What is this all about, anyway

Well, so far so good - just got a nifty calendar added to BAKidsMagazine.com and a forum (all at readers' requests, so there you go), and did some more tweaking of this and that. Always with the tweaking, me.

Anyway, I've been asked, in so many words, "Why Bay Area Kids magazine, Everard. Why?"

There are several reasons behind the decision to launch this magazine:
(1) As a husband and father to two little children (my oldest, a daughter, is three years two months, and my son is going on sixteen months) who is deeply involved in their lives, I am constantly being offended by the current portrayals of husbands and wives that I find in today's media. Whether it be commercials or television shows, the man is usually depicted as two IQ points above a wilderbeast, and knows nothing beyond what is favorite beer is and who's playing whom this Sunday on ESPN. That he might possess any knowledge - or ... gasp! an opinion ... on family matters seems unfathomable (and on that point, it also seems unfathomable why a woman would want to attach herself to such a useless example of humanity, and then go the extra step and actually decide to reproduce and pass on these bad DNA to her offspring).

Most parenting magazines are directed squarely at mothers and nothing but mothers - the idea that Daddy might pick up the magazine and read it himself seems like an alien concept. And yet if you walk down to the local park, the zoo, or other places where parents bring their children to play or be entertained, you do see more and more fathers coming with their children, with and without their spouse. And (again with the gasping), they seem to handle it all quite well, and enjoy themselves in the process.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not excluding mothers at all in this equation: God bless you one and all for what you're doing. It's that I believe that the structure of a modern family is shifting. One of the reasons I chose the tag "A Modern Resource for Modern Families," was to get away from the "for mothers by mothers" that just about every other magazine (including local ones) seem to use. There are stroller groups for men only, men who have quit their jobs, or decided to reconstruct their careers to be able to work from home or less hours, all to be with their children more. It is my belief that many of us look back at our own parents, and though they worked very hard to provide us with a living, there was a heavy cost involved, and we don't want to carry that cost on to our children.

This is not a soapbox I'm on, and this is not an agenda for Bay Area Parents, but it is a social awareness that is happening around us, and Bay Area Kids is taking it into account within its editorial mission statement.

Going back to our tag, "a modern resource for modern families," that is our mission. To provide the best resources for families to provide the best for their children, at the same time providing a look into the changing roles of today's families, and how these roles are impacting our children, our society, and our world.

Ciao,

Everard Strong,
Publisher and Editor,
Bay Area Kids magazine,
Father of Two

p.s. I know this is a long blog, but thought I had to put this out there. Your feedback is very welcome and encouraged.