Picket Fence Post

Item #1: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie Premieres

 My kids have been counting down the days until the live action version of one of their favorite book series — The Diary of a Wimpy Kid — comes to the big screen.

And the wait is over: The Diary of a Wimpy Kid hits theaters tomorrow. Much to my relief, Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+ and called it, “a jaunty and forthright production with a lively look reflecting the book’s illustrated pages, [the movie] does a great job of being in two places at once: In the head and gangly bodies of kids, and in the hearts of those of us who have survived grades 6-8.”

FYI: I did a Q&A with the Massachusetts author of the Wimpy Kid series, Jeff Kinney, here.

Item #2: Pole-Dancing Miley vs Morning Joe’s Mika

Remember last August when teen pop star Miley Cyrus – who has legions of fans in the tween set — caught flak for appearing at the Teen Choice Awards and doing a pole dance atop an ice cream cart (?!) while singing Party in the USA? At the time, I wrote on this blog that the whole performance made me “deeply sad.” And because my 11-year-old daughter is a Cyrus fan, the messages sent by the provocative act concerned me.

MSNBC Morning Joe co-anchor Mika Brzezinski, also the mother of an 11-year-old daughter, had a similar reaction and deemed it inappropriate for a teenaged girl. Well now Cyrus is fighting back through the pages of Parade Magazine which features an interview with Cyrus in this weekend’s edition. According to MSNBC, when Cyrus was asked to respond to Brzezinski’s criticism on MSNBC, Cyrus told Parade:

“My impulse is to say, ‘Get off my case, Mika, get over it.’ . . . My job first is to entertain and do what I love, and if you don’t like it, then change the channel. I’m not forcing you to watch me. I would do that pole dance a thousand times again because it was right for the song and that performance. But, dude, if you think dancing on top of an ice cream cart with a pole is bad, then go check out what 90 percent of the high schoolers are really up to.”

Brzezinski and her colleagues at MSNBC reacted to the Parade interview in the video below:

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 I concur with what Brzezinski and co-anchor Joe Scarborough said in the video: My daughter isn’t watching 90 percent of high schoolers, she’s watching Cyrus, who became rich and famous because of my daughter — and millions like her — did watch her and her parents (meaning me) gave her money to buy Cyrus music and other Cyrus/Hannah Montana paraphernalia.

Instead of being flippant about the fact that parents think her performance was inappropriate for a 17-year-old and telling them to just change the channel, I’d be worried about the same parents not only changing the family TV’s channel, but also slamming their wallets shut, particularly given the fact that Cyrus has a new movie coming out soon to which their daughters will want to see.

Item #3: Baby & Family Expo This Weekend

Just a friendly reminder that The Girl and I will be appearing at the Baby & Family Expo in the Parents & Kids Magazine booth at the Bayside Expo Center in Boston on Saturday morning. I’ll be giving away signed copies of my book of humor/parenting columns, Suburban Mom: Notes from the Asylum as well as reading excerpts.

If you have children of different ages and you’d like to do multi-aged activities with them, be sure to check out my P&K editor Heather Kempskie and her sister Lisa Hanson, authors of the Siblings Busy Book, who’ll be talking activities on Saturday at 1 p.m.

If you’re going to be attending the Expo on Sunday, look for the Manic Mommies at the P&K booth recording their podcast at 1 p.m.

Item #1: The Chew Monster (Otherwise Known as the Puppy)

Max, our mini-Wheat puppy, is smack dab in the middle of a rather nasty chewing phase and has been grabbing at anything within his reach and shredding it. Anything. Lego pieces. Pencils. Trash. Tissue boxes. Magazines. Soda cans. Shoes. You get the picture. Combine Max’s propensity for gnawing with the Picket Fence Post kids’ tendency to leave items lying haphazardly around the house and you’ve got the ingredients for my latest GateHouse News Service column.

Item #2: Co-Ed Sleepovers . . . Are They Nuts?

When I saw a Tweet this week from a Boston-based Fox TV journalist promoting her segment about teen co-ed slumber parties, she asked people thought about the notion. My immediate response was decidedly thumbs down. Putting hormonal kids together, with soft bedding, in the dark where parents will be absent for long stretches of time including in the middle of the night and a developmental lack of impulse control (plus teens’ brains aren’t fully developed) is patently crazy. Then I watched Sara Underwood’s piece on local TV and it only confirmed my initial thoughts. Please, tell me what you think about this trend.

Item #3: Pajama Diaries

So. Very. True.

Item #4: Modern ‘Like’ Family

Freshman ABC comedy Modern Family was unbelievably fabulous this week. It provided me with ample laughs just when I needed them. (You can watch the latest episode “Fears” for free at the ABC web site.) But the part that really had me rolling — aside from seeing the adorable Manny in his classic fisherman’s cap (I just want to hug that little guy) – was the scene where Claire Dunphy was driving her teenaged Haley and her friend around and could not, not for one more second, tolerate listening to her daughter continually and nonsensically invoke the word “like.”

