. Old school school security irked me because it was so pointless: Write your name on a sheet, show ID, get a sticker. Plain busywork. But school security has ballooned since Sandy Hook and now in addition to being pro-forma, it is also wildly expensive, diverting funds from anything remotely educational. So kudos to Sasha […]
. When Curious George was born 75 years ago this month, his German Jewish parents, H.A. and Margaret Rey, were fleeing the Nazis. They took George with them, in the form of a manuscript. As Alison Lobron notes in The Boston Globe: Three generations children have grown up with Curious George, who celebrates his 75th birthday […]
. “Soon to be a much-loved lifetime companion.” That’s the pitch I just got for a new “spunky, lovable” doll that is being marketed to parents of kids with wiggly teeth. It reminds me of that great blog post by Bunmi Laditan, “I’m Done with Making My Kid’s Childhood Magical.” One of the burdens we […]
. This Buick ad is airing on the Olympics. It’s about a tracker for kids old enough to drive (the Buick). It shows a mom and dad realizing that their at-least-16-year-old daughter has parked on Lover’s Lane. Yikes! As the Taliban would say: Let us stop this whoring spawn of Satan! But, being Americans, they […]
. This comment came in response to the post by Mean Girls’ author Rosalind Wiseman about whether or not to spy on a child’s online activity: There are so many monitoring apps out there, and the aim of using them is to keep loved ones safe. I don’t think it is too controlling of me […]
. This Fox 59 WXIN ad is so classic it belongs in the Fearmongering Hall of Fame…or maybe on The Simpsons. I so wish I could find the embed code, but I can’t. (Can anyone? Please send!) In any event, here’s the transcript. Imagine dirge like music and out-of-focus pictures of kids playing (which happens to […]
. Trying not to scream about this article in the Toronto Star, “Child Abduction and Murder Paint a Chilling New Portrait.” As reader Frankie wrote: Just the WORST kind of scaremongering!! They use these huge scary numbers but the bottom line is that in all of Canada, coast to coast, there have been an average […]
. The paragraph below is from a press release about a GPS’ing service parents can subscribe to. When would you need this service? How about when your kids are — Walking to school solo. Sure, you only live a few blocks from school, but letting your kids make the journey alone seems terrifying. Freedom is […]
. Please watch this 2-minute reverie on parenting, tweens and how many Hershey’s products two people can consume in one sitting, and then give me your reaction (because mine was visceral): . The spot shows a girl preternaturally sad because even though her (pathetic, doofus) dad is at home with her, he is tied up […]
. The commercial below makes my heart sink, and not because I am so thrilled when my son goes driving off. It shows a teen girl driving like a maniac, playing hooky to go to the beach in a bikini, and sitting on the couch alone with her boyfriend about to…whatever. Then it shows how […]
