-
Pamela Paul on Buying vs. Parenting
Tweet Share on Facebook April 28, 2008 Comment (1)Pamela Paul worked in marketing for seven years before becoming an author and penning books on starter marriages and porn. But it wasn't until she had her daughter (she's now the mom of two, 3 years old and 17 months) that she realized how marketing has hijacked parenthood. She writes about the mysterious lure of $800 Bugaboo strollers, wipe warmers, and baby sign-language classes in her new book Parenting Inc. I got the scoop from Pamela in a phone conversation from her home office in Manhattan. This is a lightly edited version of our conversation.
When did you first realize that becoming a parent now seems to require buying mounds of stuff?
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was told: "You have to register." So I went online with Target, and I was just, what is this? What's this bouncy seat; what's this swing? I had no idea what I was doing. It really felt like I was not only new to parenting but to the whole parenting-consumer culture, which is its own separate thing. -
A Smart Approach to This Week's TV Turnoff
Tweet Share on Facebook April 21, 2008 Comment (7)Considering how much time we all spend watching TV, it's remarkable how little time scientists have devoted to figuring out what television does to us. Only recently have researchers started looking at how very small kids are affected by TV, despite the fact that Teletubbies, Barney, Baby Einstein, and other video fare for the pre-preschool set has been around seemingly forever.
Today marks the beginning of the 14th annual Turnoff Week, in which we're told to renounce television and computer screens in favor of wholesome activities like family dinners, reading, and sex. (Grown-ups only on that last one, please.) So it's a good time to catch up on what the research is showing. Harried parents, rejoice: The news is not all bad! TV, done right, not only keeps children out of our hair, it also helps toddlers and preschoolers with language acquisition and other skills. The bad news: The wrong kinds of shows slow acquisition of those skills, including reading. (If you want to think really bad, think TV in the kid's bedroom, which is associated with all kinds of trouble, from obesity to bad grades.)
-
Alcohol in Teens Leads to Adult Woes
Tweet Share on Facebook April 14, 2008 Comment (3)Like all parents, I have a long list of prayers for my daughter's safety. One of the biggies is that she'll make it through high school without killing herself or someone else because she's driving drunk. Science now says I should worry not just about car wrecks but whether drinking at a time when her brain is forming its adult connections will make her sick, sad, and lonely for the rest of her life.
Drinking is part of teenage life—a part that can range from having one beer at a party every now and then to becoming wasted enough to pass out every Saturday night. Decades of prevention efforts and parental harangues haven't changed that picture much, despite increased recognition that teen drinking is a major cause of traffic deaths.
-
TV in the Bedroom? Bad Idea
Tweet Share on Facebook April 7, 2008 Comment (9)If you'd like to know what to do to help your kids grow up healthy, try this: Take the television from your child's room, throw it in the backyard, and tell the kid to run rings around it. That's the message in the latest news showing that inactivity impairs children's health and well-being and may be setting them up for heart disease and diabetes in adulthood.
Many children, even tiny tots, have TVs in their bedrooms, a fact that has dismayed pediatricians, who presume that less TV is always better. But there's been little evidence that those TVs are really doing harm, aside from two studies showing that children with bedroom TVs tend to be fatter than their TV-less peers.
-
Paternity Test Hits Drugstores Nationwide
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2008 Comment (1)It's great how you can get just about anything at the drugstore: dental floss, pantyhose—and now paternity tests.
Yes, DNA testing has come to your local pharmacy. Last week, Identigene of Houston started selling its paternity test in drugstores nationwide. Hollie and Gary Taylor are glad the company is doing so.
