Oh no! it's toy drive time again!

The time of year has come when TV and Radio stations appeal to the masses to spend money on NEW toys for the poor.
This is my yearly gripe as the commercials come out and have me seeing red.
Barrels full of new toys go out to the children on christmas and by New Years, half of them are busted and sitting in landfills.
They just cant stand it knowing that a bunch of poor kids have to escape the consumerist orgy that is the holiday season.
Well I say nuts to that!
Is Dingo the Grinch?
Naw I'm cool with having a time of giving and goodwill to all, I'm not christian (thank god) but I have been poor with kids (like I was) and I know a little secret: Poor kids need a bunch of new toys like I need a push up bra, I'll tell you why.
See, poor families only need lots of new toys at Christmas if the are stupid enough to think they need it, nobody needs lead laced, made in China garbage to play with; kids can have just as much fun with the boxes they come in, I know.
What poor families need is good jobs, good food, help with rent and time, thats a big one, sometimes the best gift you can give a poor child is to hang out with them while the parents crawl out of poverty.
Some parents like being poor or are lazy, the kids of those folks are screwed, I don't know how to help them, maybe they need the toys.
When we had out little girl, it was way harder that we thought it would be and we had little to no help from anyone else.
Often people who were being crummy relatives would think that toys could possibly make up for not being there for them.
If you have to move around a lot, toys get in the way, kids won't want to ever give them up so it's really not good to have a lot of toys.
We hated dealing with batteries, finding room for the toys and the sheer hopelessness that comes from having no money, few prospects, and a bunch of crap to move around.
If my kid wants any toy in particular, she can ask for it by name and I'll find it in January sitting in an apartment complex dumpster, happens every year.
Have you ever gotten a food box?
I get them all the time, they are so necessary for survival, sadly, a lot of the food really sucks ass, the peanut butter is super unhealthy (mostly cheap oil that kills your liver) the other stuff is really unhealthy too, sugar, super saturated fat and over processed chemical cocktails, all the stuff people don't want including canned pumpkin from 1985.

If you want to enrich your kid with giving, go volunteer at a soup kitchen or give out warm coats.
This morning my two children are playing with a blow up raft I found, and a bunch of soda pop.
Soda pop?????
After a gig last month, the venue gave us a box of awful, diet sodas, many flavors, all really nasty and it's amazing to me that people drink the stuff, I gave it to my kids unopened and we have been playing with them for weeks now.
See? we would never drink the stuff but we sure would throw them, roll them, paint them and have a good time with them.
I would have another opinion if Toys for tots was geared at older kids and was called "Tools for Teens" a donation season that gives useful tools to teens and kids so they have a chance to make a living later and not be losers like their parents.
If you want to help out a kid, look at tools or food, buying toys only helps the toy store.