Monday 19 April 2010

Houdini Toy Packaging

It was my 3 year olds birthday last weekend, I'm still recovering and finding ingrained jelly on my carpet.
Anyway, as a spoilt little lady, she received toys galore. I was her personal gift opener, when she couldn't be bothered to unwrap. However, the unwrapping was the easy part. Actually getting into some of the boxes and detaching tangled wire took much longer, with spells of swearing heard.

Character (Peppa Pig) toys seem to be the worst, there is more wrapping than toy. I needed pliers to detach a car from it's packaging and didn't have a screw driver small enough to remove odd round plastic bits from the underneath. Why the need for this Houdini packaging?

Some mums I spoke to recently said that opening a toy should be fun, part of the experience instead of having to keep your child away due to the small sharp packaging parts and spiky wire.

My daughter received a Lego set and it was so much easier to open, the box is in itself a carrying case and she was diving into it in seconds with no left over bits to hastily pick up.

I know perhaps practicality of packaging is not on the forefront of toy makers minds but if it is too difficult to open it can put parents in a bad mood!


Saturday 3 April 2010

School Gate Election?

It has been quoted a number of times that the election will be decided at the school gate?!
Now at my school gate we have recently been talking about Easter eggs, the terrible weather, how our children like growing vegetables but no political utterance in earshot.

Us mums do not talk politics at the school gate. I could hazard a guess at my fellow mummy's political voting but am certainly not going to talk about the new razzle dazzle all-promising policies with my fellow picker-ups in the 5 minutes that I have at the nursery gate!

In fact, when I get a minute to grab a coffee with one of my mum friends, the topic is not touched. Many of my mum friends may be able to convince me to buy the latest pair of Clarks shoes but they will not change my mind on my political stance.

Deciding what Party I vote for will not be based on whether Gordon Brown likes KitKats or whether David Cameron has problems with his WebChat. Please! I am a mum but my political outlook is wider and more grounded in the bigger picture of the future.