Hey, don’t cry on my dress.
Simone, after Nadia began to cry and lean on her big sister.
Say hello to Lily from Sesame Street. She’s 7 and “food insecure.”
The USDA estimates 17 million children live at or below the poverty level and that their access to food is limited or uncertain. Lily represents them.
The newest Muppet will be featured in a prime-time Sesame Street special “Growing Hope Against Hunger” on Oct. 9 to raise awareness about hunger in America.
I wasn’t sure what to think when I first heard about Lily. Some children don’t know they grew up poor until they are much older, while others are keenly aware of their upbringing as it’s happening. I’ll be watching with Simone and Nadia to see what I think.
How about you? Will you watch?
ETA: I thought it was appearing later than it did, and we missed the special. I’m hoping it will air again and we can catch it then.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry points out some facts we parents of multiracial children already know. Our children “do not differ from other children in self-esteem, comfort with themselves, or number of psychiatric problems. Also, they tend to be high achievers with a strong sense of self and tolerance of diversity.” Check it out.
Oh, how I wanted these to work. At first, I thought they were working. I could feel something happening in my calves. Alas, it wasn’t enough to make any difference.
Reebok has agreed to refund $25 million to consumers like me who purchased its shoes based on deceptive advertising. Commercials for the shoes were quite convincing, claiming the shoe helped tone muscles in the legs and backside. I saw a commercial a few days before Christmas in 2009, and I immediately requested a pair. Of course, they were sold out until well after the first of the year.
The Federal Trade Commission says Reebok didn’t have any proof its EasyTone and RunTone shoes toned and strengthened muscles. That’s why I had absolutely no trouble admitting I had fallen prey to deceptive advertising and applied for a refund. If you purchased a pair, go to ftc.gov/reebok for more information.
Nadia is keenly aware she is a little sister and she’s had more than a few questions about it.
Her latest: “Why was Simone born first?”
I don’t have a good answer. “Oh, my. I don’t know. Because she was. We made Simone first and then we made you. You know, we didn’t really decide who would be born first.”
She didn’t press the matter any further.
Best I can tell, Nadia wants to make sure she didn’t miss anything when she was not here and often asks about what happened before she was born. If she did miss something — and no one’s saying she did — she wants to know about it.
I cleaned out a closet the other day and sent the last of the small clothes packing. I’ve held onto a few items, and Nadia saw one of them. It’s a doll-sized pink dress that seemed so very large all those years ago. Simone and Nadia were photographed in it when they were each 6 months old.
“Look Simone,” Nadia said. “We both wore this dress when we were little.” Simone wasn’t interested, but Nadia acted like she’d found a historical artifact and held it up to her-much-bigger-self for comparison.
It’s like she’s piecing her history together, figuring out what came first. At the same time, she is testing us, making sure we’ll tell her everything, just in case she needs to call us on it later.
It seems a new controversial parenting book is released every few months or so. The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal About Us by Jeffrey Kluger says parents definitely choose favorites, and he has the science to back it up.
While I know from talking to some of my friends that parents do have favorites, I don’t think all parents have them. I also suspect that parents want to treat all of their children the same. It’s just they run out of money and can’t buy every kid a new car, or a child has a need the others don’t require. Or, fill-in-the-blank.
I have a younger brother. He was mama’s boy, and I was daddy’s little girl. Did either of us get more attention than the other? I don’t think so. We liked different activities and excelled in different ways. I don’t think I ever complained to my parents that he got something I did not. My brother and I were pretty tight back then. We were punished together, since we usually got in trouble together. We are three years apart and remain close. I’d like to think part of the reason is we were raised together, not differently.
We have made an effort not to pick favorites. (Ken jokes that he favors the child who is not having a meltdown or a fit or whatever their stubborn times are called.) What we do for one we do for the other. If we don’t, we will surely hear about it. That means Nadia has gotten some gifts before the box said it was age appropriate. On the flip side, Simone has had to wait a while for a gift until we knew it was safe for Nadia. Nadia does wear some of her sister’s previously loved and worn clothes, but she gets plenty of new items.
Perhaps Ken and I are still in the “crack-up” phase and don’t have time to pick favorites. We laugh a lot around here because Simone and Nadia are hilarious. The laughter helps us keep our parenting sanity.
After we’ve gone through the I’m-embarrassed-by you phase and the teen-age boy phase and whatever phase I can’t even imagine, then maybe we will have a favorite. I doubt it. I love my girls for who they are, no matter what the research says.
Weigh in. Do parents choose favorites?
