Post Ya Later…

Thanks to mnijm.com for the swell pix.

Boomtown Rats (pure 80′s New Wave band) “Up All Night” is playing through my head.

‘Cause I was UP ALL NIGHT.

Well not all night… that would be doable if you knew it was going to happen.

Seems Baby Lug, the 3 y.o. was just not up for sleepin’. First it was late to bed (10pm) with endless drinks of water, bathroom breaks and “Mama I neeeeeeeeed youuuuuuuuu!” Finally some sleep. But no work done for the Mama. No cardio. No emails. No posts or proposals.

Then the night terrors. Monsters. Lurking. Hugs all around. Lights dimmed up (if that makes sense.)

AM sleep interrupted by his half-asleep moaning- he’s kicked the covers off and and is chilly. But asleep.

More AM fun- he’s up and now snuggles in my bed. Orders me to hold him. By now, if he ordered me to do the cha-cha, jiggling like Charo (another 80′s Love Boat icon) I would have readily complied.

Then he starts to snore.

Up with the twins. School day. Baby Lug has to be woken. Now he’s just plain MEAN, in a fun ornery-kind of way.

Bound to show up at 9:30AM for training with super fab trainer Laura from Hingham’s Bodyscapes Fitness today, but feeling like something the cat drug in and peed on. My sidekick is still playing by Union rules in a bankrupt industry.

Ah. Good times.

I just wanted to let you know I’ll be posting a wee bit later…

Highly Entertaining “Wax On, F*ck Off”

16, Tiger Beat…oh they were the good days…

Poor Ralph Macchio, the eternal teenager.

Well those crazy peeps from FunnyOrDie come up with a brillant send-up the faux documentary “Wax On, F*ck Off.” Good news is that Ralph is in on the joke. So’s Molly Ringwald, Kevin Connelly and an unbelievably funny Michael Lerner.

Watch it. It’s genius.

Mommy Bloggers.

Photo courtesy of SEO.com

I was thinking about this piece, documenting all the varieties of Mommy Lies for Scary Mommy, I realized that the current Mommy bloggers  (and sometimes I consider myself one but I’d also consider myself a tech-business-media-design-pop culture commentator) are really documentarians, documenting, often hysterically (hello, Scary Mommy?) our era of child-rearing.

If you’re a Mommyblogger, consider yourself  the neighborhood’s Margaret Mead– except without the restless natives, Yellow Fever, and wildly interesting food — you’re just one with access to abundant clean water, mojitos and Old Navy. At some point (most likely now) there’s a very nerdy grad student pouring over all these blogs and writing their dissertation drawing all sorts of earth-shattering conclusions, maybe even a book deal, perhaps even a modern-day Feminine Mystique?

Whoa, watch out Betty Friedan!

(Hey, if you are the grad student and happen on this snazzy post, call me- INMHO we’re getting gipped. Those Mystique ladies, whom Friedan theorized were sold a bill of goods in the 50s-60′s, at least could smoke, drink and pop Valium at will. I can’t even get away with Friday afternoon Margaritas in the cul de’sac, let alone toke on medicinal marijuana. AND… we have to deal with car-seats….Jeez. )

A Few Things I’m Excited About…

Photo courtesy of jithinv mohan

A few things on my mind today…

1. The new iPhone 4th Generation is rumored to be released this week, or at least announced today when Steve Jobs does the keynote at the WWDC. Oh wowsie-wow-wow. I’m not your average tech geek. I’m the married to a super lovely Super-Geek, but I’m more the practical “what have you done for me lately?” type of techie. I love the sparkle of shiny new, but if you make my life harder I’ll drop-kick you like a few of my college boyfriends. Hard.

Having said that, I’m also the lady who got the iPhone 3G as an anniversary present and told my husband that, outside of his love, the kids and my wedding rings, it was the nicest present he’s ever given me. Intuitive, sleek, it makes my super ADD life work quicker, faster, and more seamlessly, all on the fly. I can’t wait to check out the 4th Gen (not to be confused with 4G) latest edition. Supposedly front and back camera (for video conferencing,) bigger screen, longer battery life — these are the rumors floating around. There was even a scandal surrounding the found 4th Generation iPhone prototype. Very heady stuff.

