My youngest daughter's formative years mirrored the emergence of computer software designed to both entertain and teach children. One of those early software programs utilized fun graphic representations of money to teach the basics of making change.
She mastered the entire suite of excercises within a week and quickly became bored with the software and moved on to "Oregon Trail," where she would purposefully set the parameters to the hardest possible conditions (no food, no money, no ammunition and in a blizzard) to see if she could make it through.
But, she knew how to make change.
Years later, I stood and sadly shook my head upon check-out at a local grocery store as I watched the cashier count my change using virtually the same graphic interface of that early software game. Without it, I doubt he would have known the difference between a quarter and a dime.
Fast forward to this past weekend in the baby food aisle (long story, but "no"). And, I once again am shaking my head at how the jars are categorized. Apparently chronological ages are too tough for today's young parents to understand...so the new categories are "Crawler," "Sitter" and "Toddler." And a few others (click image to enlarge).
Now, this breaks two ways. First, I dispair at how dumb we've allowed ourselves to become. On the other hand, kudos to Gerber for understanding that we are...and making it easier to buy the right food for our children.
But, really? This is like Garanimals for food. How did we get here?
Sigh...
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