Trying to Figure Out Why This Commercial Bugs Me

When I first saw this commercial I appreciated the girl-power-ness of it, being a mom myself who cruises through the neighborhood in a black car with a daughter who's going through a black-and-purple phase (and who never had much of a pink phase to begin with). My daughter would definitely choose the black and purple paint and peel into the driveway if given the opportunity.

But then I realized, these girls appear to be my daughter's age or older, and they are riding Big Wheels with helmets. They are riding Big Wheels, a toddler toy. And they are wearing helmets while they ride huge plastic three-wheelers close to the ground with very little risk of falling. Are we so overcautious that helmets on Big Wheels is a thing now? And why aren't they riding bicycles? Or skateboards? Something a little less babyish?

Maybe I'm so involved in our own style of parenting that we've missed Big Wheels for 6, 7, 8 year olds being a thing now. Our six year old is excited to go mountain biking this weekend (with her helmet on, of course). A friend's six year old just had a skateboarding birthday party on the halfpipe the dad built in their backyard (with their helmets on, of course). Are we the odd parents out? Or are commercials reflecting some nonexistent overly protective society that they think parents want to see?

***

I wrote the above a few days ago. Since then I've Googled "helmets on Big Wheels" and I've found that, yes, many parents insist on their toddlers wearing helmets on Big Wheels, when riding in wagons being pulled by an adult, and some parents have rules about helmets when kids are on anything with wheels. While I can understand this for some circumstances, at some point doesn't it seem overprotective for the general population of toddlers? The risk of a fall from a Big Wheel bike is slim. Most toddlers aren't going to be allowed to leave their yards or driveways without adult supervision so there's no risk of being hit by a car on the street. Many parents monitor their children outside even in their own yards so the risk of any danger is very, very low. Parents argue that helmet wearing is a good habit for children to start as young as possible and I agree with that for certain activities. Riding a bike, even a balance bike. Skateboards and scooters. Anything that requires a certain amount of balance and coordination. At some point though aren't we going a bit too far in wrapping our kids up and protecting them from every single bit of pain and discomfort? By making them think the world is always dangerous but if you always take these precautions everything will always be okay?

I also learned that some states require helmets any time a child is on public property on a foot-powered vehicle. So a parent cannot decide that it's safe for their three or four year old to ride a Big Wheel on a dirt path in a park without a helmet.

Let me point out again that the children in this commercial are not toddlers. They are old enough to have the balance and coordination to be on bicycles or scooters. I can sort of understand the visual because the Big Wheel moves more slowly so is more of a cruising vehicle than a bicycle. Every child I know who's around my daughter's age, if given a Big Wheel to ride, they'd be in the backyard crashing them into each other for fun because it's a babyish safety toy. I'd rather see this girl cruising by on a skateboard. Or rolling into the parking lot at the park on a mountain bike, pulling up to her mom's car, speeding past the girls with pink streamers on their bikes, if that's the message they're trying to get across. Why put them on toddler toys?

One Week Later

What a difference a week can make. Last Wednesday, Muffin had had a terrible first day of school on Tuesday. She had Wednesday off and I was filled with dread about Thursday and Friday. She did a successful half-day on Thursday but when I tried to drop her off on Friday she clung to me like we were glued together. For an hour I stayed in the classroom, cajoling her to let go of me and go play. Eventually we left and I told her she had to endure a boring day with me with no complaint and with no Dunkin' Donuts and no television. By the end of the day, as my Facebook status noted that afternoon, if she'd ever seen Arrested Development she'd have been saying, "I've made a huge mistake." I stuck firm to my promise of not being able to play with her because I had work to do. She had to entertain herself and at first she met my challenge with cheerful exuberance but quickly bored when she saw I wasn't going to give in. She spent the better part of an hour screaming at me while I tried to ignore her because I was "working." I wasn't really working. Who could with all that screaming? But I had my laptop open and was determined not to play with her.

I was feeling pretty hopeless and was dreading school again on Monday. I emailed her teacher on Sunday asking for a little more help in getting Muffin involved in activities right away to get her engaged.

Between Muffin remembering Friday afternoon and her teacher's engagement, so far this week she's been going willingly. This morning I didn't even have to sneak out while she was busy; she said, "Bye!" and turned her back on me.

