I would like to think it is a return to common sense,
but somehow I think they are merely introducing a new marketing strategy.
How We Got Here: Overparenting had been around long before Douglas MacArthur's mom Pinky moved with him to West Point in 1899 and took an apartment near the campus, supposedly so she could watch him with a telescope to be sure he was studying. But in the 1990s something dramatic happened, and the needle went way past the red line. From peace and prosperity, there arose fear and anxiety; crime went down, yet parents stopped letting kids out of their sight; the percentage of kids walking or biking to school dropped from 41% in 1969 to 13% in 2001. Death by injury has dropped more than 50% since 1980, yet parents lobbied to take the jungle gyms out of playgrounds, and strollers suddenly needed the warning label "Remove Child Before Folding." Among 6-to-8-year-olds, free playtime dropped 25% from 1981 to '97, and homework more than doubled. Bookstores offered Brain Foods for Kids: Over 100 Recipes to Boost Your Child's Intelligence. The state of Georgia sent every newborn home with the CD Build Your Baby's Brain Through the Power of Music, after researchers claimed to have discovered that listening to Mozart could temporarily help raise IQ scores by as many as 9 points. By the time the frenzy had reached its peak, colleges were installing "Hi, Mom!" webcams in common areas, and employers like Ernst & Young were creating "parent packs" for recruits to give Mom and Dad, since they were involved in negotiating salary and benefits.
4 comments:
I bet you LOVE the kiddie food products with "brain development!" "DHA!" and "Omega 3!" written all over it.
Good thing my kids only eat bread and saltines...I don't have to worry about that stuff.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the "never ever ever ever ever put your babies on their tummies they'll suffocate!" turned into "okay, 3 times a day for 10 supervised minutes each time" to the huge posters currently in our peds office warning parents about flattening their kids' heads. There's a name for it and everything- the head flattening problem of the 90's and 2000's! We've come full circle back to the Mayan babies in papooses with their heads smashed against wooden boards for 10 hours a day....
Wait. Am I commenting or blogging? Stop me.
Hi Sarah's cousin and the Duke's second cousin. I read your blog from time to time and you are an amazing woman and your kids are beautiful!
I am so glad you talked about this article. I am a cheerleading coach and I know all too well how much parents get involved in their kids lives and it's just ridiculous. If they would just leave them alone and stay out of the gym they would probably do much better. Thanks for the link, I will be showing this article to my parents whether they like it or not, it's the truth and they need to here it! haha
Thanks again :)
DUKES: DO NOT GET ME STARTED ON THE DHA CRAP. I was so excited as the boys neared 1 and we could get rid of the formula bill, and here came a little note card of guilt in the mail. Now I was supposed to continue to give them formula through their second year because of benefits of the added second-step DHA?! That little coupon went through the shredder--twice.
Love it! How did any of us survive, let alone, FLOURISH?! Look at our parent and grandparents...where was DHA? My preemie slept on his stomach (his head was already a cone & flat) and all II knew was feed your baby!
My pet peeve (I am blogging too Dukes) is the idea that everyone is great, terrific and doing a "good job". Self esteem must be "instilled" like some transplanted organ. Come on! Not everything they do is great! Most of it isn't even "good". Running out of room is a good way to stop!
Thnx for thought provoking blog.
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