I took my older daughter to Target Sunday morning. We had an enormous list and in spite of my best organizational efforts, we kept having to criss-cross the store in search of goods. I'd promised Z a coloring book and the opportunity to pick out a toy for her little sister if she was good, and she was really good. So good other moms were pointing her out to their rambunctious children and saying "See how she's walking right next to her mommy?"
Now early on in the trip Z reasoned that since she already had two coloring books, she'd rather have a package of Little Mermaid underpants instead. Fine, I said. They were cheap and you can't have too many Princess panties, right?
Anyway, after an hour or so of shopping and a cart so full of bulky items that Z had lost her seat, we headed to the dreaded toy section to pick up Baby A's present.
What was I thinking? You can't get to early childhood toys without first passing the dreaded Princess aisle. She was rapt. I tried to lure her out of there with a $2.99 Princess Jasmine jigsaw puzzle, but she was already transfixed by some $50+ castle playset monstrosity. Desperate to get the hell out of dodge, I agreed to a Cinderella dress-up set, not examining it closely enough to realize that not only was it phenomenally ugly (rubbery dresses with glitter that comes right off on your hands), but it came with four pairs of the world's teeniest, tiniest slippers.
See? I'm not kidding. At least this shoe is pink. The set also includes clear plastic shoes this size--not even a centimeter long!! If there was ever an argument for having your children young, it is so your vision can handle placing said minuscule slippers on tiny Cinderella feet and scouring the brand new basement carpet for lost, colorless doll shoes.
And worse of all, the Princess dress-up set from hell cost almost as much as this awesome baby overstimulation ball.
What toys do you most regret buying?
Cross-posted to the Chicago Moms Blog
