I’m getting ready for my sons second birthday. We’re having some of his tiny friends over for a small party. It’s an exciting yet hectic time. I’ve put together little goodie bags for the kids to take home as a favor, but now I have to take an item out. Remove a gift from the bag. Our birthday theme is cars, trucks, and things with wheels, so I put a little toy car in each gift bag. With the recent bombardment of recalls, I took a second look at the tiny car I put in each of the gift bags. They are made in China. I threw them out. What is going on here that parents would rather throw a toy away than let their child, or any other child play with it.

While shopping in the toy section of Babies R Us the other day, a woman was looking for a toy for a grandchild or niece/nephew. She was inspecting every toy she picked up. She was so afraid to choose the wrong toy. To be the giver of a toy that her grandson or granddaughter would fall madly in love with, only to have his mom or dad take it away a few months later, ripping it from his arms, because it’s been recalled.

Finally, she asked me, “what toys can I buy? They are all made in China.” At the time, I wasn’t too concerned. I get the CPSC Recall email (sign up here) which alerts me of every recall, but after the recent announcement of the Aqua Dots recall I got steamed. How can we trust any toy now? I don’t want to wait until I get a notice in my in-box that my sons favorite toy has to be taken away from him.

As a mom, I think, well, maybe I’ll stick with name brands like Disney (nope, several toys with Disney names are on recall lists), Matell (nope, they have an entire section on their Web site dedicated to their toy recalls), Baby Einstein (nope, they have several toys on the recall lists), Graco (nope, they’ve got recalls too).

Everything our children use is being recalled, it’s not just toys: high chairs, bouncy seats, the Bumbo seat, cribs, pack and plays — nothing is immune to being recalled. The Aqua Dot recall is one of the scariest because it contains the same chemical that is found in the just as scary date rape drug. ::GASP::

Moms, Parents, Grandparents, this message today is for you. It’s for me. It’s for all of us who need to protect our little pumpkins, out bambinos, our peanuts … sign up for the CPSC email recall list today. Pay attention to the reports and monitor the toys that come into your home.

I’ve already tossed out the toy cars from the goodie bags and will be looking for a replacement item, something the kids can’t put in their mouth, sleep with or on, play with in anyway — maybe I’ll just give everyone a bag full of nothing. Oh, wait, bags are suffocation hazards. I don’t need a recall list to tell me that.

Related links:

• Read my post about the Bumbo seat (I’m keeping ours despite the recall)
• Sign up for the CPSC email recall list
• Aqua Dots recall information

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