Neoconservative baby boomer David Brooks addresses the hipster parenting movement in today's New York Times. He says, to paraphrase, "Hey you kids, get outta my yard!"
Brooks takes aim at Babble.com (I'm fine with that), mommy-bloggers (I'm mostly fine with that), "musical Antoinettes who would get the vapors if their tykes were caught listening to Disney tunes" (I can't help but take that personally), and women and mothers in general. He also takes personal aim at Neal Pollack, who responds here. And Rebecca Woolf responds here.
I anticipate further response to Brooks' opinion from around the blogosphere (updated Monday to add just a few of them, plus a response from Salon.com). At the moment, my only thought is this:
* Harrumphing Codger is a term from Christopher Noxon's book Rejuvenile. His definition, which seems entirely fitting for Brooks, is: "Social critics who see the rejuvenile impulse as destructive, regressive, and quite possibly, a harbinger of the collapse of Western Civilization....Harrumphing Codgers...look back wistfully to a time when young people endured epic hardship (world wars, economic depression) and emerged as restrained and productive adults. "
February 25, 2007
A Harrumphing Codger Disapproves
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7 comments:
He sounds extremely angry. And really, what is the deal with conservatives bashing health food? Hummus? Really? What is so awful about eating garbonzo beans? So what? If you're not willing to eat a super-sized McDonald's grease burger, you're somehow un-American, (gasp)
liberal? Or worse yet, what about those who eat tofu? Stone them now before they drive this country into the ground!
No, it's much better to eat total and complete crap, then bleed the health care system dry trying to save your coronary artery diseased body.
I hate all this labeling and trying to fit people into neat little boxes. I happily play Disney tunes for my kids, but I also play them Weezer, XTC, and Emmylou Harris. We love it all.
McDonald's? We eat there once a week or so. What's the big deal? Mr. Brooks would be mightily confused that I also feed my kids broccoli and whole wheat bread.
Brooks calls these "hipster parents" closed-minded, but comes across as nothing less himself.
"Get out of my yard..."
absolutely perfect! That's exactly what it is. And he's keeping our ball, too.
Wow - so critical. Well, at least he's generally gender neutral in his criticism.
This op-ed piece seems really to have offended people. The responses are just as interesting -even more so - as the views expressed in Brooks' piece. Anyone who would see anything amiss in 'hip' parenting is a codger, a killjoy, so it seems. Brooks may be many things, including a Republican, but he is not a codger. (The epithet "Republican" has incidentally been used as term of abuse by some respondents (disclosure: I myself am a Democrat). ) Brooks does not subscribe to neo-con orthodoxy on Iraq, either, as some have maintained.
I'm sure Brooks could not possibly be against raising children in a conscious way. If he has kids, I'm sure he thinks about what they eat, listen to, watch, etc. I would describe myself as upper-middle class in background, if not in income, and I think he was quite right to say that 'hip' parents can, at times, be precious and full of self-regard. There can also be an incredible amount of snobbery in the milieu of upper-middle class parentdom, and it's all the more galling when it comes from people who fancy they don't have any class prejudice to begin with. And let's be honest, we middle to upper-middle class folks sometimes assume we 'have the answer' on so many subjects. I've overheard and unwillingly taken part in many parent conversations that are just as full of assumptions, prejudices, etc. as those you might hear from evangelicals, neo-cons, and others that we liberals consider the 'other'.
Brooks used some rhetorical overkill in the piece -- for example, "Elijah" is not a terrible name to give a child, as he claimed; it has a rich (and Biblical) pedigree. And he should have made distinctions among parenting blogs. For example, the primarily music-related ones, like this one, Zooglobble, etc., have been useful and beneficial in spreading the word about worthwhile family music; certain others are of dubious value, from what I've seen. Am I alone in seeing some uncomfortable (I won't say 'inconvenient') truths in the Brooks piece?
Anon, I think we agree on many things. Yes, there are some uncomfortable truths in Brooks' piece. But I think he comes across as far out of touch with parenting. I'm not sure if he has young kids, grown kids, no kids -- and because he doesn't clarify that, he has less authority, in my view, to discuss current parenting trends.
His piece definitely made a lot of parents squirm, and this is evnident in the prevailing tone of many parents' responses -- one of "let's end this discussion about hipster parents NOW." I've expressed frustration with that in a previous post here:
http://lovelydavis.blogspot.com/2007/02/just-dont-call-me-late-for-dinner.html
Please email me, Anon. I would love to discuss this further with you!
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