You get to hear a bit of their world."

Parents become the "ultimate fly on the wall," TODAY Moms writer Kavita Varma-White agreed in a previous post about carpools. (Though she admits it does sometimes create a quandary: Should you share your overheard info with other parents?)

Readers: Are family drives a joy ride, or a bad trip? What's your favorite go-to weekend activity to spend free time with your kids?

Steve Veres is an editor for TODAY.com. When growing up his family took annual road trips from Massachusetts to Georgia to visit the grandparents. Hence, he's a master at license plate Bingo.  

More on TODAY Moms:
When carpool becomes a goldmine of information
Al Roker’s toughest parenting moment
Child’s toy freaks out Al Roker

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What do you mean, you're buying a stroller?

I knew it was playdate suicide immediately after offering a cookie to a new friend’s organic-only, no-TV son. I was trying to bribe the boys to clean up, but by the look on her face I felt as though I was pushing drugs.

“You let him eat that?” she asked. When I nodded yes she continued, “We don’t let our children have any sugar.”

It’s not as though I’m a junk-food fanatic, but during the terrible twos, cookies did tend to be my go-to reward.

And while I breastfed both of my children for months, I have to admit, when I later found out she was still nursing her 3-year-old I realized we weren’t destined to become best friends.

Playdates with new mom friends can seem a lot like dating; both the excitement that comes from starting a friendship and the dread from knowing something can go horribly wrong. When parenting styles clash, a cool mom we met at the park can suddenly seem like a mother from another planet.

It’s one thing to hang out with friends who make different choices from our own, but when someone else questions our parenting skills, the mommy-defense mechanism springs into action.

Susan Newman, Ph.D., a social psychologist and author of more than a dozen books about parenting, explains it like this: “There’s a part of us that thinks that maybe our friend is right. It brings up a lot of questions and possibly guilt.”  

Did I feel guilty about offering cookies as bribes? Perhaps. But while we may bristle when another mom disciplines our child or critiques our parenting, speaking out immediately is definitely not the way to go.

I found that out the hard way when the 3-year-old son of a close friend hit another child with a plastic shovel on the playground. When my friend didn’t intervene, I took the shovel away and reprimanded her child. A heated argument began about whether we should meddle in each other’s affairs.

When someone gives us unsolicited advice, Newman advises saying something like, “I never thought of handling the situation that way” or “I’ll consider that.” After the fact you might say, “If my child is misbehaving, why don’t you let me handle that?” It can go a long way in diffusing the tension, Newman says.

While my friend and I were able to mend the friendship, sometimes it’s easier to spend time with our mom friends alone and leave the children at home.

“Anytime we do anything with our kids it turns into a complete nightmare,” one mom recently told me about a former close friend.

She realized they’d be better off hanging out without the kids when her friend’s daughter used crayons to deface the patio of a restaurant where they were eating. The girl’s mother said, “Well, kids will be kids.”

It nearly ended the friendship, but conflicts don’t need to.

“An overriding rule,” according to Newman, “is to evaluate the friendship and decide how important it is. If it’s very important we should handle the situation very carefully.”

How have you handled parenting-style clashes with your friends?

Kim Brown Reiner is a New York City mom, who tries not to speak to her 5-year-old daughter or 3-year-old son in the morning until she drinks coffee. In addition to freelance writing, she works as an educational consultant.

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While many parents are trying to keep up with Facebook’s ever-changing privacy policies, their kids are quietly taking their private conversations to Twitter. They are using multiple and anonymous accounts to communicate unobserved.

Teenagers are increasingly using Twitter because, according to my own teenage son, “Adults aren’t on it.” A survey conducted in July 2011 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which explores the impact of the internet on families and civic life, found that the number of 12- to 17-year olds on Twitter doubled from 2008 to 2010.

Escape from parental monitoring  isn’t the only thing driving teens to Twitter. When celebrities adopted the micro-blogging platform kids followed. One can only hope all of Justin Bieber’s 17 million+ followers are all teenagers. Eminem has 8 million (including my privacy-seeking son), Katy Perry 14 million, and Taylor Swift nearly 11 million. The same Pew survey found that most teens are happy using Twitter for benign purposes like following their favorite artists, exploring adolescent angst, and passing along immature humor. If only all kids could be as good as yours and mine.  

