Mar 26th, 2007
Teaching Moment with Barbie and Tanner
My husband and I were watching a cartoon with the kids Sunday a.m. before diving in to laundry and saw a commercial for the most hilarious/stupid (you choose) toy. Dan started laughing so hard he was silent, and the first words out of my mouth were “Are you KIDDING me?!” Now I must admit that I’m not a Barbie fan - at all! I think she depicts a totally unreal body image, which personally, I don’t want my daughter having to deal with. But, Keira does have 3 Barbies, the princess collection, that she got from Grandma, and like any other 4 year old, she loves to dress and undress them. Occassionally she’ll put them to bed in the doll house or drive them around in the convertible Mustang. But moving on . . . I see this commercial for Barbie and Tanner. Did you know Barbie had a dog named Tanner? Did you know that you can feed Tanner dog biscuits and he’ll poop them out? Then you get the pleasure of using the trash can and magnetic poop scooper to pick up the poop and start all over again - which essentially means that you’ll be feeding Tanner his own poo! I was wondering who would buy this toy? Apparently quite a few folks judging by the number of reviews on Amazon.com. Some of the reviewers actually thought it was a great toy to buy because it teaches your kid responsibility for picking up after their pet (as well as feeding them their own poo!). Personally, I like to teach lessons to my children in real life - like taking them with me when I walk Maggie and having them learn to stop at the corners, make her sit before she gets treats, and yes picking up the poop in a plastic bag to carry all the way home to throw in the garbage can. If you don’t have a dog, I’m sure you’ve seen irresponsible pet owners at the park. Use that as the teaching moment, telling your kids that it’s against the law (in most public places) and just plain rude not to pick up after your own dog. And it’s even worse to let your dog do its business in someone else’s yard, but that’s a totally different story 
My question for today is this: Is a Barbie toy REALLY the best way to teach life lessons to your children? Cuz I can’t see myself ever trusting Mattel and Barbie to teach my children valuable lessons.
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Ha!! You are not going to believe that I actually bought Barbie and Tanner!! Yes I did. But in my defense, I was excited that Barbie had a DOG!!! It was for Maddy’s 6th birthday party. When I got it home I realized what this toy actually “did” and promptly returned it to the store!! I couldn’t believe it either!! (By the way there is a cat too!). Maddy got markers for her birthday.
That is hilarious! I’m sure Kari would have loved what Barbie and Tanner do
Thanks for that giggle!
[...] from the baby aisle, because I would have stayed there all day telling her that I refused to buy a Barbie and Tanner for [...]
[...] toy recall . . . this one involving Sarge toy cars (from the movie Cars), Barbie and Tanner (one of my personal favorites) as well as others. There is an article on MSNBC and the one on the Mattel site. There have been [...]