Gratitude post

Today I'm grateful that my system finally seems to be acclimating to the allergens in our environment. I'm almost beginning to feel human, again.

Our Island never really experienced a true summer. Temperatures have been insanely low all summer (sixties and on rare occasion, seventies), with only a handful of days over eighty. The remainder of the month, looking at forecasts and Farmer's Almanac figures looks quite cool, as well. *sigh* The local flora and fauna are in chaos. The rowan tree out front has berries that are almost ripe. Ripe! In mid-August - dear Gods, that's about a month early for us. Its about all the neighborhood talks about these days.

Global warming. Wheee!

A few thoughts on the toy recalls

Caveat: I'm not a parent. So I'm speaking only as an observer and as a former teacher. As a sort of rule, I rarely give plastic toys to kids - I prefer books, stuffed animals, bathtime toys, etc. When I do, its because its something really cool like an Egyptian temple set to a pagan child. *WEG*

In an odd, ironic sort of way I think the toy recalls are a very good thing. Anymore I go to homes of my friends with children and end up dodging plastic bits with every step. And when I do manage not to step on one, I end up sitting on one anyway. Thousands of little plastic bits all over the place, all being ignored or destroyed. When the kids come to my house and they do, they either drag half those plastic toys with them or whine about me not having enough here. (FYI: I do have a few here. Hello Kitty play house and construction toys, I also have tons of children's books, however. And we've a no video game rules in the house, which means you bring it in, we send you back out with it)

I think people are coming to realize that no one is in charge of the safety of their child but them. No toy company is going to do it for them, all those companies care about is the bottom line and sucking us into even more purchases. The government is going to take forever just to consider the issue, and when they do come up with some insipid committee or council, it will be costly and ineffective. In the same way my mother insisted on wood toys back in the seventies (I had one of the last wood kitchen sets), parents are going to have to decide if all that plastic is good for their kids and the rest of the world. After all, who recycles all those plastic bits and bobs?

In the long run, I'm hoping we see a few changes come out of all this. Perhaps we'll go back to the good old days when kids had to learn how to amuse themselves, instead of having toy makers do it for them. I mentioned to rainbear last week how surprised I was to realize none of the kids on my block knew how to play hopscotch. Hopscotch! Can you imagine? None of them had a jump rope, either, or knew any jump rope songs. Too busy with playsets, videogames and Heelies, apparently.

Feh.