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heatray5dThere's this organization called Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. The tone of their website is a little self-righteous and self-congratulatory; and they're kind of the enemy of pretty much exactly what I do for a living (lie to children; or, more accurately these days, manage a team of professional liars); but the mission of the organization is a good one. Their message is rooted in the uncontroversial yet endangered idea that kids should just be allowed to be kids without trying to convince them that it's better to give themselves diabetes with Coke than with Pepsi.
Anyway, for the last few years, they've given out the cumbersomely named TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young children) award. The toys that are nominated run the gamut from harmless but stupid - like this ball you can put your iPhone in, just in case your child is completely flummoxed by devising her own games to play with a ball - to the straight up evil - like a website (that I won't name or link to, because fuck giving them any more impressions than they're already getting) where you can pay $60 a year to let your kid pretend to be one of the popular, attractive, weirdly sexy tooth fairies, complete with the opportunity to mock less attractive fairies (not, hopefully, played by other kids).
But this year, the winner of the TOADY is something called the iPotty, which if you can't figure out what it is by the name, how did you read this far? There are so many words before now!
It's a pretty obnoxious product. Toilet training is a critical part of parent-child bonding, a fundamental component in effective cognitive development, and also something you probably kind of want your toddler to kind of concentrate on so they don't grow up to be the type of person who leaves poo on the seat.
But oh my god! If they made one for grown ups, I would buy it!
Anyway, for the last few years, they've given out the cumbersomely named TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young children) award. The toys that are nominated run the gamut from harmless but stupid - like this ball you can put your iPhone in, just in case your child is completely flummoxed by devising her own games to play with a ball - to the straight up evil - like a website (that I won't name or link to, because fuck giving them any more impressions than they're already getting) where you can pay $60 a year to let your kid pretend to be one of the popular, attractive, weirdly sexy tooth fairies, complete with the opportunity to mock less attractive fairies (not, hopefully, played by other kids).
But this year, the winner of the TOADY is something called the iPotty, which if you can't figure out what it is by the name, how did you read this far? There are so many words before now!
It's a pretty obnoxious product. Toilet training is a critical part of parent-child bonding, a fundamental component in effective cognitive development, and also something you probably kind of want your toddler to kind of concentrate on so they don't grow up to be the type of person who leaves poo on the seat.
But oh my god! If they made one for grown ups, I would buy it!