Baby Einstein rots your brain

My wife and I really didn't much want to watch the speech. I've always found Bush difficult to watch on tv--he seems so ill at ease--and I really didn't want to sit through all the punditry, the canned applause lines, the recognition of people the president can use to score some kind of point, etc. But, feeling a bit guilty, I tuned in--just in time for this woman's recognition. Nothing personal, and I had never heard of Baby Einstein, but it sounded horrible. The fact that Disney bought her out says a lot, not good. I turned the speech off again.>

Re: the crowd-pleaser guests, etc.

I too cannot stand this stuff. I watched for about 5 mins. and turned away, embarrassed for the man.

(And yeah, she's a hottie.)>

Baby Einstein rocks. Parents like them because children love them, and believe me it has nothing to do with any claims to developing their mind. More the ability to get some task done while child is giggling and cooing at a dragon puppet. So far I've seen no evidence that my children have suffered irrevocable damage but I guess time will tell. Maybe they won't get into Harvard after all. Sigh.

Weird to see the creator honored with a soldier and the subway hero.>

I agree, especially about the "babe" part.>

What gets me is how many of these worthies applauded themselves!
"Yeah, I'm great, that's right!">

I missed most of the speech. I always rest with my girls when they go to bed, and I fell asleep.

The subway guy was good for Bush. Thumbs up, Buddy. I thought that the entrepreneur was an odd pick but not a bad pick. America is a great place in terms of making a lot of money if you're creative and can cash in on the latest fad. I think that her idea was based on research being published by scientists in the field of child development. Hearing classical music stimulates and builds neural pathways that are used for language development and spatial tasks.

I agree that you don't need a special baby music video to play classical music to kids, but I bet many people didn't have any classical music tapes in their home until they bought the video. So.....it's a good thing.

She's smart, creative, and very rich.

What's wrong with Disney?>

STOU speeches, like all political speeches, renews my wish that all anonymous speech writers should be shot on sight. If GWB - or anyone else - wants to tell me something, I want it in his own words, literate or not. Not knowing who's putting the words in his mouth, I choose not to listen.

Perhaps we can ban speech writing under the truth-in-advertising rubric.>

Wasn't it Reagan who started this goofy idea?

Yes, it was the guy Rod claims on NPR to have revered back in the 1980s (when he wasn't working for his opponent). Speechwriters now actually call persons invited into the gallery for the purpose of being mentioned favorably as "Lenny Skutniks", after the guy who plunged into the frozen Potomac to save five survivors of Air Florida Flight 90, and was recognized by RR in the 1982 SOTU. Skutnik's wiki article lists all such SOTU props since.

The SOTU only serves to show up most politically interested persons on both sides of the ideological debate as closet authoritarians: you all imagine the stuff of politics should be made of Great Men and Great Women delivering stirring calls to arms to their People. 'Taint so; instead of Aragon and Gandalf before the Gates of Mordor, you're always going to get endless committee meetings and compromise deals at 2 in the morning instead.>

Back in college when I was young and irresponsible (as my wife mutters over my shoulder "Yeah back in college...) the SOTU was much more fun when turned into a drinking game.

One drink each time they applaud. Two drinks if only one side of the aisle applauds (three if it's not the President's party). Three each time he points out someone in the audience. Four if they show Ted Kennedy falling asleep...

Much more interesting that way.>

I hesitate to bring this up, because I'm anticipating the righteous smackdown from all who will inform me I'm making a fuss about nothing--but really, after the recent discussions about Bratz and the early sexualization of girls, etc.--why are people placing so much emphasis on the appearance of the women who invented a program for teaching children about classical music?

Discuss the utility of her product--fine. But why are you referring to her as "babe" and "hottie"? Those aren't even words that describe whether she's attractive in an objective kind of way. They are words that refer specifically to whether the male viewers find her sexually attractive. Why is that an appropriate thought for us to consider here? How is this respectful of women, and how would this encourage a young girl to feel good about herself? A girl who read these posts would quickly get the message that if she appears in the public eye for any reason--even if she is commended by the President--her worth will be judged on the basis of her appearance. I think this is regrettable, and I encourage you all to rethink your premises.>

Clarification of my above comment: substitute "lost" for "lots"
substitute "videos" for "toys">

My two-year old loves the Baby Einstein DVDs - and like others have said, I'd much rather he watches those than the Wiggles or the Teletubbies or whatever other garbage passes for kid's t.v. these days. If nothing else - the "Baby Galileo" disc (shots of the solar system, stars, galaxies, etc,. set to classical music") seems to have fostered an early interest in Astronomy - he knows all the names of the planets by sight, and can name them in order (he even knows the names of the four major moons of Jupiter.)>

">http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/sou_gallery.php>

Hey Rod, I have a great idea for your next post - "Liberal vs. Conservative Hotties - who's got the best babes?" Bring on the (ideological) smackdown (preferably in swimwear...)

