Do you people have any kids of your own???

As a therapist, I get lots of catalogs of resources and tools in the mail. I got one yesterday called Creative Therapy Store." Most of the products are designed to be used with kids. Here are some examples:

Exploring My Anger for ages 5-12

Peacetown: A Conflict Resolution Game for ages 7-12, (YAWN). Or the ever popular

Escape from Anger Island (for grades 1 to 5) that looks like a board game version of Survivor. Then there's

The Good Mourning Game

which looks like a game for Wiccan children , and

Teen Sense

which, honest to God, was designed for teens.....yes, 13 to 18 year olds! Come on!! Just look at that game board! Can you imagine any teenager with an IQ above 90 that would find that the least bit interesting?!

The designers and marketers of these games.....what are they thinking? Who ARE these people anyway?? It's scary to me that professionals would be so out of touch with what kids would find interesting.

Before I went into private practice I worked at the Youth Service Bureau in DeKalb, Illinois which serves kids 8-18 and their families. There was a pair of brothers that Paul (another therapist at YSB) and I worked with. These boys, who were 8 and 10 at the time, were in foster care because their mom was an alcoholic and their dad had been murdered. You might say they'd seen a lot in their short lives.

Paul and I worked really hard to come up with ways to connect with them and find things to do during the sessions that would keep them busy and would get them talking. YSB had an activity/ supply closet so we went in there and grabbed a bunch of stuff -- cool little fiddly toys, balls with suction cups that would stick to the wall and then "walk" down it, etc. We put the stuff in a bucket and presented it to them as the "Bucket o' Fun." I knew it was sort of cheesy but I was trying to be light and playful. The 10 year old, without missing a beat, says "looks more like the Bucket o' Dumb."

It's a good thing we didn't come in with the "Imagine" game (for ages 6 and up) or this "magical, wand-wielding wizard" that Creative Therapy Store promises will bring "Imagine" to life.














Are these people serious?? The really crazy thing is that these games typically cost $50 or more! That wizard scares me. He's worse than the Chucky doll.