How is it that you can't find a girl pirate costume unless it is has a low cut top, long slits up the legs, and vampy high boots!? Used to be, those choices came in adult sizes only, but unless you've eschewed this holiday for the past five years, you know that the sexy version of the holiday's standards are now sold in kids' sizes. These choices are making the Disney princess outfits look downright puritanical. When exactly did Halloween costumes get so sexy? According to an article in the LATimes, Halloween costumes are an obvious indicator that girls are being pushed, from an early age, to think of themselves as sexual objects.The research hints that boys are being pushed to be more aggressive at an early age.
Talk to us! Do you feel kids are being sexualized too early? And, what are your kids wearing this year: did you buy a costume, hunt around the Goodwill, or shop in your closet?
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Imagine what Halloween night would be like if you were a bat. No need for flashlights or glow in the dark stripes on your costume. You'd hear, through echolocation, the rustling wrapper of your favorite candy before you even knocked on the door. You might identify by smell what's in your trick-or-treat bag without even looking. The heroine of the award-winning picture book Stellaluna and her batty friends can do all that! Reading this beautiful book about friendship and bat habits gave our kids an interest in these masters of the night, so we visited our local Science Museum'sBat Exhibit. From donning special ears to help understand bat hearing, to screaming in a chamber to learn about echolocation, our kids got into the bat act, and came away with a scientific understanding of those spooky Halloween creatures that swoop down from the night sky. Click here for a wonderful series of bat books for elementary aged kids, and for a gruesome article -- and cool pictures -- in yesterday's New York Times about bloodsucking creatures, like vampire bats, for some at-home bat education that kids will love
Our kids' faces lit up like Jack-o-Lanterns when we told them we were upping the pumpkin ante this year by letting them loose in a Corn Maze. After sampling the delicious produce, we set off into plants that reached high above our heads. We bonded together over a map, trying to figure our way out from beneath the stalks and laughed ourselves silly every time we got lost -- our kids triumphant that the adults in the group steered them wrong plenty of times. Later that night, we popped up some corn and plopped on the couch for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Charles Schultz's magic pulled us back to our favorite believer, Linus, who waits in a pumpkin patch for the arrival of The Great Pumpkin. Given the current economic crisis, it's nice to know that hearkening back to simpler times can be so reassuring.Click here for more to learn about the corn mazes near your city, and to find a YouTube link to the old television special.
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With this week's much heralded re-release of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora is sure to win over another generation of little girls, just in time for the Halloween costume rush. What's a parent to do? We know that most of our kids just can't resist the allure of those Disney dames strutting their stuff, so we developed our own Princess Counter-Programming, which we share with you this week.
Click here to visit our website and find a book list that serves up a batch of princesses whom reject daft suitors and ditsy life goals. Please share what you do in your houses to make sure your princess-wanna-bes have girl power goals. To Listen to a podcast of this posting, please press the green arrow below.
We shed real tears at the loss of Paul Newman, whose legendary looks and powerful screen presence dominated the movies for years and whose charitable work (through the Hole in the Wall camps for seriously ill children and Newman's Own) set an elegant example of how one man can make the world a better place.
The easiest way to introduce your kids to one of our greatest movie stars is to show them Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Starring Newman at the height of his confident power and featuring Robert Redford in his breakout role, the film is a giddy love-poem to the vanishing ways of the West. Cool, even vintage cool, always translates... The kids were immediately grinning along with the comedic relationship between the two stars and can quote the film's most famous lines ("Who ARE those guys?").
Butch Cassidy has plenty of gun play -- the two heroes famously head out to their deaths in the last frame of the picture -- and shows the men with prostitutes and drinking alcohol. But, we think this classic is fine for kids over 10, as long as parents get on the couch and discuss the racier scenes (fast forwarding works, too.) You'll remember the plot turns -- it's just like riding a bicycle, which is exactly what Redford and Newman do with Katherine Ross to the tune of "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head". (Rated PG for violence, Directed by George Roy Hill).
The Sting reunited Redford and Newman as two card-playing con men in a beloved and complicated film which won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Don't try to explain (or even understand) the plot. Just sit back and enjoy the Joplin rags as you watch these two movie stars win over a new generation. (Rated PG, also directed by George Roy Hill).
Paul Newman played the voice of Doc Hudson in Cars, a great film for younger kids. We happen to have covered this film last week - for more, please visit our website. Kids get a charge out of knowing Newman was a race car driver in real life, placing second in Le Mans in 1979. (Rated G, directed by John Lassiter and Joe Ranft).
If your kids know Newman only because they've seen his face on Newman's Own popcorn bags and salad dressing bottles, that's okay, too. Be sure to let them know that Newman's Own gives every single penny of profit to charity. For more about Newman, click here to last month's Vanity Fair article (the photos alone are worth five minutes).
Diane and Sarah
Founders, Kids Off The Couch
Kids Off The Couch
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