why bother?

This morning Owen and I had a cleaning scheduled at our dentist. Although Collin had his cleaning done last month, he had the honor of accompanying us since he really has nowhere else to go! He came prepared with a backpack full of various cars and trucks to occupy himself, and as usual, was a very well-behaved little man.

Before we left the office, Collin was invited to choose something out of The Prize Basket for his stellar behavior. He chose the pictured paddle ball [with ball still attached at the time]. Within a few minutes of getting home, Collin informed me through the tears in his eyes that his ball had willfully detached itself from the string.

Of course I was prepared for the upset of having the toy fall apart, because they always do. But this time I started thinking. Why do companies even bother making stuff that can't even endure a few minutes of use? Has anyone ever had a paddle ball that lasted longer than ten minutes? I can tell you that none of my kids ever have! What is the point of making worthless cheap junk?

Don't get me wrong-I totally appreciate the fact that our dentist makes The Prize Basket available to our little ones to make a visit to the dentist more fun. It's just that it seems so useless to even produce stuff that promptly falls apart. Made in China? Most likely. Although the way things are going now, things coming from China are going to have to be more expensive just to bring them up to basic levels of quality control. Which probably will translate into less offerings at the dollar store and Oriental Trading Company. I love both of these places, by the way! It's not necessarily about how much you spend, it's about how you design and manufacture your product.

Anyway, I've had my fun. I've had my little rant and I'm over it now. It was fun feeling like Rush Limbaugh for a couple of minutes. I know in my heart that from the beginning of time, the concept of the paddle ball was probably never a sturdy one to begin with. It was a concept just waiting to get broken. Now I'm off to surreptitiously toss our paddle ball into the garbage before Collin sees it and remembers that it's broken!