The Brief

For a lot of us parents, it feels like we’re just trying to figure out this parenting thing as we go. When a child acts out and hits another kid or misbehaves in other ways, what should we do?

There’s a myriad of suggestions on social media on how to best handle these situations.

As part of a weeklong series on parenting, LAist’s AirTalk covered how parents treat each of their kids differently (or not), where we get our child-raising instincts from, and other topics.

And the series also covered discipline. While it used to be much more pervasive, spanking is still relatively common in American households.

Here’s the AirTalk conversation with Cara Goodwin, a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder of ParentingTranslator.com.

Spanking is ineffective and harmful 

While still common, the evidence shows that spanking is not only ineffective in changing a child’s behavior, but is harmful.

“It is associated with many negative outcomes in children,” Goodwin said, like relationship problems, anxiety and depression.

A study from the University of Michigan found spanking has the same effects as adverse childhood experiences, or ACES, for children — traumatic experiences that affect a child’s future and puts them at higher risk for physical and mental health issues.

Time-out used correctly 

To replace physical discipline, “time-out” was brought in to give parents another strategy, Goodwin said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and pediatricians have recommended the use of time-out as a consequence of their behaviors and to help kids calm down. But there’s been recent controversy over the years about time out being harmful or further traumatizing a child.

“However, the research really consistently supports time-out both as an effective method and also research has failed to find any associations with negative outcomes for timeout,” Goodwin said.

It’s important that it’s done correctly, though. Surveys have shown that time out has been employed by many parents incorrectly. Goodwin says it shouldn’t be used in a harsh or punitive way

“It's really just saying to your child… ‘You hit your sister,’ for example, and ‘now we're going to time out to calm down.’ And when it's really framed as an opportunity for everybody to calm down and get a break from the situation, it can be really effective for children,” she said.

Goodwin also said time-outs are only effective when most of the time, a child has warm and loving interactions with their parents.

“We're thinking about a lot of these strategies used in a holistic way,” she said.

Best practices of time-out include being boring — so no toys — and being short in duration.

What about the ‘gentle parenting’ movement? 

Gentle parenting has gained popularity among influencers and social media. While Goodwin said it’s not clearly defined, the general idea is valuing self-care in a child.

“[That includes] unconditional acceptance of children, having empathy for children, respecting children. And these are all incredible principles,” Goodwin said. But she questions the movement when they recommend not using many evidence-based strategies.

“A lot of gentle parenting advocates say there should be no externally imposed consequences on children,” she said. “We really have no evidence for any of these claims against consequences, timeout, praise, rewards.”

She added that it’s important to know what works best for your child. “If gentle parenting is working for you, that's wonderful,” Goodwin said. But she added that parents shouldn’t worry about feeling like they’ve failed at parenting if they have to use consequences like timeout.

“It is all about what works best for each individual, and there's a lot of research showing that what's really important is that parents are attuned to their individual child and what works,” she said.

Listen to the episode

LAX officials are considering a proposal Tuesday to increase the fees rideshare companies are charged to access the airport.

Currently, rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft generally pass a $4 to $5 airport fee along to their customers. You might see this listed as a line item on your receipt as an “LAX Airport Surcharge.”

But the Los Angeles World Airports Board of Commissioners could vote to increase that fee by as much as $2 to $8 depending on where the rideshare picks you up or drops you off.

The idea behind the proposal is to encourage the use of the long-awaited, much-delayed and over-budget Automated People Mover once it opens and decrease congestion in the central terminal area, the area of the airport that’s also known as the horseshoe.

David Reich, a deputy executive director for the city agency that manages the airport, told LAist that if the proposal is approved, LAX doesn’t plan on increasing the fee until after the Automated People Mover opens, which could be later this year.

The proposed increases

When the Automated People Mover opens, there will be new curb space for drop-off and pick-up. Known as the “ground transport center,” this new curb space will be a 4-minute trip from the terminal area via the Automated People Mover, according to Reich.

LAX-it will shut down as a rideshare and taxi lot once the train opens, Reich said.

If the proposal is approved, getting an Uber or Lyft to and from the ground transport center will come with a $6 airport fee.

Even once the Automated People Mover opens, you will still be able to get rides directly to and from the curbs along the horseshoe, but they will come with a $12 fee.

The proposed increases would also apply to taxi and limousine services, which currently operate under a slightly different fee structure than rideshare companies.

The increased fees are expected to generate as much as $100 million in the first year the Automated People Mover is usable, according to a report to the board.

