Two current news headlines, Two chances to parent terribly…
From US News & World Report on October 12th, the headline reads, ‘Pandemic Lockdowns May Have Slowed Babies’ Communication Skills‘
Maybe infants felt left out by all of the educationally-related gloom and doom of the COVID pandemic? Of all the things parents did incorrectly during the pandemic, we should now add socializing babies. Not only did an Irish study find that 25% of infants did not socialize with other infants during the lock downs, the articles infers that such interactions are a significant growth milestone.
Come on!
First things first, parents of infants should only worry about basic needs – sleep, health, and safety – of their little newborns. Worry about social milestones SHOULD NOT be on any new parents’ (exhausted) radar.
Oh, and, ahem, the study compared just over 300 kids to draw these conclusions. To top it off, the article seems to assure parents that, despite their baby’s current social ineptitude, all will eventually be just fine in the long term. Just when you think this terrible study will disappear into the internet ether, we’re told that these little ones are now two and will continue to be test subjects.
I likely will not read those additional, worthless results.
From The Washington Post published on October 17th, the headline reads: ‘Kids go through tons of clothes. Here is how to cut waste.‘
I’m all for sustainability and eliminating the waste created by our sons and daughters, but, having families use an online platform to donate textiles in the name of environmental preservation seems like throwing a blanket over a forest fire. So, before we create businesses that rival the traditional Goodwill-types of charities, let’s attack environmental protection in ways that seem more pervasive – like the use of plastics for everything??!!??
How about less sandwich bags for lunches, or half-drank water bottles, or individual bags of chips, or trinket goodie bags as takeaways at birthday parties?
And, let’s be realistic: there are no lightly used kids clothing. Further, trading in these unworn items will not prevent our kids from re-buying (or textile factories from continuing their environmentally abusive production processes) at the mall.
So, if the point of the article is to make environmental protection an issue that kids are engaged in, this article isn’t so terrible. After all, our kids will have to solve the environmental mess we’ve created.
Terrible, though, is the idea that recycling old clothes via non-traditional online retailers will make an environmental dent when other, more immediate opportunities exist for families with kids.
Thanks for reading.
See an article, headline, or news feature worthy of the ‘Terrible Two’sday’ treatment? Let me know!
