My daughter is a middle school student who still plays with her American Girl dolls. Dolls have been a huge part of her life ever since she was a baby. When she got her first doll at the age of 5, she spent hours brushing its hair and changing its clothes. Some people think my daughter should stop doing that as a teenager. But I think quite differently.

Considering the less attractive activities that are out there and what else she could be doing, I find playing with dolls seems like a nice choice. It’s better than playing computer games or something alike. I’ve also noticed it doesn’t make any difference to her social life. She has her friends and spends time with them.

Playing with dolls is helpful for my daughter. “When I play with them, ” my daughter told me, “it makes me feel that I can express problems going on in my life and that I’m not the only one who has those problems. They’re in their lives, too, and they have to live with them.” I’m glad she finds a safe place to stay when she faces school test, changeable social groups, and a changing body in middle school.

Moreover, the girl dolls can be encouraging. Most come with an amazing back story. For instance, Luciana is interested in science and technology and wants to become an astronaut. How cool it is to set an example for kids!

So next time, when someone tries to judge my young teen for playing with her dolls, I’ll remember all the ways she benefits from them. And when she grows too large for them, I hope she saves her dolls and brings them out one day in the future so that her own kids can get the benefits of playing with them, even into their teen years.

When parents discover their children have lied to them for the first time, it can often come as a shock to find their little treasures are capable of such a trick. But new research has suggested many parents may not even notice many of the lies their children tell them.

Psychologists have discovered that most parents are over-confident in their children's honesty and this may impair their ability to discover a lie.

The findings may help to explain why some parents seem to be willing to let their children get away with(未受惩罚) almost anything even in the face of the evidence. They say parents suffer from a“truth bias(偏见)” with their own youngsters, but when faced with lies from other people's children, they have less difficulty telling if a statement is true or not.

Dr Angela Evans, a psychologist at Brock University in Canada, said,“The close relationship that parents share with their own children may lead to parents failing to detect their children's lies. Parents' truth bias may result in parents being less doubtful about their children, allowing them to successfully cheat them.”Most children are thought to start lying as early as two years old but start telling more believable lies at around the age of four years old. Learning how to lie is considered as a key part of cognitive(认知的) and social development in children. But many parents are shocked when their children start lying to them. In their study, Dr Evans and her colleagues filmed 108 children aged between 8 and 16 as they performed a test after being asked not to look at the answers. They were then asked afterwards if they had looked, with 50 truthfully denying looking, 49 lying about looking and 9 admitting to looking.

Videos of those denying looking were then shown to 152 parents of children aged 8 to 16, 80 of whom had children who had taken part in the test. The researchers found that the parents were less able to spot lies told by their own children than by other people's children.

A handsome middle-aged man walked quietly into the café and sat down. Before he ordered, he couldn't help but notice a group of younger men at the table next to him. It was obvious that they were making fun of something about him and it wasn't until he remembered he was wearing a small pink ribbon on the lapel of his suit that he became aware of what the joke was all about.

The man pretended not to notice it, but the whisper and laughter began to get to him. He looked one of the rude young men straight into the eye, placed his hand beneath the ribbon and asked, "'This?"

With that the young men all began to laugh out loud. The man he spoke to said, "Hey, sorry, man, but we were just commenting on how pretty your little pink ribbon looks against your blue jacket!"

The middle-aged man calmly invited the joker to come over to his table, and politely seated him. As uncomfortable as he was, the young guy had to, not really sure why. In a soft voice, the middle-aged man said, "I wear this ribbon to bring awareness about breast cancer. I wear it in my mother's honor."

"Oh, sorry. She died of breast cancer?"

"No, she didn't. She's alive and well. But her breasts nourished me as a baby, and were a soft resting place for my head when I was scared or lonely as a little boy. I'm very grateful for my mother's breasts, and her health."

"Umm," the young replied, "yeah."

"And I wear this ribbon to honor my wife," the man continued.

"And she's okay, too?" the young guy asked.

"Oh, yes. She's fine. With her breasts she nurtured and nourished our daughter 23 years ago. I'm grateful for my wife's breasts, and her health."

"Uh, huh. And I guess you wear it to honor your daughter, also?"

"No. It's too late to honor my daughter by wearing it now ..."

Shaken and ashamed, the young guy said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, mister."

"So, in my daughter's memory, too, I proudly wear this little ribbon, which allows me the opportunity to enlighten others. And here ..." With this, he reached in his pocket and handed the young man a little pink ribbon. The young guy looked at it, slowly raised his head and asked, "_______"