Our Peanut - the baby bouillon

Peanut just loves bath time. When we start running the bath water she starts squealing in delight, banging on the side of the tub and standing on her tip-toes just to see the water gushing in.

Since bath is in the evenings, it often comes right after dinner.

The last few nights, I've felt like we are cooking up a pot of baby stew and Peanut is the baby bouillon cube as pieces of carrot, rice, fish and whatever else was on her dinner table float around the tub and the water changes shades.

:-9

Miffy's (Nijntje's) grandparents are dead

Peanut loves Miffy (Nijntje). Miffy is a the brainchild of Dutch author Dick Bruna. Because I am Dutch, I use the Dutch language version of Miffy books to make Peanut familiar with my mother tongue. The books are ideal for night time stories. They are about 20 pages thick and on every right page you have a drawing and every left page approx 4 lines of text to read out. Miffy is an approx 4 years old rabbit girl and the pictures are drawn with very simple lines and bright primary colors.

We only have 4 books or so, so I know these stories very well by now. We also have a DVD with Miffy episodes. As I read and watch Miffy with Peanut, I learn more about Miffy. Here's what I have found out:


1. Miffy's grandparents are dead
It struck me that the book "Grandma and grandpa Bunny" ("Oma en opa Pluis") is written entirely in past tense. The book talks about grandma and grandpa and what they liked in past tense. This must mean they are dead. As Peanut starts to understand the world more and more, I am starting to feel increasingly apprehensive about reading this story. Peanut's grandparents are very much alive and I want her to think of them as such.

Actually, browsing the Miffy web site a bit more, we find proof that Miffy's grandma is dead, because the story "Dear Grandma Bunny" ("Lieve Oma Pluis") is actually about grandma's grave.


2. Miffy is growing up in almost entirely female environment
The Miffy stories have a largely female cast. In the stories I have seen, Miffy has met her grandpa and has one male bear friend. All other cast members are implicitly or explicitly female. What does this mean? The male sex has been eliminated from Bunny land? One can only speculate about the reasons for this - and no, I wont go there. Point is, I want Peanut to understand that almost half of the global population is male and they are not (all) alien or scary and it is ok to love your daddy and to fall in love with a man later on in life.


3. Miffy is probably growing up in a Calvinistic Christian family
In the story "Nijntje in luilekkerland" which is not listed on the web site, Nijntje is daydreaming about "luilekkerland", a land where it rains candy, the pavement is made of chocolate, children don't have to clean up after themselves and can go to bed at the same time as adults. She concludes her daydreams that living in such a place probably is not fun in the long run and she might turn into a spoiled and fat rabbit. It is better to be normal, eat your porridge and be healthy.

I grew up in a Calvinistic Christian family and the story seems to me to be communicating those values to Peanut. It is up to you if you think this is appropriate to communicate to your child. I'd like Peanut to be able to enjoy herself without burdening her with a feeling of guilt or sin at a young age. Also, the comment about being fat may communicate a negative bias towards obese people.


4. Miffy is growing up in an environment with established role expectations
Miffy's mother is a stay-at-home mom who takes care of Miffy and does household chores. Miffy's aunt appears to be single and fills her days with baking cookies and organizing parties. Miffy's grandma loves to knit. In "Miffy goes to stay" we get to know the mother of Miffy's friend, who is also at home.

So essentially Miffy's role models are all female and all occupy themselves with household chores and children. Now, I respect women who chose to do this, but I also believe that we live in an age where this is a choice, not fate. I think it would be good for Miffy to have role models of adults who do other things, female and male. This would extend to Peanut as well.


5. At 4 years old, Miffy is supposed to be independent
In "Miffy goes to stay" ("Nijntje gaat logeren"). Miffy gets on the bus alone to go and visit her friend. I don't know about you, but I would not feel comfortable putting a 4-year old child on public transport by herself/himself.

In one of the Miffy movies, Miffy and her friends go camping by themselves without adult supervision. Again, I would not feel comfortable with that.

Is Miffy really teaching Peanut to expect to be this independent? Don't Miffy's parents care? Or is Miffy's mommy so busy with her household chores that she doesn't mind if Miffy is out of the way for a bit? You know, maybe before Miffy's daddy comes home? I guess with Miffy's parents being rabbits, they can always have a new litter :)


Honestly, I wrote this posting more in jest than as a serious complaint or accusation. But as I wrote this, I did start to wonder if these subtle messages in the Miffy books affect the development of children. Any comments / ideas?

Ding Dong .... Cha-Ching!

I'm getting a bit hesitant to open my door when the doorbell rings.

It seems everytime I do, there is someone new on the doorstep asking us to support them with a small donation of some sort for their very good cause.

So far, I've:
> bought lottery tickets for a private school fundraiser
> bought a case of bottled water to help the local high school choir go to New York City
> offered to sponsor a March of Dimes guy who works at the local supermarket
> donated a bag of clothing to the local animal shelter for a thrift sale
> looked for canned goods to give to the local Boy Scouts!
> still waiting for someone to come sell me Girl Scout Cookies :-)

Obviously I think supporting local philathorpy and activities is a good thing (or else I'm just an easy target!). I like to see my community thrive and offer help for those in need.

We also very voluntarily made a donation to the local NPR affiliate (KERA, 90.1) because we listen to it virtually all day. This we did happily.

Unlike the TV tax we had to pay in Finland - no choice there - grumble, grumble. The TV police come to your door if you haven't registered yourself and started making payments. It used to make me so angry every quarter when the bill came for the tax...I know the logic was that only those who use the service (ie, TV) paid for YLE programming, but I was angered by the lack of choice. Maybe I didn't want to support the type of programming they provided.

In Finland, it seemed that only large multinational organizations were collecting donations - Greenpeace, the Red Cross, Plan, among others had youthful representatives on busy street corners trying to stop passers-by. They always seemed to have a binder with a ready presentation to convince you of their cause. Only then did they ask for some funds.

Perhaps the tax man took care of collecting and distributing funds for the school programs, handicapped, and others in need. Again, no choice on my part. Just a large chunk of my earnings filtered away.

my shower buddy - the Exersaucer

We had only heard rumors and whispers about exersaucers while we were in Finland. I never actually saw one there - i guess they haven't made the leap across the pond. Several of my friends swore by them: "our baby loves it! she can play in it for hours". Another called them a waste of money. The online reveiws were raving.

I'm not convinced it was worth the money for a new one.

When Peanut turned 6 mos when went to Babies R Us to test drive their exersaucers. We placed Peanut in each one, one after the other. She seemed most amused in the Baby Einstein activity center so home it came with us.

Secretly mama and papa were also leaning towards that one, I mean, with a name like Baby Einstein how could it be anything but educational!! It even plays classical music tunes and has animal names in English & Spanish!! The classical music I have to admit is really a nice feature - I mean if its got to make sounds, might as well be something soothing that everyone can enjoy, right?

The first week or so, Peanut had a good time IN the saucer - for about half an hour at a time. Then she wanted out. She was very close to crawling at that age so it was no fun to be tied down. It was enough time usually the unload the dishwasher, cook dinner or take a shower.

Its the last activity that I think the exersaucer has been most used for in our household. Though Peanut hasn't actually been IN the exersaucer much after that first month of use, she loves to cruise around it and climb under it. Its become a permanent fixture in our bathroom and keeps her happy while mama takes a shower.

I wonder how many exersaucers end up in bathrooms? I've seen at one other house already!