2. Rainy-day Cardio. Ever since starting the Go Betsy Go! 90 Day Fitness Challenge, I’ve had to log in 5 sessions of cardio in a week. I can usually do 3 of them during the 2 Pilates sessions and 1 personal training sessions I have during the week, but that leaves 2 I have to squeeze in sometime during the week. Not that hard when it’s sunny, but lately Boston has been subjected to thunder storms and days of rain. Days. I asked my personal trainer, the fabulous Laura Dosdall, at Bodyscapes Fitness for some rainy day cardio ideas. No treadmill needed.

Laura come up with the following ideas– and being with any exercise, you should absolutely consult a doctor first before starting ANY exercise program– so don’t just up and try these without any professional input.

Running stairs- 30 mins. Run up, walk down (for safety.) Between rounds, alternate the following:

• Body weight squats and lunges.
• Hopping from the ground to the first stair for 30 second intervals (holding the railing for support if necessary)
• Use any equipment and throw in some exercises between rounds up and down the stairs. For example, run up and down 5 times, then do 20 stability ball crunches, then 5 times up & down, then 20 resistance band bicep curls, etc.

I’ve already done it, and it was pretty intense. Thanks again Laura!

3. My kids are getting out of school soon- and I have yet to plan the summer out.  I guess this is where “just in time Mommy” rules. I heard a great idea from my friend Suzy: the 1st day of summer she sits down with the kids and drafts the “Summer Bucket List.” They write everything they’d like to do this summer and plan each week to knock off one or two items off the list. Neat idea!

90 Day Fitness Challenge Update #3: Food is Key.

Food is key.

I’ve heard some actresses say 70% of getting in shape is what you eat.

End of week three. Since starting, I’ve had 4 Pilates sessions, 4 Personal Training, 8 cardio sessions, in total.

This week’s challenge was my inablitity to getting back to eating as well as I had prior. Yoda-speak, “Frustrated I am.”

Seems I started off well, but as the week progressed things got harder and harder. I’d grill up some chicken breasts and burned them to a crisp while talking with the septic guy working on my property. Or to haul my cookies to Trader Joe’s to get brown rice wraps and watch the last package being taken before my eyes, and come to find the two key ingredients of my “Green Smoothie,” frozen pinapple and mango are out of stock. Seriously?

I swear someone was out to get me.

But look that’s no excuse. I should have back-ups, especially since I’ve been a 8 or a 9 (out of 10) on the stress meter. So I don’t have to think too much when I’m late eating and rushed for time.

I’ve found that eating well means planning well, means when your running in late for lunch you have everything you need to make a great salad or wrap. Otherwise I’ll have what the kids are having and then it’s peanut butter’n'fluff for everyone!

(Ok… for full disclosure my kids have never eaten fluff, but you get the gist of what I’m saying.)

So this week I’m completely banking on what the folks at Modern Pilates and the personal trainers from Bodyscapes Fitness in Hingham, MA for any change. Even though I didn’t eat a bucket of KFC (or even one piece.) I feel I didn’t help as much as I could by keeping on track with super-healthy eating. And that suck-eth.

So it’s the end of week three,  measurement time… let’s see the damage shall we?

So as of 6/04/10 :

• Bust: 37.00 inches (-.25″ from last week, -1.0″ total) Take from the butt, not the boobs! Jeez!
• Waist: 31.00 inches (- 0.5″ from last week,  -2.00″ total)
• Hips: 42 inches (No change from last week, -1.00″ total) Ok double JEEZ!
• Upper arm: 11.5 inches (No change from last week, -0.50″ total)
• Upper thigh: 23.00 inches (0.25″ from last week, -3.00″ total)

Total inches lost this week: 1.5″, total 8.0″ since starting.

I’ll take it.

