Coping With Battery Operated Gadgets

Our house is full of kids toys. We'll clean up the house,the way? Why do we continue to be such suckers?
finding toys scattered to the furthest corner awaySomehow we think we're getting a great deal on a
from the children's bedrooms, where the toys areparticular gift. Do we ever figure in the years of
supposed to be kept.commitment and expense we are getting ourselves
It takes hours to collect together every stray doll,into?
missing puzzle pieces, forlorn teddy bears and TonkaOr do we know all along that we have no intention of
trucks and put them back in their respective places.replacing the batteries and yet continue on buying
And yet, somehow our children still insist that theythese battery operated toys, as some sort of sick
need more toys.joke on our children?
That they haven't anything to amuse them and theWhatever, the case, I know in our family we have so
most interesting thing they can find to do is complain tomany toys that require new batteries that should we
us.choose to replace them all in one shot, it would likely
On the rare occasion when our children's bedroomscost us several hundreds of dollars.
are actually housing the bulk of their toys I have takenWe have tried the Dollar store route. We've bought
a chance to peruse their shelves, open their closetsmassive packages of dud batteries, thinking we getting
and peek under their beds. There are literally toysa real deal for a dollar. So many times, these batteries
everywhere!will provide a surge of power for a matter of minutes
However, I must say one word in their defense: aand then resort to short little spurts of energy, ending
great number of these toys are not fully functional dueup completely useless to our battery operated toys.
to long-dead batteries that are seldom replaced afterIn the end we've simply decided to weed out the most
the second round. Having such a proliferation offavourite of these toys, leaving the rest in a big box
battery operated toys is a phenomenon familiar todestined for an upcoming garage sale.
most families.These toys will then be passed on to another
Even more familiar is the occurrence of these toysunsuspecting parent who thinks they too are getting
being inoperable due to their need of fresh batteries.such a great deal. And finally we'll be rid of the
That brings me to the question, why do parentsproblem of all these battery operated toys that we've
continue to purchase such battery operated toys.accumulated, making it somebody else's problem once
Shouldn't be have begun to clue in somewhere alongand for all!