Kitsch-en shopping

Next Sunday is Noah's birthday, so yesterday I went out to Toys "R" Us to buy him som presents. His grandparents had asked me to be their surrogate and find a play kitchen, so I did the requisite online product comparisons and found a couple of reasonable (read: not too expensive, and not pink) options.

My first clue that this would not be the best shopping expedition came when I got to the Toys "R" Us and couldn't find toy kitchens. I finally asked at the Customer Service desk and was told they were in the first aisle on the left, in the girls toys section. Ugh. So much for "not pink."

Luckily, the store did have the particular Little Tikes item I'd been considering in my online comparison shopping, and it looked like it would do the trick. Pastel, yes, but green and blue pastel, not pink and lavendar. Sold.

Then came the accessories. Even for a Franklin, the toy comes with a limited number of kitchen gear. So I look around to see what else the kitchen toy aisle has to offer. I decided against the plates, cups, utensils, and other "dinner table" items because -- you guessed it. Pink and lavendar. But there was a nice baking toys set with a two-speed toy mixer, a scale, spatula, pan, and other such items, most in semi-neutral shades of mint green and sky blue. Sold.

OK, how about some toy food? Here's where the real fun began. Immediately beneath the display kitchens was a bag of picnic food, complete with basket and red-and-white checkered blanket. The hot dogs were day-glo red and the burgers looked olive. Let me think about it... no.

A large set of miscellaneous food (like all the rest, made in China) looked more like it was made in North Korea by people who had never seen food (sorry -- that comment may be politically incorrect, but so was the food). No sale.

Then I turn around and see lots of nice looking food options. Except... Except I couldn't imagine subjecting my son, who doesn't watch TV and probably doesn't even know from advertising, to a toy DQ Sundae Bar or a toy Pizza Hut dinner for four. I vaguely considered getting the non-branded "take out meals" toy, complete with Chinese food, pizza, and fried chicken, and of course take-out menus (the toy kitchen does come with a microwave, after all), but other than the once-in-a-blue-moon trip to the Boston Market drive-thru, we don't even eat take-out food, let alone play with it. No sale.

So, Noah will have to survive on plastic chocolate chip cookies and ketchup (as far as I can tell, the only "food" to come with his toy kitchen) and use his imagination when mixing his baked goods. But really, is that such a bad thing? I didn't think so.