Here’s what Haley said to her friend: “And then I’m like, ‘There’s no way I’m wearing that.’ And she was like, ‘Well if you don’t wear it then you can’t play.’ And then I was like, ‘Well, that’s fine by me.’ And then she was like . . .”

By this time, Claire, who’d been rolling her eyes as she listened to this, snarkily said the word “like” over her daughter’s conversation four times until her daughter objected. “Stop saying, ‘like!’” Claire shouted.

“Don’t embarass me!” the daughter shouted back.

“Ahhhhhh!” Claire shrieked as she gripped the steering wheel and violently shook her head.

This exact scenario – with slightly different wording and sans the guttural yell – occurred between my mother and me while she was driving me and a friend around when I was but a teenaged gal. I have a vivid memory of having what I saw as a perfectly pleasant conversation with my friend only to have my mother, seemingly out of nowhere, shout, “Meredith! Stop saying, ‘like!’”

I’m busily trying to stomp that tendency out of my own children before they become teens. I’m tryin’.

Image credit: Pajama Diaries via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Item #1: Penn. School-Issued Laptops Used to Spy?

The family of a 15-year-old high school student in a suburb of Philadelphia is suing his school district, accusing officials of using school-issued laptops, equipped with web cameras, to spy on students in their homes, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

An excerpt from the the news story about the lawsuit said:

“In a lawsuit filed [last week] in federal court, the family said the school’s assistant principal had confronted their son, told him he had ‘engaged in improper behavior in [his] home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in [his] personal laptop issued by the school district.’

The suit contends the Lower Merion School District, one of the most prosperous and highest-achieving in the state, had the ability to turn on students’ webcams and illegally invade their privacy.

. . . Families in the 6,900-student district reacted with shock. Parent Candace Chacona said she was ‘flabbergasted’ by the allegations. ‘My first thought was that my daughter has her computer open almost around the clock in her bedroom. Had she been spied on?’”

While school officials claimed that the remotely activated webcam feature was used as a security measure if the laptops were reported stolen — an application they say was used 42 times this school year – they aren’t saying much more about the controversy, particularly because a federal judge has told them that they need to get legal permission to do so first, citing the pending civil case.  The Inquirer reported that federal prosecutors have also issued a subpoena for all school records related to this program and a criminal probe is ongoing. It’s not publicly known how many images were taken by the remote cameras.

When I read about this case my jaw dropped. How in the world, if what the plaintiffs say is true, would anyone, could anyone, think it’s okay for a governmental institution to surveil someone in his or her home without his or her permission and without a court order? It boggles my mind. Beware of school districts offering “free” laptops.

(more…)

Item #1: Obama’s Sweet Parental Leave Policy

While most parents I know who try to simultaneously work and raise kids — or juggle the needs of multiple kids at the same time — struggle to make an appearance at every kid-centric event their children have, I found myself feeling envious of President Obama’s ability to put everything aside, including budget talks and national security, in order to attend one of his kids’ events.

In a recent New York Times piece entitled, “He Breaks for Band Recitals,” a senior advisor to the president told the paper: “There are certain things that are sacrosanct on his schedule — the kids’ recitals, soccer games, basketball games, school meetings. These are circled in red on his calendar, and regardless of what’s going on he’s going to make those. I think that’s part of how he sustains himself through all this.”

I think I need a presidential advisor handling my schedule.

Item#2: Seinfeld on the Poison ‘P’s’

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, the father of three kids (ages 4, 6 and 9) told Parade Magazine recently that he’s figured out what’s wrong with today’s kids, something he calls, “The Poison P’s.”

Praise: “We tell our kids, ‘Great job!’ too much.”

Problem-solving: “We refuse to let our children have problems. Problem-solving is the most important skill to develop for success in life, and we for some reason can’t stand it if our kids have a situation that they need to ‘fix.’ Let them struggle. It’s a gift.”

Pleasure: As in, “giving your child too much pleasure.” Seinfeld said that because parents believe that today’s children aren’t as innocent as we used to be when we were young, “We feel so guilty for destroying that innocence — which is what we did — so we’re now trying to repair that by creating perfect childhoods for our children.”

Betcha his kids would reply with a nice, “Yadda, yadda, yadda.”

Item #3: Bullies in the Bull’s-Eye

Remember that horrific story a few weeks ago about the bullies in the Massachusetts town of South Hadley, who, according to news reports, drove a 15-year-old girl to commit suicide? Well the school superintendent has announced that the students involved in harassing the girl have faced disciplinary action and may also face criminal charges, according to Fox and the Boston Herald.  

In the meantime, the issue of students harassing other students in school to the point where the victims are fearful and can’t focus on their lessons, has become a hot button issue. Even Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick who, while relating his own personal experience with being the victim of harassment from fellow students when he was a child, said that harassers should be held accountable.

“Whatever we can do to create a safe environment for kids, that’s what we should do,” Patrick said, according to the Boston Herald. “If we can give teachers and administrators some extra tools, we should do that, and do it swiftly . . . Parents have to take responsibility, especially ones who are themselves parents of bullies. There is nothing in the [pending anti-bullying legislation] that absolves adults from their responsibility to teach kids how to behave respectfully.”

