Parenting, Inc.: How We Are Sold on $800 Strollers, Fetal Education, Baby Sign Language, Sleeping Coaches, Toddler Couture, and Diaper

by Pamela Paul

Book Overview

A leading social critic goes inside the billion-dollar baby business to expose the marketing and the myths, helping parents determine what's worth their money--and what's a waste Parenting coaches, ergonomic strollers, music classes, sleep consultants, luxury diaper creams, a never-ending rotation of DVDs that will make a baby smarter, socially adept, and bilingual before age three. Time-strapped, anxious parents hoping to provide the best for their...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805082492
• ISBN13: 9780805082494
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Times Books
• Length: 307 Pages
• Weight: 2.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Parenting,Plus

Pamela Paul captures the culture of commercialism for child-rearing.The anxieties of being a parent have been capitalized on by manufacturers; and, parents are distracted from the realities of raising a baby.Not only is "stuff" stuffed down new parents throats,this is accompanied by false claims of excellence.Pamela Paul has researched her topic and added a dose of intuition, inspiration,common sense and humor to drive her point home. BRAVA!!!!!

Sobering look at raising kids

Pamela Paul, who has written lucidly and piercingly about other issues in American culture, here examines the money and mentality of raising children. She begins by discussing baby sign language, and, right away I thought about the choices I made for my children. I never did get around to teaching my kids sign language, I didn't buy the most expensive cribs or cradles. Did I screw up?? Did I damage my children? Paul reassures me that, no, my kids will do just fine, thank you. This book is interesting from a sociologic perspective. But it's also practical. I think that any new parent (or parent of a pregnant child) should read it to get a clearer vision on what children "must" have, and what children truly need. The bottom line: children need more of what money can't buy. And if you spend less time going out to earn the money, maybe you'll be home more to give your kids what they need: you!

Aha! Moment for Grandma

Now i get it! This book is a must-read for grandparents who have been observing strange things going on in the world of parenting. Observation alone can be confusing and even demoralizing. This book has allowed me to understand the roots of seemingly bizarre, ever well meaning, definitely extravagant, behavior in my children's generation. The easiest explanation for the seemingly ubiquitous hysteria of parents of young children is that they have all lost their minds....but now I get it! This book is a wonderful, intelligent examination of the pressures and temptations that distort good sense and lead normally sane and smart people to reach into their pocketbooks for all kinds of expensive goods and services that never existed before or were free or relatively cheap. Yikes. If insight can help young parents resist French lessons for their fetuses or thousand dollar strollers, this book is the perfect gift to get into their hands, quickly, before the baby is born, while they have time to read it. For the grandparents, also a perfect book, because understanding is always a good thing.

Right on the money!

This book finally puts into words what I (and so many others) have been thinking. When did having a baby necessitate a seemingly endless shopping list of 'must buy' consumer goods? And it doesn't stop after infancy. Rather the pressure to over-educate, over-stimulate, and over-indulge in some communities seems to ramp up apace with a child's growth chart. Paul puts all this spending in perspective and offers some context to what has become a multi-million dollar industry: pampering the under 5's. When there are children starving around the world, such excess seems all the more out of whack. Pamela Paul gives you the facts in an anecdote-filled, interesting and comprehensive way. It's up to you to come to your own conclusions. The best kind of zeitgeist journalism.

You don't need an $800 stroller.

Do they have bugaboo strollers where you live? They've hit New York like an invasion of cockroaches -- $800 cockroaches in artfully named colors like "mocha" and "timbre". Ten years ago you couldn't have spent $800 on a stroller if you had tried, but by 2005 or 2006 they had become the norm in many communities. This book tackles the question of how this happened. Why do parents think that they need an $800 stroller? Why do they think their kids should watch "Baby Einstein" videos? Does the baby really need $80 face cream? Bugaboo strollers are treated in particular detail, with their initial marketing plan and the response by consumers dissected in fascinating detail. My favorite chapters talked about the companies that supply this stuff -- from entrepreneurs (especially moms) who had a good idea and are looking to turn it into a profit, to the most cynical and crass corporate marketing machines. Many of the products discussed in the book may harm children, but the companies that sell them spend millions of dollars convincing parents that their children will be somehow at risk without them. Modern society has weakened the extended families and tight-knit communities that once played an important role in the raising of children. Many parents have no good source for advice about the baby that is about to arrive, or has just arrived. Corporations have gleefully filled the void, and neither the kids nor the parents benefit from this. To be clear -- this book is even-handed, and where Paul sees value in a good or service, she gives detailed credit to the people responsible. Her discussions of the bad stuff are, for me anyway, more fun to read. I loved the book. About the only thing I wanted more of was the discussion of "kids as fashion items," where toddlers are dressed in expensive clothes and paraded about by egocentric parents. I still do not understand why people do such things.