So each month I get the magazine, Parenting: The Early Years. I don’t subscribe, I just get it. I don’t know why or how, I just do. I occasionally read the articles, which aren’t bad, but mostly I just thumb through it for the short little snip its and tidbits because that’s really all I have time for. But what I’ve started to notice and what REALLY fries my twinkies is the cover! I posted a few pictures to demonstrate my point.
Are these girls parents? I sure as shit hope not. I hope this publisher isn’t secretly a supporter of teen moms. These cover girls look so young (maybe I’m getting too old!), it looks like they could also do a spread for Seventeen magazine and that’s not right. To borrow a phrase from the Murmurs: It’s kinda freaky, it’s kinda weird. Maybe the girls are supposed to be au pairs, nannies, or babysitters. But wait, isn’t the title of the magazine Parenting? Well, I’d love to have more parenting support by the way of a nanny, but that’s not what the content of this magazine is about – co-parenting with nannies and other support. Hmmmm…. I’m confused.
By a majority, parents are two people, most often a man and a woman. Surely this magazine could find attractive male and female parents in their 20s, 30s or (gasp!) 40s. I’m sure some of the real subscribers would gladly send in their fancy photo Christmas cards to enter to win a cover shoot (I’m talking the whole family, not just pictures of their tiny tots). I also know a fantastic group of hot single moms that are most certainly cover girl material. That also would make great content (single mom parenting) for an issue. Let’s not forget the gays. I know some brilliant same sex parents that would love to represent. C’mon there’s nothing cuter than two hot gay dads or hotter than two lipstick lesbians that are moms.
So Parenting Magazine, stop kidding me and wise up. Get rid of your Seventeen cover girl and get some REAL PARENTS on the cover. Do you really think that a callow girl and cute kid sells? No, controversy sells! So I’m gonna blow the whistle on your cover girls, and you’re your publisher, Bonnier, will be pleased. Because, really isn’t it only a matter of time that you’ll be closing your doors like so many magazines these days. Why not go out with a bang!
Friends and readers, if you’re at all moved to shake your fist, please send an email to susan@parenting.com and feel free to cut and paste the following:
Dear Parenting Magazine: Stop kidding me! Please use real parents on your cover and not callow Seventeen cover girls. You are writing for parents not au pairs. Will the real parents please stand up? Represent.
That’s all I have to say about that. Pull up a chair, pour a drink and conversate. Cheers friends!
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I completely agree that this is a little weird. It would be one thing if for just one month there was a kind of young looking mom on the cover, but this seems to be the rule rather than the exception. As a 33 year old mother of one, I’d like to see a little more age diversity on these models.
i got this when i was pregnant with gia, and had to laugh when the very first ad on the very first page is for birth control, the next ad is for formula, the next ad is for an suv, and the next is for some fisher-price plastic crap. i guess i’m not their target audience, because i co-sleep, demand nurse, and attachment parent. no judgements, but … none of the articles really spoke to me! i am a fan of mothering magazine, myself. real articles by real moms! i love your blog, btw. come over and have coffee! let’s make a play date!
I had my first baby at 25 and still looked like an old lady next to these models. Ridiculous!
And where are the dads?!? Is the implication that moms do all of the parenting?
Right on! I wanna see some bags under their eyes and spit up on their clothes!
Being part of the (gasp) 40 year old group with toddler/preschoolers, it is annoying to see these pictures. Luckily I didn’t get on their “subscription” mailing list so I don’t get these. Glad you pointed it out in your blog…which I LOVE by the way. You’ve inspired me Jen to start my own blog when I have a chance (maybe preschool will allow me to have that time). I will email this magazine as you’ve suggested and perhaps their advertisers aren’t aware of this issue or the lack of “real” subscribers.
It’s probably my age, but as a 24 year old mother of three children (6, 2, and 9 months) I see those moms as people I can relate to even though that magazine in particular is for newbies on the parent scene. As a consumer, if I saw a woman in her 40s with a toddler on the front of a magazine I would (don’t shoot me!) assume it was for an article about grand parenting since our parents (our kid’s grandparents) are 43, 44, 45, and 49. I think that’s what these magazines are trying to avoid.
Still, I AM always curious where the dads are in parenting magazines in general. I mean fine, there doesn’t have to be a dad in every picture, but couldn’t they mix it up and do like a mom cover, a mom and dad cover, and then a dad cover?
Thanks everyone for the fabulous comments that you posted! You all have had me laughing! Parenting covers have been a total pet peeve of mine lately. Particularly, MrsM-thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I have to admit that my knee jerk reaction to your comments included some obscenities. However, we are all only a product of our environment and experiences. I would LOVE to introduce you to a number of my friends. Many are and will be 40 with toddlers running around and I PROMISE YOU that you wouldn’t think for a moment to call them Grandmas. I think you are perfectly proving my point that a little age and gender diversity is what’s needed so we see the range of all different kinds of mothers, parents and caretakers. Some of us have made different choices, including having children much later in life. I didn’t have BigBoy until I was 34. My point is you can still be fabulous at 40, just as you are at 24 (holy cow! Three kids and you still have time to write! You are awesome!), but that is what unites us all — the shared experience of motherhood and parenting. It takes all kinds, sister, and there’s enough room at the table for all of us to share. Thanks again!
As a mother of 2 and constantly being one of the youngest mothers at my eldest son’s school, I find it quite refreshing to see women older than me rocking it and looking better than me! Considering a women in her 40′s “grandma age” in this day and age is the most ridiculous and backwards way of thinking I have ever heard!!! Most women I know that are in their 40′s look better than most women in their 20′s. So its time we put the real mothers on the front covers and not little girls who probably have no idea what spit up smells like or sleepless nights are like because of a sick child.