This goes to show you what having some great coaches can do! My plan now is, after today’s workout with Super-trainer Laura, I’m hitting Wholefoods. They are the other place, beside Trader Joe’s, for a lot of what I need. And though a bit more expensive on certain items, I know I will get everything I need in one shot. I’m paying for convenience and willing to do it, I’m that desperate.  Next will be to grill up some chicken breasts, make a few home-made salad dressings (see recipes for yummy dressings and Flames’ Super Green Smoothie HERE.)

Take-aways: Planning is everything. Especially if you’re busy. Which I seem to be.

Viva Good Health!

If you need to get up to-date on the 90 day health challenge I’m doing, you can read all about it HERE.

Check out my partners in the Go Betsy Go! 90 Day Challenge:

UPDATE: The 1,687 Calorie Turkey Burger From Hell is Actually 456 Calories. (Their bad)

Not the offending Turkey Burger, but it could have been. (and I didn't even eat the freakin' fries!) Photo courtesy of abcnews.com

UPDATE: I posted, tweeted my horror at eating a 1,687 calorie Turkey Burger from NotYourAverageJoe’s, I also emailed the company themselves, first to their Executive Chef to register my complaint, and second time (I cc’d the CEO) to let them know I’d done a blog post and cc’d WBZ news. Later today I received an email from Kristin Struck, the Food and Beverage Director for N.A.J. and here is what she said:

Hi Betsy,

Thanks for writing.  I just reviewed the ingredients of the turkey burger and “cured pork” was used instead of ground turkey in the analysis.  That is the reason for the blatant error.  I am surprised we did not catch this before and I really apologize.   I’ve pasted the nutritional facts below.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions.  I will be updating our website this week.

Thanks again,

Kristin

Well there you have it. My hard-hitting, blow-off the lid reporting, was really… just a mistake. A subsequent email from Kristin confirmed that they are indeed, double checking the rest of the dishes and will have confirmed nutritional data up in a couple of weeks.

Boston can now sleep safely. And I can sleep safely knowing I actually chose wisely- in total I ate 456 calories, still nothing to sneeze at (fries are still not an option.)

Kudos for NotYourAverageJoe’s for responding and owning up to the mistake- as well as retesting their menu!

My only other question is- Who the HELL makes a burger out of “cured pork?” I mean in order to test it, I don’t think it would be off base to assume it was one of the options being considered.

Pork burger anyone?

________________________

I consumed more than my ENTIRE daily caloric intake in one meal.

In one turkey burger no less.

Whoa.

Now eating well, especially if you eating strict, is tough- Memorial Day BBQ, dining out, these take preparation. In a pinch I’ve relied on my gut and common sense.

Baby Lug (he of the 1/8th” inverse Mohawk saga of Monday) went to visit the hubby at work for lunch. Off we went to the usual great eats of NotYourAverageJoe’s. A quirky, fun chain dotting the surrounding areas of Boston (read: ‘burbs.)

We like it. Everyone is always happy.

Mama’s not happy.

Scanning their meals I opted out of the creamed, the fried, the smothered and the breaded. I settled on what I thought was a sensible-sounding “Turkey Burger.” Greek-inspired, made with turkey, spinach and feta it came with Ziziki sauce (yogurt, garlic blend) and a bun. I ate it, had a side salad of greens with no dressing and the usual seltzer water with limes.

Come to find I ingested no less than 1,687 calories. HOLY CRAP!

As you can see, the Turkey Burger is the worst "sandwich" available. (Data Courtesy of NotYourAverageJoe's Nutritional Information)

Think of it this way- it’s the fat equivalent of 9 Hersey bars or the caloric intake of eating 8. I would have been better off eating 7 regular size Hersey bars than eating 1 regular size Turkey burger.

Holy Crap is right Batman!

Usually I try to stay within 1200-1500 calories a day. I’ve been working out so I’ve leaned toward latter, but in ONE burger 1687 calories, 117g of it Fat? Hello my entire day of food plus a side order of cardiac-arrest!