I feel so relieved. And I've gotten so much done this week. I've gone running. The house is coming together. We have our new carpeting so I've been able to unpack the bedrooms. I've been doing paid work, which I haven't done in a long time. I like it so much, I've accepted more! Working and getting paid is so nice. I'm keeping my promise to Muffin, though, that I'm not going to do any work while she's at home. She goes to school and I do my work and then we play together in the afternoons and evenings.

Also, we've had some awesome weather with lots of outside time. That helps a lot. And Mike and I got together over the weekend, leaving Muffin with Grandma for an overnight. That helped a lot too.

Hittin' the Books

Last spring I started taking online courses for my master's degree in political science. Eventually the pregnancy got distracting and between that and getting ready to leave Africa and move to India, I decided to take a hiatus after those two courses.

As of the first of this year I'm a student again, again. Each month I'm starting an eight-week course, so now I'm taking one course, as of the first of February I'll be on the tail end of this one and starting the next one, etc., through June. It's busy and scary and exciting. I love that my brain is getting a workout. Dr. Seuss's ABCs is a classic, but I need to read something more stimulating every now and then.

I'm not working and even though I have a baby, I also have household help. Our housekeeper is great with Muffin and Muffin loves her; they can sit and play together for about an hour at a time. Muffin is also sleeping more regularly at night and is playing independently for longer stretches at a time so I can squeeze in all my reading. 

Doing my homework takes discipline. I'd much rather be watching tv or reading blogs and online newspapers a lot of the time. But I think taking these courses is going to be worth all the work, whether it's for personal development or they help me land a job the next time we're living in the United States.

(Yeah, so, I'm writing a blog post because I have a little writer's block with my globalization essay for class this week.)

I Was on TV

You can't get away with anything in such a small country. When I arrived at my French lesson this morning, full of my apology for missing class yesterday, my tutor announced that he knew where'd I'd been -- he saw it on the news last night. I was surprised, since I'd been hiding under a tent the whole time, in the middle of a crowd, trying to avoid direct sunlight. But my tutor said the cameraman got a shot of everyone there. And it was an exciting event, so it was the biggest story of the week.

The event was the groundbreaking ceremony for the new American embassy. The ambassador was there, along with the mayor of the city, and representatives from several NGOs and American businesses. It was pretty exciting and many of my Burundian coworkers are happy that it shows a big commitment on the part of the United States to continue relations (and aid) with the country. Today my French lesson was a discussion on how building the new embassy will benefit the local economy.

Television

I feel like I’ve been away from the United States long enough to be disconnected with the pop culture. I’ve heard the new James Bond movie is out now and isn’t there some lame-looking romantic comedy about Christmas? (I’m just guessing about that lame Christmas movie – I assume there’s one every year.)

We get South Africa and British tv and they are a little behind the United States. They show American programs a season or two behind. “Boston Legal” just started season 4. One channel has season 1 of “Dirty Sexy Money” and another has season 2 (it’s so confusing to watch out of order, but I can never remember which channel is showing which season). I resisted watching that show for a long time but now I’m unfortunately hooked.

Is there a show called “Carpoolers” in the United States? If so you should check it out. I suspect it’s an American show rather than a British one because it takes place in Los Angeles and none of the actors have British accents. But I never saw it on in the States. I’m starting to love this show. It’s not as great as “Arrested Development” (nothing ever will be), but it’s filling a void left by the “Seinfeld” and “Simpsons” reruns that aren’t on here. And it has Jerry O’Connor, who I think of as the poor man’s Jason Bateman. It’s created by Bruce McCullough of “Kids in the Hall”. (All the Kids are Canadian, which makes me think it could just as easily be a British show as American.)

I kind of miss the “South Park”/“Futurama” hour on Comedy Central. I really miss “The Daily Show” and “Colbert Report”. CNN International does a half-hour weekly global edition of “The Daily Show” and it’s not nearly enough Show to keep me happy.

We have a channel called “go” that’s only on for four hours every night. It’s the Commonwealth cousin of the CW. It shows stuff like “Gossip Girl” and “Greek” and I’m positive it must have had “One Tree Hill” and “Gilmore Girls” on at one point. It seems to be stylized after an Atari game, its branding is all green and pixilated.

There’s a South Africa reality channel with the most hilarious TV-show name of all time: “Spa of Embarrassing Illnesses.” I can’t believe I haven’t found time to watch that yet.

