No prude

When it comes to the idea of building healthy habits and self-esteem, I am often skeptical of various approaches. I am also not a fan of completely blaming the media and advertising for their role in their manipulations as, we need to take at least some responsibility for our own actions and, the supply based on what we demand.

Today I was looking in a toy shop for some magnetic numbers for our daughter and even though numbers were not available, these were:

There were several facings of options on the shelf. It seems, numbers are of less importance than this nonsense. My daughter is 21 months old and is playing with a magnetic board with letters so, how old is the target of this? 16?

The issue is that parents must be buying these types of 'toys' for their children yet expect them not to be influenced. Our daughter recognises numbers to 10 and recognises about half the alphabet, kids soak in any information presented to them.

The problem isn't in the selling of it, companies are only interested in making money. It is in the buying of it. Who demands this kind of thing for their child?

We program our children from birth to become consumers of what we feed them, whether that be food, clothing, religions or our prejudices. The toys we give them shape their thinking and how they interact with the world and this provides their experience of that world.

Is it really a wonder why people are becoming more materialistic when one can't find magnetic numbers for a child but can find this nonsense with no value whatsoever? Let alone the concepts of sexualization of minors and stereotyping. At least Barbi was past age of consent... where is the line these days?

You are what you eat. Feed a kid trash...

Taraz
[ an original ]