According to an online ABC News article, the fat and calorie content of a turkey burger depends on the ration of ground dark meat to white meat. Higher the dark, the more fat. And it can easily be higher in fat and calories than a beef burger: one 4 ounce, 85% lean, turkey burger can have 17g of fat. This still doesn’t get me to the 117g of the turkey belly-bomb I had yesterday but you can see how it doesn’t help.

Let’s see what I could have ordered instead at NotYourAverageJoes:

• Veggie Burger (694 calories)
• Regular Burger (813 calories)
• Pizzas (any of the personal pizzas are less and range between 950-1372 calories)
• Full Meatloaf Dinner (1184 calories incl. BBQ sauce and buttered beans)
• Mediterranean Chicken 735 calories, incl. cucumber salad and Ziziki sauce)
• Crab Cake BLT (965 calories)
• Sashimi Tuna (at 344 calories, 31 gram of fat incl. sauce, this is what I should have ordered)

And the list goes on and on…

Not that I would have 900+ calories in a sitting, but I learned a lesson. Check before you eat. Plan ahead. What I thought was common sense was not. Just more comical, in retrospect.

A lot of restaurants (especially chains) carry their nutrition info on their website. This is where I went when I had saw the gobsmacked caloric number of N.A.J.’s Turkey Burger posted at another site. Another great site, especially for those on Weight Watchers is Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone, they have the point value of a TON of restaurants. Calculate your WW point total (X) , then keep each meal (X/3 meals) at your allotted number of pts. and you can select on the fly pretty easily.

I just added (can you tell I am really pissed this happened?) the “Restaurant Calorie Counter” by Euliax. Though it doesn’t have NotYorAverageJoe’s on it, I feel better if I find myself in the same situation as it has a lot of places I tend to dine at. Plus I just zipped them off an email requesting they include them and Bertuccis, another local fave.

Update: Euliax got back to me, they’re adding both Bertuccis and NotYourAverageJoe’s to their next release- should be out in a month. Hooray for their quick response! If you have a fave restaurant let me know- send me the link to their nutritional information (a breakdown of each dish into calories/fat/fiber/sodium, etc.) and I’ll send it their way! I also emailed the executive Chef of NotYourAverageJoe’s yesterday and yet to get a response.

Take aways (to be reminded each time my stomach will be growling later on tonight for sure.):

• Plan ahead.
• If you can’t do #1, don’t stray too far off the reservation. If you know plain salad with grilled chicken will do the trick then stick to that, boring as it is.
• Good health is a journey, some pitfalls, some hills but also a lot of nice, open road. Sometimes you just need a map to keep from getting lost…
• Have a bad day? Learn from it and then it’s in the past. Move on. Dwelling is just toxic.

OK. I thought I’d share. With this, and with the Memorial Day weekend, I hope I can make up in the next few days before my measurements are taken for the Go Betsy Go! 90 day Fitness Challenge. I wasn’t expecting another epic 6 inch loss but some inches gone would be nice. I’ll take even 1″.

Cheers.

The Pitfalls of Eating Out… or the 1,687 Calorie Turkey Burger From Hell.

Not the offending Turkey Burger, but it could have been. (and I didn't even eat the freakin' fries!) Photo courtesy of abcnews.com

I consumed more than my ENTIRE daily caloric intake in one meal.

In one turkey burger no less.

Whoa.

Now eating well, especially if you eating strict, is tough- Memorial Day BBQ, dining out, these take preparation. In a pinch I’ve relied on my gut and common sense.

Baby Lug (he of the 1/8th” inverse Mohawk saga of Monday) went to visit the hubby at work for lunch. Off we went to the usual great eats of NotYourAverageJoe’s. A quirky, fun chain dotting the surrounding areas of Boston (read: ‘burbs.)

We like it. Everyone is always happy.

Mama’s not happy.

Scanning their meals I opted out of the creamed, the fried, the smothered and the breaded. I settled on what I thought was a sensible-sounding “Turkey Burger.” Greek-inspired, made with turkey, spinach and feta it came with Ziziki sauce (yogurt, garlic blend) and a bun. I ate it, had a side salad of greens with no dressing and the usual seltzer water with limes.