Kids can be mean, in real life and online
Electronic communication offers a distance that can embolden mean kids. “No one is safe from this new approach to bullying,” says Dawn Spragg, a Licensed Counselor  working with teens and their families in Bentonville, Arkansas, where three high school students were issued citations in Juvenile Court recently for publishing nasty tweets about classmates in a virtual "slam book" on Twitter. Spragg says that the anonymity of online aliases allows kids to bully without having to "back it up" like the bullies of decades past.

The Pew study found that 15 percent of teens have been the target of online bullying. This so-called cyber-bullying has become so prevalent that school districts nationwide are adding “electronic act” clauses to their anti-bullying policies to help them punish kids who bully others via phone or Internet. However, as pointed out in Twitter’s Parent and Teen Safety Tips, online harassment is usually rooted in "real world" relationships.

Parental controls and cyber policing is a waste of time and money
While it is important for parents to be concerned about what kids create and consume, it is crucial to nurture the real world character of our children through our relationships with them. Technology moves too quickly for parents to police. Even if they could monitor every tweet and text keystroke, parents should resist the urge. Spragg says we empower teens by helping them work toward “independent management of self.”

That’s missing the point. The real danger for kids in our always-online world is becoming addicted to the media itself to the detriment of real-time face-to-face communication. The Guardian UK spoke to researchers of a study soon to be released in the Journal of Psychological Science. They claim that due to the perceived low cost and high availability of media, resisting the urge to use it is harder than saying no to stronger drives like sex, alcohol, and tobacco. The instant feedback of social media is addictive and continuous. In the words of my son, “You can’t just end a conversation.”  

Instead of freaking out, let’s help our kids navigate this brave new virtual world, by working on our real world relationships. Let’s ditch the ever-evolving electronic controls and teach them to be kind, safe, and healthy—online and off.

When it comes to your teen’s online social life, are you all in or hands off? Tell us on Facebook.

Lela Davidson blogs about marriage, motherhood and keeping the evidence of aging at bay at After The Bubbly. She shares more humorous observations on family life in her book,"Blacklisted from the PTA."  

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Italy's Member of the European Parliament Licia Ronzulli takes part with her daughter in a voting session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France February 15.

By Alex Smith

Vincent Kessler / Reuters

18-month-old Victoria rises with her mother to address the European Parliament after a voting session.

Politician Licia Ronzulli first caught our attention back in September, 2010, when, as an Italian member of the European Parliament, she was photographed casting her vote during a plenary session in Strasbourg, France with her tiny baby Victoria lovingly snuggled up in a baby-wrap. It was a captivating image that prompted us to call Ronzulli a quintessential working mom.

Clearly never one to let parental duties preclude her from fulfilling her civic responsibilities, Ronzulli brought little Victoria back to Parliament on Wednesday for another plenary session. One might almost suspect that Victoria is Ronzulli’s secret weapon because, honestly, who could be so cold hearted as to vote against that adorable little girl?

All in favor say "Awwwwwwww."

 Alex Smith is a senior editor at TODAY.com who used to edit TODAY Moms despite technically being a TODAY Dad.

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Although I never thought it would happen, I can officially cross “Walk the runway at New York Fashion Week” off my bucket list.

Mary Ann Zoellner

TODAY producer Alicia Ybarbo lets her personality out on the runway.

At 4-foot-11, I certainly don’t fit the mold of a traditional model, but for the first time, women like me got to show their stuff at “Strut: The Fashionable Mom Show” at Lincoln Center on Thursday. Hosted by Iman, it was the brainchild of several prominent moms, female bloggers and businesswomen.

Women of all shapes and sizes were dressed in looks that were both casual and dressy, affordable and designer. I wore items from David Meister, Alexis Bittar, Gap and Macy’s. While I’m not a label lover, I do like style – texture and clothes that make me feel good – and this show was able to highlight pieces that are both available in stores right now and fit real women.

Mary Ann Zoellner

Backstage at "Strut: The Fashionable Mom Show."

When it came to walking the runway, we moms had no worries. OK, maybe we were a little nervous in the beginning, but in the end we all let our personalities out on the runway, showing smiles and high fives and feeling empowered and strong – which is what being a fashionable mom is all about.

Mary Ann Zoellner

(Left to right) Isabel Kallman of AlphaMoms.com, Vera Sweeney of GettingGorgeousEvents.com,
Alicia Ybarbo of TODAY, and Jennifer James of MomBloggersClub.com.

