Order this Cartoon as a 8.5 x 11 print on glossy photo paper and signed for only $10!

Couldn’t have said it better myself…read and enjoy (thanks Lara!)

You Have Been Very, Very, Naughty by Decca Aitkenhead

Moral correction is a strong theme of Supernanny. After Frost has observed children running riot at the start of each show, she delivers her analysis of what is going wrong. Often she is really quite angry with the parents, and will use words like “disgusting” and “outrageous” to describe their children’s behaviour. “They don’t show you no respect!” is a recurring diagnosis. “They’re running rings round you,” she will say.

In the moral universe of Supernanny, if children spit or fight or swear it is basically because they can. The only difference between them and good children is that they have been allowed to get away with it. In this Hobbesian understanding of childhood, discipline is logically of paramount importance, and the only measure of a corrective technique seems to be whether or not it works. Frost’s techniques certainly appear to “work”. But they also imply that what she calls “unacceptable behaviour” could never be a legitimate protest. She often describes raging children as “having a laugh”, but they seldom look very happy to me. Isn’t she curious about the reasons why?

“But I am,” she says indignantly. “I am. It goes without saying. I don’t just want to know on the surface why. I need to know and find out exactly where the root of that lies. So in retrospective [sic] of that I do that mandatorially [sic] with the families.”

Love,
Heather

Order this Cartoon as a 8.5 x 11 print on glossy photo paper and signed for only $10!

The ‘New Study’ posthas been revised to explain the differences between the people who did the study and the people who paid for the study and the governmental organization that called for studies…so if you’re following the story, please revise your brain as well ;o)

this from a mama reader of thecowgoddess.com:

Hi Hathor,
I’m a long time reader of your comics as well as a long time breastfeeder, the comics always put a smile on my face and make a point too, they’re great.

I just wanted to clarify about the research info you posted. The European Union 6th framework thingy is actually this: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/faq_en.html (well this is framework 7, framework 6 has finished). Its not actually specifically about infant nutrition.

Basically within a framework (each one lasts for a few years) there are many calls for proposals on different topics, so I guess there was one on infant nutrition. For each call, a number of consortiums consisting of universities and companies from all over Europe will put in research proposals under the topic for which submissions were invited. They are scored and the highest score gets funding. They fund a lot of good stuff too, like this project on breast cancer: http://www.metabre.org . I am assuming probit and earnest are 2 projects that got through and were funded by the program.

It’s the EARNEST (go ahead scroll on down their consortium for a real thrill! and check out their description “Other aspects of the project include studies to investigate consumer attitudes to early nutrition programming and the economic importance of early nutrition programming.” spine tingling, huh? ) and the PROBIT study pdf that have some tricky ties to the formula industry…

Love,
Heather

Order this Cartoon as a 8.5 x 11 print on glossy photo paper and signed for only $10!