Well it looks like we were heard. A bill from the Senate has gone to President Bush's desk and will hopefully be signed soon. woohooo!!!
If you remember, we, well I, decided to ban China toys from our household this past December. It caused a huge uproar and upset quite a few people in our family, but I just felt that the safety of my kids was more important that mounds of toxic toys. And really, do we need that many toys? The shear volume of plastic that invaded my house for one, YES one, child was absolutely amazing. I mean one second, I'm sitting in a Chinese restaurant rubbing my huge belly talking to my husband about how our house cannot, will not, turn into a day care and that we needed a plan to hold back the troops of family with toys in hand for their very first granddaughter/niece/cute squishy baby and the very next second, I'm stepping on peek-a-blocks, rescuing Chicken Elmo from a flapping tirade and walking robo puppies all day long. But they're all gone now! Thank God! The toys, I mean, not the family.
The holidays were rough, probably more so for our family than us. We tried to keep the focus on the celebration and not the toys. We've celebrated M's birthday and again, we did ok. I think some people were hoping that we had forgotten about our China protest, but not so. Well there was that one really bad, BAD day when we were trapped in the house with the plumbers.... I set a few China toys free to save the little bit of sanity I had left, but they've since been rebanned. I know, I know but hey, it's not like China hasn't done it, right? So now A's birthday is coming up and I was almost going to cave, but then this sweet little reminder showed up on MSNBC today and I remembered that what I'm doing is making a difference and I'm sticking to my guns. No China toys for A this birthday, and why should we? Don't we deserve better?
2 comments:
I wasn't behind the whole ban toys and everything from china until I heard an interesting report on NPR Saturday. It was about how China makes safe plastic toys for Europe already because Europe has higher standards. They have a "all chemicals are guilty of toxins until proven innocent" policy unlike our backwards all are innocent etc. policy. I'm glad this is finally getting the attention it deserves. Good call on banning the toys. Im sure it will be a lot easier for mamas to tell loved ones not to buy from China(just yet).
On a slightly different, semi-related topic look at these super cute natural toys!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7005586
Halle-freaking-lujah!
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