Kids These Days

This all started when my dad took my sister Emily and I to Target yesterday. My dad collects Legos and he decided he wanted to see if Target had a new Lego set in. My sister and I wandered into the kid's section. Suddenly I noticed a Mc Donald's playest on a shelf. I thought, "What the heck is this doing here?" The Mc D's set included a cash register, fake money, and a variety of food. I made Em take a pic of it with her cellphone. On the shelf above the Mc D's set I saw a doctor playset that included a stethoscope, a "knee hammer", and a syringe. I turned to Em and said, "If your going to get your kids the Mc Donald's set you better get him the medical set as well since he's going to need it later . . ." We then noticed another Mc Donald's set that was "May I take your Order" themed with a headset and cash register. On the way out of Target I told Em, "You must have pretty high hopes for your kid if you get him a Mc Donald's playset instead of the doctor's set. Here Johhny, enjoy this, you'll need the practice . . ."
Today I went on Target.com to see what kinds of playsets they were offering kids between the ages of 4 and 5. To sum it up, kid's toys break down into 4 main categories :

1) Food. There were at least 10 different playsets that had varying types of food (mostly grocery- related items like steak, veges, cereal . . .) These sets included carts or carrying baskets to put the food in, some had kitchen appliances such as pots and pans, knives, forks and spoons, a stove, one set even had a fridge, . . .

2)Tools and Construction -very masculine - for the boys. It included a hammer, a saw, a screw driver, and a box to put it all in. The construction set mostly included bulldozers and helmets.

3) A random category of pirate stuff (mostly ships).

4) And for the girls the category I like to call "Barbie" (even though most of the items are not Barbie) This includes shoes, hair products such as a blow dryer, make-up, and tea sets all in an obnoxious color pink.
I think one of the most disturbing sets I found was a girl's purse that came with a debit card, a cellphone and car keys.

All of these items were listed under the category of "Imaginary Play". How messed- up and consumer- driven is this society? We've taken away our kids natural ability to be creative and replaced it with toys that only allow them to imagine what it will be like to be an adult. 4 and 5 year- olds shouldn't have to play "Let's go to the grocery store and the bank!" We've taken boring, mundane tasks we face everyday as adults and made them seem exciting and glamorous for kids. I don't know why we have to put so much pressure on kids these days to grow up before it's there time. At some point we should stop and ask ourselves if taking away a kid's childhood so he or she can get ahead as an adult is really worth the cost.