What WILL We Do?!

I awoke this morning to another lovely day of Twinkle not having school because of teacher conferences. She got to "sleep in", so she didn't get up until 7:30. Whee. I was actually already up and downstairs. This caused Twinkle to play one of her favorite games where stuffed animals coming flying into the room with no apparent explanation for how they got there. You know, 5 year olds - not that stealthy. But, it's fun to pretend.

When she finally came downstairs, she informed me that on the news (on the TV in my room) they were talking about Easy Bake Ovens. The Easy Bake Oven that Santa brought Twinkle not 2 months ago. I had just seen it on CNN.com . CNN, where the headline is "Nearly 1 million toy ovens recalled" and the sub-headline is actually, are you ready? - "DANGER ZONES - KEEPING YOUR FAMILY SAFE", yes in all CAPS. Twinkle proceeds to tell me that 5 children burned their fingers on their Easy Bake Ovens. I asked her how they did that. She said "They stuck their fingers in it!" Me: "And what did you learn from that?" T: "Don't stick your fingers in it. But, I already knew that!". Then we exchanged a "people are SO stupid" look. I don't know where she gets it. So, "nearly 1 million" (minus one) Easy Bake Ovens are being retro-fitted with some kind of kit to keep idiots from sticking their fingers in it. Hey, don't stick your head in a real oven either. My oven needs a retro-fit kit.

We wonder why kids can't take responsibility for their actions today; why they don't get that when they do x (OK, not literally "do X" - but maybe), then y may happen. Now we have a toy for ages 8 and up that cooks food being recalled because kids could get their fingers stuck and burned if they stick them inside the oven?

It's a crazy world. Somebody ought to sell tickets.