I must confess the pregnant Barbie doll was new to me. Obviously Barbie is a big part of all little girls growing up and indeed my own children had six or more at one time. They have done everything with my daughter from going on holiday to having a bath. She cut their hair (off), coloured their hair, painted their nails and just about anything else you do as a little girl to your dolls.

However I was surprised to learn that you can get a pregnant barbie doll. Produced during the 1990′s by Mattel it wasn’t on the shop shelves very long. After some protest by parents the dolls were removed from sale and production stopped.The Barbie doll’s name was Midge and the pack sold was called Midge & Baby Happy Family Set, however these are now old sold by collectors as unique collectors items, i don’t think you would be in the market to buy them at the prices they are offered at.

Pregnant Barbie on Ebay

Midge Hadley has a story of her own that can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org the short story for those that don’t want to read all that much about a barbie doll is that Midge was introduced to be Barbie’s friend. Midge had a boyfriend called Allan Sherwood whom she eventually married and had 3 children Nikki, Ryan and Cassandra. In the Happy Family set were Midge the pregnant barbie doll had a magnetic, detachable stomach was suppose to be pregnant with Nikki. Many parents thought Midge was too young to be pregnant and that her lifestyle wasn’t a good example to young girls. Yes that is the short story of the pregnant barbie doll!

My opinion is that the pregnant Barbie was just a doll and some people get worked up over too many things. The biggest concern I have heard about these dolls comes from my wive who says the rapid removal of the pregnant belly to reveal a set of trim flat abs is more disconcerting that the whole pregnant barbie thing. What ever you think of these dolls they are now very hard to come by, so if you want a piece of Barbie history to collect you now know what to look for, a pregnant barbie doll.

Pregnant Barbie Doll

I have very fond memories of my childhood especially my star wars decorated bedroom including the Star Wars bedding. If you are over the age of 30 and have no idea what I’m talking about then you missed something special during your childhood, it’s not too late! For those that do know what I’m talking about then you will remember well all those star wars bed sets depicting heroic Luke’s, Leia’s and Wookiees against puffy white space-scapes, great memories.

Although Star Wars is still popular and many of the figures, weapons and vehicles are still on sale, it isn’t as popular as it was in my childhood. Maybe the reason for this is that there are so many other heroic figures to collect now, from TMNT to Indian Jones, in fact the more I think about it when Star Wars was released all those years ago there was nothing else to take away my attention.

All grown up and with children of my own I feel it is my job as a parent to not only educate my children in the ways of the force but to make sure they have a great childhood like I had. With the release of Star Wars Clone Wars getting my kids into the original movies wasn’t that hard but trying to create a full Star Wars bedroom wasn’t going to happen as long as our boy and girl shared a room. Jump a few years on and a bigger house now is the time to get my boy’s room all done up like my old bedroom.

It is a real nostalgic trip buying all the star wars stuff again from lampshades to wallpaper to star wars rugs. The original Star Wars bedding I had travelled with me for a few years and found new life in my first own place. It didn’t last long there however as it was very soon apparent that bringing girls home to Star Wars bedding wasn’t good. So we had to buy our boy a new Star Wars bedding set as mine had long been replaced with boring patterns.

The choice of characters on the Star Wars bedding in my day was a bit limited but getting any of the characters on the sheets these days is easily done with all the popular characters we love,  Yoda, C-3 PO, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader to mention just a few. Before you rush off however and buy Star Wars bedding for your kid make sure you know if they follow the either the dark side or the hero side, just because I liked Darth Vader doesn’t mean my boy did.

Obviously we had to get more than one set of bedding so this gave us the opportunity that I never had and that was to own 2 sets of star wars bedding, a set from both sides of the fight. We had Luke Skywalker set and a Darth Vader bedding set. For me that was an easy decision but with others on offer like Yoda and C-3 PO there are a great many ways to go, especially since they are available with different coloured backgrounds to fit into and bedroom decor.

So if you remember the Star Wars (or feel you missed out on something in your childhood) there’s nothing better than to decorate your child’s bedroom in a theme that helps both of you dream about saving the galaxy with Star Wars bedding.

There never seems to be a wrong time to get a childrens digital camera in my opinion. It always makes for a great Christmas gift or surprise treat from Santa if your children haven’t even considered it as a present. It can also make for a nice birthday present for just about any youngster in the family.

However with all the modern day technology making all digital cameras smaller or having better cameras included with a mobile phone is buying a childrens digital camera worth it these days?

When you consider what a childrens digital camera is and start to compare the functions and statistics of the camera with other digital cameras you have gone too far. You have missed the point of what a digital camera is to a child. It’s something that is similar to what their parents have and something they will mimic you doing, putting a camera to your face and saying ‘smile’. For this reason I do still think a chilrends digital camera is worth it but it should be bright and colourful, it should be rugged and the most important point it should be cheap. Let’s face it any toy played with long enough is going to come a cropper sooner or later so why pay a fortune when it could soon be in the recycling pile. It shouldn’t be bought because of its wonderful functions or it’s in built memory capacity, these are all superfluous to what it really is, it is a child’s toy.

When your children reach seven or eight (maybe older, maybe younger, depending on your opinion) the camera that they want, and more often than not get, couldn’t really be called a childrens camera. In fact it will most probably be called a mobile phone with a camera inbuilt. For me however I still prefer giving digital cameras as Christmas gifts. It’s not that the cameras attached to mobile phones are poor, although they often are; it’s more of an attempt to get them interested in something as a hobby. Photography is something I have done as a part time thing for many years and I’m saddened to see the subject reduced to a mobile phone. So whenever I get the opportunity to buy a gift for one of my children or any of the children in my extended family I often buy them a camera. So for me there is nothing wrong about buying a childrens digital camera as long as it’s something that benefits the child and their development.