Archive for the ‘Check Your Sources’ Category

Check Your Sources - The Car Seat

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

costco-carseat11

A New Weekly Column by Ronin

Poor non-Best Parent Ever bought their baby’s Costco car seat with only the information provided by the NHSTA. The Best Parent Ever is laughing at the lack of preparation! “Silly fool, you should have looked at 3 different consumer report comparisons, spoken to your pediatrician to find out what they recommend, then gotten a second opinion from your back-up pediatrician, called at least 5 of your friends, and then posted the question on no less than 12 message boards. Only then could you narrow your choices down intelligently to your top 3. It is your parental duty at this point to fly out to each factory location and tour the facilities in which the seats are made. Have you interviewed the employees who are putting together your Dakkotah’s seat? How do you know they’re not baby-hating high school drop outs?”

The Best Parent Ever has been yearning to coordinate playdates since her first friend had a baby. Now that baby is here, choosing the right car seat to transport Pookie Lou to play with her 2 months old friends is incredibly important. Safety, as we’ve covered, is the first piece of this puzzle, but there are other equally crucial things to consider: comfort and style. What color is popular this season? The Best Parent Ever knows that burnt orange is the new black and she MUST HAVE IT. Does the car seat have a cup holder? How is the lumbar support? Baby Jaigne’s chances of developing scoliosis will be lessened with just the right consideration. What about celebrity endorsement? What does Angelina Jolie strap her latest acquisition into for their land yacht rides? The Best Parent Ever knows. She has one for each vehicle.

Check Your Sources!

Monday, March 30th, 2009

A New Weekly Column by Ronin

So BPE, is having a baby. Now their life work truly begins: endless hours of research. Their infant’s very life hangs in the balance of every decision made, so ensuring they are up-to-date on all the most current information and trends is vital. From selecting the most qualified doctor, to feeding, clothing, diapering, sleeping, all the way down to how, how much and how long baby needs to be carried. BPE needs to conduct a full, broad-spectrum analysis and is always on the cutting edge.

The internet has now spawned a breed of super parent that is perpetually lost in a world of scientific journals, consumer reports, online support groups, various medical resources and message boards. Coupled with the tried-and-true parenting books, there is no nugget of intelligence that BPE won’t painstakingly dig up. Too bad the actual intellect to correctly interpret most of this data is lacking. So what we end up with instead is cultish groups of facthounds who collect snippets of data the same way their progeny collect Pokemon cards. Keep the shiny stuff, discard immediately anything that your friends will laugh at you for putting out there.

While BPE is burning a hole in the old library card checking out the entire child development section, non BPEs dwells in a place called ImagiNation. What a desolate place. It isn’t insulated with thousands of clippings and warmed by smug reassurances from idealistic cronies. Instead, these misguided souls actually rely a great deal on interactions with their children and base their actions on instinct and observation. Lazy suckers. They actually think their kids know better than Dr. Sears how many times a day they are hungry or whether or not they prefer to be worn around like this season’s Prada. Putting down the books and actually playing with this child they keep reading so much about is not an option. Well, unless at least 6 pediatricians recommend it. Then that can be pencilled in sometime between peanut-free, soy-free, gluten-free lunch and baby sign language lessons.

For more “helpful” parenting tips, join the BPE Discussion Board!