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You've got questions, she's got answers. Be among the first to read Elise Mac Adam's new etiquette guide.
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My Baby My Billboard
An interview that Felix and I did for CNN for a segment called "Blinging Up Baby" aired this morning and apart from thinking that I really need a haircut and different glasses or contact lenses, I thought it went quite well, though I was surprised. I did not know that Barneys Department Store even had a children's department, and I really had no idea that Gucci makes a $685 Baby Bjorn-type carrier.
I actually don't have too much trouble with excess in theory. It's kind of a free country. There's even something almost Wilde-esque about the sartorial decadence for the non-speaking set, though keep in mind that the same man who wrote "Nothing succeeds like excess" is the same fellow who remarked: "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months". (That said, it would be nice to know that in addition to $400 toddler dresses, consumers could see clear to donating to a charity or two. In a part of the interview not used, I was asked if I thought people were jealous of the folks who could afford the expensive duds, and I said that I thought that people were jealous of the fact that there are parts of the population who aren't anxious about money in the horrible way that having a child can make you insane with financial worry- who can buy a crazy-expensive dress and still have money for health insurance.)
Beyond the obvious issues of capitalism, I also wonder about making children into tiny adults- squat, out-of-proportion versions of their parents. On the one hand, that's is inevitable anyway, and that's why so many psychotherapists, psychiatrists, life counselors, "healers" and "teachers" have jobs when the little ones realize what was done to them. But on the other, it seems that parents are themselves looking to be proud when their kids exhibit the "right" kind of sensibilities.
In this week's issue of New York Magazine, in a piece about how adults act like children (and how they dress their children to reflect their coolness), the ubiquitous and irritating Neal Pollack who has apparently written a memoir about the "Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America," describes how important it is to let his child know when the things he likes are awful: "And there's no shame, when your kid's watching a show, and you don't like it, in telling him it sucks. . . If you start telling him it sucks, maybe he might develop an aesthetic." Now, my parents sort of did this with me (Batman was good, Brady Bunch was bad. Hanna-Barbera Cartoons discouraged, Looney Tunes revered. Star Trek, always acceptable), but I think this had more to do with what they could stand to listen to than with a sense that my "bad taste" would reflect poorly on them.
Is this one of those things that has always been there suddenly becoming extraordinarily obvious and horrible, or are parents really in a new era where they aggressively want their children to be "Mini-Mes"?
The whole business seems so silly when the kid is just going to smear cookie all over a carefully selected sweater (which the dog will then shred), or roll in something disgusting. I actually find it amusing that my child will dance to anything- the weather jingle on NY1 or "grown up" music. I have a lot of concerns, but whether his tastes universally jibe with mine is not really taking up much space in my worry hopper.
posted by Elise at 11:45 AM
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said...
Congratulations! CNN Int'l picked it up and I saw you here in Greece last night! I look forward to reading your archives.
take care,
Katerina
3/28/2006 3:07 AM
Elise said...
Many thanks! Now, my question to you is how this whole business plays internationally? So many of these products that were featured in the piece are not sold only in the US, but is there a sense of this phenomenon being primarily an American one?
Cheers
Elise
3/28/2006 9:50 AM
said...
This Dad saw your piece on CNN and wanted to hear what Indi Mom has to say. I wonder if there is an Indi Dad out there. I like your point about giving to charity. I bet a "high-end" enviro-friendly company could compete with the Barney's in this market if they offered a ridiculously priced article of high quality, stain resistant, clothing with a chuck of the proceeds going to charity.
3/29/2006 6:44 AM
Elise said...
Well, I don't feel incredibly aggressive about how people spend their money, and I also think that there is something to be said about the way that high design does set the stage for a "trickle-down" of good design into the low-end markets (something that Target clearly is capitalizing on)... so I'm not against luxury spending so much as I am in favor of some perspective. And I agree, that if companies set the stage with their own charitable giving, it would actually do something towards making people conscious of what their money can do.
3/29/2006 8:12 AM
said...
Cingular Ringtones
Pay Day Loan
Stop Smoking
Quit Smoking
Mosquito Ringtone
Free Nokia Ringtone
Nokia Ringtones
Polyphonic Ringtones
Nokia Ringtones
iphone
Free Ringtones
Pay Day Loan
Car Loan
1/30/2007 6:30 PM
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