Mommy's Goals and Consumerism at its worst

Okay, so in terms of meeting my goal of 10 miles and 1 weight session, I have so far run 6 miles with no weight session.  I hope to be able to get my weight session in tomorrow and complete the last four miles on Friday and Saturday.  I can definately say that running 3.5 miles in under 35 minutes today was painful -- wow taking 4 weeks off certainly does effect you!

On a mommy note, I recently ran across a very thought provoking book, Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood.  The title of this book alone gave me chills down my back.  This book really brings out how we in society are being targeted from every direction to be consumers; so much so, that our children no longer are expected to use their imagination to entertain themselves.  Now, there is a toy for every single age, every type of play, every type of situation.  Are we taking the fun and development out of childhood by supplying our children with all of these material goods, tv, video games, etc?  My answer is yes (anyone else have an opinion?)

We have definately fallen into the consumer trap, this idea that you need to give, give, give to your child. Before James was even born we had a house full of gear that we were told we HAD to have, and now I can tell you we dont use half of it. 

I hope that we can get out of this need to get James everything, maybe that just comes with the territory when its your first, but I know Matt and I have recognized this and we are trying to get better.  That said, what I do know is that we do love to encourage James to be creative, to be outside, to love and laugh, and hopefully, we can instill these qualities in him versus instilling in him how to be a good consumer...I guess time will only tell.