Minnow’s Five Things

Failing kids, healthy lunches, rapping parents and sh*tty moms. There’s a lot to talk about this week!
1. The first week back at school means that parents and kids everywhere are filled with the excitement and sheer joy that comes with the promise of another year of learning. Well, perhaps not. But there is a good chance that expectations and hopes for success are high. That’s why the article in the Globe and Mail about letting kids fail garnered so much attention this week. It talks about how we’re all overparenting our kids (we’ve heard that before). By not allowing them to fail, we are setting them up for failure later on. It’s confusing, but I can tell you that I am definitely guilty of overparenting (my kids call me a helicopter mom when I apply sunscreen to their faces—they’re teens). What has caught my attention is not just this article but all of the articles hitting us over our heads with this new truth about helicopter parenting. Many parents are accepting that it’s a real issue, but there are no apparent changes to our behaviour. I’m waiting for the anti-helicopter backlash. Stay tuned.

2. Maybe the super groovy mom and dad from this Parent Rap video will start the counter heli-parent revolution. If anyone can do it, they can. This video caught my attention as it went viral over the last month with my favourite line (of course) being ‘Mom, mom, she’s the bomb.’ It’s actually very similar to an old Toyota Sienna ad that was produced about two years ago called the ‘Swagger Wagon.’ Do you think they can lead the charge? I’m willing to give them a try.

3. I’ll tell you who I don’t think will be leading the revolution, and that’s the massive group of women who are fans of the still so popular Fifty Shades of Grey novel. This book is not going anywhere fast. Just keep it on your Kindle, ladies, and please, please, don’t turn your kids into poster boards for such pedestrian lit by letting them wear onesies like the one above. If that’s not setting them up for failure, tell me what is.

4. One way to help your kids succeed is to pack them a healthy lunch (don’t spoon feed it to them—that’s definitely a helicopter move). But apparently our lunches are failing our kids. We’re smack in the middle of an obesity crisis and North Americans are leading the charge. Food production and the culture of food in North America has significant global implications as well. Andrea Curtis, a savvy Toronto mom, wrote a book called What’s for Lunch? How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World. It’s packed with colourful images and sidebars illustrating how kids all over the world are eating and, in some cases, learning about healthy food.

5. I know. All this parenting pressure is making you feel inadequate. It’s time to sit down with a glass of wine and flip through the latest hot book that landed on my shelf called Sh*tty Mom – The Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us. It’s funny, irreverent and written by four moms who have their tongues planted firmly in cheeks. Feeling like a hostage? This will help.

Have a good week.