DadTalk

DVD Reviews Reading and Singing Get Dad’s Attention

This holiday season, I have been asked to help sell more products/music/services than any other. Perhaps it’s the state of the economy. Perhaps it’s because I’ve reviewed a few things on this website.

Whatever, the requests have been coming in hot and steady. The majority seem quite worthy. So I apologize to all those hardworking (if not desperate) publicists out there putting their hearts and souls into selling products. I simply do not have the time or energy to respond to all your emails, much less write about them. You’re not doing anything wrong, so don’t beat yourselves (or me for that matter) up.

Every now and then, though, something catches my eye. In this case, I liked a San Francisco publicist’s SHORT and sweet email. (Long ones cause my eyes to glaze over.) Check out this simple opening pitch:

I’m a publicist representing a number of nationally recognized, award-winning children’s musicians.

When it comes to music and DVDs, award-winning generally means better. Not always (it depends on the awards of course) but often.

The publicist asked if she could send me some CDs and DVDs. Since I liked what I saw on her website, I said sure. She’s already sent me two DVDs:

The first is Readeez: Volume One, in which a cartoon version of a dad and daughter chat onscreen and sing songs. Every word spoken is printed in large easy-to-see text on the screen, which is intended to help kids learn to read. You can see samples on the website. My 6-year-old son, who already is reading at a level beyond half the adults in this nation, loves it anyway. Hopefully, my daughter will pick how to read.

The second DVD is Princess Katie and Racer Steve Live. Cartoon figures also play a role in this concert video, but they play a much lesser role. While I suspect the concert might have been a bit too loud for kids AT the concert, it’s great at home because parents control the volume. Princess Katie’s voice is reminiscent of Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs fame, by the way.

The concert includes puppets, silly outfits, happy horn players and a lot of energy. While watching, we had both kids dancing on the floor of our play room. Seriously, the music is a lot of fun.

So, if you’re still trying to figure out what to get your kids for the holidays, you now have two ideas worth considering.

Contest Win Thomas & Friends DVD

  One of the reasons I chose to run a contest when last week is that the kids and I have been camping at San Clemente State Beach for the past week. While we’re back now – presumably much tanner – I probably haven’t had time to keep up with my own blog. I just have to hope there are dozens of great Thomas & Friends stories for me to read through.

If telling a story wasn’t your thing, the second part of this contest may work for you: I’m looking for great photos of you or your children playing with Thomas Trains.

Contest Win Thomas & Friends DVD

My children love trains. Both easily lose themselves in the world of locomotives, freight cars, tracks and of course Thomas & Friends.

So when a package filled with some copies of Pierce Brosnan-voiced The Great Discovery arrived unexpected in my mailbox, my kids thought I was some sort of super hero.  I could see it on their faces: Maybe dad loves me after all.

Of course, I had nothing to do with it – a publicist sent me a few copies for review. I asked if I could do a giveaway, and the answer was yes.

Overheard Gods of War vs. Teletubbies

“I want to watch the Teletummies.”

That’s what Lael calls the Teletubbies. You see, Lael missed out on tubby-land because our VCR died when we were in Chicago.

Rather than buy a new one, I told the kids wait until we get our stuff from California where we have another VCR. (Why buy a new one when the format is practically extinct?)

What really surprised me, after setting up the VCR here in Arizona, is how much Seth missed the Tubbies. After all, we only had three tapes to begin with, and one was chewed up by the old VCR.

But when I put the Tubbies back on, my 6-year-old was so happy it was like watching him revert to a 2-year-old. He happily bounced on our new couch with something resembling rapture.

So why is it, that Seth, who thinks Curious George is too scary to watch a second time, wants to play uber-violent Gods of War, in which I was finally victorious last week?

Virtual Worlds for Kids to Flood the Market

Shhhh. I need your help keeping a secret from my children. Don’t tell them about Webkinz or Club Penguin. Ever.

I’m especially talking to you, gift-givers. I will be checking all, cuddly, stuffed animals for  “Webkinz” tags. If I find one, be prepared to cough up a gift receipt pronto.

To be honest, I didn’t even know what Webkinz was until about two weeks ago. But at a recent holiday party, a boy about Seth’s age was dragging one around by the ear. The 4-year-old freaked whenever he lost sight of the toy.

