Kia ora friends
I am listening to the playlist I made for the Baby Lounge I hosted at the Rangiora A&P show, in October last year. At the time, it was competing with a showjumping commentary broadcast, an enthusiastic covers band, and a highland dancing competition. Yup, with bagpipes. I could slide off on many a bagpipe tangent here, but will haul myself back to the present.
Back to my playlist – (what is a playlist if not a limitless mix tape! The joy and the overwhelm!) … phew … it has lots of space music, interspersed with the iconic Baby Dub tunes, and other super calming delights.
That first Baby Lounge was so important, teaching me a lot (*lesson #1: consider waste removal and make it easy for families) and it was gratefully received by so many whānau … babies galore, and their needs made easier to fulfill when families are given somewhere private and calm to tend to them. I’ll give it another go. Would love to figure out how to replicate and fund more Baby Lounges – this is one of the pegs in my imaginary professional pegboard (*thanks to Nadia for the mental tool!)
That’s a project for the Spring. A worthy one – a friend sent me this text a while later:
“Am at the cricket watching a woman try and change her baby behind the beer tent and thinking what a wonderful thing your baby lounge was. Crazy that they are not at every public event.”
Spring will bring a bit of That, a Play conference, and the awakening of the ground which I’m currently helping get ready for rest. It’s Autumn where I am … deeply, deeply Autumn … makes my toes fearful of the the cold that’s coming. It’s chilly as heck. I’ve been mulching like a maniac (hot for it in the way some people lust after celebrities!) and I’ve stewed so many apples I that I will need a new, larger saucepan if we ever again face a season as prolific as this one. We have been here before.
Before that, we’ve an academic article in the tunnel of peer review, another writing project politely waiting, and a winter to get through. I’m beyond excited about the podcast I have prototyped, now teetering on the edge of being created and gifted to babies and families. It’s been more than a year to this point and grit is a requirement. That there is a link to a study which links AI use with reduced tenacity (makes intuitive sense, I reckon, messy human that I am).
How about some more cool links, then I’ll go have a meal and do a teethbrush/lipstick routine. I have a zoom meeting in an hour and I could use a wee polish and my fire could use some wood!
BUT FIRST:
Here’s a link to an excellent summary from Zero to Three, about ways the attention economy impacts young children. Lordy, I’m so relieved to be having these conversations. I’ve been suffering, for years, from what Tristan Harris (aka Center for Humane Tech) has identified as “Pre-TSD”. My understanding of infant brain development and human attachment meant I have been witnessing a slow moving, relationship-fracturing, species-threatening, smartphone-shaped meteorite casting a deep shadow over all of us, for years.
With a baby’s eye view of the world, imagine. Imagine a day for a baby at any time in our brain’s 250,000 year history. Imagine the gazes sought and held, the communication. Imagine the relational space between people. NOW imagine 2026.
Our attention is never more precious than when babies are in a room.
Alas, the algorithmic overlords don’t care about babies. More evidence: Here’s an important summary from the Brookings Institute about the ways that AI is already enmeshed in infants’ lives, and here is a meta analysis of digital screen use and impacts on child development, from JAMA Pediatrics.
What about a little something connecting toddler habits to teenage fitness, and a piece that shares how Swedish Schools are returning to book learnin‘.
RIght. Snack. Lipstick. Zoom.
arohanui xx