Strollerderby : phone calls

Say Hi To Grandma Through the Screen

JeanneSager — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:28:00 GMT

My three-year-old likes to show her grandparents her nursery school projects. Too bad they're in Virginia, and we're in New York. Seeing a construction paper elephant is a tough job when you're looking through a phone line. We're still working on that.

But if an article in yesterday's New York Times is any indication, there may soon be a nation of toddlers who never have to use adjectives to tell Grandma about their new artistic creations. Grandma and Grandpa have gone digital so they can keep up with their grandkids living half a world away.

With half of American grandparents living at least two hundred miles from their grandchildren (according to the AARP) and two-thirds of kids seeing at least one set of grandparents only once a year, Web cams are stepping into the void to make sure kids feel that family connection. Some parents even use on-screen Grandma as a remote babysitter, setting their kids up in front of the computer to chat while they get some work done around the house.

With my in laws living so far away, their biggest fear seems to be that my daughter will forget them. They once handed me a picture of them - so she doesn't forget us, they said. We make sure that doesn't happen with weekly phone calls, and we bring them up in regular conversation. She runs to them when they arrive just as quickly as she does my parents, who live across town and talk to her on the phone even more often (what can I say, my side of the family tends to have bigger mouths!). We haven't purchased a Web cam yet, but it is a temptation. My in-laws will want to see the first loose tooth, the First Communion dress. A photographer by trade, I take pictures of these things, but I don't always have the energy to actually get them online and e-mailed four states away.

One expert quoted in the article said she worries grandparents will get too hooked on what technology offers; that they'll be tempted to visit less because they've already "seen" the grandkids. I kind of doubt it. The kind of grandparent who would power up their computer just to get a look at that cute little monkey is the kind of grandparent who would be there in a heartbeat . . . if they could.

A kid bouncing around in front of a camera has nothing on a kid wrapping their arms around you.

Image: New York Times

Dad Wants Daughter Back Despite Negative DNA Test

They Say: Text Messaging Can Fight Childhood Obesity

Talking Pets, the New Child Safety Gadget?

The 6 Creepiest Marketing Campaigns Aimed at Children

Cole Gamble — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Our friends at Cracked have done it again, revealing the dark forces at work against our children. Among the evils preying upon our kids? Lucky Charms, Abercrombie and Fitch, Santa Claus and Rachel Leigh Cook.

So what terrible things are they telling our children?

Here are some highlights from the Cracked piece:

1 900 Santa Scam

This 900 number commercial asked kids to hold the phone up to the TV while the TV played touch tones that actually made the phone dial the number and let the phone bill crank into high gear.

Back to School Sleeping Pills

Rozerem, the sleep medication with Abraham Lincoln and a beaver in its ads, starting targeting its drug to kids. Or at least that’s the way it seemed. In 2006 they aired a commercial that stated, "Rozerem would like to remind you that it's back to school season" over images of school kids and classrooms and buses. No thanks, I’ll keep my kids off the drugs and stick to my tried and true method of getting them to sleep: booze. Always works for me.

Check out the whole article Here.

More by this author:

They Like Big Butts, and They Can Not Lie: Survey Finds Men Prefer Bigger Body Sizes

Baby Cages: The 5 Baby Products that Should be Illegal

The 9 Most Racist Disney Characters

The 6 Creepiest Marketing Campaigns Aimed at Children

The Sh*t List: 10 Bizarre (or Terrific?) Potty Gadgets

Satan and 9 other bad (but real) baby names

Nipple Jewelry: 5 Products Moms DON’T Need

10 Naughty Things We Do to Our Kids (but keep doing anyway)

18 Kids From One Vagina: Woman Births 18th Child

The 26 Most Disturbing Kids Movies Ever

5 Ways to Keep the Kids from Growing Fat this Summer

5 Ways to Not Go Broke (with Kids)

What's Next, Shock Collars For Your Kids?!

7 Ways to Make Your Baby to Sleep Tonight

Wal-Mart Presents: Hannah Montana Wake-Up Calls!

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:30:00 GMT

I take this personally—seeing as we share the same first name, and now every time I introduce myself to a girl under the age of 12, she starts calling me HaMo. I’ve been a silent victim of Miley Cyrus' rampant fame for far too long, and I’m fighting back!

Today’s Washington Post had a story entitled “It’s Hannah Again. Should We Take This?” At first, I was terrified that the article would be about the popularity of the name Hannah for baby girls in the past five years. But what I found was even worse.

Hannah Montana has teamed up with Wal-Mart to bring tweens everywhere “personalized” wake-up calls and reminders to go shopping—for back-to-supplies, naturally. The call is free! The only price is having millions of teens and preteens hear their favorite rockstar remind them to shop at Wal-Mart, the company that underpays its workers, burdens taxpayers by exploiting public health care programs and development subsidies, destroys the environment, and tells its workers how to vote: not Democrat.

If Hannah calls, don’t answer!

Photo: Washington Post