Carol Cain, the founder and editor of NYCityMama.com, joked behind the scenes that she was practicing her catwalk at home to LMAFO’s “I'm Sexy and I Know It,” and practically dislocated her hip while trying to strike a pose. But from the looks of her on the runway, practice made perfect!

But let’s get to the other highlight of Fashion Week: the hair and makeup! Being able to sit in a chair and have someone conceal the bags under my eyes – a result of working the 2 p.m.-to-midnight shift at work and juggling a week without a baby sitter – I became alive again. The fact is, most of us moms put more focus on our children and families then we do on ourselves.

Jennifer James

Colleague Mary Ann Zoellner helps Alicia get runway-ready.

According to Babycenter.com, 92 percent of the clothing purchases women make before having children are based on design. But after they become moms, their criteria change to comfort and cost efficiency. The Strut Moms show loudly demonstrated that design, comfort and (in some cases) cost efficiency go hand in hand.

So join me in getting rid of those ratty ol' mommy jeans. And practice your strut to the recycle bin while doing it!

Alicia Ybarbo is a TODAY producer and a mom.

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The New York Times reports on what retailers know about your reproductive habits.

Your favorite big-box retailer may know you’re having a baby before you tell some of your friends and family.

New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg reports this week that Target has gone to great lengths to identify which of its customers are about to have a baby, based on the items they start putting in their cart.

The newspaper said the big-box retailer did a detailed analysis of its customers' shopping habits and found out which products they were more likely to buy as they were preparing for a new baby. That allowed them to get a head start on other retailers who may start marketing to Mom and Dad after the bundle of joy is born.

Why would that be important? Duhigg said new parents are a retailer’s dream customer because that’s a point in time when people’s shopping habits may change, so it’s a good time to snag that customer.

However, the reporter said the plan initially appeared to work too well. Duhigg recounts how one irate dad came into a local Target complaining because his teenager daughter had received coupons for baby products.

Turns out, what Dad didn’t know is that his daughter was pregnant.

Duhigg said the company changed its model somewhat, incorporating baby-related coupons in with other ones so it wasn’t quite as obvious that the parents-to-be were having their baby bump marketed to.

Duhigg notes that other companies also are taking great pains to understand their customers better, but the Times’ report focused heavily on Target.

Target told the Times that some of his reporting was inaccurate but declined to offer specific complaints.

In a statement e-mailed to msnbc.com, Target spokeswoman Stacia Smith said the company is focused on delivering great value and relevant offers, and also respecting shoppers' privacy and operating with integrity.

“Like many companies, we use research tools that help us understand guest shopping trends and preferences so that we can give our guests offers and promotions that are relevant to them. Guests are always welcome to opt out of our marketing programs,” Smith said in the statement.

The best in parenting news and blogs from around the Web.

Working nine to five, what a way to make a living... Especially if you're a working mom. We get paid less than men because we're women, we get paid less than childless women because we're moms and we have some of the shortest maternity leaves in the world. Not to mention the "unconscious bias" many employers have against working moms, assuming we're less dedicated to our jobs and likely to  run out the door the second we get a call from daycare. Don't forget the judge who ruled it's okay to fire a woman for pumping on break, either. Plus, it starts before you even give birth. Recently, the media has been covering a lot of the various penalties working moms face. Some are hoping that this will lead to a renewed national debate on parenthood and the workplace. What would you like to see changed for working moms?

Vive la Va Jay Jay!
Okay, French ladies, we give up. First you rubbed it in that you don't get fat, then we found out you're better parents than we are. Now you tell us that even your vaginas are superior?! We can't compete. What did your doctor's post-natal vaginal care instructions include? If you're American, chances are your answer to that is "huh?" However, French women are prescribed rééducation périnéale, which includes 10 to 20 classes (paid for by the government, no less) which include vaginal exercises to help get a new mom tight, happy and sexy. Yet another American living in Paris is sharing the ways life in France is better for moms -- and their va-jay-jays.

Babysitting grandpa gets picked up by the cops, for being white
There are few things more terrifying or horrible than child kidnappings. But, has the fear of them led us to be a little too quick to call "kidnapper" on someone? A white grandfather was walking with his five-year-old, African-American, granddaughter, when he suddenly found himself in the back of a police car. The two were happily walking down the street in Austin, Texas, when a police officer stopped them. The officer asked the little girl if she knew the man she was with. She told the cop it was her grandpa as she clung to his leg. The officer asked for Gramps' name to use in her report. He said he'd rather not answer questions and the inter-racial, inter-generational pair set off on their way. A couple of blocks later, they found themselves surrounded by police cars, and cops were pointing tasers at the grandpa, while handcuffing him. They took the little girl to the back of a police car, where they questioned her fairly extensively. Eventually the pair was released, without an apology. This wasn't the first time this Grandpa had been stopped for spending time with his granddaughter of another race. The case has led to renewed discussions about both racial profiling and gender stereotyping.

