ParentMap, September 2009 Issue

Published on: September 28, 2009

September cover

This will be the year! 

Every fall, we bring you our glorious, vibrant, mouth-watering Fall Arts Preview; a round-up of the vast selection of plays, music, dance and more on offer for families in our region.

And every year, you think, "yeah, we should do somma that." Make this your year! Dive into our guide, then get yourself some tickets. Do it because it enriches your life. Do it because it makes your kids smarter. Do it because the arts need you now like never before!

This month, we also dive into the homework debate. Why do some experts think homework is bad for kids?

We also help you find peace with your post-baby bod...and offer great ideas for a back-to-school routine.
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Read the entire issue online, or scroll down for links and cool "online only" content.

Ages & Stages: Body image

Getting School Ready: Ready, set, back to school!

Out & About:

    Feature: Worked up about homework

    Media: This month's featured media

    Regulars:

    Online only:

    From our Readers: Letters to the Editor

    About this issue

    No butts about it

    Life as an identical twin is filled with adventure! Lucky us, to be able to look at each other — from infancy to middle age — and see ourselves as others see us. You solo people get to look in the mirror in the morning, then walk away. My sister and I adore our time together; we get to have riotous sister fun, all the while thinking, “Are the bags under my eyes as pronounced as hers?”

    A favorite twin body-image story (Ages & Stages) occurred while basking in bathing suits just a few months postpartum, having delivered boys a couple of months apart. I watched my sister walking down a dock, carefully analyzing her derriere.

    “Surely I am just a wee bit smaller,” I silently convinced myself.
    At that instant, she turned around, glared at me, and said, “Your behind is just as big as mine.” B-I-N-G-O! She knew exactly what I was thinking. Thank goodness we have the sister gift to simply crack up laughing at these occurrences!

    Almost all of our daughters suffer from decades of media hype and marketing around the message that skinny = beautiful. Popular TV shows — and Barbie dolls — say a lot about how our society deals with these issues. KING TV’s Jean Enersen’s message (“Talking up girl power”) is outstanding, going well beyond how we parents present thoughts on issues of diet, eating habits and exercise. “I realize they are watching you . . . listening to you, they are learning from you. So the behavior we model for them is very important.” Touché!

    We hosted the anti-homework guru Alfie Kohn (“Worked up about homework”) to a packed house of parents and educators last March and were amazed at the post-lecture call to launch the anti homework revolution! Our back-to-school feature provides great debate points.

    And 'cause we love tipping life’s balance in favor of fun, I suggest you book a few of the wild artistic adventures coming our way (“Fall Arts Preview”).

     

     
    — Alayne Sulkin, Publisher/Editor

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