Why the hell do we need to make modeling dough for children that smells like such things as fruit or baked goods? I was taught not to eat my play doughs, not because they would have killed me if eaten, but because it wasn’t what you did with them. Clay was not for eating. It was socially unacceptable to eat the dough. In what way does having said dough for children smell like raisin bread going to keep kids from wanting to eat clay? What … kids weren’t eating enough clay without the enticement of flavorful scents?!

Same goes for those scented markers too. Sniffing (most) markers isn’t going to hurt you, but that isn’t what markers are for. It is socially unacceptable to sniff markers. Yet, there are scented markers on the market just for kids. Of course they are going to sniff them, and since they aren’t harmful, the parents aren’t going to tell them not to sniff them. Then kids think it’s perfectly OK to sniff markers.

Well, it’s not OK to eat clays, and it’s not OK to sniff markers. Sure, those clays and those markers aren’t going to hurt them, but there are some that can. So why let them think it’s OK to sniff markers and eat clay? Children, even at a surprisingly high age, don’t tend to read the fine print or look for a non-toxic rating on things before sniffing them or putting them in their mouths. It’s just a marker or just some play dough until they get there hands on something that is toxic, poisonous, or causes respiratory or brain damage, and there are markers and clays out there that can do just that. I know, because I have worked with them. It would just be easier, I would think, to teach them early on, the way I and my peers were taught, simply not to eat clay or sniff markers. It’s really just a good rule of thumb, I would say.

So what are we teaching kids again?