No More Electronic Toys For My Kids!!!

no let them all buy gadgets and rot in the house, my kids like having the woods to themselves, minus all the joneses brats running around causing trouble.

Good for you and your kids. It's a wise move. Although I'd be careful with the cross bow which I'm sure you have already considered.

"You'll put your eye out, kid."

This is a true story, doesn't sound it, but it is.

When I was a kid, maybe like 12 or 13 or so, I was having a super bowl party at my house and invited about 6 or so of my friends by to watch the game.

Before too many people showed up, there was just one of my friends there, and we were playing catch with this plush ball with a cartoon face on it that would shout out one of like six different catch phrases whenever it hit something.

We were throwing it back and forth and then one of the times the ball loudly exclaims "SHUT THE FUCK UP".

Me and my friend just stood there, asking each other if the other had heard that, freaking out that that was programmed into the ball to say. So we started hitting the plush ball over and over again, trying to get it to say it again. It never did. Nobody else ever believed us, but the two of us know what we heard. None of the other 6 catch phrases even sounded anything close to "Shut the fuck up" so we could not have been mistaken

GOOD FOR YOU.. Being outside doing stuff is much more fun anyways..

LOL...

I don't really doubt it.

But people used to say Furbies said some fucked up shit, I never believed that, and never heard it myself.

Kinda reminds me of this... only I HAVE witnessed this in real life, this particular toy:

[link to www.youtube.com]


Last Edited by Mister Obvious on 12/03/2012 11:19 PM

No screens for children of Silicon Valley elite:

[link to cryptogon.com]

“I fundamentally reject the notion you need technology aids in grammar school,” said Alan Eagle, 50, whose daughter, Andie, is one of the 196 children at the Waldorf elementary school; his son William, 13, is at the nearby middle school. “The idea that an app on an iPad can better teach my kids to read or do arithmetic, that’s ridiculous.”

Mr. Eagle knows a bit about technology. He holds a computer science degree from Dartmouth and works in executive communications at Google, where he has written speeches for the chairman, Eric E. Schmidt.

Good for you OP. Smart move!! Buying toys that take batteries is soooo stupid. Such a waste of money! Its like your buying that toy over and over again at the cost of battery replacment. Also kids never get out like they should anymore....video games, internet and such is making kids today apathetic, unmotivated or violent.

I was going to say mre's and 20 gauge shot guns, but cross bows B coo. :)

Baphomet @ 1:00 mark.

You are hindering the future progress, monetary, and social stature of your children.

These "electronic toys" are the tools to train the minds, reflexes, and morals for the future.

Speed, power, violence, and moral ambiguity are the future-wave. Stand before the wave and be crushed.

I halfheartedly agree with OP, and I also halfheartedly agree with the last poster.

Getting outside and teaching your kids how to play with the real world is important, but removing ALL electronics is definitely just as much a detriment as removing all outside play.

A simple solution is to just not by frivolous electronic toys. Try getting them a breadboard and some wires and lights to play with; if they get a book on electronics and wiring they may find it quite fun, and it's definitely useful and educational. They may end up being electrical engineers if they get into it.

Some learning software and the such isn't bad, either. TBH, i think the best electronic investment is a decent PC. You can install pretty much any kind of software to do anything you want, and if you encourage them to learn about computers they can eventually get into building their own boxes and maybe want to get CS degrees or something.

Electronics teach us about the driving force behind advancement in the modern world; electricity and logic, as well as helping to possibly solidify the concepts of math and physics models.

If i never got a Lego Mindstorms kit when I was younger, I wouldn't have had the drive to learn about mechanics that inspired me to take Dynamics, Statics, and Mechanics classes in college. Same with Erector sets.

Modern toys that encourage creativity and critical thinking usually have some electronic component, so don't just write them all off as a waste of time.

Don't get consoles, though, unless your kids want to learn to hack and mod them. I never owned one and wasn't allowed to even have a game boy, and I see a lot of young adults who are pretty much stuck in the 'Gotta buy special editions, HALO RULES!' state... limiting their exposure is a good idea, but definitely don't eliminate it...

Just an opinion.

Not all electronic toys are bad. I got these for my grandson for Christmas and I know he is going to love them. There is also an adapter you can purchase so you don't have to keep buying batteries. I may get him a couple more of these for his b-day. The light circuits look really cool.

[link to www.amazon.com]

[link to www.amazon.com]

Get them lawn darts.

Buy them skateboards and BMX bikes.