A Mama's Rant

Label this, baby! The Rise of Gen X and Hipster Parenting

Remember the days when MTV showed music videos, had no commercials, and we used to sit around for hours waiting for the next showing of the Duran Duran video? Bob Geldof organized Live Aid, and We Are the World, a mediocre pop song at best, was a big hit. It seemed that rock ‘n’ roll’s rebelliousness was being harnessed to save the world – or at least give everyone their MTV.

Back then, Steve Van Zandt – know today as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos – organized another group of musicians, this time in protest against apartheid in South Africa. Called Artists United Against Apartheid, Van Zandt gathered such diverse talents as Miles Davis, Ron Wood, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, Boblan, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Joey Ramone, Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, and Grandmaster Melle Mel to record the Sun City LP.

If anything, the group showed where my generation came from musically (Davis, Dylan, the Who, and the Stones) where it was at the moment (The Ramones, U2 and Springsteen), and where it was going (rap music).

My generation? At 42, it's still something that I am trying to figure out. I have always had a pet peeve about how marketers label the age groups, probably because I was born at the tail end of 1964. By some definitions, I am a Boomer (those born between 1940 and 1964). Canadian author Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture called those born at between 1960 and 1964 Generation X because were disenfranchised from the older baby boomers with whom they felt they had nothing in common.

Yet the term Generation X has grown to represent those Americans born between 1965 and 1977. So am I a Young Boomer, a Cusper, or an Old Gen Xer? I like Coupland’s definition the best, but would expand it to about 1969 or so. People born in those years were defined by the music they listened to like ska, punk and new wave. We listened to music that was political and rebellious. Back then we got beat up if we dyed our hair pink or orange and cut it into a mohawk.

Today, I see moms taking their four-year-olds to get their punk do’s at SuperCuts. So much for teenage defiance when there is anarchy in the pre-K.

Family Fun at Two Miles High

This is an entry in the Babylune Family Vacation Group Writing Project.

Traveling with small children is like Napoleon invading Russia. You bring a ton of stuff, you’re constantly on the move, always repacking, and you never bring enough of the right things. This is especially true when you’re traveling in mountain country where summer weather can go from sunny and hot, to raining, cold or even snowing.

One 4th of July weekend three years ago, my husband Paul, our two children Nathan, who was four then, and Lucie, who was 15 months, and I took a trip to two of Colorado’s mountain hot springs resorts. Since it was a holiday weekend, it was impossible to get two nights at a resort. Even with the extra hassle of having to change hotels after one night, I was looking forward to relaxing in the soaking pools and not having to cook.

We had an easy drive. The kids slept most of the way and didn’t get antsy until we stopped for lunch in Buena Vista. The public restrooms were small with only one toilet and no changing tables. This resulted in long lines, which my family only made worse since Nathan took a long time and had to visit the toilet twice.

People didn’t seem to mind waiting since a feature of mountain towns is lousy service. It’s slow and provided by mountain folk who are brain dead from the lack of oxygen at nearly two miles above sea level. After a trying lunch where the food was good, but the kids impatient with the wait, we finally made it up to the first hot springs resort.

A Night at the Drive In

After an unusually quick dinner that night, we took the kids to an old-fashioned drive in. Lucie started whining from her car seat immediately after Nathan and his dad left to get some snacks. I took her up front with me, figuring the mountain air and a bottle of milk would quickly put her to sleep. Instead, she went into hyper-overdrive. She wiggled around on my lap, honked the horn, and tried climbing out of the window. Exasperated, I put her back in her car seat. When she protested, I gave Lucie her baby doll, covered her with a blanket and commanded, "Go night-night NOW!" She finally gave up and went to sleep after a brief cry.

Nathan stayed awake for most of the movie with the help of a cup of lemonade and handfuls of malt balls. But between the day’s long drive, soaking in the hot springs, and trying to see the movie out of our not-so-clean windshield, I was tired, had a headache, was happy to drive back to our motel after the movie was over.

Happy days are here again

Happy days are here again
The kids are back in school again
No more fighting over toys again
Happy days are here again!

Altogether moms shout out loud
There's no one
Here to make a big mess now
So let's enjoy the peace and quiet now
The kids are back in school again!

Big Bad Dad just took Monkey Boy to school on the Harley. Miss Boo's upstairs sleeping (she'll be going to afternoon pre-K this year).

Large blocks of time where I can get some work done without having to break up fights or feed someone? Heaven on earth.

I love school.

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The Real Scoop on Watching Baby Einstein (just because you have a Dr. in front of your name doesn't mean you're right)

Now that I've left comments on a zillion blogs, I have a slight retraction to my post below. After doing a little more research, I did find the abstract of the Journal of Pediatrics article, Associations between Media Viewing and Language Development in Children Under Age 2 Years.

A total of 1008 parents of children age 2 to 24 months were surveyed by telephone in February 2006. (I assume that these are the same parents from the Television and DVD/Video Viewing in Children Younger Than 2 Years study since the amount surveyed is just about the same.) However in this study, parents were asked to complete the short form of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI).

Results found that among infants (age 8 to 16 months), each hour per day of viewing baby DVDs/videos was associated with a 16.99-point decrement in CDI score.

Among toddlers (age 17 to 24 months), there were no significant associations between any type of media exposure and CDI scores. Amount of parental viewing with the child was not significantly associated with CDI scores in either infants or toddlers.