The boy’s dad explained the concept to me: You get the doll, go online and activate an account. From there, you can feed and take care of your Beagle, Alley Cat or Brown Arabian. Personally, I’d go for the Bull Frog, since cats and dogs dominate the market. Besides, it would be a lot cooler to feed it insects than stinky dog food.

So you are probably wondering, what’s wrong with these virtual worlds? Harmless fun, right?

Overheard

Seth is on the local TV news! Well, sort of. You can barely see him spinning like a top near the end of the report. I had a hard time getting that screen grab above.

TV Is Still Getting Worse? Sorry, We Didn’t Notice

Has TV vulgarity taken a turn for the worse? Sorry, we didn’t notice since ours is off again.

When we considered moving this summer, we plugged in the free cable and kept the channel firmly fixed on HGTV. My family especially loved Design Star, by the way.

But now that school is back in season, I’ve disconnected the infernal thing. Here’s why:

McDonald’s Wrappers Makes Food Taste Better; Obesity Marches on

Carrots wrapped in McDonald’s packaging tasted better to the children surveyed than did carrots in a plain wrapper. (No such ads exist because McDonald’s doesn’t sell carrots).
– Los Angeles Times on new study

Think about that for a minute. Researchers package carrots and hamburgers in plain white wrappers and an identical item in McDonald’s wrappers. Children as young as 3 say the McDonald’s-wrapped food tastes better.

The more TVs in a child’s home, the more likely McDonald’s-wrapped food wins the taste test, according to a study from researchers at Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. The same holds true for fries, chicken nuggets and milk.

Interestingly, my kids who have probably never seen a McDonald’s TV ad, don’t like the food. In fact, the only thing they like about McDonald’s are the toys.

The study reinforces the idea that kids, who ranged from 3 to 5 years old in this study, consider commercials as authoritative as CNN. (What that says about adults is another matter.) Psychologists say that even 8-year-olds have trouble recognizing an ad’s persuasive influence.

Well, that may explain why the fight against obesity is failing, reports The Associated Press via USA Today. Not a single state saw a drop in the obesity rate, while it climbed in 31.

From the article:

Health officials say the latest state rankings provide evidence that the nation has a public health crisis on its hands.

Unfortunately, we’re treating it like a mere inconvenience instead of the emergency that it is,” said Dr. James Marks, senior vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropy devoted to improving health care.

Which states are faring the worst?

1. Mississippi
2. Alabama
3. West Virginia
4. Louisiana
5. Kentucky
6. Tennessee
7. Arkansas
8. Indiana, South Carolina (tie)
9. Texas

Colorado continues to be the fittest state.

Notice a trend here? The losers are poor Southern states.

While it may seem counterintuitive, junk food is less expensive than fruits and vegetables. And poor neighborhoods are less likely to have grocery stores stocking fruits and vegetables on their shelves. Fast food chains are often a primary source of food.

Which brings us back to the McDonald’s story. One suggestion to fight the obesity problem is to have fast-food chains advertise healthier fare.

“The only way you’re gonna get a big successful commercial campaign is from a big company. What if Ronald McDonald introduced kids to broccoli. . . . “Joanne Cantor, director of the Center for Communication Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, tells the Times.

Here’s my suggestion short of taking TV sets away from children’s homes: Create a national advertising campaign, complete with cool characters that kids will identify with. Then adorn apples, oranges, bananas and asparagus – preferably organic – with stickers that illustrate our new mascots. If executed well, suddenly broccoli will taste better.

Yeah, I know chances for success here are slim to none, but hey, a concerned dad can dream.

My Family Is Being Terrorized by HGTV

I made the mistake recently of hooking up cable TV in our bedroom. My wife and I essentially have been living free of that monstrosity for almost nine years.

After being given a second TV as a gift, I figured I would put it in our bedroom so that my wife and I could occasionally watch something relaxing at night. It seemed “reasonable.” (For some reason, the cable works in that room, but not our living room.)

Almost by magic, the remote was permanently affixed to HGTV. After all, the commercials are rarely about food or pharmaceuticals. And I suppose it’s better than FOX News.

When I mentioned this to another parent, she said, “Oh yeah, we always keep the TV on HGTV. That way, if my kids walk into the room, I don’t have to worry about them watching a Lucky Charms commercial. Or a violent cartoon. Or …” By the way, did I mention they’re house hunting?

