My 5 year old boy watches too much TV. Actually, I don’t think he’s that bad—well, not when you compare it to how much time he spends on theWii/Playstation/other electronic device—but he is being subjected to the onslaught of holiday commercials showcasing the very latest in ‘must have toys’.
Squeezed in between the countless episodes of Dora and Peppa Pig (Americans hold onto your hats because I do believe she is headed Stateside…) are countless brainwashing adverts designed to get our children to drain our ever limited resources. Thousands of bits of plastic that keep the Chinese economy thriving and us cursing for the rest of the year having to look at, listen to, or worse still, step on the offending items.
Given my boy’s propensity to watch what are probably (incorrectly) considered ‘girl’s’ programs he critiques the commercials from a boy’s angle, citing each new product advertised as ‘for girl’s’ and in his kinder moments he decides that his 3 week old baby sister would like to play with that when she’s older. I know, he’s a sweetie!
Occasionally though there will be the cross-over gifts advertised, usually board games of a kind. A couple have caught my eye but for totally the wrong reasons. Living in a hot country that is besieged by flies for a good 8 months of the year, I have to question who in their right mind would buy a game that demands players put things in and take things out of a toy garbage can without upsetting the plastic flies. Really, is that now considered fun? I have a perfectly good overflowing garbage can in my kitchen and flies a-plenty. Hang on a minute, I’m getting an idea, we could re-create that game at home. Cha-ching! I’ve just saved myself twenty of my hard-earned euros.
Scoop the Poop - it's fun!
I wonder what other new and exciting games we can re-create using the real deal instead of plastic imitations? Ooh I know, how about that weird game we saw advertised the other day, the one where you get to scoop up dog poop from a plastic daschund? What are these magically contents that cost €25? Plastic spades, artificial dog shit and the aforementioned plastic daschund – well lemme see, rural Spanish village with lots of weird cross-breed dogs that the owners let wander the streets equals—ooh lots of dog shit. I’m pretty sure we’ve got some plastic spades somewhere in our beach bag. Bingo, I’m getting good at this!
So son, what do you want from Santa this year? A Nintendo DS you say? Are you sure you don’t want a smelly fly-infested bin and some dog turds?
About Wendy Henderson
Peppa Pig is here…and I have to set my dvr to record her every afternoon since my first grader doesn’t want to miss an episode! I think the game creators have run out of ideas and they are just grasping at straws at this point…like some of the movie writers, too!
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We love Peppa Pig – is she her English self or now an American?
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