The more a parent is advised and influenced by our self-reliant consumerist culture, the more he is attracted to the baby and child products that actually serve to distance him from his child. Clock face starts out frowning, and at the end of time-out turns into a smile as your personal message plays. So now we not only send them to their rooms for soothing comfort from machines and objects, we also send them there to be disciplined by toy clocks that play back what could only be some trivial sound bite of parental guidance. Our children are good consumers in the making. Toymakers have long been aware that successful toys imitate adult activities.
Shopping is an essential American skill.
Melanie's Mall is a center for more than just shopping. The Boston Children's Museum features as one of its permanent exhibits a make believe grocery store where children can wander down the aisles, loading their baskets with plastic grocery replicas, and then purchasing them at the pretend check-out counter. Toys also privatize the relationship between parent and child. Parents think they can buy their child the tools to make them smart, happy, and well adjusted, and so their attention is directed away from the larger social forces that might be affecting them. There's a new toy on the market called Sticky Situations.