My 6 year old had tears in his eyes when he saw me after BlogHer. I was touched by how much he missed me. Until he uttered the following,
“You got me a zhu zhu pet. I always wanted one. I never thought you’d ever get me one. I wanted one so bad. I’m just so happy you got me one.”
What? Excuse me? Wasn’t that supposed to be, I’m so happy YOU are home?
We cruised through the holiday seasons Zhu Zhu- less. I’ll admit it - I was smug about it. I had no interest in the frenzy over what amounted to a motorized rat. The packaging seemed excessive and my Waldorf educated child was quite used to (and happy) playing with twigs in the creek along with Mary, Laura, Carrie and Pa the rest of his family. Who needs a Zhu Zhu when you can race dead leaves down the puddle stream? Nevertheless, a free Zhu Zhu made it’s way into my luggage at BlogHer 10 and flew home with me and saved me the pain of shopping for the inevitable “I’m so sorry I left you for four days” present.
Not only did I bring home the Zhu (I still feel like a single pet should not be called the same name twice) from the Mom Select BlogHer suite, but I also scored a “Hex Bug” for my young sons. The Hex Bug is sort of like a roach sized Zhu Zhu. And since I have been chanting “why would my kids want to play with a motorized rat?” since the first time I saw Zhu Zhu pets, you can imagine my comment upon examining a Hex bug. Really? A Bug? Why?
Sigh.
Lets just say my sons spent the entire day yesterday gleefully playing with the Zhu and the Hex bug. They built bridges for them from their Waldorf approved vintage wooden blocks. They made tunnels for them out of recycled paper towel tubes. They played so long that they wore out the Hex’s battery.
It occurs to me that my children would probably have a barrel of fun with real rats and roaches as well. But they might come away with diseases. So I’m caving on these two toys. I probably won’t buy in big on all the “systems” due to all the plastic involved, but I’m going to stop fighting these toys as “pests”.
I’m all about the balance.
Does it look a little like the rat killed the roach in this picture?
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