“Life in the Pink Lane” – A Dad's Look at the Barbie Aisle

Friends, if you're raising boys, or have only raised boys, you probably haven't spent much time in the Barbie aisle. Whether you're at Target, Walmart or any other big store that sells toys, there's this one section that you can't miss. They've toned it down over the last few years, but you still can easily find the “pink aisle” where all the Barbie dolls reside.

So much pink!

You might not know this, but there is a Barbie doll sold, somewhere in the world, every three seconds. That means about a dozen dolls have sold since you started reading this. That's a lot of Barbies!

There was a time in my life where I never noticed or paid attention to this aisle, because it held no interest for me, at all. But then I found myself with not one, but three lovely daughters. My girls, like many others, all went through a phase where they loved Barbie to some degree.

"Every night is girls' night!"

With nine years between my oldest and youngest, I spent a lot of time “patiently” waiting, while my little cuties looked at all the Barbies. This became an unavoidable part of going to any of these stores, and at the time I didn't truly appreciate the experience. I didn't like the Barbie aisle much back then, and I kept hoping they'd want to get a Batman figure or at least look at the Star Wars toys, but no, it was Barbie or nothing.

I did have one small victory when I got my oldest a “Star Trek” Barbie and Ken. We went on some “away missions” and fought off a band of alien vegetable people. 

To boldly go where no doll has gone before.

I also tried to convince her that a Jackie Chan action figure was a cooler “Kung Fu” version of Ken.

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting!

This phase only lasts a few years, and then these little girls soon become big girls and their interests change to big girl things.

My little girls are all grown up now, and it's funny when I go to one of the big stores for groceries or batteries or whatever, and I pass by the “pink aisle” I get a kind of melancholy feeling. I really miss staring at those pink packages of molded plastic with my little girls.

Barbie is Everything! Ken is just Ken.

You've likely heard of, and probably saw the big “Barbie” movie that came out last summer. It made like $1.38 billion and was the highest grossing film of 2023. I got to see this movie with my three daughters, and while it wasn't really my kind of movie, I loved watching it with them and listening to them talk about the Barbie dolls they had and their memories of playing with them.

I guess my point here is, whether it's Barbie dolls or GI Joes, football practice or ballet lessons, whatever your kids are into, try to embrace it. It goes by fast. - DCB
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Santa: What's wrong Hermie?

Hermie: Rudolph accused me of stealing his thesaurus. Not only was I shocked; I was appalled, aghast and dismayed!
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Did you hear about the snowman that evaporated?

He'll be mist.