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Gosh. A guy could go to the store and look for other toys, I'd guess. I did that the other day, and there were plenty of good wholesome toys. I bought some of them for my great nieces and nephews for Christmas.

Indeed, there are adult video games. THEY'RE FOR ADULTS. Don't buy them for children. Sheesh!

A guy could go to the store and look for other toys, I'd guess.

Good grief, not that old "shop somewhere else/change the channel/don't pay attention" to it argument again. Do you think it's responsible for toy merchants to sell this pedophile's fantasy:

I don't disagree with you about the videogames, as they are marketed differently. But dolls like Baby Bratz should not be marketed to children. I would go as far to say that they shouldn't be sold anywhere.

A breath of fresh air, a rumble of common sense ...

I agree that it's tough to find clothes for girls that are decent, modest, and reasonably priced. Even the secondhand stores aren't as useful as one would wish, because they like to stock what's fashionable.

However, we're just about done shopping for seven children 14-and-under, and I've had no difficulty at all finding suitable toys, games, crafts, CD's, and books.

Ditto. Wandered into a Toys R Us a few weeks ago, and past the piles and piles of Bratz merchandise (etc.) you had classic board games, Lego, stuffed animals, plastic dinosaurs and sharks, various new sorts of building kits (one with magnets if I remember correctly, that I would have loved), etc.

Same for video games. If a parent is buying a kid GTA instead of, say, Animal Crossing and Paper Mario and Katamari Damacy (well... OK, I can't decide if KD is violent... the people don't seem to like being rolled up into stars; they keep wiggling) and whatever else out there is suitable for kids, that's the parent's fault.

I'm currently rereading _Pride and Prejudice_ . Mrs. Bennets and their Lydias have existed for a good long while.

I read _Farmer Boy_ years ago; violent boys have, similarly, existed for a good long while.

Yes, both are bad, but blaming merchants for a preexisting condition is backwards. They're hawking this stuff disproportionally because the parents most careless with their money are also the ones most careless with their children's minds... and possibly also because this sort of parent is becoming more common. (I say thank the school system which raised the parents for that, but that's me.)