Weekend Assignment #143: What You'd Want, If You Were a Kid

For this week's Weekend Assignment, I want you get in touch with your inner child -- and give it a gift list:

Weekend Assignment #143: Imagine you are a kid today, age 10 or under. What would you want for Christmas/Hanukkah/Seasonal Holiday of Your Preference? Don't look back on the toys of your youth, now -- think about what kids have now that you would want if you were their age. Also if you're a parent, don't ask your kids what they want -- this is supposed to be about what you would want, if you were their age. I love my daughter, but I guarantee you, there are things she wants that if I were a kid her age I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.

Extra Credit: Do you kinda want the same toy now that you're an adult? Come on, you can admit it if you do.

Even when I was ten, I was a bit of a geek: One of my favorite toys of the time was "gun" that had a parabolic dish at the end so you could hear whispers over 100 feet away -- and I spent my time with it in the backyard, pointing it up at the sky, listening for radio signals from alien civilizations. Yeah, yeah, I know. What are you going to do. And this is why, if I were 10 now, I would want the LEGO Mindstorms NXT set, with which I could construct my own robot. Let me repeat that: Make my own freakin' robot. I would be so all over that.

And since it's an expensive toy -- $250 -- I would have started lobbying early and often, as I so often did, explaining how I if I got that I wouldn't want anything else for Christmas, honest. It's a toss-up whether I would actually get it, however. Not because my parents were cruel, but because, well, it's an expensive toy. I'd like to think I would have played with it enough to make it worth the investment.

Would I like a Mindstorm NXT now? Sure, why not? Seems like a fun way to antagonize the cats. But I doubt I would have much time with it before Athena took it for her own. She's not a geek, but she's got the geek genes in her, and they'd come out for something like this.

Now it's your turn: Get in touch with the kid inside and find out what it has on its holiday gift list. Then write it up on your blog or journal, and come back here to leave a link. Let's find out what would make us all light up with delirious joy, at least for the few minutes before we got bored and started playing with the box.

Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry

This entry has 9 comments: (Add your own)

#9 Comment from lurkynat
12/17/06 4:41 PM | Permalink

Dear John,
Hi! Thanks! Yep, I agree with Carly! And some of us wrote up our favs:
http://journals.aol.com/lurkynat/Interface/entries/2006/12/15/what-toys-would-you-wantscalzi-wants-to-know/1316
thanks John! Fun!
natalie
#8 Comment from hewasolddog299
12/17/06 5:48 AM | Permalink

You'll find my missive here:

http://dailysnooze.blogspot.com/2006/12/john-m.html

What I want will be hovering over the Christmas Tree in my dreams...

wil
#7 Comment from cdittric77
12/16/06 11:48 PM | Permalink

I'm up!
http://journals.aol.com/cdittric77/courage/entries/2006/12/16/weekend-assignment--143/1842
#6 Comment from ezspin42
12/16/06 1:26 PM | Permalink

Oh, definitely a "pocket bike." These are the scaled-down mini-motorcycles. They look way more fun than the "mini-bikes"availabale when I was a kid. Mom wouldn't let me have one of those either. There was a guy at work, bigger than me, that had one. He looked rediculous on it, but it still looked like fun!
#5 Comment from windchime1992c
12/15/06 5:18 PM | Permalink

http://journals.aol.com/windchime1992c/lyrics-rock-my-socks/ I know I'm only 14, so I'm kind of a kid, but not really. I mainly want CDs now, but if I were 6-10, then that is what I would of wanted, so check it out!

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Weekend Assignment #143: What You'd Want, If You Were a Kid