This topic is for kids a tad older than the usual Cribsheet preschool set, but I bet a lot of them have older brothers or sisters who are into this phenom.

So last week, I called my sister-in-law. I needed to know what my niece would like for her birthday. “She really, really, wants the Golden Retriever Webkinz” 

“The whuh?”

I listened further, distracted by my toddler.. “Webkinz, these cute stuffed animals, something something about a computer…you find them at card shops or speciality stores.”

“Oh, OK. Sure. Will do.” I nodded.

Being the dutiful Aunt K, I set out to find one. Apparently the “Golden Retrievers” are hard to come by in Northern Illinois. So, I would do my part and find one in the Twin Cities.

I called around to stores in search of the toy. The clerks would say. “Oh we can’t keep the shipments in, they go flying off the shelves, we’ll have more in next week.” Hmm, methinks I see shades of the Beanie Baby fad circa 1997…

I finally found a Hallmark store in a strip mall that had several of them and secured the treasured gift for beloved niece. Mission accomplished!

But these furry creatures piqued my curiousity - what was the appeal? I asked a few couples with 9 year olds sitting at dinner a few nights ago. “What’s up with these Webkinz anyway…?” 

Everyone started talking loudly and animatedly at once….”Think Beanie Baby paired with Tamagotchi.” “Virtual pet” “Oh, they’re so cute..” “MINE named her Webkinz dog after our dog, and takes better care of her virtual dog than our real dog” “I have to pry my son away from the computer to get him to play outside.” “Oh, but he LOVES them” “MY daughter was stressed out that we had to be home by 10 am tomorrow because she ‘HAD to water her Webkinz’s flower” and on and on and on. I started to slowly slide under the table. WHAT had I bought for my niece?

Still not quite understanding the gist of this interactive toy I went to http://www.webkinz.com/. I found this sugary sweet explanation. A video tour featuring a cute dog with a what looks like a botched hairplug job. Ack, it seemed like sweetly veiled materialism! Casino type games! Kids sucked into a computer black hole! Consume! Consume! Consume!  

When I voiced my concern to my sister-in-law she assured me that my niece’s computer time with Webkinz was monitored carefully. She’s learning responsibility, has fun with her friends and absolutely loves them!

OK then.

But I predict - rows of Webkinz will soon be staring at you from the rear window of the car in front of you on 35W- or tiny versions will soon appear in fast food kid meals.

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Just an aside: Before I started writing this post, I did a search on startribune.com to see if there have been any recent articles about this craze that I could link to.

Search: Webkinz 

startribune.com answer: Were you looking for opaqueness?

To which I say to my computer screen “whuh?!” Opaqueness? No, you cannot see through the stuffed animal, but how do you get opaqueness out of Webkinz?

Ah, try Webster’s second definition…

2) Hard to understand or explain.

You’ve got it right on startribune.com search engine!

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Are your older kids into Webkinz? What do you think of the craze? Are they truly educational? Out of control? Fun? And how do you manage their time on the computer?Â

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 8:03 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.