Getting corporations out of our families
"With those children [Winston] thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror," George Orwell wrote in 1984 of the challenges of parenting under a totalitarian regime. "Another year, two years, and they would be watching her night and day for symptoms of unorthodoxy. Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they … [Read more...]
Is energy really an issue for parents? When you have kids, there's so much to think about these days: shuttling them to school and soccer practice, keeping them away from junk food and moderating the amount of TV they watch or, if they have a cell phone, making sure that texting doesn't take over from homework. No parent wants yet another problem to worry about. But in the rush of urgent tasks … [Read more...]
This week I did something that I probably do only once or twice a year. I went to a mall. My daughters, 14 and 16, who live a fairly spartan existence, were given gift certificates for Christmas this year from various relatives. So I planned a mother-daughters shopping spree not only so they could redeem their cards, but also as a kind of cultural experience for us all. Because we shop so … [Read more...]
"We found the way a child nags isn't always the same," says Lucy Hughes, then-director of strategy and insight for Initiative Media. "There's one of two ways that they nag— either with persistence or with importance." Persistent nagging is "really whiny," according to Hughes. "'Mommy, I really, really want the Barbie Dream House, wah, wah, wah, wah...'" Important nagging by contrast is more … [Read more...]
If you haven't seen the hilarious pair of videos with Jack Black as the Mis-Informant, Nathan Spewman, then now's your chance to have a good laugh at industry PR campaigns. "And just like that, misinformation is spread like the wings of an eagle soaring high above America's freedom-loving people. Professional misinformanting. It's a dirty job. But somebody's gotta do it." The particular … [Read more...]
What a quandary we find ourselves in. As parents, we want to uplift and encourage our children, to have them believe with hope and admiration in the founding documents of our nation —the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. The last thing anyone wants is to foster in our kids an early cynicism that unmasks the betrayals in our system, its failures and glaring … [Read more...]
In 1980, the U.S. Congress passed a law to protect adults who prey on children. You read that correctly. Public Law 96-252 prohibits the Federal Trade Commission from enacting rules that would protect the nation's children from commercial advertising that exploits their vulnerable and trusting natures. This law is corporate power incarnate. It should be the role of Congress to protect … [Read more...]
Ever spent an afternoon with a kid junked up on sugar? You know the scene. Maybe it's after a high octane birthday party where mounds of whipped icing on store-bought sheet cake was paired with a "juice" drink of dubious color and origins in celebration of some young soul's arrival at age five. After the festivities, you bring your wee one home, brain buzzing, moods racing, body bouncing off … [Read more...]
In an New York Times opinion piece about various ways that corporations use their "rights" as persons to exercise their "free speech" and get to our kids, Joel Bakan addresses the widespread use of psychotropic drugs to treat kids for conditions such as ADHD. Not only might oft-prescribed drugs like Ritalin be unnecessary or unhelpful in many cases. These drugs might also be dangerous. "In … [Read more...]
If your child is sending hundreds of text messages every day, you might wonder if there's some kind of emergency, as Ralph Nader once quipped. And you probably won't be surprised to learn that texting is addictive. Literally. "Neuro-imaging studies have shown that those kids who are texting have that area of their brain light up the same as an addict using heroin" brain specialist Dr. … [Read more...]