Taking your kids to Fast food restaurants, Good? Bad? Make up your mind!

A Manhattan father, in the middle of a divorce and custody battle, is in a fight this week over a decision he made regarding dinner with his son.  David Schorr is a corporate attorney turned consultant with degrees from NYU and Oxford University and has actually filed a lawsuit against the court appointed shrink for defamation because she told the judge deciding the case (between him and his estranged wife) that he is unfit because he refused to take his son to McDonald’s for dinner last week.

Schorr has had partial custody of his 4 year old son for the past two and a half years. The boy threw a tantrum when Schorr told him they could have dinner anywhere but McDonald’s or no dinner at all. Being stubborn, the child chose “no dinner” and after repeatedly trying to change his son’s mind about getting something to eat, to no avail, he dropped him off at his wife’s place where the boy tattled on his father causing the wife to phone the shrink.  In the suit, Schorr’s parenting skills are coming into question because of this incident.  The custody trial resumes in December when the judge will decide if Schorr is fit to parent his son.

Really?  Are we going to say his parenting skills are bad because he’s refused to feed his child greasy fast food?  Or is it because he failed to bow to his child’s temper tantrum?  Maybe it’s because he brought him back to Mom without dinner?  Is it some kind of abuse NOT to take your child to McDonald’s??  COME ON!

Does this Dad deserve a bad wrap for this? What do you think?

DJ Babes-a-Lot in the House

Have you heard about the new cool thing in Brooklyn for the 3 year old set? It’s a music mixing school allowing kids 1-3 yrs to try their hand at mixing electronic music, basically being their own DJ.

Sounds crazy right?  But it’s getting a lot of buzz. The class turns the kids loose on actual beat-mixing equipment. During the classes they learn to mix separate tracks to make their own music. The idea behind this is that very young children benefit from interaction with other kids and parents by developing their fine motor skills while being creative and appreciating music.  Some kids fine it very stimulating while others don’t take to it as well.

Baby DJ School, located in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, is the brainchild of seasoned DJ Natalie Weiss who is the founder and instructor. Her course is 8 sessions, each 45 minutes, for $200.  She hopes to take her classes nationwide.

There are the neigh sayers though. Some Brooklyn residents have said they think this is just another thing to do to try to seem hip saying, ” It’s cool because you can afford to pay $200 for it”.

The kids just like that they can touch the pads, sliders and knobs without hearing “No No”.    

For more information on these classes visit: http://redtri.com/new-york/baby-dj-school

 

 

If the price tag is a bit steep for you or you’re nowhere near Brooklyn, here’s a tip: There’s an app for the iphone/ipad called “Baby DJ” to get you started.

What do you think about this idea?  Ridiculous or ingenious?  Beneficial or attempt at status building?

Womb tubers – Videotaping the stick

Well, the next generation (literally) in social sharing has bubbled to the top. Posting a video of the stick turning blue/pink or  +/-  with pregnancy results online the moment it happens.  I knew this was next way back in January when we were discussing ultrasound parties, because this is a nation of over-sharers.

A quick search on YouTube of “pregnancy test results” brings up over 42,000 results. Go ahead and try it, we’ll wait………

Again, I say, this fascination with videotaping and sharing every private moment of your lives is narcissistic and sad.  In a world where Instagram and YouTube is used by millions of people, I can see it happening that a gal gets so excited when she sees she’s pregnant that, out of habit, she hits the share button to upload the video just before she realizes that she hasn’t even told the baby daddy yet. Ooops. Oh well, he can read it on his Twitter feed…??

Now I understand getting on FaceBook and posting, ”Hey, guess what, we’re pregnant!” and things of the such, but the world doesn’t need to be in the bathroom with you by way of video feed.  Is there nothing private anymore?

Apparently not, because there will be some kids in a few years that will hate their parents when they realize mommy also videotaped them potty training and posted that for the whole world to see too….for ever…and ever…. on the internet.  Thank goodness there was no YouTube when I was a kid!