Come to find I ingested no less than 1,687 calories. HOLY CRAP!

As you can see, the Turkey Burger is the worst "sandwich" available. (Data Courtesy of NotYourAverageJoe's Nutritional Information)

Think of it this way- it’s the fat equivalent of 9 Hersey bars or the caloric intake of eating 8. I would have been better off eating 7 regular size Hersey bars than eating 1 regular size Turkey burger.

Holy Crap is right Batman!

Usually I try to stay within 1200-1500 calories a day. I’ve been working out so I’ve leaned toward latter, but in ONE burger 1687 calories, 117g of it Fat? Hello my entire day of food plus a side order of cardiac-arrest!

According to an online ABC News article, the fat and calorie content of a turkey burger depends on the ration of ground dark meat to white meat. Higher the dark, the more fat. And it can easily be higher in fat and calories than a beef burger:  one 4 ounce, 85% lean, turkey burger can have 17g of fat. This still doesn’t get me to the 117g of the turkey belly-bomb I had yesterday but you can see how it doesn’t help.

Let’s see what I could have ordered instead at NotYourAverageJoes:

• Veggie Burger (694 calories)
• Regular Burger (813 calories)
• Pizzas (any of the personal pizzas are less and range between 950-1372 calories)
• Full Meatloaf Dinner (1184 calories incl. BBQ sauce and buttered beans)
• Mediterranean Chicken 735 calories, incl. cucumber salad and Ziziki sauce)
• Crab Cake BLT (965 calories)
• Sashimi Tuna (at 344 calories, 31 gram of fat incl. sauce, this is what I should have ordered)

And the list goes on and on…

Not that I would have 900+ calories in a sitting, but I learned a lesson. Check before you eat. Plan ahead. What I thought was common sense was not. Just more comical, in retrospect.

A lot of restaurants (especially chains) carry their nutrition info on their website. This is where I went when I had saw the gobsmacked caloric number of N.A.J.’s Turkey Burger posted at another site. Another great site, especially for those on Weight Watchers is Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone, they have the point value of a TON of restaurants. Calculate your WW point total (X) , then keep each meal (X/3 meals) at your allotted number of pts. and you can select on the fly pretty easily.

I just added (can you tell I am really pissed this happened?) the “Restaurant Calorie Counter” by Euliax. Though it doesn’t have NotYorAverageJoe’s on it, I feel better if I find myself in the same situation as it has a lot of places I tend to dine at. Plus I just zipped them off an email requesting they include them and Bertuccis, another local fave.

Update: Euliax got back to me, they’re adding both Bertuccis and NotYourAverageJoe’s to their next release- should be out in a month. Hooray for their quick response! If you have a fave restaurant let me know- send me the link to their nutritional information (a breakdown of each dish into calories/fat/fiber/sodium, etc.) and I’ll send it their way! I also emailed the executive Chef of NotYourAverageJoe’s yesterday and yet to get a response.

Take aways (to be reminded each time my stomach will be growling later on tonight for sure.):

• Plan ahead.
• If you can’t do #1, don’t stray too far off the reservation. If you know plain salad with grilled chicken will do the trick then stick to that, boring as it is.
• Good health is a journey, some pitfalls, some hills but also a lot of nice, open road. Sometimes you just need a map to keep from getting lost…
• Have a bad day? Learn from it and then it’s in the past. Move on. Dwelling is just toxic.

OK. I thought I’d share. With this, and with the Memorial Day weekend, I hope I can make up in the next few days before my measurements are taken for the Go Betsy Go! 90 day Fitness Challenge. I wasn’t expecting another epic 6 inch loss but some inches gone would be nice. I’ll take even 1″.

Cheers.

Dawn of the Buzz Cut

Elvis getting his Army Buzz. (Picture courtesy of suicideblonde.tumblr.com)

Oh Fuck.

That’s all I kept thinking.

