The Parenting Forum Blog

I had been acquainted with the personality called Justin Bieber through my niece who's a teenager and a great fan of him. So I knew him as a teenage sensation. But recently my I found my kid, who is 11 yrs old, chatting with friends and downloading Justin's songs. I was quite surprised.

                                                                           Video source: www.youtube.com

And I decided to Google.I was amazed at the huge success that this young lad has achieved. Discovered by chance, yet pursued his career with efforts and dedication; handled his success with caution and kept up his passion for music. This is how I would describe Justin. I need not describe the endless recognitions and awards that this young man has got. So also, this post would not give me enough scope to write about the records that his songs and albums have created and broken as well. His website does it all. His fans website and the music website has it all.

This post aims to delve into the logic of Justin being not just a teen but also a tween sensation. It is true that the tween usually imitates the elders and seniors. So getting into the trend of fan following is possible. However, other than this, I feel that these youngsters can relate to his music and his young age as well. He is the teenage icon for them. In the early adolescence, when they learn to correlate to romantic songs, the soft and foot tapping tunes like Baby, Somebody to Love, Never say Never come easily to them.
Whatever it is, Justin has made his way to the hearts of these young people. So nowadays, Justin tunes rock in our house too!

If you have a kid, you invariably are aware of the anime series Shin-Chan or Crayon Shin-Chan as it is more popularly known among kids. This anime series has highly impressed the kids all over the globe but has received mixed views and reviews from parents. Why are parents so much concerned about a popular cartoon series?
To introduce, Shin-Chan is the 5 year old kid of Misae or Mitsy Nohara and Harry Nohara. He has a little sister Himawari. The themes of all the episodes are woven around this family. A little brat that he is, Shin-Chan is extremely witty and mischievous. Mitsy is a homemaker while Harry is a stereotypical Japanese salaryman who works in the office time and returns home tired. Shiro, the pet dog of Nohara family is as good as a family member and a significant character.  

Shin-Chan is up to mischief just like any other kid and also exhibits all the traits like children of his age do. Yet he stands apart due to the over smart answers that he gives his elders and also some of his weird habits. Commenting on ladies, creating a menace for his parents due to his strange behavior and actions and justifying those by his rude and outspoken dialogues are some of these. Mitsy is often portrayed as a lady who tries to be a sophisticate and ends up in a mess. At times she is shown to be the target of Shin-Chan's pranks. Both the parents when targeted by his pranks are often rewarded by his sarcasm. He does receive punishments but by then he's already delivered his share of thoughts.

If you watch Shin-Chan as an entertainment, it is funny. But I have observed in case of several kids around that regular watchers often start imbibing the values that they notice on screen. When this happens in case of Shin-Chan, you start getting all those weird comments. I have seen kids change their accent and body language to be like their idol! This then becomes a task for parents to get the kid to normal terms. So finally it becomes a lesson for the parents to draw the line for this entertainment when it starts filtering into the day to day life.

Disclaimer: The review is based on my personal experience with the product. I have not been sponsored or gifted a sample product for the review.



As a Mom and as a homemaker, I have never encouraged packaged or canned foods. So when we got the pack of Kellogg's Muesli for the first time, I was a bit hesitant. However, to my surprise it turned out to be a delight for all of us. From my experience with this product, I can present the review as below:

Kellogg's Muesli is available in four different varieties:
Extra nut delight: It contains multigrains, raisins, dates, and almonds.
Extra fruit magic: It contains apples, mellow peaches, papaya and Californian raisins.
Extra muesli crunchy fruit and nut: This contains crunchy Californian almonds, Canadian dates, Californian raisins, apples, mellow peaches, and papaya.
Extra tropical bonanza: This contains mangoes and mellow peaches.

We have tried out Extra nut delight and Extra fruit magic flavors. This product has given me the satisfaction of providing a combination of taste and nutrition for my family as compared to the junk food items in the market. It is a delight for kids and I can garnish it with fruits and dry fruits of my choice. Due to the yummy taste, having milk is also welcome nowadays. As a working woman, it saves a lot of time in the busy morning hours too.

As with all other food items, repetition makes the taste monotonous. Hence, having some other alternatives for breakfast is a must.