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• Should the Price of Toys Really Be Raised?

  When someone makes an argument that starts with a reference to puffy stickers, I'm usually on her side. (Start talking scratch-n-sniff or googly-eyed, and you can completely convert me. But that's another story...) Indeed, I agree with much of what the ubiquitous Pamela Paul -- you may remember her from such books as "Parenting Inc." and such Babble essays as "Hands Across America" -- has to say in this piece that appeared on Huffington Post. Read More... Posted May 04 2008, 09:30 AM by Jen Chaney with | with 10 comment(s) Filed under: toys, huffington post, economy, Pamela Paul, prices

• Is Child No. 3 a Luxury Good?

  If there's one person who has made the child/commerce connection, it's Pamela Paul. She's the author of Parenting, Inc. and Babble contributor with a dispatch this week that, and perhaps I'm speaking only for myself here, reassured those of us parents who never managed to follow through on the baby sign language classes, thereby condemning our children to low IQs and drool. Well, she's digging in deeper to the idea of kids and cost in a recent Washington Post essay, where she's talking about the status of the third child, particularly for those raising their families in expensive cities. Apparently, Baby No. 3 is something of a luxury good.  Read More... Posted Apr 09 2008, 03:31 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, family size, Pamela Paul, big families, third child, three kids, middle class families, Inc., poor, rich

• Babble Talk: Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

  Pamela Paul has an essay on Babble today that analyzes the merits of teaching our babies sign language. In the piece, excerpted from Paul's book, "Parenting Inc.," she finds that there isn't anything wrong with showing infants how to communicate with their hands. But she also discovers that it may not be as overwhelmingly beneficial as the initial studies by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, founders of the Baby Signs Institute, suggested. "Parents who sign to their children are also talking to them — and no study can prove that talking alone didn't lead to later verbal advances," Paul writes. Read More... Posted Apr 08 2008, 05:32 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: babble talk, Pamela Paul, baby sign language, signing, Parenting Inc., Baby Signs Institute

• Parent Trap, Baby Crap

  Remember the mile-long checklist of stuff your area mega-store recommended for your baby registry? Stuff your mom had never heard of, like breast pads, and stuff you had never heard of, like, um, everything else? Of course you know now, but did you even know back then there were so many baby shampoos to choose from? This was your entry to Parenting, Inc., what one author calls the modern way parents' every fear, hope and dream are exploited to get them to buy things like a souped up baby blanket (the Miracle Blanket) to $800 Bugaboos.   Read More... Posted Mar 31 2008, 02:33 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 14 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, Salon, baby registry, Pamela Paul, unnecessary baby stuff, miracle blanket, bugaboo stroller, inc

• The More Things Change

  When it comes to mixing work and pregnancy, I have been extremely lucky. With baby number one, I worked for a weekly paper whose maternity leave policy was, in essence, do what you need to do and come back when you're ready. With baby number two, I was (and, um, am) a freelance writer who also taught at a university and was off during the summer that I delivered. Hooray for me!   Read More... Posted Mar 27 2008, 10:30 AM by Adrienne Martini with | with no comments Filed under: pregnancy, pregnant, work, maternity, workplace profiling, Pamela Paul