Denny Crane Made Me Do It

One evening Mike and I were watching a Boston Legal episode on DVD. I have no idea what was going on in the show, except that Denny Crane (William Shatner) was talking about hot fudge sundaes and within about 10 minutes we were in the car on the way to the store for hot fudge sundae supplies. Denny Crane is that influential.

I think Boston Legal officially became Mike's favorite show when an episode opened with Alan Shore (James Spader) and Denny playing Wii Tennis, which is also one of Mike's favorite games. 

When the theme music comes on doesn't it make you want to stride down a hallway?

Green Is Universal ... Buy the DVD! ... Wait... Huh?

Even though I hate the Today show, since I have a girl crush on Ann Curry I had to tune in this week to see if she made it to the South Pole. She did! But I missed some of her segments. No worries! NBC is kindly packaging all of their "Ends of the Earth" segments into a handy DVD on sale for the low, low price of $29.95 (plus shipping and handling). Um, the last time I checked, DVD packaging isn't very green. Unless they're putting the disc in a simple cardboard sleeve made from recycled fibers. Somehow I don't think so, though. All the plastic and petroleum used in DVD packaging and shipping will negate any green efforts anyone was inspired to take (while watching their energy efficient GE televisions?).

(And while we're at it, how environmentally friendly is the practice of putting up the Rockefeller Christmas tree? Green programming is officially over. We can go on to be good lil holiday consumers now.)

I had to laugh at My Name Is Earl and 30 Rock last night with their obvious messages that this green programming was forced upon them. Earl and his fellow prisoners were planning a Scared Straight program and the warden made them include some positive green messages. But Earl thought that seemed obviously forced and off-message and didn't really fit into the theme of his Scared Straight script. And Tina Fey used the opportunity to point out that the whole green programming thing is an advertising gimmick.

At any time during green programming did NBC suggest that you reduce electricity usage by turning off the tv?

Spider pig, spider pig...

Does whatever a spider pig does. Can he swing from a web? No, because he's a pig.

We saw The Simpsons Movie last night. Thanks to the commercials being run approximately every 90 seconds whenever I turn on the tv, I've had Homer's spider pig song stuck in my head for weeks now. It wore me down. I wasn't sure I wanted to see the movie because the last few seasons of the show haven't been that funny. But we decided to go for it.
It was hilarious. For at least 75 of the 88 minutes (it's a short feature) we were laughing loudly, giggling, smiling. My face hurt by the end. The opening joke is the family's at the theater watching The Itchy and Scratchy Movie and Homer makes a stink over how stupid everyone in the audience is for paying money to watch something we can watch at home every day for free. It's a great note to get started with and it coincided with my thinking that it was weird to be watching something with so many people laughing around me when I'm used to watching it at home quietly on my couch. It turned out to be a lot of fun to have all those people laughing along.

The plot is pretty thin, but it didn't need substance. Homer falls in love with a pig ... disaster comes to Springfield. It had the great Simpsons irony and sarcasm and irrelevance and plain old silliness. It was just darned entertaining. Most of the citizens of Springfield make an appearance. There are some references to episodes, but there's also a lot that's independent to the film (I hope they make Lisa's new boyfriend a regular character on the show).

There's a PG rating and I expected a little more gratuitousness but it stayed pretty tame. We see Bart naked. Otto takes a bong hit. Marge finally gets mad enough to swear (she's earned it, she's put up with a lot over the years).

I hope now that the movie has finally been made, the writers will put their effort back into making the show funny again. Or else end The Simpsons now on a high note.

(At home now, we're alternating between singing "Grendel pig, Grendel pig" and "Spider Ellie, Spider Ellie" to ourselves.)

(Image from MTV.com.)

Tim Russert (paraphrasing): Are voters that strategic, that they wake up on primary day and say I'll vote for this person who I think will win [the general election] even though I prefer this other candidate?

I am. It's something I've been wrestling with for months already.

Can you tell I'm watching all day politics on MSNBC? I'll be overloaded by the end of the day. But it's a pleasant diversion from wedding stuff.

Mike Gravel videos

Rock is about 2 minutes:


Fire is about 7 minutes:


I like them. I don't like how the mainstream media insists on making Gravel out to be a crackpot (he does that well enough on his own without their help). I find it ridiculous that the media is pandering to some lowest common denominator by insisting on calling the videos "bizarre" and "weird" and making comments about how Gravel wasted money on the consultants he paid for these ideas.

