I really am getting old, I guess, when I look around at today’s toys for kids and compare them with what I had as a youngster in small-town Nebraska. But do you remember back when toys actually taught kids how to play? Toys stimulated our imaginations, built our bodies, taught us to socialize, and, well, were fun to take outside and play with??
I just saw a disturbing toy someone has put out — it’s called “pole dance doll,” and the picture I saw of the box shows a small child doll grabbing what looks for everything like a, uh, stripper’s pole. I don’t even know how to begin discussing the many ways THAT toy is wrong.
The good news is that there are still good toys out there. You can find everything from old-time dump trucks to water slides (when I was a kid, I would’ve given all I had to own one of those plastic sheets you draped over a grassy hillside, hooked up to a hose, and slid down) to full-blown activity and playsets and even bounce houses you can install in your backyard.
Oh, sure, some of the electronic/computer games are good. There’s the whole line of Wii stuff which actually encourages kids (and adults) to move around and exercise. There’s also some pretty vicious, graphic computer games I personally wouldn’t have in the house.
Maybe a big question would be — can we ALL, kids, adults, liberals, conservatives, etc., just learn to get along better and “play together” better? I hope so!