He said he was contacted by a 9-year-old boy from a Massachusetts school who needed help in dealing with kids harassing him and when Patrick met with the boy, the child appeared frightened. The governor said he went on the school’s intercom and told the students that there was to be no bullying at the school and that if there was, he’d have to return and deal with it personally.

Item #4: Trending Toward More Chores? I’m Skeptical.

On Valentine’s Day, the Boston Globe ran a story which claimed that a “modern trend” has been evolving where today’s parents are making their kids do more chores, like we all used to do back in the day, otherwise known as the Stone Age. Citing research from a Wellesley College sociology professor, the article said that parents have been “reasserting” the importance of chores in the past 15 years.

I don’t buy it. Not that we here in the Picket Fence Post household don’t make our children do chores — we do — it’s just that I find it hard to believe that many other parents are doing the same thing. I’d be shocked if even half of today’s kids have to do regular chores.

What do you think? How prevalent do you think chores are today?

Image credit: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters via the NYT.

(An alternative title to this post could be the All-New York Times Edition, as all the stories referenced are from this week’s Times.)

Item #1:  Texting

News flash: It’s not good for teens to text all the time. 

Now you might not think that’s news, but ever since the New York Times ran a story entitled, “Texting May Be Taking a Toll” on Tuesday, people have been pretty worked up all across the internet. After citing some brain-numbing statistics depicting teen texting run amok (saying the average teen sent and received 2,272 text messages/month), the Times warned: “The phenomenon is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists, who say it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation.” . . . and global warming, the impending GM bankruptcy and the Susan Boyle profanity incident as well.

People need a serious reality check.

What the story about teens abusing texting tells me is that they’ve yet to learn that there’s truth to the adage: Moderation is key. Sure moderation is boring, but if you can no longer move your thumbs because you’ve been texting for 10 hours/day and you can’t sleep because you’re anxious that you might miss Sally’s insipid text about Jon’s new, sick T-shirt, moderation might seem downright novel, even sexy. (Swollen, non-working thumbs and huge bags under your eyes aren’t sexy).

If a kid texts reasonably, there shouldn’t be a problem. (If your thumb starts to hurt, stop. Maybe go old school and call someone on the actual phone, or, even more edgy, see the person face-to-face.) If a kid’s texting spirals out of control, of course other things’ll fall by the wayside, other than the thumbs and the sleep deprivation. When the kid stops paying attention to his or her responsibilities (chiefly schoolwork) and accrues massive cell phone/texting bills, then an adult has to step in and do something.

We don’t need a scientific study to tell us that too much texting isn’t a good thing.

Item #2: More Texting

So while the physicians and psychologists are up late fretting about what texting is doing to today’s youth, the Emily Posts of the world are aghast at what rampant, wild, uncontrolled texting is doing to teens’ table manners because, instead of partaking of riveting, sparkling conversation at the family dinner table, they’re now likely to be surreptitiously, like, texting.

In fact, a Times writer tracked down Emily Post’s great granddaughter, Cindy Post Senning, who told the paper, “People are texting everywhere.” The article, “Play With Your Food, Just Don’t Text,” continued:

“Husbands, wives, children and dinner guests who would never be so rude as to talk on a phone at the family table seem to think it’s perfectly fine to text (or e-mail, or Twitter) while eating.

Dr. Post Senning is here to tell you that it is not perfectly fine. Not at all. So new is the problem that her latest book, Emily Post’s Table Manners for Kids . . . written by Peggy Post, covered it only generally in a blanket ruling: ‘Do NOT use your cell phone or any other electronic devices at the table.’”

To me, that should be the end of the story. Make some House Rules, with a capital “H” and a capital “R,” which also apply to BlackBerry abusers. (. . . not that I have anyone of THOSE who bring the BlackBerry to the table . . .) No texting during meals. (Our meals are done in less than a half-hour so I can’t imagine 30 minutes incommunicado is a supreme sacrifice. Yes, I mean you too Mr. Spouse.) Then when the teens venture forth into the world, parents can only hope that they take the lessons of the House Rules with them when they’re at other people’s tables.

Item #3: Hugging

(This is the low-tech, almost anti-tech entry in today’s Three for Thursday.)

Teens. Hugging. It’s so the new black. This “issue” made page one of the New York Times today, in an article entitled, “For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug.’”

Good grief, is it really PAGE ONE news that today’s teens seem to hug each other more than teens of yesteryear did? Maybe if schools were banning hugging in significant numbers — as a few moronic districts have, and it’s briefly noted in the piece  – THEN I could see justifying the placement of a story about teens hugging on the front page. But the fact that kids hug a lot these days . . . not exactly breaking news.

“Girls embracing girls, girls embracing boys, boys embracing each other — the hug has become the favorite social greeting when teenagers meet or part these days,” the paper said. “Teachers joke about ‘one hour’ and ’six hour’ hugs, saying that students hug one another all day as if they were separated for an entire summer.”

When they’re not hugging, apparently, they’re texting.

Image credit: Fred Conrad/New York Times.