goldberger

Sometimes I wish I had a camera following me to capture my life’s complexities first hand.

Seriously.

You know that saying “Only {{insert complicated person’s name}}” ? … Yea… Me. And I always feel no matter how hard I try to tell it- the words do no justice to the actual experience.

Yesterday was one of those days.

The Complicated Kids were invited to partake in an Eco-friendly segment to air on WABC this Thursday. It was being filmed in NYC at Madison Square Park. We were psyched- my little starlets.

I brought along Complicated Mama’s Mama (Aka “The Meems”) to both share the moment… and keep me sane. First obstacle, as it always is- was actually getting to the place. When I am with my kids driving in the city- without fail- I get lost, run late… run late and get lost. At this point its a given. We recently got a Tom Tom for our car, so even though I am not 100% in love with it- I was confident it would get us there fairly easy-ish.

WRONG.

That navigation took us all over the place. Thankfully I had an idea of where I was going and decided not to listen to the wrong turns- (and thanks to Mr.Complicated) narrated by Homer Simpson… The. Entire. Way. “Doh! Toll charge!”… “Take the highway… woo hoo!” … imagine that scene for a minute if you will… right.

We get to the shoot- early. Way-way- early. So we hung out in the play ground for a little bit. Sounded like fun in theroy… til we actually walked in the gate and suddenly I got a flash back of the playground/ dodge ball scene in Billy Madison… only surrounded by high end strollers and Nanny’s sitting on park benches trying their hardest to look busy. Well, give this suburban Mama heart failure why don’t you? After about 20 minutes we were done.

We headed to meet up with the segment crew who had set up their toys, were waiting for the reporter and at that very moment being harassed by random (scary) people looking to play let's make a deal to purchase the toys. I know I'm painting a wonderful picture of NYC aren't I ? .. seriously its pretty. ....Just slightly scary at the same time.... sometimes... rarely... but you know- it happens.Anyway-, the camera crew arrived and they started filming the kids at play for the segment- which was all about Eco-friendly toys becoming more affordable.Baby Girl took right away to the eco-friendly seedling doll - and without prompt took her new dolly- and sat on a ledge, thumb in mouth hamming it up for the camera. My girl's a natural -no pun intended.Take note of the boy playing in the back

So while Princess was busy batting her eye lashes for the camera- The Complicated Boy was busy playing with A new Sprig Wood Frisbee with Mr.Complicated who left work for a bit to be the proud Dad of “super stars”.

And then it happened.

WHACK!

Daddy threw the Frisbee to the boy – who caught it right in his kisser. … Way-to-Go-Dad! (no seriously, he felt horrible.)

Did I mention I have zero tolerance for the sight of blood? … Yea, well the boy’s mouth was full of it. Not exactly the clip the camera was hoping to get.

He screamed, he cried.. I tried to picture a beach, a martini and pretty much any other non-bloody scene I could (or I probably would have passed out).

We got him some ice and in minutes he was calm again.

What did he do when calmed down you ask? …. picked up that same frisbee for some more frisbee fun of course. This time- playing with the Meems who was extra careful to throw it very low-until some crazy disheveled nice possibly homeless man decided to get in on the game to give The Complicated Boy a tutorial in how to throw a Frisbee.

The whole time I’m whispering to Mr.Complicated “Who is that man talking to our son? Who is that STRANGER talking to OUR SON!!?” and then as if it happened in slow motion- The crazy disheveled nice possibly homeless man throws the Frisbee….. WHACK! right in The Complicated Boy’s mouth– AGAIN.

We all flock back over to help the boy -including the crazy disheveled nice possibly homeless man who was very apologetic- which we appreciated, but let me tell you about crazy disheveled nice possibly homeless men… they do not like to take a polite “thank you, please give us a minute” for an answer.

When we got the boy calmed down again- the reporter, invited the kids back over to play with the toys… and calm was restored to this complicated day.

Princess Complicated & I played with a stacking toy and counted “un, two, free” as the reporter and the Complicated Boy stood behind us playing with a wooden yo-yo and introducing the segment.

