Monthly Archives: June 2011

Like many moms I remember bringing the kids to the pediatrician and they’d give you the all the developmental milestones that the kids were supposed to hit. Their pediatrician would let me know what foods could be introduced and maybe talk about water safety or something similar. When Alexander was toddling I got the “We are recommending no television until children are two” speech. Which made me giggly because Jane was pre school aged and looked forward to a video in the afternoon. I just looked at the doctor and he shrugged knowing full well that in real life televisions are watched.

I didn’t feel badly about letting my kids watch TV because my brother and I had been weaned on Sesame Street and I’m pretty sure we learned a good bit of our numbers there. I knew that my brother and I were smart and successful and that TV hadn’t interrupted our development. I wasn’t planning on giving the kids eight hours a day of screen time, I just needed 45 minutes in the late afternoon to get dinner on the table (oh and maybe to even pee alone).

In May and August of 2007 Frederick J. Zimmerman, PHD, Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH, and Andrew N. Meltzoff, PHD published a study that concluded that babies who watched videos had less words than children of the same age who had not. This has launched Dimitri Christakis’ career from MD to “International Expert on Media and Child Health”. From his webpage at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

What happened today is that the university admits that they violated the public records act. In the process of suing Bill collected a huge amount of data including an electronic copy of the raw data. The two huge red flags today are to analyze the data and see if it is a valid study.

Today’s settlement is about public records it’s not about the science.

In the course of the lawsuit they gave Bill Clark (co founder of Baby Einstein) a hard copy of the data in November of 2009 and they redacted the data including the month and year that the children were born. This made it impossible to recreate the study. Four months after receiving the hard copy an electronic version was given to Bill under oath and some of the numbers are different.

Why would there be two raw data sets?

The principal investigator, Zimmerman, ordered that all of the data from that project would be destroyed. The University says that they found a back up copy of the data, and presented it to Clark. Strange.

The average daily time that babies who watched videos in the study was 8.7 minutes. The researchers reported the results in terms of babies watching video for an hour a day.

Next up is to take a hard look at the two sets of data that should be identical but are not. I for one am waiting with baited breath.

Also worth noting is that researchers at Harvard see the science differently, they also don’t go after specific brands in their research.

Sunday evening we dropped Jane off at Surf Camp. In the pre dawn hours Monday morning my husband left for New York. When the sun set Monday evening Alexander and I had spent the most time together uninterrupted since he’d learned to speak nine years ago.

Monday night we had hamburgers at the breakfast counter and not at the dining room table. We stayed up late, until about 9.30 and we watched TV together. I know it doesn’t sound important, but every moment was.

Tuesday afternoon we hung out and played Mille Bornes until 5 and then we walked to a movie and had hot dogs and popcorn for dinner. We saw the Green Lantern and Alexander and I both loved it. He held my hand and we walked and talked the long way home.

Today we went to the batting cages but I’d forgotten to bring the right batting helmet. We stopped for a hotdog and then headed back home. We’ve eaten an entire watermelon together and we’re thinking about going back to the batting cages but this time with the right helmet. The pool is overly warm at 88 degrees (I left the cover on too long) so we won’t swim until the sun goes down.

My son and I are close in a different way than my daughter and I are. It will always be different because one is a boy and the other a girl, further we treat our firstborn and our second children very differently. I’m a more relaxed mother for my son. I’ll never know if that’s because he’s a boy or if it’s because he’s my second. I just feel calm with him, like I know everything will be okay.

I’m not sure I’ll ever have the words to articulate the flavor of the week. I’d always thought of single child households as lonely ones. It’s quiet here, which is odd, but it’s nice. We’re enjoying a break from routine.

Today is my 14th anniversay and my husband is in New York on business. I was kind of bummed about being alone on our anniversary but we spent last weekend in a resort so plush that I didn’t think I’d have the ability to be bugged about anything for a year.

Until this. You see in the next few days Jerry Brown is poised to sign  the Affiliate Nexus Tax and 2 related nexus bills: AB 153, AB 155 and SB 234. They will go into effect immediately upon signing, and he must sign before July 1st, 2011.

These bills would require bloggers like me (and you) to collect and pay sales tax on purchases made through the ads on our site. These absolute idiots who prance around our capitol with not one shred of business sense believe that collecting these miniscule taxes will somehow right our budget.

Not only will the sales taxes not be collected, but publishers and businesspeople will (rightly) continue to flee California and set up shop in states where businesses aren’t cuckolded. If Jerry Brown and his compatriots were reasonable and actually interested in balancing the budget AB 153, AB 155 and SB 234 wouldn’t get that silly rubber stamp. Instead they would reduce small business taxes in our state and put people to work.

