Toys…

King from SCSU Scholars talks about toy trade with China . And it makes me think (as an expectant mother) what are appropriate toys to purchase for my kid?

I mean, you buy toys at garage sales and only God knows what kind of germs are on the toys…
Or you raid the stash of toys your parent saved for you… one wonders if that cradle and cabinet set has lead paint… probably, but Becky, HG, and I were all above average in math, so it doesn’t matter anyway…
And then there are small pieces of toy that can cause Baby to choke… this says the girl who tried to eat a penny once… I’ve also tried sand and dirt. This is before I learned to spit after licking an agate.

But then I think, no, I have bigger problems to worry about then toy poisoning. I am married to a man who has dozens of battle scars on his body… none of which he got from military service… even when he was in the 82nd Airborne and jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. Josh can tell a person, from first hand experience why it is not a good idea to take ones Big Wheel tricycle up a hill (in Rapid City, SD) and ram it into a chain link fence (and he has the scar to prove it). Then there was something or other about running into a tail pipe of a car or something… then there was this jumping off of a cliff business… Even the most “with it” parent cannot know the thoughts and plans of adventurous little boys.

Then there are the toys ones family buys for your child for “educational purposes…” an aunt and uncle got revenge for the Indoor Marching Band toy for YEARS. I have an uncle that buys duck calls for kids and tells them “Do you ever worry that you wake your parents up when you flush the toilet at night? Well, all you need to do is blow this duck call and then your parents won’t hear the toilet flush…”

Sure, I don’t want my kid to be killed from a toy, but what fun is life without dodge ball, or germs, or tricycles, or Uncles who buy neat toys, or adventure or, dare I say, a little lead paint? Certainly I worry less about toys then I do about my kids being taught about condoms and heresies about Jesus. I do, however, worry that if Baby is a boy, Baby will have the same adventurous streak that Josh did… in which case, Josh probably does know the thoughts and plans of little boys, and can nip any truly dangerous idea in the butt.