Strollerderby : consumerist

Gambling on Potty Training

Amy Kuras — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:28:00 GMT

Look, I understand potty training desperation, I really do. We struggled with it mightily around here and the only thing that worked for once and all was my daughter turning three.

But this? This is a very, very bad idea. It’s a potty chair. With a slot machine theme. Called the “Jack Potty.” That goes off when your child makes a “bet.” Glllllaaahhhhhrrrgg.

This seems that it could have only a few possible effects: 1) Your child develops a lifelong fear of using the potty, spooked by the lights and the noise and music. 2) Your child develops an inability to poop unless greeted by much fanfare. 3) Your child develops a jones for the one-armed bandit.

There’s so much wrong with this I don’t know where to begin, so let me just share with the you the best comment on the original post over at Consumerist: “A craps table would have been more appropriate. Sorry.” Not to mention the Consumerist’s crew’s tag: Loosest Slots in Town.

Ewwwwww. But funny.

Babies R Us tells breastfeeding mother to get out

Brett Singer — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:30:00 GMT

A reader sent us a link to this post on Consumerist. Basically, a woman shopping at a California Babies 'R' Us tried to use a nursing chair, "for its intended purpose, she was told that she was not allowed to breastfeed on the sales floor." Apparently, this is illegal under California law. Something similar happened in New York at the Times Square Toys 'R' Us; that time, the ACLU got involved, since the New York law is similar to the one in California – breast-feeding anywhere, anytime.

I admit to being a little torn on this one. While I agree that all companies should follow the law, and that it's not unreasonable for a woman to breastfeed in public, I've also seen situations where I felt like it was a bit inappropriate. I can't imagine anyone wanting to nurse a baby at the Toys 'R' Us in Times Square, for example. (I also can't imagine anyone wanting to spend any time there at all, so maybe I'm the wrong person to ask about this.)

The comments on the site are similarly divided. The first one was 'disemvoweled', but I think it used to say something like, "So, they provide a room and that still isn't good enough?" along with something about "self-righteous parents." ('Disemvoweling' means the vowels were removed; this is the preferred fate for potentially offensive comments on many sites. If you don't know what that means, consider yourself lucky that you have better things to worry about; if you want to know, click here.) Not very nice, but does he/she/it have a point?

A more measured approach is shown in this comment: "Personally, I would use the room. I don't see the point of breastfeeding in public when a private room is available. It's not that breastfeeding is 'dirty' or 'wrong'…[but] it's not something I'd like to share with other people who could gawk because of their own insecurities."

And the award for the best comment on that post goes to: "First rule of Fight Club is: Don't get the La Leche League on your ass."

Now, obviously the employee was, at best, a jerk, and at worst was violating the woman's civil rights. (I'm not a lawyer so forgive me if I've used that term incorrectly.) But is the woman in the article going a little too far as well? What do you think?

source: Consumerist, via a reader (thanks!)

image: msnbc (not related to this story, its from a "nurse-in" in 2006)

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Greenhouse: Cloth, not Chemicals

Amy Kuras — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:03:00 GMT

Hate cleaning. Like, a lot. Love the discussions that spring up here when I post about green cleaning products, so here's another interesting thing I came across, via The Consumerist (which has been fertile ground for me this week, due props to them). Writer Barbara Flanagan, from ID magazine, did an interesting piece on microfiber cleaning textiles.

The cloths have been incredibly popular in Europe since their introduction about 15 years ago. They clean by scraping surfaces with their microscopic fibers. No chemicals are needed, just water. Better still, you don’t throw them out when you're done, you just toss them in the wash.

I know I have seen these somewhere, but they are hard to find. Flanagan notes that there's a huge issue of disbelief, that simply a damp cloth can clean very well. And since microfiber is unregulated, crappy products take down the reputation of good ones.

She bought several from Newell Rubbermaid, which introduced a line of household microfiber cleaning cloths last year, and put them to the test her self and by asking several cleaning people to use them. The cloths worked, very well in fact. But many cleaners still didn't like them.

