Strollerderby : hipster parents

Do You Take Your Baby Bar Hopping?

Brett Singer — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:00:00 GMT

New York Citysearch writes:

"You had a baby. It happens. Despite consensus among suburbanites, you're not obligated to shed every aspect of your former self. In New York, at least, you can maintain some semblance of a social life." Then they offer a list of 5 "baby friendly" watering holes, where "in addition to spending quality time together, you can teach your child important life lessons--like how to squat above a toilet seat."

Right.

It's one thing if these bars are exclusively for parents and kids. "Baby Loves Bourbon" or something. One bar, Floyd, welcomes the "strollerati" during Happy Hour. The problem is that babies are not always pleasant drinking companions. If I'm at a bar knocking back a few and somebody's kid starts screaming, my strong preference is that said child not be present. And if you want to go grab a few brewskis, why not get a baby sitter? As a commenter on Gothamist puts it, "I dont [sic] bring a six pack to your day care, so dont [sic] bring your babies to the bar."

Let me put on my self-righteous, "parenting the planet" hat for a moment: Personally, I don't like the idea of babies being around excessive alcohol consumption. Whether or not someone is responsible for themselves is besides the point. Drunk people sometimes do dumb things. Why should your little bundle of joy get a pint of Guinness dumped on their head because some dope is upset that Brett Favre threw another interception? Or get hit with a piece of flying barstool when a different dope (or even the same dope) is mad that somebody looked at them funny? Now, let me take that hat off: it's up to you. Live and let live.

The other part of the "babies in bars" thing that I find irritating is the idea that, "you can maintain some semblance of a social life" after having kids. Maybe you can, but maybe you can't. When you have a baby, things change. You might not get to go out to bars the way you used to. Deal with it.

The flip-side to baby-friendly bars is baby UNfriendly bars. Brooklyn's Union Hall got a lot of flack back in February for their "no strollers, please" sign. What's especially irritating about the whining that ensued is the fact that if you can have a "babies welcome" bar, someone else should be able to have a "babies not welcome" bar. (This is similar to my notion that someone should be able to start "Up In Smoke Airlines" to cater to the nicotine crowd.)

How about our readers? Do you bring your kids to bars? Do you mind if other people do?

Source/Image: Citysearch

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Kids In Clubs With Bands

Kelly Mills — Wed, 09 May 2007 19:36:00 GMT

This one ought to make the anti-hipster-parent faction pee themselves with horror: according to this trend piece, all-ages clubbing is the latest thing. All-ages as in, toddlers. The rise in music for kids that doesn't suck has led to venues opening up for parent and kid shows. Hey, remember when the chill-out lounge was for drugs, not babies?

Whole families can go see live acts like the Sippy Cups, Dan Zanes, and Laurie Berkner (who my husband has a monster crush on, BTW) and experience baby's first stage dive. The article implies that taking kids to shows makes parents feel young and hip, but while I love a good family show, they are more likely to make me feel old. There's something about having your preschooler stand in the same spot in front of stage left where you puked as a teen that really brings home how much life has changed. Plus I have to hear myself moan, "Twenty-five dollars for a concert t-shirt! That's highway robbery!" in a way that does not fill me with youthful spirit. Still, good times.

My daughter and I saw Dan Zanes in San Francisco a couple years ago, and it was pretty wild. At one point some of the kids kinda rushed the stage and I had visions of Altamont. The downsides of the concert were: rowdy five-year-olds (not as annoying as rowdy nineteen-year-olds though); minimal glass-eating and swearing from the band; and pretty pathetic tattoo work on some of those kids--looked like they drew 'em themselves, to be honest. On the plus side: kids can get away with that spin-y, noodly, interpretive dance thing way better than adults can; the sing-alongs were fun, not annoying; and you could actually use the bathroom stalls to pee.

Tiny Revolutionary: Kid's Shirts With Something To Say

Patti — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 21:18:00 GMT

If there's one thing we've learned, it's that we love to dress our kids up in ironic teeshirts. Hell, entire books and Time Magazine articles have been devoted to the modern parents' pursuit of clever children's clothing.

