I thought I could get riled up into a righteous indignation when I was younger. About art and clothes and other stupid stuff. All that pales in comparison to agrivated I get with stuff that short sells Robinia, or kids in general. This has sort of always been the case. The saccharin advertising scehemes and color of kids content and products has always felt predatory and horrible to me, even when I was a kid. 

I gave Robinia a bath today and we played with a toy of such profane design that my previous idea for the blog went out the window. I bought this thing at a pharmacy the last time it got really hot. It came in a bundle of other water / bath toys for kids. Likely poison plastic from China in the first place. 

This particular toy is a watering can. Made of two parts, their combination creating a spout. But the seam between the two is on the bottom, so before it can pour in charming little droplets out of the spout, it all splatters out in a rush. It is a little difficult to explain without a visual aid but suffice it to say, if this thing was not designed with intentional childhood sabotage in mind then I think all things must be done to protect the person who designed this, they are a mentally deficient but have somehow become a professional industrial designer: they must be studied.

Perhaps the biggest draw to this school project is that it’s work I can honestly, truthfully, feel is important. I try to feel that way about my day job and I fail, that might be a good thing. Working with kids is well and truly sacred, and beyond that, it’s important too. The world doesn’t need any more jerks in it, and daycare’s the front line battle against jerks.