Pink stinks for little girls

A new pressure group led by Emma and Abi Moore titled the ‘Pinkstinks’ campaign is asking parents to boycott any shops that sell pink clothes and pink toys for girls.

The twins, who have about three thousand supporters on Facebook, claim that young girls are being brainwashed by companies that target them in particular with pink items such as dresses and pink toy fairy wings.

Additionally, the group claims that the media is too focused on WAGs, sexy pop stars, and stick thin models which is making young girls look towards unrealistic role models.

The group identified the Early Learning Centre as one of the largest offenders of creating specifically pink toys.

The ‘Pinkstinks’ campaign believes that while boys toys embrace every avenue from educational to adventure to science, girls toys are much more limited to simply being pretty.

Who’s been playing with the kids toys?

A new research study found that on average a parent spends about a month of their own life playing their children’s toys, on their own.

The study claims that parents spend about 22 minutes a day playing with toys like dolls, bricks, and games, while their children are not playing.

This equates to about two and a half hours a week or five days a year.  Thus, during the seven years that a child is ages four to eleven the parent will play on their own for about a month ten days.

The study also found that parents get angry, although they may not show it, when a child decides to play with the toy they are currently toying with.

Out of the parents surveyed, half stated they preferred Lego with the other half admitting they enjoyed puzzles and games.

The survey included 2,000 parents and was conducted by the Early Learning Centre which additionally found that 25% of parents purchased new toys out of their own boredom and not their child’s.

Perfect educational toys for Christmas

Most people have to purchase a children’s toy for someone on their Christmas list, which can be frustrating due to the high demand for certain must-have items.  This year, avoid the crazy rush by choosing to indulge the child on your list with an educational toy.

By doing so the child can get a toy that actually will help them develop and you get to rest easy with the satisfaction that you have made a positive contribution on their life.

One of the most popular tech-smart toys this year is the Nitro Web Notebook ‘Safe Surfing” product which has 70 interactive activities programmed into it that teach children everything from Spanish to science to art to maths.  The tiny classroom learner is also connected to the web, which means the content can always be updated and allows children to interact with peers also using the same device.

For younger children, the perfect gift may be the Kidizoom Digital Camera Plus, which allows small children to use the miniature digital camera that allows them to store up to 2000 photos of their own.  It is equipped with 2.0 mega pixel resolution and can be connected to a home computer or television so that children get to share their art with friends and family.

Finally, one more option for the child who is hard to shop for is the Expanded V Smile Motion Smartridge Library which contains titles from all of the most popular children’s characters such as NASCAR, Ni Hao Kai Lin, Handy Manny, UP, and plenty more.

Go Go Hamsters are safe after all

Despite the fact that Monday reports were issued from the US that the Go Go Hamsters may have contained arsenic chemical compounds, the fears were squashed with news that the toys were not toxic after all.

The poison scare sent the toy industry into a temporary meltdown sending shares of its distributor, Character Group, down by 8pc in the UK.  Still, the £10 toys are well on their way to be being the largest Christmas toy this season with an estimated figure of 600,000 expected to be sold by Christmas in the UK alone.

Good Guide, the US consumer group that raised the alarm, may be in hot water however, as the US producers Cepia are considering filing a damages lawsuit against the company for their misleading public statements.

Character Group released a press statement that said Mr. Squiggles the hamster in question is perfectly safe and passed all of the toy industry tests with remarkable colours.

Executive chairman of the group Richard King stated that the company was rocked by the claims due to their disruptive nature and the timing of the claims but that it is all part of the market game.

Good Guide stated last weekend that they had found the chemical anomaly in the toy only to then recant their statement, saying there was some confusion over the figures and that their testing techniques were different.

After the claims were made public Character Group sent the toy through a series of tests that affirmed the toy is safe.