Parent Express for 22-Jan-2009

This issue focuses on the commercial sexualization of children with a book review of Diane Levin's and Jean Kilbourne's new book, So Sexy So Soon. The issue also lists helpful websites you may want to check out. Diane will be in Seattle speaking Feb. 3 and 4 (see details below), so I hope you can catch one of her presentations. You will be informed and inspired to take action on one of the most critical issues of our times.

On Feb. 28 I will present a parent workshop on The Vital Five—the core developmental needs that I believe can make all the difference to grow a healthy self-identity, so that negative media influences don't have that much of an effect on our children and teens. All those who attend this workshop receive a free copy of my new book.

The February issue of Parent Express will provide helpful ideas about what to do about Stimulus Addiction—particularly in video games and its impact on boys. So please feel free to send this issue to a friend who might want to subscribe to receive that information.

The PCI and the professionals who obtain Parent Coach Certification® from the institute are dedicated to supporting parents with media-related topics. In fact, that's one of the reasons I founded the PCI. It's through our relationship-centered approach where moms and dads receive relevant information and compassionate understanding for these profoundly challenging times—resulting in more creative decision making for these often frustrating issues.

Please contact us for more information. We're here for you!

Gloria DeGaetano, Founder and CEO

"The PCI's curriculum exceeded my expectations. The lessons, supplemental readings and assignments are intellectually challenging and powerfully provoking. Each course builds upon the last, reinforcing the theoretical framework and making the PCI's approach to parent coaching most compelling. The people in the PCI are real gems. My life is so much richer as a result of participating in this wonderful program."

Apply Now for Spring Term Start!

Applications are now being accepted for entrance Spring Term for the Parent Coach Certification® Training Program with phone classes for Course 1 beginning the week of March 23, 2009. Phone classes are in the evening time to accommodate the work schedules of our students, usually after 5 pm Pacific Time. Apply before February 1 and receive $500.00 off tuition.

Please send in the basic application as your first step. Transcripts and letters of reference can follow the basic application by a few weeks. Download the application here. Send to the PCI at: 1400-112th Ave. SE, Bellevue, WA 98004. Applications can be faxed to (425) 646-7569 or sent via email to gloria@thepci.org. Questions? Please call: (425) 753-8822.

Application deadline for Spring Term start is March 1, 2009.

Spaces are limited. Early applications receive first consideration.

Learn more about our acclaimed, graduate-level, distance-learning Parent Coach Certification® Program by clicking here for more information.

Check out our Video About the PCI Parent Coach Training Program and see what professionals think about their training with the PCI.

Working with a parent coach who has received Parent Coach Certification® through the PCI is giving yourself a valuable gift as well as a sound investment in your family's future. PCI Certified Parent Coaches® are caring, thoughtful professionals with years of experience working with parents. They have successfully completed the PCI Parent Coach Certification® Training Program—a comprehensive academic, one-year, graduate-level program in collaboration with Seattle Pacific University. Through a series of coaching conversations that can be either by telephone or in-person, PCI Certified Parent Coaches® help you re-discover your dreams and design your life for more joy and satisfaction.

To find a PCI Certified Parent Coach® in your area, please click here or call (425) 401-1519 for a referral to a PCI Certified Parent Coach® selected especially for you.

Visit www.parentappreciationradio.com to listen to programs featuring PCI Certified Parent Coaches® and other experts from around the country discussing topics of interest to moms and dads.

Programs are available as podcasts. Listeners can download individual episodes directly, listen to them from this site using a Web browser, or access them via the iTunes podcast directory. iTunes subscribers will automatically pick up new episodes as they become available!

Book Review: So Sexy So Soon

by Gloria DeGaetano
Founder & CEO, Parent Coaching Institute

So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids
(www.sosexysosoon.com)
Diane Levin, Ph. D. and Jean Kilbourne, Ed. D.
Ballantine Books, New York, 2008
211 pages

Angeles Arrien (author of The Four-Fold Way) once said, "When we lose touch with our inner wisdom, we abnormalize the normal and normalize the abnormal." What was considered crazy, disgusting, or taboo yesterday could become status quo, even necessary, tomorrow—if we aren't paying close attention to our own internal guidance system. But that's not so easy to do anymore. Today's commercialized culture pushes limits for market share and bombards with mass-delivered influential, often aberrant messages—making it increasingly difficult for moms and dads to function from their "wise selves."

