Friday, January 13, 2006

"Cookie" for monsters?

Yesterday I got an offer in the mail to subscribe to a brand-new parenting magazine, Cookie, from the fabulous people who give us Jane. This magazine presented itself as an "upscale lifestyle parenting magazine" that will make it "a stylish and worldly, [sic] mom treat ... for busy but choosy women to explore the best new choices in everything". Basically a cross between Parenting, the Pottery Barn catalog, Vogue, and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. While I was slightly off-put by the whole Nanny Diaries feel of the moms they were trying to appeal to, I was flatly appalled by their attempt to sell this mag to me (and I am not exaggerating in my paraphrasing here):

"Are you the kind of mom who
* will never allow your child to be seen in clothes with characters on them?
* refuses to cut food into little shapes?
* demands nothing but the best for yourself and your family?

Then Cookie is for you!"

So, this is a magazine for child-toting women who abhor childhood? I am certainly not a cutesy, girly mom who is ruled by her toddler (as much as he would like to think so), but who am I to not let my boy wear his very favorite Sesame Street T-shirt, bought from (gasp!) K-Mart no less? And who am I to argue with the fact that I can get my child to eat an entire grilled cheese sandwich by cutting it into stars and trees with my cookie cutters?

3 Comments:

Blogger Periwinkle Jen said...

I agree. I'm appalled at articles that tote "running your family as if you were the CEO of a business" as the way to go. Claiming that these mommies who have their children on a strict schedule and don't accept anything less than adult manners at the table from a 2 year old are the ones to emulate?! Not me. I'm all about teaching my children to be polite, to listen and obey, but you've got to give a little slack to young children. You also have to let them have fun and have fun with them.

8:32 AM  
Blogger Claire said...

Well said, Jen! What's the point of being a kid if the adults are dictating your every move?

8:35 AM  
Blogger Periwinkle Jen said...

um, yeah, I wasn't fully awake when I commented...

toted=touted

10:39 AM  

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