Barbie

Yesterday when Cordelia and I were at Wal-Mart we stopped in the toy department. I thought about getting a little something for my valentines. For some reason one of the aisles has both boy and girl toys in it. As I was looking at Torii's Bakugan toys I noticed something in the Barbie section. It was a deck of cards with Barbie pictured and the saying "If you look this good, who cares if you're made of plastic." At first I thought, "oh, that's cute." Then I really started to think about it. There is no way I would want my daughter to have that card set. That's an awful saying. I wonder how this product got past all their marketers, testers and researchers? Remember when there was that talking Barbie and there was so much fuss because she said "Math is hard"? People thought it was a stereotyped phrase. If I remember correctly, Mattel changed it. You would think Mattel had learned a lesson. So how did this card set get on the shelf? Do we want our daughters to think that plastic surgery is ok, because you'll look great afterwards? I have no problem with people who get plastic surgery, but I for one will never get it. And I don't want my daughter to feel like she has to get it either. I will teach her to be happy with the body she was given. Not to say that I don't complain about my body, but I'm not going to fix it through an elective and risky surgery. Anyway, I'm not so uptight about it that I'm going to ban Barbie from our house. I'm sure Cordelia will have lots of Barbies. I had them too and some doll didn't shape my views on body image. And it's quite possible that the card set isn't suppose to be targeted to young kids as it was near the more expensive collector dolls. I just think it's a weird product to find in the toy department.

Shopping until I drop

Today was suppose to be a simple day. Usually on Sunday I get my grocery list together for the week and hit Wal-Mart. I usually don't take the kids so I can get done fast. And strangely enough, when they are with I get so distracted that I forget an item or two on my list. Today I brought Cordelia with because she needed new shoes and I hate buying shoes if the kids aren't with to try them on. They grow so fast I'm never sure what size they have jumped to next. My list wasn't as long as normal so I thought this was going to be a great shopping day. I must have jinxed myself. Wal-Mart was so picked over on little kids shoes. They had lots of her current size and that was about it. After we got home and unloaded the groceries we went out again and checked Target. Target had exactly what I was looking for, really cute girls tennis shoes that weren't really girly. Expect in Cordelia's size. Cordelia wasn't happy either. She really wanted the shoes I was looking at and was mad when I put them back on the shelf. She loves shoes already, I can't believe it. Then we ran over to Payless. They had one pair in her size. They are white with laces, not my first choice, but since I didn't want to run all over town for shoes I got them. Who knows when I'll get to shoe shop next with her and her toes were really cramped in the old pair so we really needed something today. I also checked at Penney's since they have good sales from time to time, but didn't find anything. By then Cordelia was shopped out so we stuck with the pair we bought. After one more stop at Cashwise to get one grocery item that Wal-Mart didn't have we finally made it home. What a day. There must be a lot of little girls out there with size 4 feet. I can't believe we had to spend that much time shopping for shoes.