Today, Nonna and I took the kids to the Children's Museum on the Upper West Side. It has been a few months since I brought them there during the week. They love the city and they loved the museum even more. Harvey's eyes widened when we emerged from the Lincoln Tunnel and they didn't close until he melted down in the little restaurant on Broadway (post-museum). For him, it was a wild frenzy of, "S'tha" s and trips down slides. For Norah, it was Dora the Explorer, pretend fire trucks, and colored balls that could be thrown anywhere.
Because I am coming to the less is more philosophy of parenting (influenced by Rahima Baldwin's book), I wondered while in there if what I was doing was truly good for my children. I mean there were just masses and mounds upon mounds of things for them to touch, climb on, slide down, etc... I looked around at many of the mothers and nannies (all thinking that we were giving our children this great experience) and wondered if we could just as well take them to the park. I don't want me children to need to be entertained or to be victims of marketing (I wonder what transactions took place between the creators of Dora and the museum decision makers to get a whole floor for the Dora exhibit). Of course, Norah wanted a Dora doll before leaving the place and then, oh yeah, we have to get Harvey a Diego plate. We live in a crazy, crazy world.
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