Ridiculous

Over the weekend, I received a letter from a company I had bought a doll dress ensemble from. The dress was a doll belonging to Aubrey who is 10 years old. This letter informed the reader that the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently enacted new safety guidelines, requiring stricter testing for products sold for children. Yeah, I think I heard of that one. Oh yeah, in fact I wrote both my senators about that one. It might go down as the dumbest piece of legislation this century.

Sheesh.

Anyway, The letter was sent to inform me that the soles of the shoes from the dress ensemble failed to meet the new lead requirements. It went on to say:

Therefore, we request that you please take these shoes away from children and dispose of them. The primary safety concern is that IF THESE SHOES WERE SWALLOWED, THE LEAD IN THE SOLE OF THE SHOES COULD BE ABSORBED BY THE BODY and cause adverse health effects. (emphasis most definitely mine)

The company generously offered a $20 credit to compensate for the inconvenience. Grrrr. So not only is Big Brother making these companies do this impossibly strict testing, they now have to compensate us for it?

I'm sorry, but I am not the least bit concern that my TEN YEAR OLD will accidentally swallow these doll shoes. And frankly, if I were, I'd have bigger problems to deal with than lead poisoning.

Oh, and BTW, I do NOT intend to throw away any shoes, and I do not intend to take the company up on the $20 credit, tightwad though I am. This is my way of tossing the tea overboard.