Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Sock Monkeys

While vacationing or walking around malls, I often come across a kid's toy store and sometimes in the nicer toy stores, I see an old fashioned sock monkey. I immediately think about Joey, "He would love that sock monkey" and I may or may not buy it and add it to his sock monkey collection. But...what if collecting things is a bad idea? Just because he really loved that first sock monkey, doesn't mean he should therefore have every interesting sock monkey I see. Am I teaching him to have more than he needs just because he wants it? Am I adding to the consumer mentality and directly teaching it to my children? Am I saying, "Do not be satisfied with the sock monkey you have, buy as many as you can; you need more?"

And what about stamp collections and doll collections? We will leave rock collections out of this, but what about the word collection in itself. Webster identifies collection as..."to accumulate things for pleasure". The classic example is a young girl with 5 or so dolls. There is always 1 doll she plays with the most, the others are thrown amongst the other toys. She is satisfied with one.

What if that first sock monkey sat on his bed adored and loved and cuddled and that was the end of the story?

2 comments:

  1. I think that collections in general are unnecessary. good post!

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  2. I think you are right in this area! I feel the pressure too. Oliver loves his little Woody and Bullseye so I feel the NEED to go buy him the Buzz and Jesse. But really, Woody is his favorite! Hmmm... way to make me think. I'll consider this. Although, I have to tell you. It seems that no matter how many babies Annie has she finds a way to love and play with them all! I think that child is going to grow up and have 10 little ones of her own! LOL!!!

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