Eye-Roll-Inducing "Parenting Trends"

Amy Kuras — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:03:00 GMT

One of the first unofficial lessons of Journalism 101: if it happens three times, it's a trend. Or, if it happens to you and at least one of your friends, it's a trend.

So I tend to view stories like this one from Parents.Com about the top 10 parenting trends for 2008 with great skepticism, to say the least. And if you're a regular reader of Strollerderby (and you should be) none of these are news to you. I'll list them anyway, to spare you the nine zillion irritating ads that cover the screen when you're trying to go through the article.

"Creative" baby names. "Semaj" from James? Seriously, people? Just, no. Bill already riffed on this funnier than I can ("silent q" indeed).
Toy safety. Suddenly everyone wants their toys made in the USA. Good luck with that!
Working mothers bringing babies to the workplace. Again, please no. I already aired my feelings about this in a comment on Other Amy's post on the topic – and apparently am in the minority, in a big way.
Sophisicated nurseries. Can't argue with this one, anything I say would solely be out of raw, naked envy for people with money and taste enough to pull these off.
Famiies traveling together more — groups of friends going on vacation, so each set of parents can trade off kid-watching and grownup time. Again, this sounds genius.
Holding baby showers for 2nd and 3rd kids. H to the ELL to the NO. One baby shower and one wedding shower per person per lifetime. End of story. Anything else that's a gifting party, outside of really unusual circumstances, is greedy. Although looking at the comments on this post by Kelly, I totally want a blessingway now
Personalized baby web sites. No problem with these, but our set of faraway grandparents are my in-laws, who are in their 70s. And refer to emails as "letters." So, yeah, not sure how well that would work for us.
Birthday parties with physical activity themes. Don’t they all devolve into malestroms of screamy, running kids, themes or no?
More sentimental push presents for mothers. Rachael already ever-so-eloquently expounded on this.

Discipline — saying no to spoiled kids. This is a trend? A new trend? The hell? What is wrong with us?

I've never been especially trendy. Articles like this one make me glad.

Photo: Time

Strollerderby : nursery style

Eye-Roll-Inducing "Parenting Trends"