Big Boys Wear Thomas Underwear

You know what I love? What nearly drives me to sentimental tears every time I see them?

(OK, OK, yes, the usual -- my kids playing together, a hug from my boy, the smell of a newborn baby ....

Size 4T boy underwear.

Yes, it's true. Maybe I'm totally wacky, but the sight of the teeny copies of adult skivvies, so unbaby yet so un-big-boy, the sight of these I-wanna-be-big things hanging off the oh-so skinny body of my sweet boy just makes me want to weep at the cruelty of time and memory. My sweet boy, how he flashes from insecure toddler into confident preschooler, how I can now only glimpse the baby-boy he was when he is asleep.

How he is rushing head-long into growing up, how he is trying so hard to hurry it along, and I just want to stop and inhale for the last time the sweet smell of his hair. Except, you never know that the last time is the last time until months later, when you think, when was the last time he said "'pooter" instead of "computer"? When did he learn to hop on one foot like that?

Buy, Buy Baby

I just finished `Buy, Buy Baby`, by Susan Gregory Thomas. Wah! It was enough to make one scoop up your family and head for cabin off-grid in the hills. Marketing to children -- babies! is everywhere, and cleverly to-boot. Here Dan and I had been patting ourselves on the back because we don`t have a T.V. (and oh, boy, does this book ever strengthen my resolve to NEVER own one), but the rapt attention that Francis has with videos on the computer apparently is similar to that of a low-level seizure. Oh, the guilt! (While I had no illusion of the ``educational`` value of Baby Einstein or Elmo, it did allow me a break to make dinner or have a shower ...)

What was a revelation for me was how the character recognition (Dora, Elmo, Thomas) IS the Brand for babies and toddlers. They are not cognitively capable of following a T.V. program, but they are capable of recogizing an icon.

What was even scarier was how I, a typical anti-corporate, cynical, child-centered Gen-Xer was pegged exactly by marketing. How easily my anxiety about my parenting and my children is exploited.

Which leaves a bigger question ... why is this OK. Do our children not deserve to live in a culture that respects them and cares for them, rather than exploiting them