{"id":24905,"date":"2012-10-01T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=24905"},"modified":"2012-10-04T18:18:19","modified_gmt":"2012-10-05T00:18:19","slug":"the-kiddy-pool-project-runways-its-fashion-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2012\/10\/the-kiddy-pool-project-runways-its-fashion-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kiddy Pool: Project Runway’s \u201cIt\u2019s Fashion Baby\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Every week in\u00a0The Kiddy Pool<\/strong><\/a>, Erin Newcomb confronts one of many issues that parents must deal with related to popular culture.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been a big fan of Project Runway<\/em><\/a>: I\u2019ve seen every season, which is more of a commitment than I\u2019ve ever made to any other reality TV show (and possibly any other show at all). I think my appreciation for the program has something to do with the contestants possessing skills that are actually creative and interesting, as opposed to say, being former D-list stars or having six-pack abs. In any case, in spite of my affection for Heidi Klum\u2019s show, I started watching Thursday\u2019s episode, \u201cIt\u2019s Fashion Baby\u201d, with a degree of trepidation. Designer babies? Really?<\/p>\n

The challenge asked the designers to create a look for Heidi\u2019s new baby-wear line at Babies \u2018R Us<\/a>. Making baby clothes required the contestants to shift their focus, i.e., taking diapers into consideration along with couture. I\u2019m the sort of mother who buys most of my girls\u2019 clothing used on ebay or at clearance sales, but I definitely like their clothes to be fun as well as functional, and my toddler, now three, is starting to voice her opinion \u2014 primarily in favor of tulle, winter hats, and lots of layers, so she looks like she\u2019s wearing the entire contents of her dress-up drawer. I knew from the initial meeting that the designers would need to appease some squirmy toddlers and some opinionated mamas with higher standards for fashion-forwardness than I possess. As Dmitry summed up<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019re all screwed. Those babies are really, really small. I\u2019m not even sure how old they are, but I\u2019m pretty sure they can\u2019t talk. It\u2019s like making an outfit for a cat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back at the workroom, Heidi left the designers a \u201csurprise\u201d: mechanical babies whose cries would keep on interrupting the contestants with demands for bottles, fresh diapers, and cuddles. The workroom soon devolved into chaos, filled with wailing babies and frustrated designers trying to \u201cmake it work\u201d while attending to the infants\u2019 needs. Again, Dmitry tried for levity by naming his baby \u201cBrandon\u201d while Fabio (whom the others deemed \u201cobsessed\u201d with his baby) claimed \u2014 in my favorite line of the episode \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m polite. My kid\u2019s polite. He\u2019s just going through something.\u201d As I watched the designers struggle to sew, sketch, travel to the fabric store, and hey, even complete a thought with their babies in tow, I couldn\u2019t help but think \u201cHey! That\u2019s my life on screen!\u201d You know, but without the glamorous job or the cameras. It reminded me of earlier in the day: my husband and I had swapped the girls on campus, and I left work feeling like a sideshow, wearing a baby, pushing a toddler in the stroller, and feeling really thankful for anyone who held a door for us.<\/p>\n

On the second day of the challenge, Tim Gunn entered the workroom to relieve the designers of their charges; Sonjia expressed her gratitude, explaining that she was planning on neglecting her baby to get some work done anyway. That attitude obviously only works with fake babies, as she seemed quite aware, but the prevailing tone of the show was that children make an interesting demographic as potential consumers (or consumers-by-proxy). Actual children are a different story though, their cuteness rapidly waning in the face of \u201creal work.\u201d In a competitive, task-oriented setting like a Project Runway<\/em> challenge, the idea of babies-as-impediments makes sense. What does it mean, though, when that idea gets transferred to a larger cultural context?<\/p>\n

I admit to feeling frustrated at not being able to do a lot of things alone anymore \u2014 like, say, use the bathroom. It\u2019s easy for me to fall into the trap of favoring productivity (what, exactly, am I supposed to be producing?) or chores with visible results as opposed to the emotional, often invisible care work that goes into raising my children. That\u2019s one extreme offered by our culture \u2014 that the only valuable and valid work is that which can be quantified and compensated. Parenting doesn\u2019t usually fit, and surrogate caregivers are not generally paid all that well, either. The other extreme is to elevate children into idols, always putting them first in continual acts of parental martyrdom that only confirm their belief that they are, and ought to be, the center of the universe. The balance, children as neither impediments or idols, is much more difficult for me to strike. My daughters\u2019 needs and desires are real and often passionate \u2014 but so are mine. It\u2019s my job to nurture their creativity without sacrificing my own, to treat them as whole humans while demonstrating that even if I\u2019m \u201cMama\u201d first, I\u2019m more than that, too. But I still wouldn\u2019t mind peeing alone once in a while.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“It\u2019s my job to to treat them as whole humans while demonstrating that even if I\u2019m ‘Mama’ first, I\u2019m more than that, too.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1225,"featured_media":25134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[935,1004,1291],"class_list":["post-24905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asides","category-general-culture","tag-parenting","tag-project-runway","tag-the-kiddy-pool"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Kiddy Pool: Project Runway's \u201cIt\u2019s Fashion Baby\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""It\u2019s my job to to treat them as whole humans while demonstrating that even if I\u2019m 'Mama' first, I\u2019m more than that, too."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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