Non-Parents just don't understand
There are the things about motherhood they tell you and the things that they don't.  They warn you that you won't get a good night's sleep again, ever. They don't warn you that you'll find yourself wondering about Max & Ruby's parents. (Do those bunnies live alone? Grandma's down the street, where are those parents?) They advise you what kind of diaper bag to buy, but they don't tell you that you'll soon replace that diaper bag with an enormous purse filled with all sorts of random things (socks, Matchbox cars, diapers, graham crackers and sippy cups, anyone?). They don't leave these things out on purpose, it's just that they're suffering from mommy brain. Besides, maybe there are some things that only a fellow mom could understand.

You're hip and trendy, but is your toddler's drink?
I'd like a decaf, extra froth, half cinnamon, half sprinkles, babycinno, please. The new rage amongst hipster, Brooklyn parents is the babycinno, which is described as a macchiato-like drink for the trendy, urban, toddler set. Because sippy cups and juice boxes are just so mainstream and uncool, the cool kids have started serving their cool toddlers, babycinnos. Of course, Londoners and Australians are quick to point out that they're the real trendsetters here, as they've been serving their little tikes babycinnos for years. When French babies sip on them while waiting for their moms to finish their vagina rejuvenation workshops, then we'll pay attention...

Dana Macario is a TODAY Moms contributor and Seattle mom to two sleep-depriving toddlers. Once properly caffeinated, she also blogs at www.18years2life.com.

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Have you ever had a toy that made your kids go “Awwww” while you went “Aaaaagh?!” Al Roker (father of three) feels your pain.

Roker previewed some of the hot toys from this week’s Toy Fair, where manufacturers show off the games and toys they hope will be trendy this year. From Legos to jumbo Bananagrams, all was going well -- until Al met a break-dancing Mickey Mouse, whose upper body rotates 360 degrees while his legs stay stationary.

“Oh that’s freaky,” Al exclaimed. “That’s like 'The Exorcist' meets Mickey!”

You never know when your child is going to fall in love with a freaky toy, whether it’s a stuffed clown with a psychopathic grin or, in my case, an innocent-looking fire engine that would not stop wailing, even when when we took the battery out!

As Al said at the end of the TODAY segment, “Thanks so much for FREAKING ME OUT!”

Have you ever been freaked out by any of your child’s toys?

Check out the video for the full TODAY segment on the hot toys from the 2012 Toy Fair.

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Warner Bros.

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Modern parents, apparently.

Trespassing, kidnapping, extortion — sounds like a meaty “Law and Order” episode, right?

Maybe, but I’m talking about fairy tales: “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Rumplestiltskin,” respectively. My older daughter is a high school freshman, but she still remembers being frightened by that granny-gobbling, Red-baiting wolf in the “Hood.”

Apparently, she’s not alone. The BBC reports that half of 2,000 parents surveyed thought classic fairy tales were too scary for preschoolers. After all, they don’t call ‘em Grimm for nothing. Moms seem to be particularly expendable, with Snow White and Cinderella among the best-known motherless daughters.

But “Red” and “Rumple” and the like weren’t designed to be told to kids, according to the BBC. Back in Shakespeare’s day, long before “Law and Order” could be seen 24/7, fairy tales were considered adult entertainment. It was only in Victorian times that grownups started sharing them with children, and the nightmares commenced.

In my house, we were more likely to read Seuss than Snow White, and I guess that had something to do with my concerns about the PG-13-rated content in fairy tales (although, come to think of it, those shotgun-bearing hunters in “Horton Hatches the Egg” were a little much).

How about you? Are traditional fairy tales on your preschooler’s bedtime reading list? Or does your family prefer kinder, gentler stories?

(Hat tip: iVillage)

Don't be scared! More stories from TODAY Moms:
The dark side of Mother Goose
Want another bedtime story, sweetie? 'Go the f--- to sleep'
The mom of a princess boy speaks out
What to do when your 5-year-old announces he's in love

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