3.13.2007

Commemorating callous consumerism

As I sit here at my desk, I have a Spiderman action figure and an Ash bobblehead on my desk. I'm a big fan of Comic books, having cancelled my subscription to the Incredible Hulk because I was too impatient for the monthly books. I fondly recall going to the Comic Book store in DeKalb with Edp and our long lost friend Shawn O'Grady talking about Spiderman #1, The Wathcmen and the Dark Knight.

The kids are into superheroes now. Each new $4 book we get them has to be read at least 10 times in a row during the first sitting. LittleBrother likes the action and pictures, but BigBrother is asking questions. Is Hulk a bad guy? Why does he get so angry? How did Bruce Banner turn into the Hulk if he was hit by a brick?

Almost every week, I take the kids to Target while DearWife is at BodyPump. This has turned into a dangerous time for me. Having complained about the sheer volume of toys the boys have, and the insane amount of small parts, I feel I have to resist from buying them new toys.

The boys will ask to go through the toy section at Target....we'll go through the trucks. "I don't have that one at home. Can we borrow it?" (BigBrother is still getting the buy/borrow distinction down) I have no problem saying no to new giant construction trucks, particularly since they all require batteries and make lots and lots of noise.

But then we come to the Superman\Spiderman section. "Oooh Daddy, look it's Doc Oc! Can we have him?" I negotiate with myself. "No batteries. Doesn't make noise. It's only $4." Ok, sure. And let's get Rhino too.

The kids have every stupid Spiderman action figure known to man. Some are kinda freaky looking. So I feel a little guilty buying stuff for them.

Yesterday, before I left work, I got a gift from DearWife in the form of an Email. "We went to the Disney store, and .... uh.... I ended up spending $65 on Zurg, Buzz and Cars stuff."

So I figure I have a $50 allowance to waste on toys that the boys will quickly forget....and I can then take to work to sit on my desk.

2 comments:

Muskyboy said...

Ha, just wait..the toys get a lot more expensive. We just picked up a Xbox 360 and a Wii.

edP said...

Those trips to the comic book store were great - then we'd come back, crack open some mad dog and read 5 for $1 mags until something interesting happened.