Little Mommy Dolls-Wouldn't a Real Kid Be Better?

Parenting children has just risen to a new level. Now, instead of competing about who has the most up-to-date wardrobe or the fanciest Little Tykes car, your little girl can now boast about her burgeoning mothering skills. Fisher Price's new http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=teachingthefu-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B...">Little Mommy Play All Day doll has some convinced it's a stand in for Chucky. Others argue that dolls are just the natural choice for a little girl; the more realistic they are, the better.  All of the furor makes me wonder why no one thinks of the obvious: is it impossible for you to just find some REAL baby for your kid to play with?  I'm sure there are more than a few people who will be hysterical about this suggestion. Those are probably the same people who watched CBS's show on how to safely care for your infant, where it was recommended that you take your baby with you to the bathroom.  I don't know about you, but it will be soon enough that your little one will be banging on the door while you do your business. Why hasten the process? Of course I'm not suggesting you leave your toddler unsupervised with your neighbor's little one (unless you favor family planning after the fact). But it's far from inconceivable to suggest that she might have more fun, and learn a lot more about mothering from the real thing. And that, my dear friends and neighbors, is the real problem with this doll. We are so focused in this society on pseudo-experiences, when the real thing is so much better. Maybe we need to stop PLAYING at life and get to work on LIVING it.

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Parenting children doesn't get any easier nowadays, does it? A father in Melbourne was accused by the Federal Magistrates' Court of being "too rigid and obsessive," in his demands on his three children. Some of his techniques: insisting his children read to him nightly over the phone, and requiring them to do extra homework above their grade level. It's interesting that the court felt free to rule on this father's homework standards, despite the fact that Australia doesn't place very high in the student score range. Maybe it would be better to outlaw court altogether: writing with all those keyboards is, after all, known to cause wrist strain...

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Don't Quit Now