• Have Gifted Children
  • Test Their Kids for ADD
  • Help with Homework
  • Hire Excellent Babysitters
  • Bubblewrap Their Kids
  • Throw Fabulous Parties
  • Sanitize Everything
  • Sleep with Their Kids
  • Interview Their Kids
  • Buy Nice Things
  • Ensure Productive Playtime
  • Feel Conflicted about Gaming
  • Get Their Kids to Princeton
  • Don’t Waste Time
  • Eat Food That’s Healthy
  • Homeschool Their Children
  • Live in Their Cars
  • Upgrade Old Games
  • Pay to Play
  • Choreograph Play Dates
  • Buy Trophies for Everyone
  • Obsess about Vaccines
  • Provide Excellent Snacks

    • Top This Parenting is a project about childhood in America. By collecting outrageous tales of over-stirred, joyless childrearing practices, we are opening a space for discussion about what is happening to our kids and why. We are a poet, a psychologist and a geographer who study, observe and celebrate the lives of children and parents from different perspectives. Together, we’ve been exploring how today’s American children have fewer opportunities to play in non-governed spaces and non-consumerist atmospheres. By describing ourselves and others caught up in these trends, we hope to raise questions, incite conversations, and inspire change.

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    Ensure Productive Playtime

    Dad buys a prefab dollhouse. Jenny says, ‘Put the garage here.’ Dad replies, ‘that’s not where it belongs.’ I mean really, some parents can’t tolerate disorder of any kind. They want to be in charge of exactly how to do everything and make sure it doesn’t make a mess.

    Follow the Directions

    This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 9:07 am and is filed under Uncategorized.


    One Response to “Ensure Productive Playtime”

    1. Poem Rider says:
      June 21, 2010 at 9:22 pm

      How about making a construction site? Like the dollhouse could be made into a mega-mansion? You know, big addition, totally out of scale? Then, Dad can show Jennifer how to smash out the perfectly good walls and make room for a bigger house. Then, he can get a miniature blue tarp and throw it over the part open to the air and run out of money and put the whole damn thing up for foreclosure?


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