Ben Forman designed a unique playhouse called the Detacho Playhouse that incorporate the issue of divorce, something a lot of children face everyday yet is ignored by toy makers.
The reconfigurable playhouse lets children of divorced parents "play out" complex domestic issues – it can be configured into separate houses for each parents, and can even be configured to have a separate house for the new partner!
Link – via Random Good Stuff
L.B. Jeffries
Well, play therapy is supposed to be really good for kids by letting them act out what’s upsetting them. I wonder how far you could take something like this though. Maybe the new Transformer toys will have a separate base for when Optimus Prime decides he can’t work with the rest of the team.
just a guy
I think you are creeped out by this because the concept of a child’s plaything mixed with a negative aspect of life causing an unpleasant feeling. For example, a ‘Let’s visit (daddy/mommy) in Jail (or rehab)!’ playset would be a similar thing.
This might be a good product for a child psychiatrist’s office, but I would think a parent would want to give their kids toys based on happiness, not ‘dealing with issues’. This world forces innocence and whimsy out of us already – let kids have a little fun with their toys.
Solo
That gives me an idea! Let’s have the “Molestor Uncle Henry Doll”. Child molestation is something a lot of children face everyday yet is ignored by toy makers.
Because you can does not mean you should…
Lasse
This makes me sick. I wonder if the designer comes from a divorced family himself.
Sarah
Am I the only one who thinks that is a good idea–a cause for celebration! Personally, my parents got divorced when I was thirteen, so I was old enough to know about its normalcy and had a few friends who had the same living situations.
However, I did begin to notice that so much emphasis is placed on a home with both Mommy and Daddy…especially on children’s toys.
I know that if my parent’s were divorced when I was at an early age, I would love a toy like this. If a child is acting out their own family, and sees that the toys do not fit the circumstances of their parents, they will get discouraged, and think their family to be unnatural or wrong.
I do not see how a person could be disgusted by this toy. Divorce is an issue that children go through. And though playtime is, yes, supposed to be a happy time, children use it to cope too…or even just to reenact their lives or family. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just children’s nature.
There should be more toys on the market dealing with families that aren’t one mommy and one daddy. Interracial families, same-gender parents…etc. I’m glad to see it starting. :]
That’s just my two cents.
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michael
