Saturday, March 13, 2010

A Girlie Rant

A few weeks ago The Munchkin and I were visiting some friends at their home, which is one of my our favorite activities because it means instantaneous new toys. On this particular day, he fell in love with a pink cash register that functions like a real calculator, with a "scanner," fake food, and a microphone for making announcements. I'm sure he was thinking, "Buttons? A 'phone?' Another 'phone?' All in the same toy?! Hot dog!"

Brad and I are probably responsible for purchasing about one tenth of the boy's toys, and since we hadn't shopped in a while, we made plans to head to Target to track one down. I had asked my friend if that particular cash register was manufactured in any color besides pink, and she was uncertain. Of course, I was thinking that in our increasingly progressive world, where MANY toys now come in a gender-neutral red or even purple, our odds of finding a non-pink cash register were pretty good.

We plodded through the "make believe" section, and were assaulted by PINK! EVERYWHERE! The shopping carts? Pink. Pretend stove? Pink. Pretend refrigerator, microwave, oven, dish set? Pink, pink, pink, pink. And--you guessed it--a cash register...in pink.

Transcript of my thoughts (which may or may not have actually been muttered under my breath):

"What, so only GIRLS can play with pretend food? Only GIRLS can pretend to shop for food? Only GIRLS like to pretend to cook and clean and play with toys that have zillions of doors and buttons and COOL STUFF? Only GIRLS can work in grocery stores?! ONLY GIRLS CAN PLAY WITH PINK TOYS?!?!?!"

Oh, crap.

We are now the proud owners of a pretend cash register...in pink.


5 comments:

sjh said...

http://www.educationaltoysplanet.com/teaching-cash-register.html

Here's the one I like best, in red and blue. But look at the price! $58 for a toy cash register. Unbelievable. What is the world....oops, I'm starting to rant myself.

Crazy world. Pink is fine. And when the girls come to play, they will love it.

Colleen said...

Isn't it insane? We bought Brendan a play kitchen for Christmas and had the hardest time finding cute wooden food for it as it was all packaged in pink. WTH? Eventually I came to my senses and realized that it doesn't matter what the freaking package looks like...the food is all the same, so we bought the food :)

FYI- we don't have a pink cash register, but we certainly do have a purple little people SUV with pink interior ;)

By the way- what are you guys up to next Friday? Margaret and I wanted to know if you wanted to have a play date?

HHRose said...

Well, I suppose I should update to mention that we are also now owners of this cash register--which I had as a child, and which serves an entirely different entertainment purpose as the pink one. Saw it at Toys R Us the other day and couldn't resist it. I seem to have trouble passing up the toys I played with growing up.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2674710

Maureen said...

My nephew has a space saver kitchen. I think it's gray. It has a stove, oven, microwave and sink (and it makes noise). He loves to make coffee. We got him food from Melissa and Doug. I even got him a cookie set which comes with a RED oven mit- score! If you want, I can find out where they got the kitchen....

Anonymous said...

Boys are allowed to play with pink, too. I kept trying to avoid it, then realized that my son doesn't need to be prohibited from pink. I'm still not open-minded enough to send him outside the house in dresses, though. (He does try on his big sister's fancy shoes every so often.)