Wednesday, March 24, 2010

C'mere, gLovie

Loyal readers may recall that many months ago we started getting a free subscription to Parenting: The Early Years. (Technically it's in TimJim's name; we're saving them so that he can enjoy them later.)

We have learned many things from P:TEY. For example, we have learned that actually there is only one parent and her name is MOMMY. Articles tend to focus on topics such as how not to be too much of a nag to your husband, even though he doesn't know a diaper from a disco ball and expects his martini to be cold and ready when he gets home from work no matter what. (You, Mommy, do not work.)

There are also lots of helpful tips and tricks from other Mommies--sort of like Hints from Heloise, but weirder. For instance:

"Travel Tub: When we go on a trip, I bring a small inflatable pool to put in the hotel room's tub for my son to take a bath in. It protects him from germs, and any water that spills out goes right down the drain!"

or

"Look Book: So I can read my Parents magazine in peace, I made my son his own "magazine" to look at. I cut out pictures of kids from past issues, slide them into sheet protectors, and put them in an old binder!"


Aren't those great ideas? I know there's nothing I'd rather do than bring an inflatable swimming pool on every vacation, or cut and paste an old magazine into a binder for some reason instead of just letting the kid look at it.

What's really fascinating, though, are the safety products. To be fair, these are more advertised than featured in the parenting magazines. But wow, check this out:


That's right, it's Baby's First Head Gear! Presumably the first of many. These might be the best though:


Finally: a world where children need never touch a surface! Ever! No matter what! Isn't science wonderful?

9 comments:

Lass said...

Bizarro. I suggest you get a subscription to Mothering or HipMama. (Although neither of those cater to men, either...but they are less heinous than Parents or Parenting.) Hmmmhmmm...maybe I need to start up a Dad's magazine.

D said...

But glovies are only for kids 2-6! How are we supposed to keep our kids "safe" the rest of the time?

Linda Johns said...

Now I'm worried about my 16 year old because he bathed in hotel tubs and never had glovies. You may want to make sure he has no contact with TimJim until TimJim is out of college.

I have such a low tolerance for all those well-intentioned parenting magazines -- especially the smug ones.

Anonymous said...

There really are no good parenting magazines, from what I've seen. Don't know why that is --

La Poetic Seamstress said...

WAY too fantastic not to comment on! I too felt that Parents Magazine just didn't fit MY parenting reality! Head gear, really? Ridiculous. How about just watching your kids! And one thing I DID do, a play on their clipping pictures idea, I did something like that. I got a dollar store photo album and put pictures of OUR family members, esp. those far away. Kids enjoyed that wayyyy more than looking at random photos! Fab blog!

Librarian Girl said...

I think you need to put the glovies and the head gear on your kid and then put him in an inflatable bath all together, at all times. I do not want to see you child outside of an inflatable bath, EVER.

librarianista said...

Lass, please do that.

Thanks Seamstress!

LG, I actually forgot to include some of the saftey products that are out there, such as knee pads for crawling babies. He'll need those AND the head gear AND the gLovies when he's using the inflatable pool.

weedavies said...

you are funny! i like this. will be back.

~*CAS*~ said...

first of all great blog!

now for the rest... think some parents are a little bit over-protective? and people wonder why their kids get sick all the time... LOL even though i have no kids of my own yet.. COMMON SENSE (though not so common) makes most realize that children will never develop immunities to bacteria ect unless exposed to them... also why there are vaccines ( this has become a big issue in the past few years as some parents believe that their kids do not need vaccinations ) ... anyway... love the blog :)