My ex-girlfriend once told me that when she was in college, it seemed that the College Republicans had all the hot blonde chicks, and the College Democrats had all the hot brunette chicks. (Her words, BTW.)

***

Can anyone imagine the audience interrupting the Gettysburg Address with applause, or Lincoln introducing some Real Person in the middle of it?

Well, since the Gettysburg Address lasted about two minutes, there wouldn't have been time. ;-)>

Jaybird,
What does your son think about Pluto?

Ha. He thinks it's a dwarf planet at best, and rightly demoted.

My wife disagrees, however. she bought a "Save Pluto" t-shirt when we went to the local planetarium last fall.>

watsy -- Nope, not me. Not even sure what the miniboards are, truth be told. I'm just a guy who wanders in here from time to time because I started reading Rod back when he was linked to a lot from the Catholic blogosphere.>

Jaybird,
I can understand your wife's sentiment. Pluto was always my favorite, but your son is correct. Pluto had to go. :(

Aren't the Wiggles that group of men from Australia who dance and sing? I LOVE the Wiggles. My kids never watched them, but I liked to watch them.

Bill,
Oh, well. Your last couple of posts kind of reminded me of him. He's very funny. The miniboards are part of News and Society.>

Sigaliris,
Personally, I was having a bit of light-hearted fun at Rod's expense...

David,
That explains much - I've always gone for the dark types myself. :)>

I think his point in the SOTU was more about her current work with missing & exploited children, though obviously the "baby Einstein" stuff promotes his capitalistic ideals, and all politicians know kids are a good thing to mention.

As to Baby Einstein, I have relatives who swear by it. We personally think its ridiculous. Kids grow & develop by interacting with their environments, so care should be taken about what they are exposed to. However, I am quite unconvinced that early exposure to classical music, etc. is necessary for optimal cerebral development.>

She's a villain, if you ask me. But kind of a babe, yes?

I dunno, at first impression she struck me as being yet another exemplar of the overly coiffed, impeccably dressed, mannequin-type woman whom I have seen so often since moving to Texas, and whom I have never found particularly attractive. But, I guess that's just me. De gustibus, and all that.>

Ulrike is right: what's wrong with "Baby Einstein" is the idea that teaching your infants and toddlers to watch TV will make them smarter. I think most of us parents have to resort to playing a video for the kids every now and then so we can get work done around the house. What I object to is the marketing and its premise. And I agree that it's a false choice between Teletubbies and Baby Einstein videos. How about ... neither?>

I didn't say I wanted to bonk her. I just said she was physically attractive. Is that so wrong? (he said, Jon-Lovitz-as-Harvey-Fierstein-sihly)...>

Personally, I mostly play video games.>

Marketers of Bratz dolls aren't going to stop selling sex until men stop looking at females as bonking objects.

Sorry, watsy. As long as the human race is the human race, that just isn't going to happen.

PS -- I think it's "boinking", not "bonking". ;-)>

As I see it, the problem with a LOT of baby products (not just Baby Einstein) is that parents think that they "have" to buy these things to have a happy, smart, amused child.

To children under two, the world is so amusing and fascinating as it is, there's no real need for expensive toys or TV shows or even special musical tapes. Our toddlers were fascinated by a drawer full of safe plastic kitchen implements. It was "their" drawer and they would find new surprises in it when I worked in the kitchen.

We would save snow in the freezer and then get it out for play on the kitchen floor. Or in warm weather, I'd give them a paint tray of water and a paintbrush, and let them "paint the house" or deck, whatever.

It's amazing what kids can do with a bucket of big chalk pieces.

Dolls can be made out of rags. An oatmeal box full of safe objects makes a fun roll-around rattle. We weren't able to have cats or dogs with our young kids (allergies), but child-friendly cats and dogs are as much fun as a mountain of stuffed animals.

Kids don't need as many story or music tapes as they have. Mom singing or telling stories is all they need for a long time. (One interesting thing is to *tell* children fairy tales instead of reading fairy tales to them. The very young child really loves listening to stories told and acted out, and the parent benefits from really learning the fairy tale on a deep level.) Most parents can manage to play an autoharp or drums or penny-whistle - let the child make his own music.

If parents play a musical instrument, so much better. Also, why buy special tapes for the children? If parents want to listen to classical music - just listen to it. Dance along, sing along, kids love it. Same for musical theater (which young kids often find a lot of fun, especially when Mom pretends to be Mame...)

Anyway, the key is to get kids in the habit of making their own fun while young. One reason a lot of younger people are afraid to have kids is because they think they have to spend all this money on "stuff."

For the record: I had no objection to TV or video games later, btw, so am not some kind of purist.>

Yes, as someone said, many parents today think they live in Lake Woebegon, where all their children are above average.>

I suppose you could "bonk" if the "boink" was particularly exerting. Some of us aren't endurance athletes, ya know.>