Posted on Wed, 2013-05-08 11:11
It’s 7am. I say — for the eleventh time — “J., let’s put on your shoes.” At 7:05, I say again, “J., time to put on your shoes.” Next day? Same words, same scene.
But, I swear, there’s no repeating necessary when it comes to Elmo. That little red Muppet caught my 17-month-old son’s attention in an instant. Having seen one picture in a book, he now remembers everything about Elmo and recognizes his image everywhere. That’s the power of marketing to kids.
And when it comes to fast-food marketing to children, McDonald’s is one of the worst offenders. For decades, the fast food giant has profited richly at a staggering cost to our children’s health.
That’s why I’m so fired up about Corporate Accountability International’s Value [the] Meal campaign’s latest initiative. It’s rallying moms across the country to call on McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson to stop the corporation’s predatory marketing to kids.
Darn right I’m a “gatekeeper”
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Posted on Wed, 2013-05-08 05:08
Story by Alessandra Gaia Gorini
Happy and healthy, this is how I feel and when I sit at my table to eat, I thank my family for teaching me simple behaviors to learn to love myself, starting in the kitchen!
Since I was 16, I’ve been cooking. It makes me feel real and it gives me the feeling of being in harmony with the planet. I have to say that my food adventures have inspired much of my youth group, making them feel proud of introducing food activities to promote a sustainable life!
The Food Revolution, and Jamie Oliver, are bringing us back on the happy track! It is the concept of a “revolution” that I like the most, a revolution to bring us back to our happiness. We are a society that have tried to “recreate” and copy Nature through the creation of chemicals and we are now going back to our roots – to find the real, genuine and simple pleasures to make us live better and healthier.
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Posted on Tue, 2013-05-07 18:20
This blog post originally appeared in 9to5.org.
Much like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the falsely cloaked Working Families Flexibility Act (HR 1406) would hurt, not help, families. The Working Families Flexibility Act, a true misnomer, would in reality ensure workers have less time, less flexibility and less money.
This anti-family proposal would force workers to spend more time away from their families in exchange for possibly getting to spend time later with their families. Under this proposal, the employer, not the employee, determines when earned comp time can be used.
In other words, a low-wage working mother could be forced to work 50 hours one week during Spring Break when her children are off from school and in exchange for the overtime work get 10 hours off another week when they are back in school. This may be flexibility for the employer, but it would cost the employee extra money for childcare, less money in overtime earnings and less time with her family.
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Posted on Tue, 2013-05-07 14:29
via The Broad Side
Corporations have a very bad habit of telling moms how to be. Or better yet, co-opting some very common “mom” archetypes for their marketing pursuits. For decades, we were told “Choosy Moms Choose Jif.” More recently, “It Moms” were more likely to choose a particular fabric softener. This week, infant formula maker Similac has taken on the dubious role of connecting their brand to “Strong Moms” — those supportive, they say, of a less judgmental environment for mothers. This new affinity for strength is being launched with a Strong Moms Summit on May 7th in New York City featuring a number of high-profile mom bloggers.
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Posted on Tue, 2013-05-07 13:36
Jennifer Martinez will not be celebrating this Mother’s Day because her family remains torn apart. Here is Jennifer’s story:
Jennifer Martinez and family
“A little over a year, my family was ripped apart when my husband of 16 years was suddenly taken away and forced to leave the country. My husband went to work one morning, as always, but he didn’t come home. Was he safe? When would we see him again? Me and my four children were left alone and scared, with no answers.
On March 21, 2012, my husband was told he had 20 minutes to get his things and was taken from our hometown of Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Chicago. After I finally heard from him, I had to scramble to get our kids ready and make the long trip to Illinois. When we got there, we couldn’t find him for 24 hours. When we finally found him, I barely had enough time to hand him some money and bag of clothes before we were forced to leave. I’ll never forget the image of my children throwing rocks and chasing the bus that was taking their father away.
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Posted on Tue, 2013-05-07 08:54
Revolution Day 2013
Alexx Stuart
Food Revolution Day, while of course created by the awesome Jamie, is a symbol for so much more than one person’s mission. It’s a symbol for all the efforts, the many movements, initiatives, grants, education programs, farmers’ markets and people making a difference when it comes to getting the essential message of Real Food out there in the world. It’s a day for doing, not just thinking we should do something. There are still too many people going through life completely disconnected to food.
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Posted on Tue, 2013-05-07 07:36
A few weeks ago, Melissa Harris-Perry appeared in a “Lean Forward” promotional ad for MSNBC and said:
We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we’ve always had kind of a private notion of children: Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven’t had a very collective notion of these are our children. So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it’s everybody’s responsibility, and not just the household’s, then we start making better investments.
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Posted on Mon, 2013-05-06 14:20
This week, Martha Roby (R-AL) will introduce the same discredited comp time bill that leaders in her party have been pushing for years. Misleadingly titled “The Working Families Flexibility Act,” HR 1406 would permit private sector employers to offer compensation time in lieu of overtime pay to their hourly work force.
At first glance the idea seems great: flexible time, family friendly. What’s not to love?
Public sector workers can answer this question. In 1985, Congress voted to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allowing government employers to offer comp time in lieu of overtime pay. Family and flexibility had nothing to do with it: the bill was framed as a cost-savings measure for cash strapped government agencies. The results: longer work hours and less pay for America’s families.
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Posted on Fri, 2013-05-03 11:09
Cross-posted from the Family Values @ Work Blog.
Listen up, working moms and dads: Rep. Eric Cantor has a deal for you – more time to spend with your family! What’s not to like?
Except for one hitch: You get to spend more time with your family only after you’ve been forced to spend more time at work away from your family. And your boss gets to decide when you take that extra time you’ve earned.
After some reflection on why women have deserted the Republican Party, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor gave a speech laying out the GOP plan to “Make Life Work” for working families.
Enter the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013, sponsored by Rep. Cantor and his Tea Party colleague Rep. Martha Roby. Instead of being paid time and a half for overtime, workers may be offered comp time – a paid hour and a half off in the future in exchange for an extra hour on the job this week.
Need to go to your kid’s school play? Take your dad to the doctor? Heck – you could even save time for when the baby is born. Whatever you like.
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Posted on Thu, 2013-05-02 11:12
If you think only new parents and preschool teachers care about early education think again. A few weeks ago, a group of Washington state superintendents, principals, kindergarten teachers and parents called for bigger investments in preschool. You might think they are worried about getting enough money for their K-12 schools this year, given the state’s lean budget. But, they understand preschool’s importance better than most because they see what happens when at-risk students don’t go.
These students start kindergarten behind and often never catch up.
To help all students start school strong, superintendents, school administrators and public officials gathered at Star Lake Elementary School and urged state legislators to invest in the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), which is the state’s preschool system. Two days later, Governor Jay Inslee agreed, proposing 3,000 new spots in ECEAP classrooms over the next two years.
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