Funny Friday

Parents get blamed for a lot of stuff, and moms are a particularly popular target. For instance, the sales of Matchbox cars are on the decline and Mattel thinks it's because of mothers. According to Mattel, women don't understand cars the way they do action figures, which are essentially dolls, or blocks, which allow creative expression. Moms don't comprehend the benefits of playing with toy cars because they themselves "have never played with them," Matt Petersen, a Mattel vice president, told Bloomberg Businessweek. According to Mattel, cars can be used to teach boys all sorts of things, including math and science and moms aren't aware of these benefits.

Obviously, this is very sexist. Not as sexist perhaps as this video, but pretty sexist. In my personal experience, it's also just incorrect. The Boy loved his cars and I bought tons of them, so back up, Mattel. I kid you not that he slept with a garage full of cars in his crib for two years. Before he had cars, he would take a block (which is something I understand with my lady-brain) and run it up and down the floor, pretending that it was a car, which is why I bought him some real cars. As I've mentioned, I'm not terribly introspective about this sort of thing, so I didn't reflect on whether he'd derive some additional educational benefit from the cars past just playing with them. Similarly, I never reflected on what benefit the Baby would get from having a doll; she just wanted to play with one and that was good enough for me. 

Further, I think it's quite a leap to say that because moms didn't play with cars when they were children, they can't understand boys' interest in cars. I don't have a penis and never have, but that doesn't mean I don't understand a little boy being fascinated when he discovers his. When you finish with the mom-doesn't-understand-cars issue, Mattel, get on the mom-doesn't-understand-penises issue.

A common sentiment among little boys.

Now that you're caught up on current events (oh yeah, there's also a new Pope), the remainder of Funny Friday is devoted to jobs and hobbies that I wasn't aware existed.