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I had a fantastic time doing the Brian Lehrer show on our fabulous local NPR station, WNYC, and was thrilled to see that it’s been the most emailed show all week. You can listen to it here. Also, in this month’s issue of Cookie magazine, cover star and very smart mom Amanda Peet talks up Parenting, Inc. And I thought you were great in Syriana and The Whole Nine Yards!
I have a story in this week’s Time magazine about the ways in which parents are becoming environmentally active — not just buying green, but also acting green — in important ways. A longer blog on this to come, but the story is here.
I have a post up at the Huffington Post today, rather dramatically entitled, Raise the Price of Toys. My point, really, is that because toys have become so cheap, relatively speaking, we parents are inclined to buy more of them. This in turn, makes us value them less, but it also makes children value their toys less. The average American child gets 70 new toys a year. We are teaching our children to churn through their playthings, toss them aside, stomp on them… In short, not only are we teaching them that their toys and possessions are not something to be valued, we’re also inadvertently stunting their creativity. Think about it: If a child gets only 10 new toys a year, he or she will find lots of new ways to play with them. Especially if they are good, open-ended toys that allow for creative, imaginative play. Thus: the fewer toys, the more resourcefulness. And the fewer wasted resources.
Oh, and also: Remember puffy stickers? They tie into all this.
Several stories about Parenting, Inc. were published in the last two days, so I thought I’d provide some links. In the Fairfield County Weekly, former Huffington Post editor Jessica Wakeman interviews me here. A fun Q and A, except for a typo substituting “fridge” for “crib,” which makes for an amusing visual conundrum, given the context. In the Greenville News and also in the Lansing State-Journal, Mama-Rama blogger and author Meagan Francis gives her perspective on the parenting biz. Finally, in the New York Daily News, I am asked to comment on the Miley Cyrus “scandal.”
An early heads-up to my NYC-based readers: I will be speaking as part of a panel next week in Brooklyn’s Park Slope as part of the Adult Education series. Details are below. Hope to see you there!
ADULT EDUCATION PRESENTS: BABIES & AMERICAN INDUSTRY
Tuesday, May 6, 2008 - 8 pm (doors at 7:30)
Union Hall in Park Slope
702 Union St. @ 5th Ave
$5 cover
| Pamela Paul, “Baby Gear Your Mother Didn’t Have”
| Daniel Radosh,”Marketing to Christian Kids or The Secret
Identity of Bibleman”
| Charles Star, “A Short List of the Worst Children’s Toys Ever”
| Gary Drevitch, “How Princesses and Pokemon Conquered America”
| Susan Gregory Thomas, “Barbie Goes Vertical: How the Marketing
Industry Brands Infants and Toddlers”
DANIEL RADOSH is author of the new book Rapture Ready! Adventures in the
Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture. He is a frequent contributor
to The New Yorker and a contributing editor at The Week magazine. His
writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including The New York
Times, Playboy, Esquire, and GQ. In the early 1990s, Radosh was a staff
writer and editor at Spy magazine. (http://www.radosh.net)
PAMELA PAUL is the author of Parenting, Inc: How We Are Sold on $800
Strollers, Fetal Education, Baby Sign Language, Sleeping Coaches, Toddler
Couture, and Diaper Wipe Warmers — and What It Means for Our Children.
She writes for Time magazine and the New York Times Book Review, and is
the author of two previous books, Pornified and The Starter Marriage. She
and her family live in Harlem. (http://www.pamelapaul.com)
GARY DREVITCH produces the parenting Web site freelancedad.com,
contributes to magazines like Parents and Jewish Living, and writes
non-fiction books for children. He is also the senior editor of
grandparents.com. A father of three, he has become part of the Pokemon
problem, and now seeks its solution. (http://freelancedad.com)
SUSAN GREGORY THOMAS is an investigative journalist and broadcaster.
Formerly a senior editor at U.S. News & World Report and co-host of public
television’s Digital Duo, she has also written for Time, the Washington
Post, Glamour, and elsewhere. She has two children, seven and four years
old.
CHARLES STAR is a sometimes lawyer, sometimes comic, and host of Adult Ed.
But he is mostly known for his excellent cat. (http://www.charlesstar.com)
Speakers will be on hand afterward to answers questions and sign books.
Little bits of news: The St. Petersburg Times printed a nice review of Parenting, Inc. over the weekend, written by a former teacher, so her praise felt especially good. Also, Nancy Schute published a Q and A with me in US News & World Report, viewable online here. And I’ll be reading tonight at Housing Works in New York City, for those in town and free this rainy Monday evening.
Sorry, folks, to do this again. It’s really not my fault, but the Early Show keeps getting moved and bumped. So now it’s not airing tomorrow, but will apparently air some time this week. I will post once I know.
Tomorrow morning, Monday, I’ll be on The Early Show on CBS at 8:40 a.m. Given that my entire family and I have been battling colds for the past week, I’ll be tucking in early tonight. But before I do, I thought I’d share this lovely review of Parenting, Inc. from the St. Petersburg Times. Here’s to a good night sleep and no tripping or stuttering (please!) on TV…
On Slate.com today, Slate’s brilliant movie critic Dana Stevens and I grumpily bash “Baby Mama” on the podcast accompanying Stevens’ deliciously cranky review. We didn’t like it! Alas, and hopes were so high that it would be a glorious send-up of the trials and politics of modern motherhood. The opening sequences, do, however, contain a few moderate giggles. I especially liked the ubiquitous Baby Bjorning depicted in several scenes. (Not that I have anything against Baby Bjorns!)
On Sunday we hosted a birthday party for my daughter at our house. No, we didn’t have a magician. No, there was no “theme.” There weren’t matching party plates or gift bags stuffed with cheap plastic geegaws for the kids to take home. But yes, everyone actually had a good time! Instead of turning the event into a multi-hundred dollar spending frenzy, we invited as many people as we wanted to and kept things simple. The entertainment was a “Balloon Room” — my husband, father-in-law, and a friend who accidentally showed up a day too early for the party blew up hundreds of balloons to fill our playroom. It was (relatively) easy and certainly inexpensive, and the kids had a blast jumping around, knee-deep in balloons.
We told our guests that we wanted their presence, not their presents, so there was no tearing-through-gifts extravagance. Instead of getting a themed cake with Dora or Elmo on top, we got a plain cake, which Beatrice then decorated herself with sprinkles and colored sugar. And at the end of the party, the kids opened a pinata contained little stuffed monkeys, which they brought home along with bags of balloons (a self-cleaning party!)
In an era in which over-the-top birthday parties dominate, as this scary CNN story shows, I think celebrations can be made a lot simpler. And our children are just as happy — and often better off.