*sigh* santa is blue ...

[Genenut 8]

Mattell announced ANOTHER recall of fisher price toys. 2nd time my child has something on the list... Santa isnt sure what to buy for the 3yr old now since EVERYTHING he likes has been recalled at somepoint this year except real legos (waiting for the other shoe to drop)... And now Mommy has to be the bad person and see about a lead test for 3yr old... *sigh* I'd like to shove a couple buckets full of lead paint down the throats of the execs at mattel right now ....

[gial 2]

It's difficult to blame Mattell. The pervasive attitude in business now is the bottom line - and maximizing it by keeping costs down. All companies now do this to a significant extent rather than maintaining quality. As a result many things come from areas where labor and costs are much lower than in the U.S. Laws about quality are sometimes less stringent, and often enforced laxly as well (enforcement is a problem here too). Worldwide it is often seen as cheaper to knowingly break the law and pay a fine than to take corrective action.

 

Toys are only the latest in a long line of contaminated products from China, and elsewhere, including but not limited to many pet foods and even many grain products for human consumption.

 

Unfortunately we have lost a significant attribute to the goods we now have available -- quality. Even so called high end products are considered throwaway -- many MP3 players came with non-replaceable powe cells. When they fail, just toss 'em and buy another. Wrist watches - buy a digital for 4 of 5 dollars. The replacement wristband is 7 dollars. So is a replacement battery. Cheaper to buy a new watch.

 

This ubiquitous pandering to cheapness is infuriating to me.

[Genenut 8]

Thing is mattel when they chose to make toddler toys took on a greater responsibility to ensure the toys were safe. They chose not to ask why the cost was so much cheaper in china. They chose to not make sure thier name was going on a quality and safe product.

 

Its unfortunate that they chose the dollar over thier good name because most likely after december they will have neither.

 

All I can do now is cross my fingers and hope the lead test is negative. I will probably join the class action lawsuit when it forms to get reimbursement from mattel for the cost of the lead testing and treatment if needed. My health insurance should not have to pay for it when it was needed due to mattel negligence.

 

I think the lead paint in the mattel toys for toddlers is tantamount to a day care hiring a convicted pedophile because they didnt do a background check.

 

I agree there is too much of a throw away mentality but mattel has broken my trust. I will spend more for the real legos that cost twice as much as mega bloks because they are not made in china like mega blocks. I will end up spending more on fewer toys to make sure my son doesnt get hurt by his toys.

[Blade 1]

Sorry to ruin your nice discussion, but I'm not a big fan of kids toys.

 

*NOW, time for a SHORT STORY!*

 

The Famous Blade Introduces short story number two on Darkmatters. This time, it is FICTION!

 

I am going to dedicate this one to my family, as they are the ones who made this true story a reality.

------------------------------------------------------

I grew up in how every kid dreams to grow up. Many parents think that kids want them to buy more and more toys, but I had some toys and rarely played with them (I preferred model cars because they were fun to eat). All I wanted is a small knife to whiddle my sticks with. The things I enjoyed the most in my young years were making stone pathes across streams, playing with sticks, playing cops and robbers and cowboy's and indians, freeze tag, backyard soccer and football, and our forts (these could be playgrounds, spaces under decks, barricaded areas between pine trees, gardens with fences, anything)! When I was quite a bit younger when I should have been inside playing with fisher price toys*sarcasm*, I was instead the war monger in the local neighborhood club. (girls were allowed if you are wondering). We fought with other neighborhood clubs, and our club was the best one(usually) in da 'hood. We fought with sticks we sharpened with knifes, tennis balls, and pine cones. We sometimes made the losers drink nasty potions or stuff, once we even made a scared little 5 year old (I was only 6 or 7 at the time) get "married" to a neighbor girl under the deck. Now that I look back on those memories they were the best in my life. Sure, there were hurt feelings, plenty of ripped up clothes, and fights. But in the end our leaders broke them up and we went on to our usual stockpiling of weapons. This was truely like the middle ages, where rival kingdoms fought for members. We went so far to making a 5 page 50 rule book of law for our club, and buried it under our junk pile. We also had a list of our members, and ID cards for each one. We barricaded under our deck so much that we could keep a rabbit in there without it getting out. I pestered a few of those in my day. Our club even had membership fees, 5 cents per month. Each and every member paid up for that opprutunity. Heck, we even had meeting under correct parlimentary procedure (almost ^^) You see, We had our castle, our king (my brother was the president of the club), and our hierarchy. It was a complete world in the maze of backyards in the neighborhood.

 

More importantly, This all came together from ideas that us kids had. We didn't spend a cent on it, but we did go inside to get club refreshments every one in a while. I recommend trying to get your children to find friends to play with and build on thier friendships with ideas from themselves. I certianly enjoyed it, and my brain was working and my heart was racing at full time. You can bet on that, lol!

