Originally Posted by jhb90277

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ha! I forgot to address the toy thing. Damn, but those cabbage patch dolls are butt ugly. I remember the Tickle Me Elmo frenzy and remember Beanie Babies? WTF?

In many ways, I am glad I have boys. I don't have as many as some posters here (yes, knot...I mean you!), but I would go nuts if I had girls. The overly sexualized marketing geared toward ever younger girls is disturbing. Bratz dolls come to mind. Bratz babies are just ridiculous. Some parents don't have a problem, but if I had girls, I would have a major problem with toys that suggest that young girls should be vamping it up and looking to party.

My sons love Legos, Hot Wheels, pirate stuff--pretty much anything you can build with and use your imagination with. Heck, they play a game with a paper and some crayons called "dot wars." I don't get it, but they can make a military campaign out of crayons and paper. It seems like the marketers and the toy makers have taken the imagination out of the toys. Kids are spoonfed whatever the toy corps want them to think.

Fow what it is worth, I don't have a problem with school uniforms. Some might say that it stifles individuality, but I don't see it that way. I figure that if kids aren't hung up on what clothes the other kids are wearing, maybe they'll look past the superficial and actually get to know their classmates and get down to learning. I realize that not all kids are hung up on appearances, but in schools where this is a problem, I think uniforms are a reasonable solution.