Minnow’s Five Things

Another week, another five. Moms are really into the Nutella lawsuit, videos that are pulling on our parental heart strings, design-your-own-shoes sites and more. Here’s what caught my attention this week.

1. Firstly I just want to clarify that no, those are not my shoes. But here’s a cool trend that caught my eye—websites that allow you to design your own shoes. Move over, Manolo. Sites like Milk and Honey give you the option to choose the heel, toe, strap, material and colour for your perfect shoe. It’s a whole new world of opportunity.

• I don’t need to expand on the Nutella story because people already seem to be quite familiar with it. We’ve received more comments about it through our blog and Facebook than any other post—moms care. Interestingly, most feel that moms are responsible for knowing what their children eat and that it’s ridiculous to blame the brand.So, Nutella lies to consumers at a time when childhood obesity is a National epidemic and moms say so what? Moms accept that reading labels and getting to the truth is their ultimate responsibility. But what does this say about how much they are paying attention to marketing messages? Not much. It sounds like they accept the fact that brands don’t tell the whole truth. Interesting.

  One of my favourite comments was from a mom who suggested that Nutella still be punished but that the money should go to a cause rather than the moms who filed the suit. I think putting it towards healthy lunch programs for schools is a good start. Does anyone want to take on that project?

• On a lighter and more sentimental note, I have two awesome videos to share with you. Both will hopefully remind you to enjoy your kids—whatever age they are (even crazy toddlers!) because they are proof that kids grow even faster than all those old people keep telling us they do.

Lotte Time Lapse: Birth to 12 years in 2 min. 45. from Frans Hofmeester on Vimeo.

• We recently published a list of baby essentials for our readers. All of our selections are beautiful and lovely but I think if I was going to a baby shower I would bring this print. It’s got high impact for a great price—and it’s a fun alternative to an Eames rocking chair.

• If you went to a baseball game (close your eyes and pretend you don’t have kids for a minute) and caught one of the fly balls, would you keep it? Or would you look around for a small child to give it to? Apparently the fact that an adult caught the ball and didn’t give it to a little kid is newsworthy. The story was caught on camera at a Blue Jays game and then picked up by the Globe and Mail (and now I’m writing about it). Even as a mom of two young boys who are baseball fanatics, I say, ‘he who caught the ball gets to keep it’. Those are the rules of the game after all. If only the game of baseball could move along at a faster pace, the media wouldn’t have to look for human interest stories to help pass the time! But I digress.