A New Attraction

I recently read an article detailing the plans for a house of the future to open at Disneyland this summer. Parents and grandparents might remember the original “House of the Future,” which opened in 1957, but, with electric toothbrushes and razers, big TVs, and hands-free phones, soon became obsolete. This time, though, the house’s features are meant to appear accessible and prepare consumers for technologies that could be available in as little as five years. Walt Disney is partnering with Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, LifeWare, and Taylor Morrison to create the house, meant to be highly responsive to its inhabitants.

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Cities Go Kid-Friendly

Moms know it’s all about the kids. And now in many cities across the country it’s all about the family. We’ve seen a rebirth of this family-centric view a lot in recent years, from reports of young parents giving up high-powered careers to focus on their home lives to an assortment of new family activities that allow parents to bring kids to bars, clubs, and restaurants that would previously have been off-limits. The newest trend, however, is making cities themselves family-friendly. 

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The Newest DUI

It might be the fact that I’ve been losing faith in the Hollywood crowd generally or it could be that I’m a parent, but I found the newest celebrity headline particularly atrocious: “Richie Sambora Busted for DUI…Daughter Was in the Car.”

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Baby Einstein Revisited

I remember talking with Julie Aigner-Clark, a former literature and art teacher, two years after she started The Baby Einstein Company. We chatted about how she had created her very first Baby Einstein video, specifically for her newborn daughter, in her basement with borrowed equipment and black drop cloths, and edited them on her home computer. She aimed to create an interactive, hands-free way to play with her baby: in essence bringing a board book to life on the screen. At the time she had no idea that her project would ever develop into the Baby Einstein phenomena that it is today.

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Yoplait Kids!

As Moms with families on the go we are constantly on the lookout for ways to get our children to eat nutritious foods, and the key is finding things our kids really enjoy. The new Yoplait Kids with 25% less sugar Omega-3 DHA offer a great on-the-go, healthy snack

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Relax, Restore, Renew!

As we go through our whirlwind days as Moms we are busier than ever trying to balance it all. We juggle daily tasks inside and outside of our homes, trying to succeed in every task we undertake. Whew! We at Mom Central know that Moms everywhere often just need a breather (ourselves included!). Amidst all of our priorities, however, it's easy to forget that relaxing isn't just a privilege -- it's a necessity! In Mom Central's on-going search to find ways to help Moms unwind, Kimberly-Clark's "Room-A-Day Giveaway" sweepstakes has captured our attention by encouraging moms to "Relax, Renew, and Restore."

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The Trouble With Teens

Ever since the horror stories began about the new generation of workers entering the workplace having never heard the word "no" and exhibiting a work ethic (or lack thereof) that didn’t exist when our generation started working, speculation has grown about why this is. Is it because of helicopter parents? Rising divorce rates that cause some distracted parents to give their kids less of the attention and discipline they need are instead replaced with bribes to pacify them? The desire of parents these days to be friends with their children first and parents second?

Well here comes a new theory, and it’s one I’ve believed in all along. The number of teenagers with part-time jobs has dropped significantly in recent years. While that number was once well above half, it has dropped to just over 40% nationwide and less in many states.

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The New Trend is Micro

I recently came across an article about a new book by Mark Penn, the man who coined the phrase “soccer mom.” In his book, Microtrends, Penn warns that small movements are about to change how we all think in a big way.

“So what’s a microtrend?” you might ask. According to Penn, it is a group of people who identify with each other in some way, and are finding that they are not only growing larger, but aren’t having their needs met by companies, policymakers, advertisers, and even sometimes their families and friends. And he predicts that as they continue to grow, they will change businesses, marketing, and society as a whole as we know it.

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A New Kind of Food Delivery

Way over in Studio City, California sits a small pizza place with an interesting claim to fame. Story has it that in the 1990’s a group of  pregnant women more than ready to give birth decided to eat there after a birthing class. When all of them went into labor soon after eating the same salad, stories and rumors flourished, making the restaurant the go-to eatery for overdue moms.

The restaurant claims all these years later, the trend is still going strong, with at least a few and sometimes entire tables full of pregnant women frequenting the restaurant daily. Included with their meal? A journal for the woman to write down any thoughts she has and later include a photo of her new baby.

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A Victim of Fashion

Frequent readers of the New York Times are familiar with the publication T, a magazine found in the paper 15 times a year, featuring the most expensive must-haves in the fashion and style worlds. The Holiday 2007 issue of T, however, has caused a great deal of controversy, as even a recent editorial in the New York Times itself questioned the validity and integrity of a recent photo spread.

The pictures featured a young model, Ali Michael, who at 17 is still a minor and looks even younger, posing semi-nude with a nearly $4000 coat. The images came as a shock to many, especially those who consider the Times to be more respectable than most newspapers today. Defended by the editor of the New York Times magazine, the photographer, the model, and even her mother as “art,” the photos seem to indicate that fashion and advertising have crossed a new line. Except now they’re not just targeting our kids; they’re exploiting them.

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