The Boston brothers, the Dirty Dozen, Kmart's cheeky ad campaign and some solid advice for parents and children -- all caught my attention this week.
1. I don't think I can possibly say what I want to about Boston in a short paragraph or ask the questions I want to ask. But I can share this beautiful piece written by a dad blogger who lives very close to where the young man was captured last Friday evening. Thank you to Rebecca Cuneo Keenan who posted this on Facebook, where I found it.
2. If you're worried about pesticides on fruits and veggies, and eating organic and/or local, then you might be thinking of growing your own veggie garden this year, like our super talented food editor, Jan Scott. When choosing what seeds to grow this year, she consulted the 2013 list of the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen for ideas on what to plant. The list is a good one to keep on your fridge door as a quick reference, too.
3. Speaking of going to the market...U.S. retail giant Kmart hit a home run with this wildly popular video ad promoting their free shipping policy. There are over 15-million views on YouTube and it's been featured on traditional media all week. (You've probably already seen it.) In fact, some of the mommy blogs are not in favour as they feel it is going too far. I disagree. I think they nailed it. This is not a campaign targeted to youth or children. Everyone will remember the Kmart "Ship My Pants" ad the way our generation remembers "Where's the beef?" or "Mikey Likes It."
4. A friend of mine in Ireland posted a news clip that caught my attention this week. It provides some solid, no-nonsense, old-school type of advice for bored kids (and parents, indirectly), so I assumed it was from an Irish paper. But upon further investigation, I learned that it was actually a principal in New Zealand, John Tapene, who ran it in a school paper in 2010, but the original script came from a statement made by a US Judge in 1959. Since the 2010 school newspaper, it's gone viral. Here's what they taught kids in 1959. My favourite lines are the last two.
5. New on the list of silly vacation themes (babymoon, staycation) is mancation. I don't think I need to explain this to you -- but apparently it's a 'thing' now and hotels/tourism companies are catering to this market. Here's a headline from one of my favourite newsletters, Thrillist, that caught my attention last week with a featured special for Windjammer Landing's 'Boys Will Be Boys' package. The title was "Unlimited Booze, Food and Good Times with Your Bros in Saint Lucia." I'm sure all of my friends who are mothers of sons will join me in hoping this trend does not last. As if they need encouragement.
This post originally appeared on SavvyMom.ca. Follow Minnow and SavvyMom on Facebook for more savvy tips and solutions.