I doubt that any of those media talking heads are really having that hard a time figuring out the metaphors. They are just playing dumb, and that's insulting to both Gravel and the viewers. The videos themselves aren't exactly brilliant. But I think the metaphors are obvious. It's just that the spots are simple and no-budget. Give Gravel a little credit for trying to use media to his advantage. He has no money to spend on campaigning. Now that we're giving him a spotlight by contstantly talking about these ads, let's give him a chance to say something besides defending the ads.

And he didn't pay anyone for them. According to Gravel, two teachers approached him about doing a film project. He said sure, and followed their direction. Two days ago freakin' David Schuster on MSNBC was giving Gravel a hard time about how it took 3 takes to make the rock-throwing video. (It was kind of obvious Schuster didn't really care and the producers were prodding him to bait Gravel.) When the director says do it one more time, you do it. Gravel made it quite clear the ads are the vision of these two teachers, that he didn't have input on how the rock was thrown.

And I'd like to see someone on CNN or MSNBC be brave enough to come out and say they understood the videos, or at least respected the effort. Even your crazy old crackpot uncle deserves a little respect.

The blueberry pie is so. good. Mike tried the first piece last night after I went to bed, and he wanted to wake me up to tell me how excitingly delicious it is. (I'm glad it's so good. The rest of dinner was kind of eh, and the pie redeemed the evening.)

The Biggest Loser is on TV. They're showing outtakes of Bob the trainer sneaking doughnuts and whatnot when he thinks the cameras aren't rolling.

I'm eating pie for breakfast.

I feel better about the wedding than I did a few days ago. I was just having a bad day.

I've gone through this phase before. I'm hoping it's easier to stick with it during the warmer summer months. And that my motivation is stronger this time.

Dressing nicely when I leave the house. I bought these shoes months ago and tonight they make their public debut. Carrie on Sex and the City works from home and manages to get dressed up when she goes out. Laura Bennett has her studio at home with her 27 children and manages to look fabulous. I work from home. I have the clothes and the shoes and the means for buying and making more if I want to. I really have no excuse.

"That he thinks announcing his candidacy on Letterman is edgy doesn’t even make a top-ten list of things that suck about John McCain." --Wonkette

I was thinking similarly. Not that John McCain sucks exactly, but that announcing on Letterman is lame. And not even announcing. Pre-announcing. I caught one analyst today saying that it's an attempt to capture "youth" voters. I don't know how young you have to be to qualify as part of the youth vote, but if I don't watch Letterman because I find him old and obsolete, then I don't think the majority of people younger than me watch him either. When McCain films another Secrets segment for Conan O'Brien, then I'll be entertained.

Now if you'll excuse me, Jake Gyllenhaal is coming up on The Daily Show. He could announce a presidential candidacy I'd be interested in.

hair

I never watch Top Chef, but I caught a couple episodes last week before the big finale. I have to say the part I enjoyed the most was watching Marcel's big, villainous hair. Something about judging food doesn't make me feel as involved as an audience member as say, fashion design or interior decorating. I know an ugly or pretty dress when I see one, but I have no idea if the food tastes good or not. I have no choice but to trust the judges.

I'm having typing trouble. Grendel shredded the tip of my left index finger when we were playing "catch" a couple nights ago and whenever I take the band-aid off the scratches pop open and start bleeding again. Gross, isn't it? He didn't mean it. He doesn't know his own strength sometimes. (How I'm going to wash my hair today I have no idea. You know like, when you get a papercut on your finger, then wash your hair, and the strands get caught in the cut? I hate that so much.)

C'mon, this is funny. Aqua Teen Hunger Force closed down Boston today. It's weird that the media is calling it a hoax, though. Doesn't that imply that it was intentional that these little things were supposed to be mistaken as bombs? The CNN article is hilarious as all these serious news people are now having to explain Aqua Teen Hunger Force (and CNN has to explain it in the best possible light, because they're all owned by Turner). For those of you who don't get to sit at home with the tv on all day like me, this has been breaking news on CNN all day long, as one by one these little light boards are discovered, inspected, and detonated. I don't even watch ATHF, but I might start now. What a great punchline. (Oh, and these little doo-dads have been up in several cities for two weeks already. Thank goodness they are harmless. Nice job noticing suspicious things.)

political junkie + blog dork = refreshing Wonkette's live running commentary on the SOTU every few minutes.

