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children
October 2009 
Can I Go Back 2 The Good Olde Days of Wooden Blocks
Posted on Aug 16th, 2007
by 
rugged_gurl1
rugged_gurl1
This week's entry proved to be more difficult then ever. As I heard more and more news about the latest information about the toys recall from Mattel, I could not resist to view more videos onYouTube , Googling more info about China's economy, more news about China etc. The reality for developing countries are facing, including China, leaves a number of issues like: safety, social, environment, and economical. (of course political too) Going back to toys recall, would children be safer going back to building blocks of woods, interact with papa and mama, and having parents reading to children their ABC's or the other way around as children gets older?
Maya tests the iPhone(iphone safer then kids play toys)
The best toy ever! Dick Tracy submachine gun
Notes for the video above: Sorry this is the only commerical that I find it amusing by Mattel in the 1950s. Enjoy!
Access: Public
man that Mattel gun commercial is weird, at this time of course. i bet that during its time it's like as cool as watching a baby playing with an iPhone :)
Reading about these recent recalls, I cringe at the memories of chewing on my care-bears bath toys when I was young. Your visual juxtaposition of the i-phone and the mattel gun, and the suggestion of wooden building blocks and immediate communication with grandparents brings much to mind. From a pedagogical standpoint each item has its merits (some more than others). Introducing children to cutting edge technology early on will certainly give them an edge in life, but from a humanistic perspective it irks me. My partner and I discussed this a while back, and I told her that I would like to give our child something that she would maintain as a keepsake of her upbringing or even 'renew' and pass down to her own own children. Its a selfish, if not fetishistic desire of mine, to endow some kind of meaning and spirit into a symbolic object that transcends our own lives.
My eldest sister has a stuffed bear she has kept since birth, whereas I have vague and fond memories of a remote controlled police car on display at a store. My grandfather purchased for me as my family left our homeland. The police car did not last very long though, as I have vague memories of it getting entangled in my younger sister's hair in a bout of infantile rage. Since then it has been a constant flurry of succumbing to clever marketing ploys and gender role indoctrination.
As much as a I feel sympathy for the Chinese factory workers and owners, I think its given us an excellent opportunity to think about the value we put into toys and childhood. I understand that its the dream of every parent to give their children what they could never attain in their childhood, but succumbing to this desire may just feed the cycle of instant gratification and excessive consumerism.
With that said my fondest childhood memories are steeped in snow. Your so lucky to live up north.
Thank you for the comments from Li and C4Chaos and its very insightful. I do have to admit the good olde days of having your own teddy bear next to you are rare now-a-days. I do have some stuffed animals at home. You are never too old for toys. :)