I get that Best Buy, Target and Walmart don’t like businesses like Amazon and eBay existing, but the reality is that businesses like Amazon and eBay give a lot of opportunities to a lot of small businesses.

So thanks Jerry, it’s an awesome anniversary. I feel like I’ve been fucked now.

A letter from Amazon:

Hello,

For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers – including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you – even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that we must take this action.

As a result, we will terminate contracts with all California residents that are participants in the Amazon Associates Program as of the date (if any) that the California law becomes effective. We will send a follow-up notice to you confirming the termination date if the California law is enacted. In the event that the California law does not become effective before September 30, 2011, we withdraw this notice. As of the termination date, California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned on or before the termination date will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect their ability to purchase from Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com.

We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,
The Amazon Associates Team

In a few weeks I’ll be joining 3,000 or so women at BlogHer. It’s a big blogging conference for women and I’d went once before when it was in Chicago.

I have mixed feelings about it. Although I’m not part of the BlogHer ad network, and I don’t participate in their community BlogHer has paved a path for women to follow. BlogHer took a hobby and turned it into a career. For that I am grateful.

But of course I’m not one to gush, so I have to find the negative too.

As bloggers we have to support ourselves with brand partnerships, advertising or by writing on someone else’s site for a paycheck (just not places like Huff Po who pay you with a thank you note). There’s a delicate balance, and I’m not sure that many people achieve it. I occasionally share product information here and it comes from one of three ways.

1. A product has blown me away and I’ve told you about it. (like the Diva Cup)
2. A product line has dazzled me and I’ve begged them to partner with me (like Kenmore)
3. A brand has a message that they’ve shared with me and I’ve agreed that the message has value and shared it with you. (P&G)

The way that a product would make it’s way to me is pretty narrow, and the way that I’d share it with y’all is narrower still. Not a lot of product sharing goes on here. Which is good, right?

There’s a new kind of blogger, the review blogger. Review bloggers seem to be mostly women, but that’s just the way I see things because I’m smack dab in the middle of the mommy blogging world. I want to dislike the review blogger. You see she takes any old crap and writes glowing reviews of it. Typically the review blogger only writes positive reviews and she might even publish a press release word for word.

The review blogger is the lazy publicist’s best friend. The review blogger will almost always garner positive press for a product and almost never charge anything more than the cost of the trinket and overnight shipping.

The review blogger has also sucked the life out of the blogosphere. The review blogger often calls herself a Mom Blogger (or worse a Mommy Blogger) and her site can create confusion. You see when I tell people that I’m a Mom Blogger they’re like, “But you’re so much MORE than that.” And I smile but don’t say anything because calling your peers crap makes you only better than crap. In my head I’m screeching, “They aren’t bloggers! They’re shills.”

And I’m sure I’m going to meet a huge number of them in August. And I’m conflicted because these are nice women who I like. They’re walking down this same weird path of blogging, but they’re using it very differently.

Is it okay to like someone and really dislike their business?

My anniversary is around the corner and Mr G will be out of town. Jane went to her first sleep away camp Sunday afternoon and it’s spitting distance from the Mexican Border. So we decided to make it an anniversary trip.

The four of us went to San Diego and spent a weekend in obscene luxury. We left the hotel and drove another 45 minutes south to Imperial Beach and dropped Jane off for a week of surfing and and living in a tent and then Mr G, Alexander and I drove home. This morning Mr G left at 5am for his business trip.

Alexander and I will have a lot of PB&J sandwiches and see a few movies. I’ll also have to drive back down to Imperial Beach and pick Jane up on Friday. It’s just a lot of driving.

When the folks from P&G asked me to write a series of blog posts about their relationship with the Moms of Special Olympians I replied pretty quickly with Sure. I thought it would be easy to talk to y’all about how P&G supports The Special Olympics, most specifically the Moms. It’s the easiest ask in the world, every time you leave a comment, like or share the Thank You Mom campaign on facebook Procter and Gamble will donate a dollar (up to $250,000) to support Team USA’s journey to Athens.

No brainer, slam dunk.

But it hasn’t been easy. I’ve written and deleted a half dozen posts because I’m scared to write the wrong thing. I’ve been terrified of writing the wrong thing about the families or the kids. Which is actually a really great example of how The Special Olympics benefits us all. I don’t know how I’m supposed to talk about someone else’s child who has special needs.

This is a discussion worth having, but it isn’t one that I’d be initiating here if I wasn’t involved with the Special Olympics. It’s an issue I’d have continued to sidestep and avoid because I am terrified of being hurtful. When the Special Olympics come around it’s like we all have these athletes to cheer for, and they’re all our heroes and Moms like me can ask questions that we might not otherwise find the words for.