Of the many things that irked me about the speech, the one that sticks in my mind the most is that for all Bush's talk of alternative energy, how come he never mentions energy conservation? Would it be so hard for the president to ask Americans to take the very easy, painless steps of driving a bit less, or putting on sweaters and turning the heat down? They aren't large enough to solve the energy dependency completely, but they are immediate acts that everyone can put into practice, not just the people who will drive alternative-energy cars in 10 years. I'm not lured into his ethanol ideas. He still reeks of lobbyists and special interests.

In other news, I started reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City today. I feel sick.

News Break

1) Sometimes The Onion publishes a story that's painfully true.

Area Man Guesses He'll Learn The Difference Between Shiites And Sunnis
PORTLAND, OR—Nearly four years into the war in Iraq, local sales representative Howard Morrison finally conceded that it was probably time to just pick up a newspaper and figure out what distinguishes Sunni Muslims from Shiite Muslims. "At first I really thought this whole thing would work itself out, and there was no need to figure out who was who," said Morrision, adding that it used to be enough to know the difference between Iraq and Iran. "But this is turning out to be pretty complicated and I should at least learn which side are the insurgents. I know one of them's Islamic." Morrison said he would have time for the new subject since giving up trying to learn the difference between trans fats and regular fats last week.

2) Does FOX secretly own every network? They've got all channels covering the big story of how mean American Idol is. But doesn't that actually promote the show? (As if it needs more promotion... Is it true that more people vote for American Idol winners than for president? Are the numbers skewed because of the age groups? And if the American Idol voting system is so reliable, why doesn't it become the system for presidential elections?) Anyway... Does NBC really think they're scaring potential American Idol viewers into watching their programming instead by interviewing people whose feelings were hurt by Simon Cowell? I have a feeling more people will be tuning in to watch the insults fly. (Not me though. I've never been interested in the show and have only watched one complete episode.)

3) Bill Richardson announces his exploratory committee, gets ignored.

4) Does this researcher collect royalties from New Order? Today is, scientifically speaking, Blue Monday. But fear not! Manalo to the rescue!

tv

Errr. All this time I've been watching Six Feet Under, and now Extras, one DVD at a time from Netflix, totally forgetting that since we have HBO, we have HBO On Demand so I could have been watching them whenever I want to. Why should I wait one business day when I can watch an episode moments after the mood strikes me? (As long as the episode I want to see is one that's currently being offered On Demand.)

I've been sewing slowly but surely this week. Obviously I'm spending too much time with tv. I got tired. My goal for this week was to finish my two knit dresses and I'm actually quite close to meeting that.

hermit

I've got all my supplies in place for hunkering down this weekend to sew my coat. I did a big grocery shopping so I have plenty of food. Netflix has informed me that The Devil Wears Prada and a disc of Six Feet Under episodes will be arriving in my mailbox today, so plenty of visual media. All the fabric and patterns I ordered during the Christmas breakdown should start landing on my doorstep today. (The sight of the new materials piling up motivates me to "Just keep sewing, just keep sewing. Just keep sewing, sewing, sewing.") Yesterday I cut out the second fabric and all the interfacing. And I fused all the interfacing to the fabric, so I really can start the actual sewing part of the sewing project.

If you don't hear from me in a few days don't bother sending a search party. I'll be quite content with death by tweed.

(Pic is yarn-died woven cotton that just arrived from ReproDepot.com.)

tv thoughts

Heroes. I was a little disappointed with the hero that died. And I can't believe we have to wait until January 22 for a new episode.

Gilmore Girls. I've been an avid watcher for years now. Does anyone else think this season feels flat? The episodes just aren't that exciting. It's getting less quirky and more soap-opera-drama-y. And, these kids go to Yale and are supposed to be smart. No one has noticed that Marty is weird and probably liked Lucy at first because she looks kinda like Rory?

30 Rock. I was intrigued by this show early on, but didn't actually watch it until they conveniently moved it to Thursday night after The Office. Then, even though I thought the first episode I saw was very funny, I was turned off by it being a 30-minute commercial for NBC and GE products. (And the same product-placement theme was used in Studio 60 the following week, making me feel ill. These are essentially the same show, but one is funny and hip and witty and the other is boring and trying too hard to be hip and witty.) I was sucked back in by the promise of Conan O'Brien on last night's episode. This show really is funny and I hope to watch it more often, if I can stay awake through Scrubs (which stopped being so funny about 2 seasons ago).

Looking foward to Top Design, starting in January.