When they wrapped up, the kids got to take home their favorite toys from that day. Princess of course kept a good grip on that Seedling doll- while the boy? … Yea he took home that Whamo Frisbee… and then I overheard the reporter say as she packed up-

“Ok, this will probably be about 42 seconds of my story”.

You see why I need my own reality series?

So-of you live in the area, please be sure to tune in to Tonight’s Eyewitness News between 5pm & 6pm to see 15 seconds of me and my little starlets and .2 seconds of my experience playing “Complicated Stage Mama” for the day.

Oh and PS- As I type this… I wait for a car to head back to NYC- where I will for the first time in 5 years attempt to install a toddler car seat- SOLO…. stay tuned my friends, because even though I still will not have a camera man to film it- I am sure hilarity will ensue and I will have plenty of blog material to come.

Earlier this week, I received some great news that I was selected to be a brand ambassador for “The View”. As brand ambassadors, a group of us were selected to discuss the show topics as well as provide feedback to the marketing execs… which is what I love most about working with brands- cause I always have a mouthful about hot topics, which is exactly why I love The View so much.

So as A View Brand Ambassador, I wanted to talk about a hot topic of my own. Nothing that was featured on The View, not even a blip on their hot topic radar… however its a frustrating topic for me and possibly many of you who blog as well.

I’m talking about the Blogging stereotypes. They need to end.

After 2 days of Toy Fair meeting company after company, I started to think certain company’s should have just posted a large sign in the front of their booth stating “BLOGGERS NOT WELCOME”. Of course, they would never… because well- we’d blog about it, tweet about it– and well they know that they would probably be the next Motrin Mom example. Resulting in a PR nightmare. However, with the look they sported on their faces- their monotone demonstrations ending with “Well, I don’t know what you want to see”- they might as well have had a sign.

It was very discouraging and frustrating .

What did I want to see? I wanted to see cool new stuff that I thought my kids and others their age might be able to look forward to this year- and actually, truth be told much more importantly I was looking for cool things to add to a project I was working on for an industry client!

Yet, they still looked at me with skeptical eyes thinking “Yea she just wants free stuff”. In fact more than one brand told me to my face “Bloggers have expressed interest, but they just want the free stuff. We’ve seen nothing come out of it”.

As a blogger who doesn’t want nor need a boat load of random “free widgets” cluttering up her home -this burned me up! One – because I have no idea who these bad-apple-bloggers are- but I do know I would like to shake them & revoke their bloggy-license- which is not existent right now but perhaps it should be- and Two- because some reps clearly don’t get it but are feeling the pressure by their clients or the industry to get involved- and end up make blanketed ignorant choices and statements resulting in a social media fail.

Team Mom Media had a great panel that discussed the importance of being IN the space in order to understand it and identifying those who are a best fit for your brand. You can’t just hand out freebies to anyone who asks and expect that to be a successful “social media plan”. That is not a plan at all.

If you are a company who manufactures tutu’s – you wouldn’t send freebies to Popular Mechanics writers and then get pissy when you didn’t find a review in their next issue would you? So why would you handle your blogger relations any different?

When blind decisions like that are made its not just the company that pays for the bad choices- its the blogging community as a whole- because just as there are some companies that don’t get it- there are also some bloggers who don’t get it either and agree to review an item they have no intention of writing about.

So, I’m going to let you- the “I don’t get it” brand who may be reading this- in on a little secret– are you ready?? Come closer… Social Media, I know sounds “so easy” (its just a bunch of average people looking to socialize right?) … but when done right, its actually work. LOTS of it. LOTS of effective- time consuming work! Which is why many brands have hired people designated to just that!

On the flip side- as much as I want to chalk up my Toy Fair experience as 2 days of rude toy manufacturers, I’m above stereotyping- Because if I wrote off working with brands, the way some brands write off working with bloggers because of negative experiences- I would never have had the opportunity to work with wonderful companies such as BeanStalk Express, The Goldberger Company and Hasbro- Who were nothing short of amazing with their blogger out reach for Toy Fair. They made us feel instrumental to their company’s success, understood as both a consumer and blogger and most of all WELCOME.

It’s just a shame that some companies don’t see the value of sorting through some bad apples to reach their core audience.

Have you experienced this stereotype?

Are you a brand that has a different view?

Let me know- What are your thoughts?

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