American Girl Place - Elitist?

Feast of Saint Saturus


(This story has become great fodder for the blogs and elsewhere - like the Consumerist. Read original post here.)

Sigh.... just another sign of our materialistic society.

I am a mother of a girl who is not interested in AG, or any doll for that matter (she is a huge animal lover). She does have a couple of “fake” dolls that she will occasionally play with when she is with her cousin (who is an AG fan, but not anymore!)

If only AG dolls are serviced, then they need to clearly state that in their advertising – “-bring your favorite AMERICAN GIRL doll.” They also need to train their little worker bees on proper etiquette. I hold AG responsible for this – they hired the “stylist”. Perhaps they didn’t know how rude she could be, no matter, AG needs to take responsibility.

That is another problem with our society – no one wants to take responsibility anymore. Everyone wants to pass the buck.

Recently, my son wanted a Nintendo DS. I cannot afford it, but I would not have bought him one anyway. There is a valuable lesson to be learned in a child paying for something him/herself. My son saved up his money over birthdays & Christmases (he would have had it sooner, but he also has to help pay for the care for his cat, and McDonalds or pizza if he wants it.) He didn’t want the PSP – he saw it was quite a bit more expensive, and he was pleased with the DS. He finally got it. And you know what? He is taking excellent care of it! By doing this, he impressed the adults around him, who are used to seeing teens expect things to be given to them.

My daughter wanted a new bike (doggone it but she outgrew her old one). She sold her old bike, and also saved her money. She looked around, carefully avoiding the Bratz bikes, nor was she interested in the fanciest. Like her brother, she wanted to get the most for her money, while still paying the least. She just bought her bike, and boy is she proud! Prior to this, she didn’t have a very good appreciation of the value of money. Now she sure does!

I make a lot of sacrifices in order to stay home and homeschool my children – sacrifices I gladly make. My children do not have a lot of toys, but the ones they do have, they appreciate & play with frequently. Nothing collects dust around here. Except for my cleaning supplies from lack of use, but that is a whole other post for another day.