Everyone loves a clairvoyant. Especially when she predicts the future with as much bluster and certainty as Penelope Trunk, who pens a syndicated business column called the “Brazen Careerist”—and focuses her forecasting on one’s own beloved child. Trunk’s most recent projection, “What Generation Z will be like at work,” is irresistible. In a nutshell, it […]

» Continue reading "Why your baby will grow up to be a Scary Information Glutton"

Cozy-looking, isn’t it? Conceived by Harvard behavioral psychologist, BF Skinner, for his second child, Deborah, this “crib” was born of the best intentions. Observing the heavy toll his wife’s parenting regimen took on her, Skinner set out to simplify it. Though not by pitching in himself… He created this baby-sized room, known as the “Baby […]

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Want to scare parents? Claim that their children’s brains start disintegrating every July, unless the kids are pried away from computers, televisions—and (presumably) diving boards and climb-able trees—and forced to read the 13 children’s books that New York Times’ op-ed columnist, Nicholas D. Kristof, vaguely remembers from his boyhood, or has read to his own […]

» Continue reading "“The Best Kids’ Books Ever”—as chosen, in a willy-nilly manner, by Nicholas D. Kristof"

Already a YouTube phenomenon, this new Evian commercial suggests that mineral water is so rejuvenating, it will transform you into a vaguely thuggish, roller-skating infant. Evian clearly thinks this ad sets new standards of cuteness. These babies redefine precocity and outshine squirrels for agility as they one-up each other with funky roller moves—a reference to […]

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Okay, so this is disturbingly bone-headed: Tomorrow, the edutainment company Leapfrog begins shipping the new “Text & Learn,” a new Blackberry-like toy that lets kids “ages 3 to 6” pretend to text-message: Text and Learn [says Leapfrog] is designed to let little learners play in a grown-up way! Children can exchange text messages with their […]

» Continue reading "New toy lets toddlers start “texting,” if not “sexting”"