Why Television has Become "Baby Crack"

Are your preschoolers glued to the screen every time Dora the Explorer shouts on screen? Do you plan your coffee break around your infant gazing dreamily at Baby Einstein videos? If so, don't feel alone. You are part of the calculated preschool entertainment media frenzy - all to achieve your child's addition to and resulting purchase of products resulting from these creations.

I just finished the new book Anytime Playdate - Inside the Preschool Entertainment Boom or How Television Became Baby's Best Friend by Dade Hayes. Mr. Hayes uses his prowess as journalist and curiousness as the father of a preschooler to investigate how and why preschool television has become so popular and pervasive.

Reading through the process and research that new shows much go through before they hit the airwaves is thought-provoking and scary. Millions and millions of dollars go into creating marketing machines designed to hook our little ones before they even know how to differentiate reality from fiction. Times have definitely changed since Sesame Street started in the 1960's and 1970's to education young children through media. There are very interesting interviews with Julie Clark, creator of Baby Einstein, as well as television executives from Nickelodeon and more.

"More is always better for the audience. Kids over 6 don't buy toys,

they're turning to technology. They don't buy dolls. They don't buy

plush." says the president of Nickelodeon Preschool about why they target

kids under six.

My own children are addicts. There, I've said it. The plan their days and nights around offerings from Nickolodeon, Disney and sometimes, PBS. They didn't use to watch so much, but then the at home business got going and more and more of former "mommy-time" became "entertain yourself time".

After reading this book, I'm moved to make changes. I have always cringed at the commercials and marketing of the media machines, especially Disney. But I always thought of it as basically harmless. When you read about the calculations that go into making sure your two to five year old will not just watch, but buy products from these shows, you too might just want to pull the plug.

I was a marketing major many, many moons ago - back then, there was nothing like this! This book is extremely eye-opening. Give a read and learn more about current media and your child. If you've read this so far and are interested - please post a thoughtful comment and I'll be happy to share my review copy with you!

A Great Book for Dads with Sons

I recently received some new parenting books to review on this blog. I also will be giving many of them to faithful readers, so keep on reading for the opportunity to get one! I'll start by reviewing one that seems very appropriate for the upcoming Father's Day gifting!



There When He Needs You - How to Be an Available, Involved and Emotionally Connected Father to Your Son

by Neil I. Bernstein, Ph.D. with Broke Lea Foster



I have really enjoyed reading this book. I think a lot of what Dr. Bernstein discusses about children and child development would be obviously applicable to all children. But, the focus and fine-tuning of each chapter of the book targets father/son issues. He discusses ways for dads to truly connect with their sons, while differentiating themselves from "mom". The chapter titles speak for themselves (with my commentary on each):



1) A Dad is Not a Male Mother: From Half-There Fathers and Peripheral Parents to Good Enough and Better - I really liked the premise that builds on the idea that dads can do more and "be more" than they've been doing. My own husband often discusses (half-jokingly)that it will be soon time for him to be less available as my children become teenagers to avoid all that teen angst. Wrong! What works well and how you have to evolve as your children grow are important topics discussed.



2) Generational Mistakes: Facing Your Regrets - You don't have to be exactly like your parent's were to be effective or ineffective - get it?!



3) Sons in Progress: Fathering Through the Developmental Stages - A very relevant chapter and a guidebook itself for many fathers who may wonder what they should be doing to help and sometimes, just manage, through each child's developmental stages. There's much more than just changing diapers here! Try managing positive communication during your child's defiant stage. Good reading here!



4) What Dad's Won't Say: Fathers' Secret Fears and How to Face Them - A chance to see that you aren't the only one dealing with these issues. A dad's forum about child issues.



5) Sons Speak Out: When Dads Hurt and Disappoint Them - Sons discuss what works and what doesn't during child-rearing.



6) Boys and Their Tech Toys - This section speaks for itself - male bonding through their toys - this should be one of Martha's Good Things.



7) The Father-Son Competition - Dynamics between the generations and how they manifest themselves in your relationships.



8) Love, Dad: Unlocking the Language of Feelings - Aagh! Feelings! Yes, they are important. And yes, you should be sharing them with your son.



9) The Father Project: A Mother's Role - you are not alone!



10) Top Ten Fathering Tips - speaks for itself in value!



I recommend this book very highly and found it interesting to read, even as a mom! It would be excellent reading for dads at any stage of life. Who out there would like this book! Tell me about it!

Make Money Working From Home

Most of you who read my posts are either working from home or wish that you were. I do most of my work from home and have been doing so for the past ten years. However, I don't make a "killing" doing it. I make money by doing the following:

• Blog Advertising when I can get it
• West Telephone Sales
• ETS - Scoring student tests online part-time telecommuting

When I first left my full-time job to have my children, I did some consulting work from home in my work field - Human Resources. After that I sold Southern Living at Home products and left that after they refused to let me sell close out products online. Through it all I have Ebay-ed for nine years, very successfully. I now only buy Gymboree for most of my youngest daughter's clothing, because I get such a good return when I sell it online after she outgrows it.

Newsweek published an article this week called "Cutting Back Your Hours". It talks about everything that I do right now as being cutting edge for flexibility with decent money. I could use the decent money. Companies have jumped on our bandwagon, thankfully, by realizing the great workforce that is Stay At Home Moms.

Two placement services that serve this market are TentilTwo and Mom Corps MomCorps. These services help find organizations that hire for project and part-time work. I am signing up with both today in hopes of increasing my hourly pay back to something more professional in range. As they said in the article, part-time doesn't mean low pay anymore, especially if you are a seasoned former professional. I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, I do highly recommend Educational Testing Service (ETS) for relatively high paying part-time work scoring tests. The lowest hourly pay is $10/hour and it goes up from there depending on the test and its scoring requirements. During the holidays, the telephone work for West is good and it helps pay for the holidays for us.

If you have some ideas to share, please e-mail me and I'll write about them.

Can I Really Get Ready to Be Seen In a Pool?

I can't believe it's just a little over a month until I will have to don the annual caftan swimsuit and be seen almost naked! Why, you ask? Because where we are moving has a lovely community pool and the kids are already clamouring to go swimming everyday! I think I must get serious about Weight Loss if I am to actual undertake this mission!

I've really not be serious in years about this and I don't really feel like going back to meetings and other previously tried ways to lose weight. I like to do things on my own first. That is why I like www.PlanetFatLoss. They have very straightforward articles about losing weight and getting fitter. They have easy sections with different diet plans (not one size fits all) and exercise plans to choose from. You can join the community and get daily RSS feeds and other information emailed to you. It seems to fit in well with my daily computer use, so I'll get a lot of commitment reminding! I need to do something, so this will be the first day!

Growing Up Green Contest Winner

Congratuations to Marcy - who finally took the plunge and wrote a comment on my post about the book Growing Up Green. She's looking forward to reading the book and I'm sending my review copy right out to her! Thank you for participating in my first contest! I'm happy to reward my readers!