The Gourmet Baby
Nine-month old Eric is typical of a phenomenon that has come to be known in the popular media as the "gourmet baby." He has two educated, professional parents who have delayed childbearing until their early thirties. He has all the best baby equipment that money can buy - the right furniture, the right stroller and a genuine shearling cover for his car seat. Eric has swimming lessons, looks at flash cards of famous paintings and simple words, plays with the best "developmentally engineered" toys and will begin the study of the violin in a year or two. He also has enough stimulation in the course of a day to make even a college student want to take a nap and shut it all out - which is just what Eric does.
The gourmet baby will grow in a few short years into David Elkind's "hurried child." The gourmet baby's parents are already investigating the "right" nursery school, the best grammar school, the most prestigious college. If the parents both work, they are desperately trying to pack what they think of as "quality time" into evenings and weekends. If the mother does not work outside the home, she has made a deliberate decision to stay home to be a "professional parent."
Although some observers have labeled the gourmet baby as a "yuppie" invention, others have noted that, like their designer clothes, gourmet babies can be found in families at all economic and social levels. It is particularly tragic that among the most susceptible to the trappings of consumerism are the parents of at-risk infants, such as teenage parents. The gap between what they see promoted as the best products for children and what they can actually buy tends to increase the alienation from the rest of society that they already feel.
The proliferation of gourmet babies
What has caused the proliferation of gourmet babies? First, societal changes such as new family work patterns, delayed child-bearing, and smaller families have contributed. Because of economic and social pressure, both working mothers and their stay-at-home counterparts are vulnerable to different kinds of guilt: the guilt of not contributing more to the family finances or the guilt of spending too much time away from children. That guilt, added to parents' natural pride in their children and desire to give them the best, materially, intellectually and emotionally, has resulted in an intense concentration on the infant as both evidence of and justification for the parents' lifestyle.
Sandra Steingraber wrote the essay titled, “My Children: The Food Experiment” about her experience as a mother of two children who have never been exposed to any type of advertisements or propaganda regarding commercialized food products. Steingraber and her family moved to a cabin in the woods near Ithaca, New York and when the family arrived at their new home the discovered their television had been stolen. They decided not to replace the television, which did not seem like a conscious decision to not expose their children to advertisement as much as it related to it not being a central part of their current life or lack of finances to replace it. Not replacing the television provided a context clue that this experiment was not planned,
... Nestle’s quote, Bittman makes his editorial plea to ethos, by proposing proof that a woman of reliable mental power of this issue come to an agreement with Bittman's thesis statement. Bittman also develops pathos in this article because he grabs a widely held matter that to many individuals is elaborate with: "...giving them the gift of appreciating the pleasures of nourishing one another and enjoying that nourishment together.” (Mark Bittman) Bittman gives the reader the actions to think about the last time they had a family dinner and further imposes how these family dinners are altogether important for family time. Therefore, Bittman did a magnificent job in pointing into the morals of his targeted audience and developing a critical point of view about fast food to his intended audience leaving them with a thought on less fast food and more home prepared meals.
Initially published in 1845 by Dr. Benjamin Spock, The Common Sense Guide to Baby and Child Care revolutionized parenting, and thus, the upbringing of an entire generation and those following. As society changed, new editions of the original handbook emerged to fit the lifestyle of the current population. Dr. Spock wrote seven editions of The Common Sense Guide to Baby and Child Care alongside a prestigious pediatrician, Steven Parker, before his death in 1998. I read the ninth addition of the manual, revised by pediatrician Dr. Robert Needleman, which includes modern-day ideas such as eating disorders in teenagers and applying to college.
Swimme, Brian. “How Do Our Kids Get So Caught Up in Consumerism”. The Human Experience: Who Am I?. 8th ed. Winthrop University: Rock Hill SC, 2012. 155-157. Print.
Kids these days are constantly looking to get the next best thing, or act how the “popular” people would act. In the article “Commodifying Kids: The Forgotten Crisis,” Giroux talks about the affects the media market is having on children of today. The media is “brainwashing” kids into buying their products and catching them while they are young. The children of today are measuring their worth by the things they own or the way they act, which is largely due in part to the media market. While I do agree with Giroux on how the media market is to blame for the strong influence of children, I also think that the parents should share some of the blame for giving into their child’s desires and buying and encouraging them to get the top products.
