PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

Loco Parentis: First-time mother Amy Webb proudly notates dozens of data points about her child each day and obsessively tracks their detailed progression by computer on spreadsheets, according to the provocative first-person account she wrote for Slate.com in July. In categories ranging from ordinary vital signs, to the kid's progress in sound-making, to dietary reactions, to quantity and quality of each poop, stats are kept 24/7 (even with a bedside laptop to facilitate nighttime entries). She began tracking her own health during pregnancy, but then decided, "Why stop now?" when her daughter was born. Webb's pediatrician rated the kid's health as "A-minus," but the parents' as "C," adding: "You guys need to relax. Leave the spreadsheets (out)." Webb and her husband remain confident that their extreme tracking optimizes their chances of raising a healthy daughter. [Slate.com, 7-9-2013]