Category Archives: Natural Parenting

Question “Authority” and “Experts”

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From authorities to advertisers, we are bombarded with the message, explicit and implicit, “Trust Us. We know what is best, we are the experts.”

Our unquestioning trust, our faith in the medical profession and the purveyors of baby products hold us back from moving forward to an enlightened age of accepting responsibility for our own and our children’s well-being.

Here at Natural Life Magazine (and its sister magazines Life Learning and Natural Child), we believe that we should each take responsibility for how we and our families eat, birth, learn, grow, change.  Here’s an article from our archives about that.

The Problem With Princesses

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princess shutterstock_40441534There has been controversy this past weekend on the social networking sites about a Facebook campaign to get people to replace their profile photos with those of favorite cartoon characters…in the name of showing support for child abuse. I wrote a blog post about the incongruity of linking those two things, since many cartoons are violent. They can also be sexist and many other “ists.” And the effect of that is the topic of an article in Natural Life Magazine’s current issue entitled The Little Princess Syndrome: When Our Daughters Act Out Fairytales. It was written by Matthew Johnson, Director of Education for the Media Awareness Network.

Most parents of young daughters face the question: “Has she hit the ‘princess phase’ yet?” Not all parents are upset by this. Many happily buy their girls princess costumes, toys, and accessories ranging from shoes to purses, all in pink, and often branded with fairytale characters that appear in cartoons. As Matthew points out, though, some despair of the powerful gender stereotyping this delivers to young girls and each new piece of princess gear can be a source of conflict.

The source of much of this princess culture is, of course, Disney cartoons and their associated marketing. So I was interested recently (and sent up a silent cheer) to read in the Los Angeles Times that Disney is ringing down the curtain on the genre after 73 years of charming princes saving desperate, pretty pink princesses.

Animation heads Ed Catmull (Pixar) and John Lasseter (Disney) were quoted as saying they believe that “films and genres do run a course. They may come back later because someone has a fresh take on it … but we don’t have any other musicals or fairy tales lined up.”

But in reaction to the report, the studio seemed to back away very quickly from this stance on its Facebook page. Did they get masses of email from disgruntled five-year-olds? Who knows. No matter what that was about, thanks to syndications, DVDs, and the Internet, it will take more than Disney’s decision on its future path to put the princess culture to sleep for good.

And that’s probably not necessary anyway. With the help of vigilant parents and some media literacy savvy, children should be able to enjoy the fairytales without buying into the gender bias and helplessness habits they promote. And if not, your daughters may enjoy my all-time favorite princess book The Paper Bag Princess. It turns the princess stereotype onto its head and, while it probably won’t counteract all that sparkly pinkness on its own, it used to get my young daughters cheering as the princess assertively tells her not-so-charming prince that she doesn’t need him to save her and he should get lost. Just to be sure, we’ve also published some tips for helping your kids – both boys and girls – to become media literate.

Peaceful Parenting

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“War is an invention of the human mind. The human mind can also invent peace.” Norman Cousins

peaceWhen I was a child growing up during the Cold War, November 11 alternately confused and scared me. The ceremonies at school seemed distant and I had no direct contact with any family members who had experienced war. However, the fear of “the enemy” was palpable, and not just on November 11. Practice air raid sirens would go off from time to time, and we practiced what to do if we were attacked – although I really had no idea who might be doing that. Unfortunately, neither my parents nor my teachers could or would deal with my questions and my concerns, so I  learned to keep them to myself. Later, when I could read fluently, a friendly librarian helped me find some books that would at least explain things, if not settle my mind.

Years later, at a time when the Viet Nam war was winding down, I spoke with my own children about war. I had few tools to help me, but I wanted to be sure they wouldn’t have the confusion or fear that I’d experienced as a child. In addition to our chats, they accompanied me on peace marches, and (without my prompting) wrote and performed a play to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

One tool I could have used was an article that we published in Natural Life Magazine in 2003 called Talking to Children About War by Naomi Drew, the author of Hope and Healing: Peaceful Parenting in an Uncertain World (Citadel Press, 2002).

Here, also, is a much more recent article by author Laura Grace Weldon entitled Making Peace in Your Life and in the World. It puts violence in a personal context and provides food for thought about our individual responsibilities to work toward peace within our families and our communities.