JediMom Blog

In a previous post, I ranted about Ronald McDonald teaching fitness at my daughter’s elementary school. I just checked the activity calendar for my son’s preschool and found a Ronald McDonald visit scheduled this month! Seriously, when you think of the person who’s going to solve the growing obesity epidemic … Do you immediately think, Ronald McDonald?I’m not usually the type of mom organizing protests at the PTA, but McDonald’s is targeting toddlers and preschoolers. That’s enough! It’s time to take a stand. My plan to “rock the boat” is to pull my child out of school for the day and file a protest with the school’s director. Here’s my draft of my protest letter:

Dear Director,          

My son will not be attending school next Monday because of the scheduled visit of Ronald McDonald.  I strongly object to my child being exposed to commercial marketing messages at school. I believe that having Ronald McDonald on campus is an implied endorsement of McDonald’s products by our school.

I further believe that McDonald’s marketing efforts in schools are solely designed to capitalize on that implied endorsement. Allowing McDonald’s to enter our school under the guise of presenting a fitness program gives the corporation an opportunity to link its brand to fitness and health in the minds of our children. While I certainly applaud any efforts by the school to introduce fitness concepts, I would prefer they be delivered in a non-commercial way. 

The rising obesity epidemic among our children cannot be ignored. Concerned parents and educators are looking for solutions. I would urge you to reject the easy and cheap solutions being offered by corporations with ulterior motives. I am certain that McDonald’s visit to our school falls in their budget along with very specific business goals to build lifetime customers. I have no desire to help McDonald’s teach my son their marketing messages.

Please reconsider future visits to our school by Ronald McDonald.

Sincerely,Lisa Young

So readers, please let me know how you think my letter will be received. Are there any other strategies you would suggest?I’m considering taking my child to the zoo that day. I haven’t been to the zoo in a while. I’m not going to find corporate logos stenciled on the animals’ hides, right?

I grew up with Indiana Jones movies and I’m a big fan. The latest installment of the movie has been eagerly anticipated by the entire family. Even my 5-year-old has Indy fever. Of course, it would be hard for him not to catch it.

Long before the movie trailers and ratings were released, my son got his first look at Indy while playing Lego Star Wars. A preview of the Lego Indiana Jones game was included. It’s even possible to unlock Indy as a character in the Lego Star Wars video game. The game also wetted his appetite for the real world Lego building sets featuring Indiana Jones.

There have been no shortage of Indy tie-ins promoted on TV commercials on kids’ TV channels. On a recent grocery shopping trip, my son picked out Indiana Jones fruit snacks and begged for the Pops cereal because Indy was on the box (with a bonus light-up spoon). At my son’s birthday party, he received more than one Indiana Jones play set. I was charmed when the action figure included a tiny whip.

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Last week, I attended a Mother’s Day Tea at my son’s preschool. In preparation for the day, my son had been asked the question, “What’s in mommy’s purse?” My son’s answer was a “cell phone” and “snacks.” Snacks is a no-brainer for any mom. But the cell phone answer made me think. Other moms were tagged with things like gum and lipstick. When did my cell phone and I become so linked?

I do not have a “smart phone.” In fact, the pathetic user interface of my current phone makes it one of the dumbest devices I own. Despite this love-hate relationship, my usage continues to grow. Like a number of people, I’m finding that it’s pretty hard to be completely unwired. A recent survey released by eMarketer predicts that use of social networking services via mobile devices will grow from 82 million users in 2007 to over 800 million worldwide by 2012.

I’m betting a nice demographic slice of those users will be teens, tweens and moms. The device in my purse has changed the way my family communicates. I send my husband text messages with honey-dos, grocery lists and my location when we’re separated in the mall. My daughter is trying to convince me that a cell phone is required for middle school.

Social networking sites are migrating to the mobile platform. With my current dumb phone, it’s just too frustrating to use mobile enabled versions of social networking sites like Facebook. But I’m able to Twitter to my account via SMS. I’m also testing a new social media service called Brightkite that is really tied to the cell phone. Brightkite allows you to tell your friends your current location, post text or pictures tagged with the location, find your friends’ location on the map and see other Brightkite users currently in your immediate area. The service has levels of privacy settings. If you want to give Brightkite a whirl, I have a handful of invites. Just leave a comment here or send me a message on twitter @naturalwoman.

Since my cell phone is now a legitimate accessory in my son’s eyes, I really need to upgrade. Please let me know if you have a recommendation for a mobile phone that can keep up with a busy mom’s social networking on the Sprint network.

I woke up around 4:30 this morning trying to figure out why the house was shaking. Perhaps if I was in California I would have just rolled over and gone back to sleep. However, I live in the Midwest and earthquakes really just aren’t the norm here. Apparently, the last one was about 40 years ago. So once I was firmly awake, I really wanted to know what was going on. Where can you turn at 4:30 am for breaking news? Well it turns out that it’s not the local news. Judging from this morning’s response that takes about 30 minutes.

So if you don’t want to wait 30 minutes to confirm something is going on, where do you go? The answer is Twitter. If you’re not familiar with Twitter, it is a microblogging platform that allows you to type short text messages of 140 characters or less. Just enough to shout out to your friends … things like “What the hell was that?” “Was that an earthquake?” “Everyone OK?” You can find me on Twitter as NaturalWoman. (Why not Jedimom? I guess I haven’t told you about my multiple-personality disorder yet.)

I was both comforted and entertained in the wee hours of the morning today by my friends on Twitter. From my Twitter stream I was able to share in Jason Falls‘ running commentary of the traditional news coverage of the event. I was able to tweet with a neighbor about how her household was reacting. I sent a high five to St. Louis blogger Holly McCaig who had a quake reaction blog post up by 5:15 am. When the journalists did get on the air with the story, the Twitterworld shared their reactions to the mad scramble they were seeing on TV.

To be fair to the local news guys, there are constraints on journalists. They can’t just blurt out speculation. They have to check the facts, line up sources and have some real information to provide people before they go on the air. This is important to avoid wide-spread panic and misinformation. Twitter doesn’t have those restraints. That’s part of what makes it so immediate and so fascinating.

And to put in a plug for my favorite Social News site Mixx, I submitted an AP wire story about the quake and by 7 am it was already in the breaking news section. Fresh breaking news for the rest of the country to absorb, share and discuss with their morning coffee.

I love social media!

Disney-owned Club Penguin has serious staying power with my tween. Meaning of course that after I plunked down money for a membership she didn’t immediately get bored with it. On a recent Spring Break trip, she was adamant that she needed to bring her laptop so she wouldn’t miss the April Fool’s party at the site. Since she’s been fairly fickle with other social sites, I became curious about just what is so special about Club Penguin. Here’s a short version of our Q&A session:

What are the best features of Club Penguin?
“There are a lot of different rooms and they are very creative. My favorite is the pizza parlor. The best part is that you can talk with people. The special events and holiday parties are done really well. During the parties, the entire site changes and there are limited time features.”

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