3.07.2010

Framing Childhood

I got a good kick from this story in The New York Times about the role parents in the 21st century have taken in branding their children ...

One passage from the story reads ...
The marching orders come immediately, with the newborn photo, which must be e-mailed to friends before a baby has left the maternity ward. A conscientious father — chief executive of the budding business — must snap dozens of shots of the modestly wrapped newborn, generally with a Canon PowerShot though sometimes with a showy digital single-lens-reflex camera or a lowly cameraphone. Back at a laptop, he uploads the haul, scrutinizing pixels with the intensity of Anna Wintour. He selects a becoming one. The mother signs off, often via e-mail, from her hospital bed.
For better or worse, I'm one of those fathers, having planned and posted a blog entry within hours of Phoebe's birth ... Heck, just look at all stories, photos and videos of her I've posted on this blog -- I posted another one the other night -- and that doesn't include all of the photos posted to Flickr, the videos on YouTube, and the Facebook status updates. (What's more, notice how I've shamelessly provided a link to all of them ...)

Interestingly, I stumbled on this story this morning just a couple nights after reading about and finding "STFU, Parents," a blog that lampoons parents who go a little overboard with their Facebook status updates ...

And now that I'm self-conscious about producing and posting too much about my kid. I'll end this post and move on to another topic ...

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