In the article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko blames the fast food companies for causing the obesity epidemic. He told his own story as a kid growing up at the time when fast food was the most popular choice and how it made him a “portly fast-food patron” (241). He then accuses such companies of failing to put a warning label on high calorie. In addition, Zinczenko encourages the new spate of lawsuits against the food industry to give children and their busy parents an opportunity to have a better and healthier food choice. Though I concede Zinzenko’s opinion in addressing the responsibility of the food industry, I still insist that the industry is not the only one who is responsible for this “time bomb” (242). I believe the responsibility belongs to parents, who play an important role in their children’s food orientation, schools, for
In the article “Don’t Blame the Eater” author David Zinczenko discusses on the conflict of how we can’t blame the youth for being overweight, but the parents or guardian on taking personal responsibility for what their children are eating. Luckily, Zinczenko was able to turn his life around by the Navy Reserves recruiting him and being involved for some time the men’s health magazines. Now, he is currently the president of Galvanized Brands, a global health, and wellness media company.Growing up, Zinczenko’s parents were divorced and he was living with his single mother that worked long hours to make enough money to just keep a roof over their heads. According to Zinczenko, he learned the hard way of struggling within managing his diet. Zinczenko’s
663). In this article, it states that “our culture and environment” play an important part on what we as adults eat and our children. Our culture has gotten so caught up in fast food, that we think it is no longer normal to even cook a home cooked meal. And we have also taught our children, that eating fast food is normal and anything other than that isn’t. And the only way to change how people feel about eating fast food regularly and never cooking a home cook meal starts with the environment (Bittman, 2011, p. 663). We have to start by approaching real unprocessed food that we buy from the supermarket, and “…raising our children in homes that don’t program them for fast-produced, eaten-on-the-run, high calorie” and start by “…giving them the gift of appreciating the pleasures of nourishing one another and enjoying that nourishment together” (Bittman, 2011, p. 664). Family time spent together eating a home-cooked meal is something that a family can appreciate as a group. It not only makes people appreciate family and togetherness, but
The 80’s were a decade of great change. It became obvious that there was a widening between the classes. The middle class was disappearing and people took different approaches to dealing with this fact. One way of life that became synonymous with the 80’s was being a young, urban professional, or what people at the time coined a Yuppie. Due to the widening wealth gap, it became essential to market products as either upscale and downscale. Producers were forced to place their items in one frame of reference of the other, fancy of frugal. To sell items with the high price tag advertisers played on the yuppie habit of compensatory spending. Yuppies did not want to be confused with low class or middle class, so they spent in order to show their status to the world (Ehrenreich, 229).
...ther materialistic indulgences. As children, we begin to grow accustomed to a certain lifestyle. The transition into adulthood can prove to be incredibly challenging if we have an unrealistic expectation of how our needs are met, due to the sense of entitlement our parents instilled. In contrast to the involved parent, the absent parent may neglect several, if not all, of their parental duties, being physically, emotionally and financially absent from their child’s life. This often bears resentment in the child that can transcend long into adulthood. As children, we blame our parents for our misfortunes; the absent parent is no exception. Rather than accept personal responsibility, many often use the absent parent as a scapegoat for not achieving one’s full potential. Whether present throughout our lives or not, Americans have deep rooted parental dependency issues.
According to Rocker- Gladen, while attempting to teach her students about consumerism, one recurring comment students normally make about consumerism, it is their parents’ responsibility to monitor their exposure to consumerism. This alarming fact is that not every child has parents whom are actively involved in their child’s development. Turkle emphasized that by parents giving their kids cell phones this can lead them to developing a new state of dependence. Instead of the youth seeking their parent’s advice about their ideas and attitudes, they are more likely resort to their inexperienced peers. This is as a result of the “always on, always contented” communication culture that is being the...
Planck, Nina. "I Am Nursed on the Perfect Food." Real Food: What to Eat and Why. New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2007. 39-44. Print.
A handsome young American couple decides to get married after being romantically involved for just two short years. A few months following their wedding day, the couple decides to have a baby. About one year after conception, the couple is seen embracing the very light of their lives as they hold their baby girl. Although it seems life could not be any better for the couple, they realize that the father’s sole income is not enough to support the entire family. The couple thought they had appropriately accounted for the expenses necessary to manage the new addition to their family on a single income. However, with the recent price spike of groceries resulting from sky rocketing gas prices, the couple realizes they will both have to work in order to pay their bills. As a result, the couple resorts to non-parental child care for their precious baby girl.
...on that our children would put things like companions or hardware before their work. In all actuality, most children are inspired, however not by what we think ought to rouse them. Take a gander at it along these lines: your youngster is presumably exceptionally energetic and not in the slightest degree lethargic with regards to things that energize him, similar to computer games, music, Facebook and what cool new pants to purchase. One thing for certain is that on the off chance that you weight your kid keeping in mind the end goal to inspire him, it quite often exacerbates the situation.
would be focussed on their kids’ needs and upbringing. This consumer target segment is likely to