It’s a good thing summer camps are coming up, with their weird seminars on bracelet weaving and whittling rings, because the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has just announced a recall of 19,000 charms sold at Claire’s stores, and says that’s just the beginning. [More]
kids
Should I Buy Property Insurance For My College-Bound Boy?
By 4.27.10
Caring mother Amy wants to know how much is too much to pay for property insurance for her college-bound kid when he goes off to school. [More]
The Woman In Charge Of Making Sure You Are Not Offended By Movie Posters
By 4.23.10
The NYT takes us behind the scenes of the endless nitpicking that goes on before a movie poster can be shown to the easily-offended public. Meet Marilyn Gordon. She is in charge of a team whose goal is to make sure you, the public, are not offended. [More]
Bikinis For Children: Now With Padded Bras
By 4.15.10
What constitutes an appropriate swimsuit for elementary school-aged girls? Is a bikini inappropriate? How about a padded bikini? This summer, U.K. discounter Primark tried marketing a bikini with a padded top, aimed at girls as young as seven. It didn’t go well. The chain removed the suit from its racks only hours after tabloid The Sun declared the product a [pedophile] bikini. [More]
It's Never Too Early To Get Your Child Her First Cubicle
By 4.14.10
If you have a child, you want him or her to be prepared for the future. So why not begin their dreary cubicle farm confinement before they even learn how to read? That’s what the Little Tykes Young Explorer does, combining a home cubicle and child-sized seating with a computer loaded with kid-friendly software, all at a rather inflated price. Which is a lot like real office furniture, come to think of it. [More]
Young, Dumb, Full Of Risk For ID Theft
By 3.17.10
A new study finds that the young and the feckless are the most at risk for identity theft. 18-24 year olds are more likely to be victimized because they don’t check their accounts frequently or thoroughly enough. You can beat the statistics, though, if 1 in 20 times you’re tempted to check your friend’s Facebook updates you instead scrutinize your account statements. [WashingtonPost] (Thanks to Timothy!) [More]
This Is What Kids Did For Fun In The 80s
By 3.16.10
Josh at GeekSix unearthed a comic book ad that might be familiar to you if you were a kid in the 80s. Olympic Sales Club was one of those door-to-door greeting card companies that enlisted kids across the country to sell crap to neighbors in exchange for merch your parents wouldn’t buy you. [More]
Hey Companies, Little Kids Are Not An Acceptable Sales Force
By 2.23.10
Dale writes to us that his two kids came home tasked with a lame magazine subscription assignment on behalf of a classroom magazine called Weekly Reader. It’s a little sleazy to use kids to pry cash out of the pockets of relatives and friends, and I hold that opinion as both a kid who has had to do it and an adult who has received the manipulative “please help my school!” plea in the mail. [More]
These Fake Plastic Pennies Cost Only 4.5 Cents Each
By 1.29.10
It’s never too early to teach your kids about financial responsibility. That’s why play money is a fun idea. What we find fiscally suspect, however, are plastic pennies from Learning Resources. 100 plastic pennies for the low, low price of $4.50. Yes, that’s four cents per penny, and even more than the U.S. Mint pays to make real pennies. [More]
Mattel Sells Overpriced Barbie Printer, Forgets To Make Overpriced Refill Cartridges
By 12.26.09
Mattel’s new “beautronics” device aimed at tween girls, the Barbie Nail Printer, is a glorified inkjet printer that customizes and prints designs on your fingernails. Neat idea in theory, though a bit pricey at $180. However, Mattel has apparently overlooked an essential part of the inkjet printer business model: selling new and overpriced cartridges. The problem, reader Richard writes, is that the company refuses to take orders for new cartridges, saying that they won’t be available until next year. But I want pink leopard print fingernails now! [More]
Southwest: Here's $150, Forgive Us For Suspecting Your Baby Was 2
By 12.18.09
Southwest sent out a peace offering to Kris, the woman who was reduced to tears when a Southwest check-in agent stopped her from bringing her 7-month infant onto the plane because she couldn’t prove his age. [More]
Your Kids Are Bumming Out The Mall Santa
By 12.14.09
The Wall Street Journal says that this year, mall Santas are spending their breaks looking bleakly at the wall and salting their mugs of bourbon with bitter tears. Why? Because your kids keep sitting on their laps and acting like characters from a Loretta Lynn song. One Santa used to joke that bad kids would get socks, but no more:
This year, he stopped telling the joke. Too many children were asking for socks. “They’ve probably heard their parents say, ‘Geez, I wish I had some money to get them clothes,'” says Mr. Riemersma, 56 years old.
FTC Online Mall Teaches Tweens About Online Privacy, Scammers
By 12.14.09
This month, the Federal Trade Commission unveiled You Are Here, a virtual mall where kids can learn to avoid online scams, spot misleading ads, and learn good habits to be smart consumers. [More]
Should Rob Complain About His Bad Kroger Pharmacy Experience?
By 12.11.09
Rob’s local Kroger pharmacy screwed up the prescription on his kid’s TamiFlu. Rob caught the error before any harm was done, and he’s not the confrontational type. In fact, he’s wondering whether he should just drop the whole matter. Here’s your chance to convince him otherwise. [More]
Relax, Toy Hamsters Not Metalloid Death Bringers After All
By 12.8.09
You can dig up that bag of Zhu Zhus from your backyard and re-wrap them for the kids again. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has said that the robot hamsters are not loaded with too much antimony after all, despite claims made by the website GoodGuide. [More]
Southwest Flight Forced To Land After In-Flight Entertainment Turns Out To Be A Live Birth
By 12.4.09
A Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City was forced to land in Denver this morning, after a passenger on the flight surprised everyone by producing a baby in mid-air. [More]
Geek Squad Contributes To Society, Opens Outlet In Children's Hospital
By 11.18.09
The announcement that Best Buy plans to open a Geek Squad outlet inside the Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis seems, at first, incongruous. “Geek Squad?” we said. “Haven’t these families already suffered enough?” Except this Geek Squad isn’t there to profit off sick kids—they’re there to help. No, really.
