Life's a Barbie!

Ever realised how diffferent the new era's childhood is? It has taken a mighty step up in the ladder of simplicity. Childhood has become more beautiful and able with so many kinds of toys available at very low prices too. But are the children having enough fun and learning as much as they used to? I often wonder how my thinking would have been different if I was a Barbie-era child. I never owned a Barbie but I owned many other dolls that used to sing and talk to me :) But never a Barbie. At the rate my cousins' kids are collecting Barbies (from Californian Barbie to Indian Barbie!) I wonder if they have any time to even play with one. Whenever they go to the shops, all they want is another new toy and the house is full of toys, but I hardly see them playing with the new toys for more than just two days. What happens next is another new toy in town.

Sometimes I feel kids (both boys and girls) these days are overloaded with toys. They just don't know which one to concentrate on for few months before moving on to the next toy. In my childhood days I had few dolls for few years and I never begged my parents for more and more toys each time we went to the mall. I may be different (and I had other interests such as guitars and playing detective:) but guess many kids during my era never really asked for toys all that much and there was no peer pressure in school based on modern toys. The reason being beautiful toys were a luxury item at the time. And we got such toys on a birthday or for some other achievement. These days kids ask for a toy per shopping trip. I remember I got a bicycle as a gift from my parents and both my sis and I shared it. Nowadays one family buys a bike per kid. Also in my childhood videos and electronic games were a treat but now the kids don't ask for anything below PS2 or Xbox range gifts.

I remember as a kid I used to stare into rivers and ponds looking for fish swimming happily. I used to fly kites, play cricket, climb trees :), indulge in kids recipes, read cartoons and comic books, experiment watercolors, chase after yellow butterflies, bring lost kittens home and giggled till I looked really silly. While I'm sure there are kids from this era who enjoy nature and do alot of creative activities that enhance their various skills, I also know that a huge part of kids are pressured and misguided by too much innovation in the toys' department. Childhood should be nothing but childhood and it isn't something that can be defined by a certain innovative culture. It should be natural and left undisturbed by too many immobile activities. Toys should be creativity-inspiring and pleasurable at the same time. While we shouldn't deprive kids of today enjoying the innovative toys, at the same time we shouldn't allow them to over-indulge in them. A balance between creative activities and junk toys should be achieved so that a realistic view of life is developed in the child's psyche since childhood.

Next time you buy a present for a kid, make sure it's a meaningful item as well as something the kid likes. For my cousin's little daughter who is an ardent Barbie fan, I got a Barbie notebook (computer) for her birthday this year and believe me it's really useful to her with her studies and it's something she really adores because of the Barbie thingy :) She kept asking for it or a Barbie make-up set which I didnt think is really necessary for her right now so I got the notebook. So there's something the kid wants as well as something that helps her to learn as well. Life's certainly not a Barbie, so we really have to be mindful of what we choose as toys and how much of it we provide to kids of today. Buy the kids enough toys, that's fine but not so excessivley that they don't realise the value of having luxury toys. Toys also need to enhance kids' creativity instead of planting wrong messages that disillusion the little minds. All I can say is that Quality is more important than Quantity. Have a Tweedyful day ok ;-)