And In the News…
[image error]So in the Times yesterday morning there were two articles about children and books. The first was about a woman with a new book deal who essentially bullied her child into losing weight and at least to my mind probably set her on a lifetime of eating disorders (the child was seven at the time and not obese). And to top it off she gets a book deal. Apparently this is the new trend in parenting and one that is getting all kinds of attention through parenting memoir deals in NYC. (For the record, I don't know the author of the upcoming book or her daughter and am not therefore passing judgment on her, just on the idea as it was presented in the Times article.)
The second article, much less disturbing but still causing question, was about children (usually between 12 and 15) self-publishing (at their parents expense) books they have written. The writer of the article seemed to be of two minds—one that by allowing self-pubbing it was building the child's self-esteem and on to the contrary, that in so doing they were not doing their children a favor. There is value [image error]in perseverance and stamina when it comes to achieving something. Instant gratification isn't always the key. My main thought was please let the parents have paid for editing. Still, it's a new world out there–and we all are dealing with media in new ways. So maybe these kids are on to something?
As to the uber-mommy, I think that the 'everyone deserves a prize' era was not necessarily the perfect way to parent, however, I think our nation's obsession with eating both under and over is anything but healthy and granting book contracts for successfully bullying our children into following the paths we've chosen for them seems a bit much. However, life is hard, and children do need to be reminded of that occasionally. There are always choices and each one has a price. This is a valuable lesson. But surely there are more gentle ways to introduce the concept.
So did you guys see the articles or have you heard the hoopla? What do you think? What else have you read in the papers recently that captured your attention?
And in the winner category we have….Ann M! And Maude Allen! Congrats ladies you've won autographed copies of Deadly Dance!
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