Why the different fees for the different locations?

In a report to the board, Reich said the Automated People Mover represents a "significant investment” that aims to “fundamentally reshape how vehicles move through the airport.”

The idea behind having a higher fee for direct access to the curbs along the horseshoe is to encourage “use of new, high-capacity infrastructure” and preserve central terminal access for trips “that most require it.”

Uber is trying to fight the increases

Uber is trying to mobilize the public to fight the proposed fee increases.

“Raising the LAX rideshare fee from $5 to $12 at the curb would punish travelers, working families, and seniors who depend on affordable, reliable transportation,” Danielle Lam, the head of local California policy for Uber, said in a statement.

On Monday, Uber sent an email to passengers who recently used the rideshare service, urging them to write to city officials to “stop this massive fee hike.”

Lyft has not responded to a request for comment.

Ten state lawmakers who are members of the L.A. County delegation sent a letter on Monday to the board expressing their “strong opposition” to the proposed increases.

“Many Angelenos rely on a mix of options, including rideshare services and friends or family dropping off loved ones,” the legislators wrote in the letter. “Managing congestion cannot realistically rely on steep fee increases for certain transportation options.”

Eight of the 10 legislators who signed the letter have received campaign contributions from Uber or Lyft, according to an LAist analysis of state campaign contribution data.

Other ways to access the airport

Now is probably a good time to remind folks that there are other ways to get to the airport that don’t involve rideshares, taxis or even lifts from families and friends.

The FlyAway bus offers regularly scheduled rides from the airport to Union Station in downtown L.A. and Van Nuys. You can see the schedules here. 

Last year, the countywide transportation agency unveiled the LAX/Metro Transit center, which is accessible from the C and K rail lines and several bus routes. For now, an LAX shuttle is bringing travelers from the station to the airport. It will be one of the stops on the Automated People Mover once it opens.

The Newport Beach City Council is considering demolishing part of its quirky, beloved sculpture garden in Civic Center Park to make way for a new police station.

The city has been trying to figure out how to replace its aging police headquarters for years. It bought a property in 2022 with that intent. But an ad hoc City Council committee decided, controversially, it might be better to instead build a new station on the parkland next to city hall.

What’s so great about the sculpture garden?

The sculpture garden is a “museum without walls” treasured by art and nature lovers alike. It houses the quirky and once-controversial “Bunnyhenge,” included on the popular Atlas Obscura travel guide. Opponents of putting a new police headquarters on park grounds say it would compromise the environment, and decimate the sculpture garden.

What do supporters of the new station idea say?

Supporters say the current police station, built in 1973, is long overdue for an upgrade, and that the police force needs more space for things like servers to store digital evidence. The council ad hoc committee that studied the issue says the Civic Center parkland makes the most sense for a new building because the city already owns the land, and it would consolidate the city’s main services in one place.

Is it a done deal?

Far from it. The City Council is holding a study session Tuesday to present the plan publicly and gather input. If the council decides to go forward, the next step would be to hire a consultant to design the building and get started on an environmental impact report.

Here’s how to learn more and weigh in:

A new exhibit in L.A. — Vehicles of Expression: The Craft of the Skateboard — arrives this weekend, highlighting the cultural impact, history and artistry of handmade skateboards.

It’s the latest exhibit at Craft in America Center, a museum and library that highlights handcrafted artwork.

Todd Huber, skateboard historian and founder of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, said before 1962, it wasn’t possible to buy a skateboard in a store.

“Skateboarding started as a craft,” Huber said on AirTalk, LAst 89.3’s daily news program. “Somewhere in the 50s until 1962, if you wanted to sidewalk surf, as they called it, you had to make your own out of roller skates.”

What to expect

Emily Zaiden, the director and lead curator of the Craft in America Center based in Los Angeles, told LAist’s AirTalk the exhibit was tricky to curate.

“What we wanted to do was focus on both the history and then expand into how this has been an object that people have interpreted in so many different ways since the very beginning,” Zaiden said.

Artists who craft skateboards not only think of design, but also of the features that give riders the ability to do tricks, such as wheelies and kickflips.

“The ways that people have constructed boards, engineered boards, design boards … people are really renegade, which I think is really the spirit of skateboarding overall,” Zaiden said. “This very independent, out-of-the-box approach and making boards that allow them to do all kinds of wacky tricks and do all kinds of things that no one imagined possible physically with their body, but through the object of the board.”

Know before you go

The exhibit at Craft in America Center opens to the public on Saturday. Admission is free. The museum is open from noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.