The things we do for our children

valmg | Jul 27, 2008 | 1 comment

This week the Parent Bloggers Network asked people to write any stories of extreme measures used to get a toy. I always try and get my kids the toys they want or the toys I think they’ll want and enjoy. I’ve never really done anything extreme to get a toy for my child, unless you consider asking clients in almost every state to go toy shopping for you extreme. See, I used to work in a call center in telephone sales. Part of our job was to telephone customers and build relationships. So each of us had our established regular customers as well as customers we were trying to convince to do more business with us, or in some cases do business with us at all. As most parents know, when a really hot toy is released they can be very hard to get. Sometimes you can only get new hot toys on the internet if you’re willing to pay an additional arm and leg on top of the regular price. I’m not one of those moms. So each time a new hot toy came out that I wanted to get for my child, I started asking all of my customers to look for it in their area. If they found it I’d send them the money and they could ship me the toy. This is how I got 2 Furbies, 2 Tekno Robotic puppies and 2 different versions of stuffed Elmo toys, as well as a couple of very hard to find Disney bean bags (ok, those were for me). I’m not in sales any more, so I hve to track down everything myself, although I have been known to ask family members, and even people in a bowling league I used to belong to.

Lots of kids out there aren’t as fortunate as mine. That is why Hasbro’s Hot Summer Toy Event is so cool. For every toy purchased between 07/20/08 and 08/02/08 Hasbro will donate a toy to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys For Tots program, which helps provide toys and games to economically disadvantaged children. During this event Hasbro is offering free shipping on all of the toys on the Hot Summer Toy Event page if you order from amazon.com, target.com, toyrus.com or walmart.com by 08/02/08. No minimum purchase is required.