An extremely disturbing trend is the counterfeit culture's sexualization of children. From early childhood through adolescence, today's kids are bombarded with negative gender images and skewed messages about sexuality. Twenty years ago, for instance, when I was raising my children, it would have been unheard of, even unspeakable, for manufacturers to market thongs for seven-year-old girls. Yet today, crazy as it is, that's what's happening. So Sexy So Soon provides many other equally distressing examples of how our innocents are now just cogs in the "sex sells" marketing wheel. The impact is profound. So Sexy So Soon demonstrates the critical urgency of the issue and beautifully articulates what can be done about it by parents and by all of us working together to stop this insidious form of child abuse. (The authors remind us that the thong is the stripper's clothing of choice, in case we have forgotten.)

Diane Levin (www.dianeelevin.com) is Professor of Education at Wheelock College and has been involved in training early childhood professionals for more than twenty-five years. She has worked extensively in the field of media-related issues; as an internationally recognized expert on the effects of violence, media, and commercial culture on children, she speaks often on these subjects. She is the author or co-author of seven books including Remote Control Childhood? and The War Play Dilemma. Jean Kilbourne (www.jeankilbourne.com), a Senior Scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on the image of women in advertising. A popular lecturer, The New York Times Magazine named her one of the three most popular speakers on college campuses. She has produced award-winning films, including the Killing Us Softly series, and is the author of Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel.

Either one of these remarkable women could have alone written So Sexy So Soon. I'm glad they decided to team up, instead.

Read the Rest of the Book Review…

Useful Web Sites

• Daughters: For Parents of Girls
• Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
• Girls Inc.
• Hardy Girls Healthy Women
• Mind on the Media/Turn Beauty Inside Out Project
• New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams

Useful Books

• The Sexualization of Childhood, edited by Sharna Olfman, Prager Publishers, 2008.
• All Made Up: A Girl's Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype…and Celebrating Real Beauty, A. Brashicj, Walker & Company, 2006.
• Pop Porn, edited by A. C. Hall and M. J. Bishop, Praeger Publishers, 2007.

An Important Resource

The American Psychological Association Task Force, Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (PDF), Washington, DC, American Psychological Association, 2007. This report contains a summary of over 50 research studies on the subject, along with media literacy resources for empowering girls. You can also go here for media literacy resources.

So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What It Means for Our Work with Children

A Lecture by Diane Levin, Ph.D. for Early Childhood Educators and Interested Parents

February 4, 2009 5:30 to 8:30 pm
the auditorium at Shoreline Community College
16101 Greenwood Avenue North
Shoreline, WA

Presented by Puget Sound Association for the Education of Young Children (PSAEYC). Please see brochure for registration information.

Please note: Diane Levin is also speaking on Feb. 3 for Shoreline Parent Cooperative Preschool Association, Seattle, WA. For more information or to register, please contact Silje M. Sodal.

The Vital Five: Parenting Well in a Screen-Machine World

A Saturday Conversation with Gloria DeGaetano, Founder and CEO, the Parent Coaching Institute

Especially For Parents and Professionals Working with Families

When: Saturday, February 28, 2009
9 AM to noon
Where: Bellefield Office Park
Conference Center
1150 114th Avenue SE
Bellevue, WA 98004
(directions provided after registration)

Fee: $35.00 for individuals;
$50.00 per couple
To register: Call (425) 753-0955 or contact gloria@thepci.org

Registration deadline: Feb. 20, 2009.

• Learn creative ways to amplify The Vital Five—the five most important developmental needs that often get shortchanged in our hectic, mass media society.
• Explore how to give yourself more of The Vital Five—so you are taking good care of yourself to better care for your kids.
• Examine the most challenging time ever to be a parent and discover new ways to affirm yourself and appreciate your children.
• Enjoy stimulating conversations with parents like yourself.
• Take home a copy of Gloria DeGaetano's new book, The Vital Five: Parenting Well in a Screen Machine World, plus practical handouts for maximum parental creativity for dealing with all the tough issues from DVDs for babies to social networking and text messaging by teens and…everything in between.

Back issues of Parent Express are available on the PCI Web site. There you can read articles by Gloria DeGaetano and PCI Certified Parent Coaches®, and easily send past issues to friends and colleagues via e-mail.

"Gloria, I just wanted to let you know how excited and challenged I am by the course materials and the course work…I'm in awe of the depth and value of the work that was invested in putting together this extensive curriculum for the training. As I go through the materials for the course, your commitment and dedication to the vision and goals I share with you are evident and clearly emerge through the pages. I want you to know that I truly feel privileged to be part of the PCI community. Thanks for the opportunity."