Sadly, there is a HUGE downside to watching this network. While Lael could care less, Seth is mesmerized by the handsome men and women tearing out walls and creating an “open, airy space.” Seth, who wants to be an architect and a truck driver and an engineer and a doctor and an astronaut and a train engineer and a musician and a construction worker when he grows up, probably knows more about curb appeal than half of Chicago’s homeowners.

Great view of Lake Michigan notwithstanding, Anne’s obsession with the show might have something to do with being crammed like sardines into our 750-square-feet apartment. That and the fact that the kids have trashed everything we own simply because there is no place to hide our stuff. Oh, and I think Anne is tired of drinking wine out of mason jars instead of our wine glasses, which are still in California storage.

Because we think housing prices are not done collapsing, we figure our best plan of action is to rent a house even though I will really, really miss the great view. It might not be enough to dispose of the post-ownership blues, but at least the family would have room to breathe.

So yesterday we yet again loaded the kids into the minivan and resumed exploring the communities in Evanston, the first suburb north of Chicago. The benefits of Evanston are obvious to us. A large number of Seth’s classmates live in the diverse community. It’s not too far from work because of train access. And there’s a lot to do.

The problem has to do with the housing stock. Homes are either so big that they are rarely rented out – except by students near Northwestern University – or we’re stuck in another expensive apartment building … without the view.

But we really need more space. The kids have nowhere to play when they’re stuck indoors. Our current building lacks a pool and play area. The elevators are always having a problem. Plus, we would like to stop paying for storage in California, money we could use instead for rent.

Watching HGTV exacerbates the situation: here are all these happy Americans buying and remodeling beautiful houses. Where are they getting all this money?

HGTV is something of a false utopia, though. After all, we haven’t seen many shows – zero to be exact – talking about surviving foreclosure or folks struggling with housing payments they can’t afford.

There haven’t been any shows about how new home prices near where we USED TO LIVE have been slashed by nearly 50 percent. That’s right, new homes in Rancho Cucamonga that used to go for $1.2 million are now being offered for $695,000.

To piss us off even more, despite what is happening in Rancho, banks are stingily holding onto properties. They fear flooding the market and refuse to let prices fall naturally as they should. If you look at this chart on bank-owned properties, the first question to ask yourself: Why haven’t home prices fallen more?

And yet, HGTV’s hosts continue to chirp happily about how wonderful it is to buy a 1-½ bath, 3-bedroom house in Alexandria, Virginia, for $750,000 house. Did I mention that in one bedroom, the dad could reach both walls by holding his hands out?

So I curse HGTV every time Anne watches it. Then I sit down and watch it too.

You Mean Sleep Woes Persist After Kids Leave Family Bed?

The first time I remember watching the Dick Van Dyke Show, I was confounded by Laura and Rob Petrie’s separate twin beds. My mom and dad shared a bed, so why would they want to sleep separately, I wondered.

Of course, I didn’t know about the strict rules on television bedrooms back then. Dick Van Dyke was on during family hour, after all.

Culture took care of the rest, embarrassing all couples who admitted to having separate beds. But the same generation – the Baby Boomers – who made fun of the lifestyle now seem to be bringing it back, reports The New York Times. (Boy, they’re really milking that sleep thing at the Times.)

The National Associated of Home Builders are predicting that up to 60 percent of custom homes will have dual master bedrooms by 2105 – though home sellers and buyers are loathe to admit it. Why?

“It was more than snoring,” light sleeper Lana Pepper tells the Times. “He (her husband) cannot have his feet tucked into any of the covers; I have to have them tucked in. So I took all the linens and split them with scissors. Then I finished the edge so that half of the sheet would tuck under and the other half he could kick out.”

Um, split the linens? And wait a minute, I kick my feet out of the linens too – after all, I wear a size 12 shoe. A tucked-in bed makes it impossible to sleep on my back. And though my wife likes her corners tucked in, I don’t think she wants me to sleep in a different room. Right hon? Right?

I mean, Anne and I dream of kicking a certain little girl out of our bed so we can get BACK together, not further apart. I sure hate to find out that a few years after enjoying a warm spouse next to me instead of a foot in my face and a head in Anne’s ribcage, we will be wanting to head off to our own bed chambers. Talk about nightmares.