If my Facebook newsfeed is to be trusted, then today was the universal "First Day of School" everywhere in the United States.

I cite this as a fact because of the number of obligatory front-step photos posted by my friends of their children. Don't get me wrong, they were cute. But at a certain point,  cute and cliché are not mutually exclusive.

[cli·ché:  noun: overused and betraying a lack of original thought]

So I found it refreshing to see one parent who - instead of posting the expected photo of siblings heading off to school - posted this gem:

Image Source: Doulicia

OK. That parent was my sister. And trust me, she knows her way around a shutter, so I know she was going for "deliberately irreverent" with these shots.

Which is why she is the winner of the First Annual Pithypants Parenting Award.

Boo-yah!

And the runner-up is my friend Sara, who - as the mother of two boys - tweeted this yesterday:

This sentence from an article about identity theft in our local rag amuses me to no end: "For instance, if you pay for Girl Scout cookies with a check and the child's brother gets a hold of it and gets the numbers, he can use them to make automatic, monthly purchases for porn, or whatever he wants..." Really? From Girl Scout cookies to porn?

[Side note: who can even FIND their checkbook? Please tell me the Girl Scouts accept credit cards. If not, you can't convince me they aren't just training those girls to become Toll Booth operators.]

Anyway, THIS is what we need: More parents willing to challenge the norm, to laugh AT children and not simply WITH them. Thanks, Alicia and Sara - for keepin' it real.

And now you know why I didn't reproduce. You're welcome.