Oh Fuck. Oh Fuck. Oh…. HOLY FUCK!

(not very family friendly I know, but it is what it is.)

I just made a huge mistake that I have to fix. And it isn’t going to be pleasant.

Thinking I’d save the $15 a buzz, I borrowed clippers from Flames. Her hubby — he of the like “save a buck” mind– regularly buzzes himself and his son and it looks great.

So I took my most pliable son, 3 y.o. Baby Lug, and sat him down. I read the directions, attached the guide and thought, “hell they do this isn’t the ARMY and there’s no way I, armed with 2 degrees and a fabby sense of style, can screw this puppy up.

Wrong.

First swipe down the middle, Baby Lug was fine. By the third though, he’s hysterical.

“It HURTS Mommy! Stooooooop Moooooommmy!”

Oh crap.

And there I was, with a kid with a 1/8″ reverse Mohawk.

Oh Fuck.

So what’s a Mommy to do, especially one that in no way hell is going to show up to her barber and visibly admit she’s a failure?

I kept goin’ and the howls of protest kept a comin’.

“Mom, I think you’re taking pieces of skin” says Mr. Man, by no means a natural advocate for his annoying little brother, kept checking in (he was next BTW.)

“There’s no blood.” And I kept going ’til it was done.

Shorn like a sheep Baby Lug, gulping air and sniffling. No blood. No scratches.

I was Mother of the Year.

Not.

I felt so awful, my own ego was what matter most. So I took my sweet littlest boy and apologized to him. “Mommy is so very sorry, and I will NEVER, EVER buzz you again.” And he, in his sweet little boy way, forgave me, (Sniffle) “Tis oh-tay Mama.” (sniffle) Hugs all around.

(I also informed a very relieved Mr. Man that he was going to the barber with his Dad come Saturday)

And I learned my lesson.

$15 was a small amount to pay so I could distance my children (and myself… really) from this horrific experience. $15 seems little compared to the future therapy bills my children and I need if I again played Barber.

One time, a long time ago, my unbelievably sage-like mother told me, “know what you’re good at, it’s ok to pay for the rest” at the time I had almost gassed myself cleaning my first apartment. So I went with a few less dinners out, nights clubbing or groovy shoes to pay for a weekly cleaning lady. I’m better for it (and probably more lucid.)

I promptly returned the clippers.

And TheBetsy’s world was, once again, at peace.

.

Be a friend and a fan of TheLiquidBetsy on Facebook. Sweet.

.

90 Day Fitness Challenge Update #2: Feel the Pain.

I can barely sit down.

End of week two. Since starting, I’ve had 2 Pilates sessions, 3 Personal Training, 5 cardio sessions, in total.

And one sore butt.

I’m thrilled beyond belief. The pain means I’m getting stronger. One step closer to better health. One step closer to better bikini shape.(What? You think it’s just about better health? Seriously?)

So I worked out with Erin from Modern Pilates on Monday. It was awesome experience, and due to a snafu I couldn’t work out with Robin on Wednesday, but it did gave me the chance to work out with Kyle, one of the personal trainers from Bodyscapes Fitness.

My workouts with Erin and Kyle really show how different trainers can be. Erin to Robin and Kyle to Laura (my usual personal trainer on Friday) all their styles are each different and unique. One thing IS constant, and that is the emphasis on form. All four is stress good form whether it’s on the reformer (a standard pilates equipement) or doing sit-ups on an exercise ball.

As far as eating, I’m the Clean Detox diet chica- but I’ve had to take a step back from being 100%. I’ve had to take some super hard-core antibiotics for my rosacea. As a result it’s pretty much killed off my gut bugs, a corner-stone for good health. I have to stop taking the antibiotics, and take probiotics to grow the good bugs back. But stuff happens. I’m watching the amount I eat, but I’ve included some previously verboten wheat, caffeine, sugar, soy and sweeteners in my meals. Now that I type this I can say, honestly and bluntly, I’ve taken some advantage of the situation. Tonight I had a half an almond butter and strawberry jam sandwich and some ice tea. Not what I want, and not the best for me. Wheat, caffeine and sugar. Oh my!

