Pearlstein on India's middle income trap.
Revolution through mockery.
I'm done trying to find $hit on the Post's website. If you can navigate to the Outlook section, check out the review of Mearsheimer's book on why leaders lie, as well as some other stuff.
In vegetarian news: make sure you're getting enough Omega 3s and B12, but also make sure to celebrate your much reduced risk of metabolic diseases.
To tiger-parent or not to tiger-parent? Who the f* cares?
Speaking of debates about parenting, have you seen this foolishness?
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3 comments:
I sort of agree w/ the NYT article in that I find the judgment among middle to upper-class parents baffling. I know of a lot of parents who don't raise their kids in the same manner that I raise my kids. Guess what, both my kid and their kids are thriving. So why article after article on this subject? Easy answer: that's what middle to upper-class parents are interested in. I remember reading MARIE CLAIRE and ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and ESSENCE pretty steadily from college on. Then after I got married, I dropped MARIE CLAIRE - b/c I wasn't that interested in the single life anymore. Then after I had children, I dropped EW, b/c I barely have time to watch movies or TV these days, much less read about them. I only read ESSENCE, b/c they're one of the few mags that do a great job of incorporating all stages of black womanhood: single-life, married-life, parenting, finances -- all that great stuff. So I feel that NYT claiming that they don't know why so many parenting articles are making the rounds these days is like them saying, "We have no idea why a wide swath of our demographic is responding to stories about different kinds of middle-class parenting. So weird." They're either being disingenuous or idiots. Either way...
Oh, and funny story, I just ignored a temper tantrum from my own kid in order to finish typing up this comment. Must rush away now...
Ugh! Upon second read I realized that the NYT wasn't really trying to ask why yuppie parents read so much stuff on parenting. They were really just saying that once you have a certain income and commitment level, that it doesn't really matter if you raise your kid like a tiger mom or a touchy-feely one.
I agree. What's most interesting is the unwillingness of parents to concede to the fact that nature does just play a huge part in how children will turn out. We can do all this stuff, but we can't make our kids be exactly what we want them to be. If you want your kid to be smart, you can train her or him to get good grades and all of that, but there's not a lot we can do to prevent them from becoming an artist if that's their true passion.
the toenails thing just drives me insane, who the f* cares if the adorable little boy has neon pink toe nails. he's adorable and looks like he's having a blast with him mom. i'm sure if i were a finger or toenail paint wearer my boys would be all about having their fingers and toes painted. and when i told DH about the outrage and he saw the pics he just thought the whole debate was insane too.
and wrt to the parenting articles you linked, i didn't read them because i've read a few you've linked about the tiger debate but really, i just don't do a ton of reading about parenting unless i'm totally stumped on something. and then i'll usually ask other parents who've lived through whatever issue we are having or ask the ped depending on what it is.
my favorite of the day was watching looks from other people waiting in line to return a few things to a department store. i had my 2yo with me. he was good at first and then just totally melted. i was letting him run around in an area where i was while we waited in line. but when it was our turn, i made him stay with me. he screamed, cried, and even hit me and i'm sure others thought i was worst mom of the year. but we got our business done with, discussed his behavior and moved on and in the next 2 stores people though he was just the cutest sweetest little thing....i told them they should have seen him 10 minutes before. but the judging looks were just perfect, because no parent has ever had to deal with that before, lol. whatever, those with the looks can stick it, the others who looked knowingly like they've lived through it, i thank them for their understanding during our few minutes of chaos!
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