The commercialization of child-rearing

By Lisa Von Ahn

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It may take a whole village to raise a child, but a new book shows that corporate America has gotten in on the act in a big way.

"Parenting, Inc" (Times Books, $25) looks at how parents are sold on everything from pre-preschool classes and educational toys to $800 strollers and $1,500 diaper bags.

Author Pamela Paul, who worked in marketing for seven years before becoming a journalist, says companies know how easily parents can succumb to pitches of costly and sometimes unnecessary goods and services.

"There's a very basic human instinct to do everything you can for your child ... and that often translates into buying everything you can," said Paul, whose previous books are "The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony" and "Pornified."

Marketers told Paul that working parents tend to feel guilty about the time they spend away from their children and try to compensate by spending money on them.

Parents are also keenly aware of the competition that often begins with the preschool admission process, making them especially susceptible to claims that a toy, book or DVD will make their children smarter.

"Ever-present is the disquieting thought that if we don't buy these toys for our own children, other parents will," Paul writes. "Their kids will have every opportunity. Our children will fall irredeemably behind."

But some of these products are unproven. For example, the founder of the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System presents anecdotal evidence of the effectiveness of the "sound lessons" fetuses receive from the device, but Paul says there is no way to demonstrate how intelligent a child would be if he or she were not exposed to it.