My plan is to stop the antibiotics tomorrow, so I’ll be back on the Clean again: mostly smoothies for breakfast and dinner, lunch of salad or brown-rice wraps with grilled chicken, and small snacks of almonds. I say mostly as I’m headed into a major US holiday weekend, full of BBQ’s and I can’t control everything that is being served. Just try you best, and when all else fails, portion control it baby.

So it’s the end of week two, now for the measuremnets… let’s see if there’s been any progress, shall we?

So as of  5/28/10  :

• Bust: 37.25 inches (-.75 inch)
• Waist: 31.5 inches (- 1.5 inches)
• Hips: 42inches  (-1.00 inch)
• Upper arm: 11.5 inches (-0.50 inch)
• Upper thigh: 23.25 inches (-2.75 inches)

Total inches lost: 6.5″

Sweet! Perhaps my big butt days are numbered…

If you need to get up to-date on the 90 day health challenge I’m doing, you can read all about it HERE.

Check out my partners in the Go Betsy Go! 90 Day Challenge:

A Social Network for Kids? Seriously?

Togetherville.

It’s being called the “a social network for kids with training wheels.”

In private beta until recently, Togetherville aims to be the safe social media alternative for kids 6-10. Kids can befriend other children (and adults chosen by their parents) from their parents FaceBook friend list. They can create art, play games, watch and share videos all in a semiprivate environment, everything is vetted prior. Comments are limited to a pull-down menu of preselected phrases, though a user can request additional phrases to be added.

Started by Mandeep Singh Dhillon, he created Togetherville because his son was interested in sharing pictures online with the family.

According to The New York Times, “Mr. Dhillon said this type of interaction helps children develop social skills that they can’t get from virtual worlds like Club Penguin, which protect children by having them act only through anonymous avatars.

We teach kids from a very early age, never let your identity be online, never let anyone know who you are, but we’re teaching some bad things,” he said. “Kids don’t learn how to be accountable.””

No ads, but revenue will be derived from children share virtual “gifts,” which are purchased through their parents.

Advising Mr. Dhillon is the CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute, Stephen Balkam. According to The New York Times, Mr. Balkam “said that he thought the site could keep younger children off Facebook, where they are more likely to find inappropriate content and are less protected from potentially harmful interactions with strangers or bullies.”

My take?

Why should kids 6-10 be on a social network in the first place?

If my kids wanted to share pictures with the family, they can. Through me. Via email.

Children age 6-10 don’t need an identity online. They’re not ready for that. Even with “training wheels.” When do you need to teach them accountability? When you get them a cell phone, when they start to ask about chatting online. Then you need to have the online safety and privacy chat. And you keep having the chat.

I know I’m more conservative than most when it comes online privacy, especially with my children, but for GODSAKES, this venture is so wrong on so very many levels. At best they are exploiting kids with a not-so-very-social sanitized experience, friending kids of their parent’s friends. (I mean did you ever want to be friends with your parent’s friends kids? Seriously?) At worst they are pushing kids to be hooked even earlier to social media, online gaming and artificial socializing.

Excuse me, but my idea of being social at eight is to play hide & seek, not spending hours playing on a computer, super neat-o virtual gifts aside.

Plus, whose “vetting” these interactions on Togetherville? Not me. To me, this is one more thing I have to negotiate, monitor, and fight over with my children.  And for full disclosure, we have a Club Penguin account. It’s cute, and it’s used as a treat for the kids. Just like the Wii. My 7 year olds play the little games on it, but there’s not much “interaction.”  And that is not a bad thing.

Young kids don’t need to be introduce to social media. Children are developing their social skills and they don’t need to formulate them from pull-down menus and “vetted” artwork. They need to learn it on the playgrounds, playing baseball on a real field with real “in the flesh” friends.

It would seem that Togetherville, though may have been started with all the good intentions, is just one more electronic distraction trying to separating kids from their childhood.

But that’s just my opinion.