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December 13, 2001 'Smatter Of Fact Hats off to the folks at the Lion and Lamb Project. Just in time for the holidays, this consumer advocacy group has released its "Dirty Dozen" list of violent toys. The visceral reaction of "Aw, c’mon! They’re just toys" quickly vanishes upon reading Lion and Lamb’s worst offenders. It’s not the violence of Rock’Em Sock ‘Em Robots, the Mobile Suit Gundam or Super Street Fighter II that turns me off — it’s the sheer mindlessness. The concepts driving the "entertainment value" of most of these toys — various forms of punch, kick and shoot ’em up — do not vary. By contrast, Lion and Lamb’s "Top 20" gifts are way cooler, not just because they discourage violence, but because they encourage thought and involvement. Taking a cue from Lion and Lamb, here’s a "trio" of gifts I’d rather not see under any kid’s tree: • A DVD player. It’s cool, it’s slick, and cutting-edge — at least for the next 10 minutes. DVDs can provide hours (up to 12, according to the last advertisement I saw) of electronic babysitting for all ages, including behind the scenes footage, "interactive" options and reams of alternate endings. While this can be entertaining up to a point, it isn’t exactly my idea of intellectual stimulation, and what little original thought a viewer might have about how a movie makes her feel, or how he might have liked it to end, is spirited away by a too-helpful Hollywood. Besides, who has time to sit in front of a screen for 10 hours, watching the same thing? • Internet access for Junior. True, this can be a tool, it has a variety of wonderful uses, and we get out of it what we put into it. But gathering information on geography, science, news or world politics is not what most kids use it for. Kids, unless my teenage niece is an exception, use the Internet to chat, send jokes, and inflict forwarded questionnaires on each other in hopes of determining whether friends are "psycho" or "ghetto." Although such is all in fun, it’s not exactly brain-boosting. Further, the promise of steady cyber company can be quite seductive to "kids" of any age. (A professor once told me an acquaintance of his spent so much time online that he "went a bit funny.") Perhaps "all things in moderation" applies even in this techno-age. • Cell-phone family plans. Cell phones are useful when employed responsibly, but they are not typically a good substitute for time management or personal involvement. This holiday season, advertisers are advocating "family time" by offering packages of up to five of these mod cons. The basic advertising premise: Now your whole family can talk to each other! Wow. We were able to do that when I was growing up, too — we just didn’t have to use an appliance. We could also run errands as a family without yakking away on a phone and annoying other shoppers, thanks to something called a list. Apparently, a little forethought and a little effort to communicate with the family is now considered too hard. While there’s "nothing good nor bad but thinking makes it so," there are nonetheless better gifts. For instance: Enrollment in any variety of arts classes, which encourage creativity and help kids find their voice. So too do puppets, fingerpaint, colored sand with fun-shaped bottles, and, of course, great books. If that’s not your child’s cup of tea, try new hiking boots (facilitates acquisition of fresh air); a gym membership (helps shift the calories off of couch potatoes of all ages), or even (though Lion and Lamb may not approve) a good old-fashioned BB gun, along with the time and involvement to teach your older child how to use it responsibly. The alternative is bright gadgets and geegaws, the bulk of which wind up feeding either the "closet beast" within three months of Christmas, or the "money pit" year-round. It’s not the end of the world if Junior winds up with a few glittering, electronic toys — it’s just that other "worlds," comprised of thought and imagination, abound. And they’re not always for sale.
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Journal. All rights reserved. |