But rather than let The Man bring us down, I'm thinking we should just indulge. And what oh-my-gosh-how-cute-is-that way to do it than with a shirt or onesie from Tiny Revolutionary? These aren't so much overtly political (for the most part) as they are subtle, pointing out that yes, we as parents are thinking about the future we're providing our kids, and yes, not all of us are traditional families. And graphically, they're really stunning. I'm particularly drawn to the adoption-themed shirt and to this anti-war design, and if Honda or Toyota would hurry up and launch a hybrid minivan for me to buy I'd snap up two of these in a hot second.

Now, normally I'm a little bit of a teeshirt hacker and the prices on these are why. But next time a baby gets born in my social circle, I think I know where I'm going to shop for gifts. And a dollar from each item goes to a worthy charity, plus you can submit your own ideas for future charitable giving.

Parents Babble: The Human Face of Hipster Parenting

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:35:00 GMT

Parents Babble, a regular feature on the video section of babble.com, recently featured an interview with "Rock Critic Dad" Simon and his "Ol' Lady" Joy who survive on little sleep, think "parenting causes brain damage," and don't take the whole hipster parenting thing too seriously. Check 'em out. ...and somebody send them a t-shirt!

"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.

Alternadad: Not So "Alterna"?

JasonAvant — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:28:00 GMT

As the Mommy Wars give way to the "Hipster Parent" Global Conflagration (surely, it's no coincidence that so many pieces on "Hipster Parents" include references to Franz Ferdinand - really, haters, you expect us to let go of irony?), much ado has been made over a book entitled Alternadad, by one Neal Pollack. I'm over the ado, but I thought this review of/meditation on the book and the Somme River-esque battles being waged over its merits was worth mentioning. Michael Agger is a bit late to the front, but he brings a take on the book that's thus far been ignored by many reviews. (Full disclosure: he also mentions Babble, and gives a nod to DaddyTypes and some site called - hang on while I check the spelling - Metroid. Wait, sorry - MetroDad, by one "Pierre Kim". Sounds like a nom de plume to me.)

In the piece, Agger points out that once one gets past the arguably awkward cover, Pollack's tale becomes strikingly, well, normal. And lost in the furor over this notion of who qualifies as an "alternaparent" are some very real issues that make up the core of the story; the fact that despite a slight shift in dress code and mores, dads today face the same challenges that dads throughout the ages have faced. How do I put food on my family table? How do I keep a roof over our heads? How do I care for my kid when he's sick? How much of my pre-child self will change, and how much will stay the same?

Seems to me, just as it did when I reviewed the book over a month ago, that those are the issues that are worth discussing. As Agger puts it, "the difference between an alternadad, a banker dad, and a soccer dad is ultimately aesthetic and pointless."

Time Magazine's Hipster Parenting Article: The Blogosphere Reacts

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:01:00 GMT

First, I know, I used the word "blogosphere." I apologize. Second, in case you haven't heard, James Poniewozick wrote an article for Time Magazine last week essentially saying that so-called "hipster parents" are, as Aidin Vaziri of The Poop puts it: "douche bags."

Because Poniewozick singled out Babble as "part of the problem," as it were, you best believe that we here at Strollerderby had something to say about it. Those of us connected with Babble/Strollerderby also chose to address the article on our personal blogs.

But other bloggers chimed in as well. Mo Comedy called Poniewozick out for failing to see the irony of being a ~~douche bag~~ hipster parent writing about how lame hipster parents are. CrunchyCarpets writes a blog post which I think supports Poniewozick's position, but I couldn't quite tell because she makes a big to-do about her husband bonding with her kid while playing XBox. (Isn't that a hipster parent rite of passage?) She claims that the ripe old age of 37, she's an "old fart Gen Xer/old nerd" who thinks sites like Babble aren't geared for her. (CrunchyCarpets, as a fellow 37-year-old "old fart Gen Xer," please accept my apologies for failing you.) Brian is kinda ambivalent. And, of course, the child free sites are having a field day with such an easy target. "Hardcore!"

If you've read the article and have something to say about it please let us know by commenting and/or linking your posts below. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take my kids to get new leg warmers right after they get their faux-hawks trimmed. Otherwise they'll look like complete fools at the Franz Ferdinand concert we're going to later. After we stop for sushi and colonics, of course.