Strollerderby : David Brooks

Slate Slashes "Notes from the Underbelly" and the Hipster Babblers It Represents

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 18:23:00 GMT

Slate is joining the Notes from the Underbelly pile-on that began a few days ago here at Babble. As predicted by Babble's Lynn Harris, reviewers of the new married! with! children! television show won't be able to pass up yet another hipster parenting bashing opportunity, particularly not those "curmudgeonly newspaper columnists looking for yet another reason to complain about affluent, angsty, thirty-something parents." Slate curmudgeonly? Oh yes. Younger and prettier than David Brooks, but stodgy nonetheless. Watch out, folks, there's a brand-new alphabet in town Did you hear?

"A is for Alterndad. B is for Babble."

Yup that's right. Babble is part of the world represented by "Notes." Nevermind that we skewered the show several days ago.

Apparently, Slate concurs with James Poniewozik's analysis that most Gen X parents (especially those who write about their experiences) are narcissists.

Snark aside, Babble and Slate both find the show ultimately unable to deliver anything but trite, superficial commentaries on the wealthy and privileged few. As if everyone has the ability to choose whether or not to work once their baby is born, or whether to buy a Bugaboo or MacLaren stroller, or bigger car. As if that is what parenting boils down to these days.

Babble T-Shirts: Stylish, and Dignity-Safe

JasonAvant — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 13:09:00 GMT

With Babble's rise in popularity, it was inevitable that the merchandise flood would soon follow. You'll have to wait until Christmas to order your Jason Avant Action Figure (with Kung-Fu Grip; Detachable Detached Amusement Belt sold separately). But to tide you and your kids over, Babble has just released the first offering in our spring wardrobe line, created by our own illustrious editors. We hear that David Brooks himself was spotted wearing one at Trader Vic's.

So order yours today - all the ~~cool kids~~ kids whose parents recognize them as unique and special human beings will be wearing 'em.

Kids Today Think They're So Special

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:03:00 GMT

My daughter loves the mirror. Any mirror. Get her within eyesight of one and she drools. Bring her closer, and she smiles. Leave her alone with one, and she tries to eat it. I don't think it's narcissism; I think she's just weird.

A recent study says college kids think they're so special -- too special. We're apparently raising a generation of self-centered narcissistic brats who love eating mirrors and controlling the universe, according to these researchers. Only something called authoritative parenting -- whatever that is -- can get us back on the right path.

Elisa over at Mother Talkers has the right come back. Asked if they feel special, what do you expect students to say? "No?" Then we'd have problems. While I whole-heartedly agree with the recent New York Magazine parenting article -- the one about praising hard work over inate ability -- I still think David Brooks is behind this latest study. I can just imagine him adjusting his monocle and shaking his fist at my daughter's latent narcissim, "Kids today!"

David Brooks Anti-Hipster In Your Face Round-Up

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:53:00 GMT

Oh hipsters, how we love to loathe thee! David Brooks' New York Times Anti-Hipster Op Ed has generated lots of traffic for Babble, but nevertheless, we must object. And so, in an articulate funny piece, must hottie-dad Steven Johnson. According to Mr. Johnson, you'd have to be "... seriously tone-deaf as a sociologist if you think that these parents believe they're fighting the man by putting their kids in "Anarchy in the Pre-K" t-shirts. Obviously, obviously they're making a joke." While I'm not sure I'd identify David Brooks as a sociologist (angry grandfather more like), I agree with this assessment.

These t-shirts aren't intended to be political action, they are funny. And as Nerve Media's Rufus Griscom observes on the Babble Boards, "Here's the bad news David: we Gen X parents have not all grown up and decided to starch our shirts, barricade ourselves in the burbs, and vote Republican."

Mom-101 asks if it's "...possible that parents today, more cynical, more media-savvy, more independent than those who came before them, are simply behaving as parents they way they behave as people?" In this last round, even the most hipster-weary are taking a stand. Whatever "this" type of parenting is, this writing and blogging about our experiences. We've clearly hit a nerve. And that's just how we like it. Just like that.

"Hipster Parents": And Now David Brooks Weighs In

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:56:00 GMT

Always with the writing about the hipster parents. And now David Brooks joins the fray. Brooks, New York Times Op-Ed columnist and great-grandfather of 10, addresses the usual list of problems with Babble, Alterna Dad, and Urban Baby. And like Time Magazine before him, calls out pretty little Girl's Gone Child writer and Babble contributor, Rebecca Woolf, who elicited a comparison to Erma Bombeck (we should all be so lucky!).

Brooks covers the usual complaints against the hipster parent set: failure to grow-up, worship of fashion and the icons of youth, and an inability to surrender to Barney. My response to David, and anyone else ranting and raving about Babble and all other supposedly hip parenting modalities of expression, is "turn away." If it bothers you so much, then just don't read it. On the other hand, most scrappy types enjoy a fight and I can certainly respect that.

Truthfully, I find major media covering non-vanilla parenting very heartening. If Babble hadn't come along when it did, I would have been forced to pillage and burn every copy of Parenting Magazine in every doctor's office around town. How many smiling, skinny, happily crafting and cooking suburban moms can one stand reading about before one is driven to heavy drugs? The nice thing about all this discussing of the hip parents, is it gives us a new scapegoat and something against which we can measure ourselves. And I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be compared to an angst-ridden hipster than a Prozac filled cheerful-head any day of the week.

David Brooks Doesn't Blame Your Mama, After All

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Lately David Brooks, New York Times columnist and sometime blogger whipping boy, has come under fire for blaming mothers (those selfish asses) for the increase in income volatility since the 1970s. Mothers (those selfish asses) have this way of leaving the workforce to give birth and then reenter at their own whim at some point (or not). And it just causes quite a kaffuffle and so much instability that economists are fully understanding the impact of all this breeding and rearing.

In point of fact, Mr. Brooks was merely reporting the findings of the Third Way, a group of Democratic economists and strategists who issued a report titled the "New Economy" in which they state that income volatility has been somewhat overstated and that it is primarily due to the "benign" reason that mothers leave and then enter the workforce in greater numbers than in prior decades. So it was not poor picked on David Brooks who blamed the mamas. It was a group of semi-centrist Democrats. And they didn't even really blame mothers, they were merely trying to explain possible increases in income volatility over time.

In our rush to blame and activate our wonder twin blogging powers, it's very seductive to take things at face value (lord knows I've done that one too many times) without looking further. To view the full report, go here.