"My fellow cleaners were not happy; robbed of the sensory excitement of cleaning solutions—bright colors, heady fumes, sudsing, foaming, and definitive rinsing—everyone felt ineffective and disarmed. The rituals didn’t feel right."

True. I am a sucker for that nice clean smell after you've scrubbed down, say, the bathroom. But I would use microfiber if I could find them. Added bonus, no terrifying poison warnings on things I keep (inaccessibly, but still) in the same house with my kids.

Budget Baby: Butcher It

Amy Kuras — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:02:00 GMT

Food costs right now are thoroughly insane – and that's if you aren’t, say, eating all organic produce which ought to have been watered by an angel's tears for the price it commands. I'm consistently shocked at how much our grocery bill jumps each month, and when one of the four people who live here stops getting the bulk of his nutrition from me, we're really going to be shelling out.

One way to cut food costs is to butcher your own meat. I found this idea from Cheap Stingy Bargains (via The Consumerist). Now, neither they nor I am suggesting you turn your garage into a slaughterhouse – just buy bigger cuts of meat and break them down into cuts and individual portions by yourself. The more a butcher does for you, the less you get and the more you pay.

The Cheap Stingy folks used the example of boneless skinless chicken breasts, which often cost so much per pound that you can spend more on two of them than you do on a whole chicken (which comes with two breasts, plus a whole bird's worth of meat besides). If you learn how to break down a bird, you get those breasts plus legs and thighs for another meal and a back, neck and bones for stock. Those lovely, fancy center cut boneless pork chops? Just a pork loin, sliced about an inch thick and generally lots cheaper than the chops.

Here's a site to learn more about butchering.

Greenhouse: Cloths, not Chemicals

Amy Kuras — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:08:00 GMT

Budget Baby: Clip Coupns to Save Cash

Amy Kuras — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:34:00 GMT

I love coupons. I flip through them when I get the Sunday paper, sign up for mailing lists so I can get good ones in the mail (I even got one for wine today!), and own not one but two little coupon holder thingies (one for stuff I buy at Target and one for the grocery store, of course).
I know the majority of you are rolling your eyes right now, and that coupons are deeply unhip. But seriously, it can be a really good way to save money, especially on things you were planning to buy anyway. It doesn’t take that much time, either -- I flip through the coupon inserts in the weekend paper quickly pulling out the ones I'll use, and then clip and file them sometime before I go shopping. All told, it takes me maybe an hour if I've let the clipping slide for a couple weeks and I've saved upwards of $30 per shopping trip. And the more coupons you use, the more you get – my grocery store will send me coupons for $8 off my whole bill, just because I use my "frequent shopper" card there, and Costco sends us coupons almost every month.
This lady, though, is the Master. According to this article linked through Consumerist, she spends something like $10 a week on groceries to feed a family of five, and frequently walks out of the store having gotten an item for free or almost free.
Now a couple caveats to this –I think if you're going to save big money with coupons, you have to eat a lot of processed food, which I don't. There are coupons for healthy cereal and pasta and organic stuff here and there, but most frequently it is the kind of food that makes me put my head in my hands and weep for America. Thus I rarely experience the "getting an item for free" thing real coupon fiends do.
Still, with food prices spiraling, try using coupons just once. It's beyond awesome to stand at the cash register and watch your total go spinning down once all your discounts are applied.

Lower Back Tattoos for Your Toddler

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:25:00 GMT

If your kids are anything like mine, they are very admiring of my tattoos. They call them "Mommy's pretty stickers" so I was pleased as punch to see that Toys R Us is now selling sticker tattoos for kids' lower backs.

Since I have girls (ages 3 to 6) with low cut jeans anyway,

it would be fun to place a little pic of Hannah Montana or Mickey Mouse as a sort of peekaboo pretty picture.

Kids these days are growing up fast. We're serving mock cocktails at my youngest daughter's 3rd birthday tomorrow evening. She loves those virgin Margaritas, I tell you.

Heading to Toys R Us now to buy her tattoo sticker. Her older sisters will be green with envy!

[Photo Credit: Consumerist]