Letters to the Editor
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Baby Einstein and parent-and-me classes
I agree with the basic premise of this article, but I think it complains about some things that are actually pretty useful. Have you really met anyone who uses Baby Einstein in order to make their kids smarter? I haven't. I doubt very many parents are getting "bamboozled" by the marketing. It's pretty well understood that its best use is to give parents a break. And, unlike a 2-hour Disney film (or even a 1-hour Sesame Street), the DVDs run around 20 minutes or so, so it's easy to limit the TV time. I don't think it's a bad thing for children that their parents get a few minutes to eat lunch or throw in a load of laundry.
Also, parent-and-me classes are wonderful. I can't speak to Gymboree (which may well be overpriced), but the YMCA offers classes for a very reasonable price. The kids get a kick out of the change of scenery and song-time and the ability to run around in a big open area with a bunch of other kids. Certainly it is great for parents, but a happy parent contributes to a happy child. Sure, it would be great if I could hunt up ten other parents in my neighborhood with babies around my daughter's age and find someone's house that was big enough, safe enough, and had decent play equipment for the purposes of having biweekly community play-dates twice a week for free, but what is the likelihood of that (especially in the city) -- and what is the problem with having it at an offsite location, if it's not busting your budget?
I also agree with a previous poster that baby signing has a lot of benefits. My daughter never took to it, but I don't see any reason to assume that parents who do it and like it are being bamboozled.