After reading Sierra Black’s post about Disney’s refund policy for their Baby Einstein videos, it made me wonder what parent out there wasn’t somehow affected by the whole Baby Mozart/Einstein phenomenon. After all, in the modern climate of hyper-parenting, where vigilance and extreme parental involvement are the norm, and where information about the dos and don’ts about child-rearing is disseminated at the speed of light (or rather the speed of your internet connection) how could you not be influenced?

Sure, there are plenty of parents out there who in perfect hindsight say they were not sucked into the marketing vortex and never bought into the hype. I like to kid myself that I’m included in this group, but the reality is, while I never bought the videos or books, I did in fact check them out of the library. For the record, our daughter loved them.

We also received the books as gifts from thoughtful friends and relatives who were looking out for kid’s best interest, and we employed them accordingly. And, I wonder how many parents out there are with me on this one, after hearing the miraculous news of how Mozart was the key to your child’s path to success, I admit that I was a bit more inclined to forsake the Beatles or the Dead (well, maybe not the Dead) and opt for a horn concerto or two.

This in turn made me wonder why, especially in light of the fact that not only did the original authors of the study claim that their findings had been misrepresented, but over the years, it has been repeatedly been determined that the enriching claims of these videos is false, to the point that experts go so far as to say that the entire “…baby video industry is a sham.”

And yet, even in light of this contradictory evidence, the industry still lives on, and if anything, it thrives. So what’s the deal?

Well, I’m no expert on the subject, and I’m guessing the answer is not crystal clear (few things in life are). Sure, there are parents out there that are looking for ways to get their children out of their hair and have a free moment to get something done. We’ve all been there. And who doesn’t love music? I’m a firm believer that having music in our lives is a good thing, plain and simple.

Maybe it boils down to the fact that every parent wants what is best for their children and given the opportunity, would jump at the chance to give them an advantage in the ultra-competitive world that we live in. This situation is aggravated by the fact that for most of us, everything we do as a parent is under the microscope, and we live in fear of doing something wrong.

It is this climate of fear that we succumb to the allure of any product that makes promises of enrichment and is backed by the long arm of science. How can you ignore them? Marketers, in turn, are more than happy to exploit our anxieties to sell their products.

Like it or not, capitalizing on our fears works, and parenting seems to have evolved (or devolved) to a point where we no longer trust ourselves to know what to do when it concerns our kids. Whether it be their health, nutrition, education, or development, there is some sort of reference out there to guide us.

We have become dependent on these “experts” to tell us what to do for pretty much everything (who is watching their kids while they come up with these conclusions?), which is sort of ironic when you consider that not only do these so-called experts seem to contradict and disagree with each other on just about everything, but they always seem to be changing their minds. You’d think this would damage their credibility, but it never seems to dampen our insatiable need for parental advice. In fact, I get the sense that the more educated a person is, the more they come to depend on it.

As I mentioned, the reasons for this are probably not simple or clear. However, previous generations, including your parents and mine, did not rely as heavily on expert advice, probably because it was not an option. The field of child enrichment is a recent thing, and outside of what your teachers or relatives told them, our moms and dads probably relied on their own gut instincts as well as the advice of your grandparents, for better or worse.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we should ignore all the expert advice out there, but when some new revelation comes to light, and it happens a lot, especially where money is involved, instead of jumping on the bandwagon and embracing what’s being said, we could pause and take it all with a grain of salt. And maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea for us to trust ourselves a little more and simply employ a little common sense when it comes to raising our children. Unfortunately, this means that there are no miraculously easy solutions. Anything that seems too good to be true is exactly that.

While this may not guarantee your child’s admission into Harvard or that they’ll one day play Carnegie Hall, neither does embracing expert advice. On the other hand, I do believe that your kids will always welcome and appreciate (up to a certain age, of course) your time and attention. In fact, I would go as far as to say that spending as much quality time as possible with your kids will only increase the chances that they will grow to be decent, well adjusted people, which is what being a parent is all about.

Unfortunately, this will require that you turn off the TV and actually engage them, which isn’t always easy. Then again, nobody said being a parent was easy...unless, of course, they were trying to sell you something.