Kiddie credit card swiper a good idea?
May 27th, 2005 | by mbhunter |A friend recently moved to Alabama and sold a lot of her daughter’s big toys at a moving sale. We bought a play cashier’s station, complete with a play credit card impression machine. It was cute — you moved the slide back and forth and it came up “approved.”
I don’t remember this growing up (early 1970s). I had a cash register, but I didn’t know what a credit card was until I was in middle school.
After thinking about it a bit, I’m not sure if this is a good toy for a child. The child sees their parents spend money and charge things on their credit cards. It’s doubtful that they see the work that goes into earning the money to buy the things. It’s very unlikely that they’ll grasp the notion of credit.
Meanwhile they’re going through the motions, playing with the credit card machine, charging things and buying things. Where is the money coming from? How does the child know when they’ve spent enough or spent too much? After all, the thing always has a happy green “approved” on it.
With play coins and bills, at least you can teach the child that they can’t buy anything if they don’t have the cash. Using a credit card is a step beyond that. There’s probably a way to do it, and I’ll figure it out before my daughter sees it for anything more than a toy that says “approved” when she pulls the slide.
(By the way, if you live in Alabama and need a videographer, check out my friend Samantha McGraw and her shop Moonlight n’ Magic!)
