Everyday when Morgan helps me clean up her stuff that has been scattered about the house I give her a quarter. She gets another quarter for brushing her teeth. She puts her money in a jar and then wants to count it every night. Her jar was full and I told her we could go cash it in and she could pick out a new toy. She very excitedly told me she knew what she wanted and said it was the new "Totally Styling Tattoo Barbie". Now if you are a regular reader of my blog (or even if this is your first time here) you know I have a few tattoos. And you might know that I have a drawer in my kitchen that has temporary tattoos in it for Morgan. If you have visited my Flickr page you have seen this picture, which has been viewed 112 times, where you can see a couple of her tattoos.
So on Saturday we went to the store and cashed in her change. She had about 21.00. Just enough to buy her Barbie (before tax). We came home and started playing with it. It comes with a sheet of stickers for Barbie's tattoos, four shirts, a skirt and a pair of jeans you can tattoo, two sheets of temporary tattoos and a tattoo gun, which is basically a water gun with a sponge on the end. You place the tattoo on the end of the sponge and put it on whatever you are tattooing and push down. It makes a noise like a tattoo gun. We were laughing so hard at this. Morgan tattooed everything she could.
Here is my issue. This is the second Barbie to come out with tattoos. The first one was removed from stores because so many parents were outraged about the doll. And now this one is drawing a lot of attention from parents who don't want their daughters (or sons) playing with this doll that has tattoos. Why? I have read a lot on this issue and the big argument is that Barbie represents an age that a lot of people get tattoos they later regret. It is a doll. If you don't like it, don't buy it. I do not feel like I am a bad parent because I let Morgan buy a doll that comes with tattoos. I feel like it is my job as a parent to teach my kids how to make the best decisions about life including tattoos. If they get a tattoo they later regret I will not blame Mattel or the Barbie doll Morgan had when she was three. And no, I also will not blame myself. Our kids are going to do stuff that they regret and we don't agree with. It is life. For now, I am going to have to buy more Barbie tattoos, since the ones that came with the doll were gone by Sunday afternoon.
Here is a picture of the Barbie I bought my niece for her birthday. Call me crazy but to me the cup she is holding looks an awful lot like a glass that I use to drink alcohol out of. And she looks like she is going out to the club.
