arghhhhh

Below is a trailer for the documentary, "Consuming Kids" which was released in 2009. Click here to view screening and purchase info. Here is a very comprehensive list of other resources on the subject of the over-commericalization of childhood.

christmas joys & christmas toys

Just a mere 13 weeks until Christmas! This is when we really need to hunker down as a family and make an purposeful decision to NOT make this Holy Day a toy grab for our kids. However, there is an aspect of the celebration that as parents, we do believe, warrants a celebration of gift-giving. So. What to give?

The girls have been asking for a dollhouse. Have you priced nice, wooden dollhouses (not made in China) lately? Maybe this will be a combined gift for the girls, with a few little furniture pieces for each of them. I love the Plan Toys modern "chalet" dollhouse, but I don't think the girls would dig it. They aren't modern like their Mama. But isn't it cool!? It actually comes in two pieces, and the staircase is movable, too, so both girls could play with their own part.

I'm sure they would love this one, too, and it's a bit more traditional. However, I'm sure what THEY want is pink, flowery, princess-inhabited and plastic. They don't know this, but we really don't want to buy any more plastic junk, and no more battery-operated anything. (I'm not the only Mama who thinks along these lines, either. What prompted this post, was a visit to a fellow Well-Trained Mind Mama's blog about this very topic.)

think outside of the box

Today I'm calling our local cable provider to turn off our cable for a month. We know we should just go cold turkey, but hey, it's forty year old habit. I'm sure it will be like walking through molasses to get through the millions of sales pitches and irresistible offers that the C*x Rep will throw at me. Our goal is to be cable-free. I don't believe we will be purchasing a digital antenna, either. Our goal is to utilize streaming Netflix and DVDs. We're not anti-entertainment, just for anti-force-fed media. We already get most of our news from the web anyway, and we stay informed.

For several years now, I've recommended a book by Juliet B. Schor, Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture about the unethical marketing practices corporations are using, aiming as young as infancy. Today, John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute wrote an amazing commentary about this very thing. Please take the time to read it, even if you can't devote the time to the Schor book. Here's a link to the Whitehead commentary, and an excerpt:

Children are in greater physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual danger now than at any other time during the life of this nation--and the threat is coming from a multi-billion dollar industry that is using the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform children into profitable consumers from cradle to grave.

It's no surprise that the pre-teen demographic has become a major draw for marketers and big business. There are presently 52 million kids under the age of 12 in the United States. These kids spend $40 billion of their own money on everything from clothes and music to toys and electronics annually, but more importantly, they influence an additional $700 billion in parental spending.

i'm not imagining things!

Okay, I thought I was going crazy, or that at least that the cable company was messing with my mind. Playhouse Disney has disappeared. Well, yes, I'm partially right. Apparently the powers that be over at the Big Ears have downsized the Playhouse Disney lineup. For those of you beyond preschool parenting years, Playhouse Disney is simply the block of programming aimed at preschoolers from early morning until about noon on The Disney Channel. It was commercial free (save a few surprisingly subtle "sponsored by" spots) and offered sweet, innocent, fun and age-appropriate shows for the little ones.

While there are a few of the programs that have been on PD still showing, the PD branding, lack of commercials and preschooler friendly bump and segue spots have disappeared. Between shows the airtime is NOW packed with ads for Hannah Montana, Zack and Cody, High School Musical and all things Tweener. Blah.

As my loyal readers know, we aren't a huge kids TV household, but I do allow them to watch a little bit in the morning and afternoons during "strategic" times for Mommy -- my coffee time and dinner prep time. I don't cloister my girls, but I do want to control, as much as I can, the flow of what commercial crud is forced into their line of sight. We are in the process of de-commercializing their wardrobe (sorry girls, no more Princess clothing...books or movies only), trying to de-"plastic" their toys and basically turn them into little Luddites (just kidding). Seriously, I don't see any reasonable need for them to even know who in the world Hannah Montana is...she would not contribute anything positive to their childhoods.

I'm hoping that the reason for this programming change is a preschool-dedicated channel similar to Noggin and Sprout in the offing, considering the switch to Digital is coming in a few weeks.

Tell me what you think.

tall

Yesterday I measured the girls. Ilsa, 2 1/2 years old, is as tall right now as Ingrid was on her 3rd birthday. And Ingrid has grown 1 1/2 inches since her 4th birthday. This makes them both taller than 93% of other kids their ages, respectively.

I'm wearing a green shirt today that Ingrid really likes for some reason. It's just green, nothing special. But today she asked if she could wear it when she is big enough. I have a feeling that's going to be sooner rather than later.


Ingrid has also been commenting on clothes A LOT lately. Unfortunately, she's commenting on styles that Chad and I just don't approve of. I think clothing is going to be a matter of prayer for our family in relation to Ingrid. She likes anything that is glitzy and fancy, or shows shoulders and back. It's that princess syndrome again. Arghhh!!!! Belle's yellow dress (from Disney's Beauty and the Beast) is her favorite Disney Princess ball gown. Yes, there's a heirarchy of ball gowns. And Jasmine's "Arabian Nights" outfit (my description) is her favorite "everyday outfit" worn by a Disney Princess. (Jasmine is from Aladdin.) It's not the most modest thing in the world. She is begging me to "make her a Jasmine costume" for Halloween. Not gonna happen.


Again a common theme in our lives: she was exposed to something, that we didn't want her to be exposed to, outside of our home. And we're not for cloistering. I love that she loves princesses...I love to see her femininity developing. But it KILLS ME that we have to teach her this lesson at 4! Why is she even thinking about this? She is constantly asking me about the princess' "womanly forms" in relation to modesty knowing full well what I'm going to say, yet she loves that "look".


I have always wanted my children to look like children, not little adults. I don't think the little adult thing is cute at all. Yet she is constantly drawn to adult-style clothing. At FOUR. I won't go so far as to call us victims, but we are targets of media bombardment. And we must continue to teach her discernment from a very young age.