I know we need to protect our children — there is no greater loss than losing a child. But the state of New Jersey is taking it too far. They have just fined a novelty company $70,000 for selling a toy that is less dangerous than a Yo-Yo. It’s a Yo- yo waterball.
New Jersey has just won a settlement against the Yo- yo waterball distributor Kipp Brothers for selling the banned toy, although it’s nothing more than a rubber ball filled with liquid attached to a rubber cord.
Could you imagine watching the police come and arrest your child for playing with this?
Think back to when you were a child and some of the toys you used to play with. When I was growing up I remember playing with a chemistry set that was filled with harmful chemicals and I was never injured. I might have singed my eyebrows off once or twice, but that’s part of growing up.
What seems worse, my kid playing with a rubber toy or him being bored and getting into my cleaning closet to see what bleach tastes like? Then again, bleach is legal. I would rather teach my son what is right and wrong than have him live in a bubble his whole life. Although the government would probably say living in a bubble could be a suffocation hazard and ban that too.
I could go on and on about the horrific ways to lose a child and I’ll do anything in my power to prevent it from happening to mine. I feel that it’s my decision as a parent to decide what I feel my child should play with – not the governments.The government is overstepping its bounds when they start banning toys to protect me from me (or my child from my gifts to him).
Remember the national ban on lawn darts. Seriously, common sense will tell you that if you throw a dart that has a pointy end on it make sure no one is in its flight path. I used to love playing that game at the weekend BBQ’s, and as long as the game is played correctly it’s no more dangerous than bocce or horseshoes.
Should I not allow my kid to play with a kite because he might try to jump of the roof and fly. I would think a yo-yo or metal slinky would be more of a strangulation hazard if they are not played with right than this rubber ball. Every toy is going to have some type of dangers if they are not used properly or abused. Let me decide — not Big Brother — on what I feel is safe enough.
You know that the4 “Aqua Assault RoboFighter” story was a joke, right? The Onion is made-up news.
Yes I was linking the story to show what a joke these bans are. I just removed it as not to confuse people.
Wow. I remember playing with my lawn darts. I remember I thought it would be fun to see how high I could throw them and when one landed too close, I learned not to do it again.
Why does a child think he/she can fly? Too much fantasy, and not enough reality.
I, for one, happen to think that there are TOO MANY toys for kids these days. Seriously, look at what we did for fun. We hiked, rode bicycles, built forts, went swimming, skiing or snowboarding.. (I grew up, up North). But, we did things that took physical exercise. I’d love to see 90% of the toys and video games out there today, removed! Make kids go outside and play. When they’re running around and jumping, they’ll learn, they can’t fly. When they get scratches and bruises, they’ll get tougher, and have a memory that beats “Joey’s high score on XYZ video game”, any day!
To be fair, I don’t think they will actually arrest your children for playing with them, but then again, they probably would take a perfectly happy child away from their parents for playing with banned toys. Regardless, it’s pretty ridiculous. I can see room for warnings and even, in extreme situations, sanctions against a company, but ultimately it should be up to parents to decide if their kids can handle lawn darts or any other potentially dangerous toy.
And it’s getting to the point where it is hard to distinguish between the Onion and the “real” news. In fact, I think if you mixed a couple Onion stories in with a couple legitimate in text versions, so there was no tip-off to which was which, you might have a hard time spotting the spoof articles. That would actually be a fun experiment.
When I was a kid (well, about 10 years-old):
.22 rifles, BB-guns, bow and arrows….
I could buy a box of 50 .22-long rounds at *ANY* local hardware store, with no problem.
And no one had any problem seeing the four of us walking through the neighborhood with our .22 rifles.
Well, there was an occasional comment reminding us to make sure we knew what was behind our targets, and to not leave any trash out in the woods….
As a child under 12, I built my own working crossbow out of scrap wood and metal, cutting bolts from the wire hangers my mom brought home from the dry cleaners. I made it strong enough to penetrate about an inch into wooden fence posts. I had a BB gun too. And later, a 25 lb recurve bow and hay bail in my back yard to practice with. I blew shit up with firecrackers, made napalm out of foam packing peanuts and gasoline, painted my name with it on the street and lit it up, shot at stuff with my wrist rocket, threw water balloons around and had egg fights, I even used to have CO2 pellet pistol fights (we were smart enough to wear safety goggles and heavy jackets) with my buddies, and more.
In summer, I used to leave at 8am on my bike and not come home ’til sunset (which in AZ with no DST can be as late as 9pm) back in the days before cell phones. I always had a quarter and knew my parent’s work numbers if I had an emergency. I would see folks working in their yards or tinkering with cars, and I’d go up and ask them what they were up to. Without fail, they’d show me, and I learned a lot! I would talk to pretty much anyone who would talk back. I knew someone on every street in my neighborhood. People would give me stuff they were getting rid of and I would take it home and tear it apart to figure it out. Or just blow it up. My older cousin had already taught me how to make little pipe bombs with black powder and toilet paper rolls when I was 8.
One time my mom gave me a whole case of homemade apple cider she had put too much sugar in for the secondary fermentation. You couldn’t open them without a cider rocket going off, leaving you with a big mess and not enough cider to drink to make cleaning it up worthwhile. Me and my buddies had the best time that afternoon down in the wash, throwing these little glass grenades and watching them explode, shooting them with our BB guns, trying to hit one by throwing another at it, and pretty much anything else you could imagine to make them explode.
In short, I grew up like a normal little boy. Not even out in the country, but in the suburbs. Those days are gone. Even if I wanted to let my kid grow up that way (and I do) it’s basically illegal. If I knowingly let my kid do almost ANYTHING I described above, I’d be arrested for child endangerment and any number of other felonies, and my kids would be placed in foster care. I’m not even that old, but things have already changed so much in my lifetime, it’s sad. I want to have kids, but how can we raise them into anything other than immature, dependent, terrified paranoiacs in the sterilized rubber room of health and safety the state has turned our society into?
“I would rather teach my son what is right and wrong than have him live in a bubble his whole life. Although the government would probably say living in a bubble could be a suffocation hazard and ban that too.”
Robert, I laughed at loud at this.