{"id":296,"date":"2015-03-30T13:21:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T01:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/?p=296"},"modified":"2015-09-04T15:29:18","modified_gmt":"2015-09-04T03:29:18","slug":"elsa-ish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/?p=296","title":{"rendered":"Elsa-ish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fake<\/a>\u00a0I have ideas. \u00a0Ideas about promoting what has been proven to work in our lives -like healthy relationships, a practice of gratitude, joyfully moving our wonderful bodies. \u00a0These things make us happier.<\/p>\n

What doesn\u2019t make us happier is buying stuff, succumbing to small-thinking, and accumulating more plastic.<\/p>\n

And the Disney channel are having their way with my daughters, again and again.\u00a0 I have tried dumb strategies to try and disentangle my kids from Elsa’s icy webs.\u00a0 It may (not) surprise you it makes no difference to grizzle about how tired I am of all things Frozen, or lecture my daughters about feminist worldviews and conspiratorial marketing departments (in black masks and satin capes) .<\/p>\n

Instead of watering the weeds and focusing on the things that aren\u2019t wholesome in the scheme of raising my children, I know I gotta try to pull the weeds and water the flowers <\/a>– to actively emphasise what I value instead of grousing about the stuff that violates my values.\u00a0 Much nicer to be around.<\/p>\n

And what do I value?\u00a0 Relationships.<\/p>\n

So I let my (just) three year old express her connection to the wider world and her love for the intimate world of her home by indulging her love of Elsa. Just a bit.\u00a0 And Let it Go.\u00a0 Not really the film – stuff you Hans – and not even really the whole soundtrack.\u00a0 Just Elsa.\u00a0 Just that song.\u00a0 In the sparkly dress, tumbling plait persona.<\/p>\n

I ponder lovingly “I wonder who made the decision to put Anna on a nightie?”. \u00a0Instead of my current technique of grousing about Frozen I can use the magic of “I wonder” to introduce an awareness of the deliberate scheming of marketers while I introduce a relationship-focused thread to the whole shebang.<\/p>\n

Relationships: like using “Oh, do you remember who was with you when you bought the Elsa and Anna lunchbox?” \u00a0highlighting the family relationships that are real and concrete and supersede the Disney craziness.<\/p>\n

And we discuss the finer details of Elsa\u2019s relationship history, thus highlighting the value of relationship even within<\/i> the crazy: \u201cOh, Elsa seems so much happier at the end when she\u2019s ice skating with her sister!\u00a0 They really seem to love each other a lot!\u201d.\u00a0 Familial love – I can handle that.<\/p>\n

If all that fails and I\u2019m succumbing to my grumpy self around all this, I take solace in the glorious ridiculousness of the dubious toys my husband just purchased on his recent trip to China.\u00a0 That\u2019s where today\u2019s comical picture comes from. \u00a0Take that, Disney.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0I have ideas. \u00a0Ideas about promoting what has been proven to work in our lives -like healthy relationships, a practice of gratitude, joyfully moving our wonderful bodies. \u00a0These things make us happier. What doesn\u2019t make us happier is buying stuff, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29,14,10,5,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}