Tonight I have to shoot some video of sex offenders living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. Don't worry - I am bringing Damien with me. But, I certainly don't want to expose wee little Baz to this shoot so I am hiring a babysitter to watch him. And since we'll already be out, we figured why not have a bit of a date night after we meet the sex offenders!
So, we are going to try and hit our favorite Miami restaurant - Michael's Genuine Food and Drink. We found it when it was #4 on Frank Bruni's favorite American restaurants in the New York Times. And, boy, was he right on the money about this place! We love it and it is one of only two or three places that we go back to again and again when we get a chance. I like to start with either the deviled eggs or fresh potato chips with onion dip. Then they have this system where you order either "small," "medium," or "large" dishes. We usually have a couple of smalls and mediums and split a large. It's fabulous food made with fresh, local ingredients and feels healthy while also tasting terrific. Okay, so deviled eggs and potato chips with onion dip is not the healthiest thing on the menu.
It'll be a nice break. And it gives me an opportunity not only to recommend my favorite restaurant but also to talk about this book I'm reading that might be of interest to other moms out there. It's Lenore Skenazy's book, "Free-Range Kids." She has a blog. too. No, it's not about how to corn feed your babies. It's about how we parents worry too much about our kids and how we need to fight against our fears and give our children the freedom we had growing up. You might remember the author from her controversial column in the New York Sun when she decided to let her 9 year old son ride the subway by himself. Especially after my last parenting class, this book is really hitting the right note for me. I am just so sick and tired of fear-mongering parents that have so little perspective on things. I mean, we literally had a 20 minute conversation about how lavender has an estrogen-like component to it that could be dangerous for babies. I mean, all these moms were like, "Oh, my gosh, I use lavender scented soap!" The horror, the horror. First of all, I really don't think Johnson and Johnson would be able to sell lavender scented baby products if it were really that dangerous. Someone would have sued them by now. I mean maybe lavender has estrogen like qualities, but how much lavender can these moms be exposing their infants to?
But what really got me going was when someone later mentioned that they were going on a trip to Cuba and not taking a car seat. I had the audacity to ask why? Wouldn't they be taking taxis to and from the airport and possibly driving cars while they were there? Plus, there are conveniences to bringing a car seat like the fact that if there's an extra seat on the plane, you can use it - in fact, most airlines will go out of there way to hold the seat open for you - and then you don't have to carry the baby on your lap the whole time. Well, you would have thought that I had just asked if zebras can fly? Everyone looked at me like I was a total nut case and even Faith, the nurse who leads the class, said, "Oh they don't have the same laws in Cuba."
Wait a minute! We just spent twenty minutes talking about the unlikely idea that lavender scented baby soap might cause your baby boy to develop breasts yet you don't have a problem leaving the car seat - something that has lowered fatal car injuries by 50% - behind when you are going to a country where on the ride from the airport alone your modern taxi will be sharing the highway with horse and buggies and 1950's Buicks? Are you kidding me? Where are the hidden cameras?
But, that's really beside the point. The point is, with the internet and mom's groups and way too much time on our hands, we have become a bunch of paranoid, fearful, over-informed, 24 hour news-watching idiots. And while I don't think it is always the best idea to send 9 year olds out alone to navigate the New York City subway system (unless they are mature and prepared for it), I think there is definitely something to the idea of chilling-the-fuck-out!
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