 

Now take in mind, I have not graduated from college yet. I grew up in the 90's, so this was not wayyyy back in time. It is still possible to grow up outdoors and make friends. At first there was only one other family that came out to play with us before and after dinner each night, in the summer to play games and in the winter to sled and have snowball fights. In just a few months I would estimate we had 30 kid who were in our little "group" of club members. We had about 5 clubs at the height of the kindom. Then, all of a sudden middle school hit. That was the killer of everything, but that was also a great experience and another story to be told another day.

--------------------

 

 

Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoyed the story of my childhood. I look back on it fondly, and I hope you can too.

 

-Blade

Edited September 6, 2007 by Blade

[Schot 407]

Oh what a drag Genenut. It's the last thing you want to have to worry about is a toy being hazardous much less have to have your child tested because of a toy. Kinda puts a damper on the whole toy deal.

 

Buying cheap always makes me think of a phrase an old friend of mine used to chant. "You get what you pay for." Took me a while to learn that one. These days I buy what's effective rather than buying what's cheap.

 

Oh and love your story Blade. Brings back memories. Little stone dams are tha bomb! Haha. I forgot about those.

[Genenut 8]

That sounds like my childhood, lots of sunshine and mud *G*. Unfortunately you cannot let a 2 yr old run the neighborhood and we live on a major (55mph) highway so I dont like to let either of my kids out without supervision. So toys for play inside the house are going to be a requiremetn for the foreseeable future.

 

But I would love to go back to a time when you didnt have to wonder about our child being taken by a pedophile, the grandpa who hits the gas instead of the brake and runs into people and lyme disease, ticks, EEE and west nile were not outside dangers ( NH has had thier 2nd eastern equine encephalitis case this year (EEE) my father in law came down with viral encephalitis 2 years ago so we know first hand what encephalitis can do to a healthy active intelligent person , he can no longer live on his own and he was a programmer with ibm for 30 years and now is no longer even capable of sending email) so outside is no longer the fun safe haven for kids that it used to be.

 

We as a society have lost our innocence.

[Blade 1]

That's no fun, but you know sometimes you got to talk risks. I got very sick when I was young and almost died but now I am a very healthy person. I understand the position you take trying to protect your kids, but at the same time we need to find a happy medium.

 

Maybe you could build a fence to stop the kids from getting out on the highway, tell them to play in the backyard (if you have one), spray your kids for ticks to prevent them from attacking your kids, get a dog to scare away the pedophile( you should still keep an eye on them), and last but not least, not but Mattel unless you absolutely have to. I liked Matchbox cars better anyway.

 

But from the looks of things, I'd have to say you are doing a good job, keep it up!

[Genenut 8]

Unfortuntely condos have rules about fencing yards and such.... we dont have a private yard. Cant have a dog either :-( We can spray but after watching my FIL struggle, going outside at 5-7pm right now is still too much of a risk for us to take. (hubby and I work full time) But I will check in to matchbox and such and see where they are painted I totally forgot about them. My youngest LOVES cars. I sould be able to find some that arent painted in China. I've already x'd mattel off my shopping lists for quite some time (atleast a year) . Thanks for the suggestion.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Great thread you guys have goin here. First off Genenut, I'm sorry it's such a drag to always have to deal with these recalls. However, it makes me wonder if, when we were growing up, the toys were just as bad, but the recall mechanism just didn't exist or didn't exist as well. With TV having fewer channels and less media to publish awareness campaigns on, do you think the same dangers could have existed regarding the toys and or environments but that the concerns were not as highly publicized or as touted...

In fact it makes me wonder if toy manufactures spin off "recalls" as a kind of reverse publicity as a way to generate good will. Sound creepy but in this day and age, I wouldn't think it beneath them. Especially with the huge amount of publicity and advertising that all of us face daily, I believe it could be perceived that more dangers exist today when in fact the same number of dangers could have existed but from very different sources not as publicized today or that in the old days things that we pay attention to, were not paid attention to then.

Genenut, I'm just so happy you're so concerned with your child's life and are really interested in following all of the warning and recalls being done today. There's a lot of parents out there and I have a sad feeling that a lot of them don't even catch most of the stuff that we see as being detrimental to the welfare of children today.

 

 

 

gogo

[Blade 1]

Well said gogo, the recall for toys is actually a good thing. Years back they would not have done that and it could lead to a dangerous situation.

 

Also, good to hear someone else loves cars, they rule! when he is older we will have to become buddies, Uncle Blade will be happy to show him around cool car websites.

 

It is nice to hear that some other people are willing to spend their time watching out for these thing. I hope I will be lucky enough to not buy my kids many toys so I don't have to worry about all this.

[Genenut 8]

my youngest is actually very much into trucks. his tolerates my sedan but loves daddy's truck and drooled over his daycare providers spouses f350

 

I figure at 16 he will buy a large loud totally male truck to drive and work on.

[Blade 1]

Trucks totally rule, I read the truck trend magazine and my dad has a Chevy SS Pickup, its amazing and very fast too!

 

I'd like to get a truck, but right now that is just too expensive. But 5 years after I graduate university, I'm going for it.