My parenting crisis! Can the Yoga Barbie help?

 Photo credit: Flickr user Q-tee16

Oh my my there is a Yoga Instructor Barbie! Can you freaking believe that (of course you can, that was just a rhetoric). I have been shielding (yea, literally...at the shops you know) Kid 1 from the Barbies (I never had one as a kid and was never interested either - but that's besides the point, yes?) but time has been clever. It has enticed her with this slimy (oops, slim-y), booti-ful doll (is it even a doll?) thanks to the time away from Maama Hippo and time with other equally enticed little ones at school and elsewhere. Now, she is demanding a Barbie for her birthday. Barbie for Birthday. Repeat. Barbie as a gift for her birthday. Barbie! Birthday! Same sentence. Comprehendo?

Since when has this doll (toy? no-ways? yes-ways?) become so coveted for her that she wants it as a 'Gift' (something given as a reward, hmm?). Oh dear god, is this the big parenting crisis you warned me about in my dreams? I wish I had listened more keenly. I wish I had made an effort to journal the dream more importantly. What do I do now? Where did I go wrong? Didn't I show her Dora? Chutki? (Now, don't get me started on the Chutki nonsense and feminist rage boiling around that - that's for another post, okay?). Didn't I show her the easily legless, any-body-part-less actually local reproductions of wannabe (what else?) barbies! Meaning see how fleeting a pleasure you get playing with these China imports, sweetheart? Isn't it much better buying and sharing a chocolate with Mommy for the same bucks? I thought my baby listened. I thought my baby appreciated the miniscule savings we derived from not investing in this momentary apparitions. The many sacrifices of chocolates I made sharing it with her (Of course if she had insisted on her Barbie earlier, I would have insisted on the no share policy! But that would have set a totally wrong parenting example - thank god, it did not happen!). And now she wants her Barbie. Barbie for Birthday. Repeat. Barbie as a gift for her birthday. Barbie! Birthday!

No, this is not a Ad words-targetted  post on the B thing - I mean Barbie thing (alright, I have to type the cheee name, folks -  isn't cheee better than damn? Cheee in Tamil - Go Google now and find out why Cheee is better than damn, and all the F words). This is a desperate mommy's plea for reassurance. That it is okay to have Barbie and Birthday in the same sentence. Huh! Same sentence!

I am of course trying to entice her with other enticements at the store when we go shopping for this wonder-b..(now, now, don't let your mind wander!). But let's see what we end up with. She is insisting on the Kitchen set or the Home set. I quiet like the Costume Set. You? Yoga Set? Nah, those are not in India yet me thinks.