Trends in Work/Life Balance: A new study out of the University of Cincinnati finds that working mothers are more likely than working dads to take the day off when a child is ill. However, the likelihood of dad calling in to take care of a sick child increases with the length of his employment and, not surprisingly, when he works flextime hours. Women become less likely to be sole providers of care for sick children as their salaries increase.

Kids’ Health Insurance and Politics: The expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which is funded through state and federal money, is set to be a political football. The Senate wants to expand funding for the program by $35 billion over five years; the Congress proposes $50 billion; and the President advocates $5 billion and has threatened to veto legislation that outstrips this amount. At issue is the plan to offer families of four who make over $100,000 per year the option of buying into the program if they can show that they are unable to get or to afford private health insurance. Opponents say the expansion of the program is a step towards socialized medicine and fattens already inefficient government programs; supporters say that in addition to giving health care to the nation’s poor, the plan offers coverage for children who have been failed by the private health insurance industry. Expect to hear more.

Legal Pushback on Baby Video Study: Walt Disney, parent company to Baby Einstein, has issued a demand for a retraction of the press release issued by the University of Washington on its study on the effect “baby videos and DVDs” have on language development. The letter raises doubts about the methodology used in the study. One objection: “The study combines very different content into a single category of ‘Baby Video’, even though the types of videos lumped into this category vary widely. In effect, the study assumes that neither the specific content nor the manner in which it is consumed can influence the nature of the experience. The study does nothing to prove this proposition which is contradicted by other published studies of infant viewing (not even mentioned in the report) which find that the specific nature of content and the way it is consumed are vitally important.”