Comments on: What Am I Missing Here?

By: Sometimes A Toy Is Just A Toy, And Then… // Welcome To The Dollhouse

Sometimes A Toy Is Just A Toy, And Then… // Welcome To The Dollhouse — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:01:40 +0000

[...] Until I read and deal with the forum. Let’s [...]Claudia on Dec 1, 2008, 10:16 pm in What Am I Missing Here?: Hi teendoc, I enjoyed reading your post on ARP. I already left my comment there, [...]What am I [...]

By: Claudia

Claudia — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:16:48 +0000

Hi teendoc, I enjoyed reading your post on ARP. I already left my comment there, but after browsing through your lovely site, I thought I would post here as well.

Have you read Toni Cade Bambara’s 1972 short story, “The Lesson”? If not, you can find it here:

http://cai.ucdavis.edu/gender/thelesson.html

I think it speaks to some of the issues mentioned in your post. It is uncanny to see that almost four decades later, F.A.O. Schwarz still raises these unsettling questions…

By: What am I missing here? at Anti-Racist Parent - for parents committed to raising children with an anti-racist outlook

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:18:09 +0000

[...] Crossposted from Welcome to the Dollhouse [...]

By: Kelia

Kelia — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:10:15 +0000

What do you want to be when you grow up?
I want to be a Dentist
I want to be a Doctor
I want to be Firefighter
I want to be a Teacher
I want to be a Chef
I want to build houses
I want to take care of animals
I want to be a maid……

My grandmother would roll over in her grave. I don’t think so.

By: AdrienneG

AdrienneG — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:39:15 +0000

My son would love the cart. He follows me around the house asking if he can help me clean, so he cleans with me. Knowing him very well he would love everything except the freaking apron because he likes to mimic everything I do and everything his dad does.

But even saying this, I wouldn’t buy that for my child…I am confident that without that toy, he still has a chance of becoming a man who keeps his place clean and doesn’t depend on a woman to have a clean bathroom. He can easily learn how to take care of his home from watching his parents. Same way my my male cousin learned and keeps a clean home as a homeowner.

I see nothing elitist by not liking the toy. I wouldnt spend 150 on that toy because the other stuff is waay more fun. Id sooner buy my son a play kitchen than that or collect cardboard boxes and give him paint and crayons to decorate it. My son can play with a cardboard box for hours happy as a clam.

And shoot, even housekeepers wouldn’t want their child aspiring to have their job either!

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:47:50 +0000

The housekeeping cart is sort of an odd twist on the whole play housekeeping theme. But maybe it comes with the cart because there are so many damn pieces to the set (like every toy these days) and because small kids are pretty crazy about pushing something around. At every playdate we’ve gone to the doll stroller and shopping cart cause the most fights. And some marketing genius figured they had to add a little something to make is seem like you were getting a bargain for $150.

I bought my daughter a smaller (cheaper) “let’s clean the house” play housekeeping kit and my husband said “what message are we sending here?” But crap, whenever I’m doing a household chore she wants to help and the regular sized broom frustrates her. She does however refuse to wear the “I love cleaning” apron – uh, what the hell is up with that? Incidentally, she does also have a doctor’s kit but that’s not as fun to torture the dog with as the play broom.

I’m with you on the elitist thing. The label of elitist seems to now be applied to anyone who is educated and successful. Which is incorrect and inappropriately applied to people like the Obamas (they are educated and successful but no way are they elitists). And what’s with the implication that education and success are somehow BAD things?

By: Wrae

Wrae — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:25:03 +0000

Hello Liana,

Every so often I look at your blog to see how your beautiful daughter is growing and changing. She looks like a sweet one. I am very happy that you and Mason were able to become parents and were blessed with a joyful child.

By: Deathstar

Deathstar — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:07:32 +0000

What you’re really asking is whether being a housekeeper is something for a child to aspire to. I really don’t know if a 3 year old would realize how much housekeepers make or how hard their job really is or where it rates on the social scale. They just make think it’s fun to run around and clean things – which I think is perfectly wonderful for both girls and boys to learn or play act. Maybe they’ll learn that service workers are regular human beings with families just like the guy who works behind the ice cream cart. Maybe they’ll just think it’s fun to be clean and tidy. I don’t know. I don’t see any black or Latino kids attached to so I don’t see it as a racist or political statement. I doubt it will capture their interest for long term career goals. Next year, a kid might think it’s fun to dig holes and find worms. I am confident that will you or any mother would instill an ambition for great things in their child.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:50:22 +0000

Liana I waited till I got home to think a bit about this before I responded and I have to agree with you. I see no real reason for this “toy”. I am basing this on thinking that if person bought the doctor’s office kit as a goal of maybe inspiring their child to be a doctor and the child “fell” short and became a physicians assistant, nurse or nursing aide, that still would be a very admirable profession. A grill kit might inspire the next Bobby Flay or Paula Deen but the child may end up as the next short cook at Al’s Diner. But for the life of me if the maid cart is the high end…what in the world is the low end? And I showed this to some people that have young daughters in the age range of 2-5 and they both asked me if this was a joke? Being a maid is an honorable job but it is really something that parent would want their children to aspire to be?

By: Jenn

Jenn — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:59:56 +0000

I saw something similar in another catalog and found it odd too. I can’t give a specific reason and the more I think about it the more I think I’m thinking too much. After thinking even more though, I think whats weird is that, how often are children generally exposed to a housekeeping cart in their day to day life? Surely some, but not as many as see doctors or go grocery shopping. My kids love brooms, mops, etc., but I don’t know that they would know what the whole cart was for.