Since parents, not qualified researchers, were asked to fill out forms, I wonder about the results showing that there was a lack in vocabulary in babies who watched TV, but not toddlers. Did the toddlers catch up? And were parents able to give good data?

No direct observation, and no testing by researchers in a controlled setting. Hmmmm. While it's a start, I feel the study is very preliminary and there isn't enough quality data to justify threatening Disney's or Baby Einstein's reputation and sales.

Smart parents know that these type of videos aren't harmful. And they aren't delusional enough to think that watching them will get their kid into Harvard either. Good parents read to, play and spend time with their kids. But they shouldn't be made to feel guilty if they want to entertain them with a video or TV show so they can shower or cook dinner. Enough with the mommy guilt already!

___________________________________________________________________

THE ORIGINAL POST:

I read in the Denver Post that watching educational videos is bad for babies:

In a study published in today's Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found that, among babies ages 8 months to 16 months, every hour spent daily watching programs such as Brainy Baby or Baby Einstein translated into six to eight fewer words in their vocabularies as compared with other children their age.

The study was done by Frederick J. Zimmerman, PhD., Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH, and Andrew N. Meltzoff, PhD.

But as reported by the Clinical Cases and Images Blog, the study did not appear in the Journal of Pediatrics but the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine back in May 2007.

However, I cannot find any mention in the study - and I've read the full text and looked at every table - that watching TV affects language development. In fact, the study concludes that:

The phenomenon of very young children watching television and DVDs or videos is now routine. Children start watching television at a very young age and watch a lot of it. This phenomenon would seem to be driven as much by parental beliefs in the educational and entertainment value of television for very young children as by parental need for an electronic babysitter.

They also concluded that it's better to watch TV with your child than letting them watch alone:

The finding that parents perceive that television has the potential for educational benefit can be used to reinforce the message to increase the proportion of viewing that is with a parent, which may serve to foster the parent-child interactions that have been associated with vocabulary acquisition during infancy.

However, there wasn't any hard data that if you watch TV with your child, they'll have a better vocabulary (or the opposite). Instead, this seems to be the opinion of the researchers, making me wonder about their bias.

Baze and His Silly Friends - One Little Smile

Not to get all Alternadad on you, but my family has never been one to listen to children's music. Yes, we have The Johnny Cash Children's Album, and I have to admit that Laurie Berkner is pretty cool. Yet, I'd rather listen to what I like, not "Twinkle, Twinkle" a thousand times in a row. This probably explains why we listen to a lot of the Ramones and Green Day on the way to school.

So when March Bazerman sent me a copy of "One Little Smile" by his band, Baze and His Silly Friends, I was hoping it wasn't another so-called cool rendition of classic kids music. (Click here to hear some song samples.)

In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. Why? Well, not only is the music sophisticated enough for parents (and the lyrics fun and appropriate for kids) but I'm convinced that Marc is channeling Ray Davies, circa 1979 and the Kink's Low Budget album. (Maybe he should add "Wish I Could Fly Like Superman" to the band's repertoire.)

If You Give a Mom a Diet Coke

This is my life in a nutshell, except I'm trying to lose weight and wouldn't eat a muffin. So I've reworked it with a title of "If You Give a Mom a Diet Coke."

IF YOU GIVE A MOM A MUFFIN MOM A DIET COKE

If you give a Mom a muffin, Diet Coke
She'll want a strong cup of coffee a bowl of carrot sticks to go with it.
She'll make herself some. get some out of the veggie drawer.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee knock over her Diet Coke.
She'll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the box of Goodwill items.
Bumping into the Goodwill items will remind her she has to get these boxes in the car and out of her basement.
When she puts the boxes in the car, she'll find a bag of groceries and this will remind her she has to cook dinner.
She will get out the chicken defrosting in the fridge.
She'll look for her cookbook (101 Things To Do With Chicken).
The cookbook will be sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the Netflix movie she's meant to mail and the preschool bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The checkbook will be in her purse that is being dumped out by her one-year-old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the baby's diaper.
As she finishes up, she'll realize she brought the hand sanitizer down to the kitchen.
While she is throwing away the diaper and searching for the hand sanitizer, the phone will ring.
Her three-year-old will answer and hang up.
She'll remember she wants to phone a friend not for coffee but a very strong drink a Diet Coke but for a trip to the bar.
Thinking of drinking will remind her that she was going to have a cup of coffee a Diet Coke in order to stay awake for the rest of the day.

And chances are...
If she finds her cup of coffee (which she has to reheat by now), soda can, which needs to be iced down,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin thrown the carrot sticks on the floor that went with it.

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More on the naked jogging priest

CNN's Kyra Phillips couldn't keep herself from laughing over the story...

I guess Leno featured it in his monologue last night, too.

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More about me at BlogHer07

I think I'm done with posting about BlogHer07 (except for a discussion about photography copyrights - coming soon at The Write Spot). I'm sure you're overwhelmed by it, too.

But just in case for some reason you don't believe I was there, check out this post and video at Tajee's blog. I'm the second blogger Tajee interviewed. Then she shows herself being interviewed by Amanda from ABC News.

Wow, I don't come across as big as a doofus as I thought and my Joisey accent isn't so noticeable either. Nice glasses, too!

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