How young is too young for girls to use deodorant?
In a supermarket the other day I noticed these ‘perfumed body spray’s, right next adult deodorant. Obviously they are aimed at young girls via the Bratz brand.
Do young girls really need to be pushed into the word of makeup and perfume?
Camperdown Memorial park children’s playground is in disrepair. From the pile of empty bottles outside the playground it looks as if there was a party in the playground. And a rowdy one at that.
The lock on the gate is broken. So without an ever constant eye a child may escape. Or a dog may enter.
And both sand pits are full of cigarette buts. Not to mention the odd bottle cap and piece of glass. Not really the thing for a kids playground. I can see some kid slicing their foot open.
The sandpits need someone to run them through a sieve, like they do at the major beaches.
Now the broken swing I can’t definitely blame on the apparent party, but it is another sign of disrepair.
Considering inner city Sydney has a baby boom, it would be nice if facilities for children were kept in better repair.
There is a baby boom in Sydney at the moment, most apparent in inner city suburbs. But state public transport system is failing new parents with prams. New policies by State Transit are making it harder to use the service, at a time when people should be encouraged to be more green and use public transport.
Building Lego ducks for my child I ran out of appropriate blocks. Desperate to complete the project, as any Lego mad scientist would do, I chose to opt for a hybrid animal.
Using pieces from the farm set, cow genes were combined with the existing duck, resulting in the transgenic (cow)duck.
But how far should one take playing God?
Is it ethical to create GMO Lego?
And are we warping our children’s imagination?
In related news:
(of a more serious nature)
THOUSANDS more toys are being pulled from Australian shelves as an international investigation delves deeper into China’s disgraced manufacturing industry. In a recorded statement, Mattel’s Australian marketing director, Julie Kearns, said the company had been testing toys since the paint scandal broke. See service.mattel.com (SMH, 6 Sept 2007)
“IT’S FATHER’S DAY tomorrow and, while fathers of all ages deserve praise and acclamation, we should raise a special cheer for the nation’s more recent dads.” A humorous list of 30 changes in their lives new fathers may recognise. (SMH, 1 Sept 2007)
Dora is recalled from exploring. Sesame Street is no longer giggling. Barney is facing extinction.
Mattel is recalling 83 models of Fisher-Price toys. In Australian the product recall is estimated at 43,000 and in the USA at nearly 1,000,000.
An article from Associated Press, appearing in many publications, indicates that there were quality control errors in a number of toy manufactured in China. Reports attribute the product recall to the level of lead in paint on the toys.
The reports advise that parents should remove the toys from their children and check against the list of recalled products. And that Australian consumers need to contact Mattel Australia directly for refunds or exchange, on 1800 674 753 (M-F 9-5) or www.service.mattel.com
Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece, if you want more details go read the articles below.
References
I could keep posting links, but they are all excerpts of the same story by Anne D’Innocenzio and Natasha T. Metzler of the Associated Press
Blogs
The list could go on. There were around 15,000 blog posts listed on Technorati when last I checked. Technarati Fisher-Price posts
There is a current baby boom in inner city Sydney. And it is putting strain on the resources that weren’t expecting it. Just ask RPA who down sized their labour ward before the boom.
If you walk around Newtown you will notice a increase in number of babies over the last few years. Other inner city suburbs have been seeing it too. My theory for the current boom has nothing to do with the PM’s baby bonus. It is a nice addition, but it was already going to happen. And it is nice to see that the Sydney Morning Herald agrees with me.
So why the current explosion in baby number in the inner city? Professional women. There are many women who focused on work rather than family (having children) now in their early to mid 30s, who have decided it is best to have children while they can.
The current explosion of births is just a flow on from a previous explosion. The kids of the baby boomers are now having kids themselves.
And if like living in the inner city why move out to the ‘burbs to have kids? In the inner city things are close to hand, public transport is good and you already know the people in your community.
People are choosing not to give up the rest of their lives just to have kids.
References:
Recently my small child has been taught Miss Polly Had A Dolly by Grandma. Some of the words are remembered, but not all of them, and I am expected to sing the song.
A search of Google brings up a number of version of the lyrics, mostly differing on what the doctor does, as well as sheet music and CDs with the song on it. Unfortunately finding the song as a sound file is another thing.
So where at 11:30pm do you find a song for a small child who is not sleepy?
iTunes music store it turns out. If you search for “Miss Polly” there are 33 listed songs. Two of the listed songs are pop music, with the rest being the nursery rhyme. So it is quite a popular song to record it seems. Ok, some of those listed are the same recording on different albums, but still quite a big list. And I was interested to find amongst the list an RnB version of the rhyme.
One of the better versions: 
The RnB version:
Included below are lyrics familiar to me.
Miss Polly had a dolly
Who was sick, sick, sick,
So she called for the doctor
To be quick, quick, quick;
The doctor came
With his bag and his hat,
And he knocked at the door
With a rat-a-tat-tat.
He looked at the dolly
And he shook his head,
And he said “Miss Polly,
Put her straight to bed.”
He wrote out a paper
For a pill, pill, pill,
“I’ll be back in the morning
With the bill, bill, bill.”
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