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This week I'm very concerned about toys... and specifically, toys made in China. You all may have seen it and I posted it here, but there was a HUGE toy recall from Mattel this week because the paint on the toys had high levels of lead. The toys were manufactured in China, of course, which seems to be getting a hell of a lot of bad publicity lately for poor quality exports.
It just seems like, if it's from China, its safety cannot be guaranteed. Before this week's toy recall, wooden Thomas the Tank Engine trains were recalled for high amounts of lead in the paint. And remember that huge pet food recall a few months back? Also traced to China... along with faulty tires and toothpaste with dangerous chemicals. And, the Food and Drug Administration banned importing five types of farm-raised fish from China because they might have cancer-causing chemicals in them.
One of the problems is that this nation just accepts low-priced imports from China without any sort of inspection process. We trust that the Chinese have done adequate inspections and the materials they've used to manufacture these cheap products are up to U.S. standards.
Obviously, we're wrong.
But... have you ever stopped to notice how much of the stuff we buy is from China? I don't know if I could ever go completely without buying items from China because so much comes from there.
And then there's another issue I have. If I only bought wooden, American-made or trustworthy toys, I feel like I would be denying my daughter the pop culture, rites of passage of her childhood.
When I was a kid, there were certain toys that were specific to my generation that I never got to have. My parents weren't anti-plastic or anything. In fact, I don't really know the reason why I never got any popular toys. But, no matter how much I asked for one, I never got a Cabbage Patch Doll. The only time I got to play with a Cabbage Patch Doll was at a friend's house, and then I didn't get first pick because they always got to play with their favorite one. I remember having so much love for those chubby dolls with their freckled faces, and hating that the dolls I got to play with were not mine to love all the time. I didn't even get to name them!
And, I clearly remember having to save up my allowance for months so I could buy a Care Bear because my parents wouldn't buy me anything mainstream like that. I was only about 7 or 8 years old! I felt robbed. I also felt extremely frustrated because, at Christmas and birthdays, my brothers got dozens and dozens of G.I. Joes and Star Wars toys...which were very popular in the '80s. But, for some reason, I only received weird dolls and clothing. I think I'm still a little bitter about that and I should probably have a talk with my mother about why I had such a deprived childhood-- I kid, of course. I was not deprived...maybe I just wasn't spoiled like my friends.
But, not having those toys made it so other kids didn't want to come over. You couldn't play Barbies or Care Bears or Cabbage Patch Kids at Anna's house. I just had weird, unrecognizable toys.
My concern is that, later in my daughter's life, I will have to choose between depriving her of a popular character toy that she loves and sticking to a no "Made in China" or no plastics rule. Of course, if I know a toy is hazardous... of course I won't buy it. But, can I honestly assume everything from China is dangerous?
There's a book that I want to read called "A year without Made in China", and it's written by a mother whose family went for a year without purchasing anything that was Made in China. Of course, I'm quickly running out of time here as my due date approaches later this month.
I'm curious what you guys think. Is it asking to much of ourselves and our kids to go completely without any items that are Made in China?
Give me a call at 1-888-240-9031 (Toll Free) or comment below.
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Anna Johns is a blogger, podcaster and mother living in rainy Portland, Oregon.
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Communist China has a atrocious human rights record. In the system they employ, the individual is a almost a THING. The Chinese workers are often paid the equivalent of 50 cents per hour to produce common goods sold in the United States.
But it is scary that now very often the discussions of Chinese trade have to do with the fairly remote possibility of someone (ONE person) getting poisoned, and ignores human rights concerns altogether. Americans seem often to value one American life above millions of Chinese lives. It is scary, and one wonders whether the American people lose favor with God if they discount human dignity this way.