My husband and I are enthusiastic scuba divers, so when we decided to have a child, we knew we'd want to include him in our undersea adventures. However, at 2½ years old, he's still a bit young for a junior certification or even a Bubblemaker party. So we're basically just buying a lot of ocean-related stuffed animals, wall stickers, and blankets.
But let me ask: Is there some law that prevents toymakers from giving octopuses the correct number of legs? Because what we see, over and over again, is the hexapus -- a so-called octopus, but with six legs instead of eight. (Sometimes there are five-tentacled varieties, as well, but six seems to be the most common leg-related error.)
Now, there actually was a hexapus discovered at a British aquarium a couple of years ago, but he's considered an anomaly, and I doubt all these kid-product manufacturers are taking their inspiration from him. No, I'm thinking it's either cheaper, or somehow considered cuter, to cut corners in the tentacle department.
It's annoying. Look, I don't require that all my kid's toys be scientifically accurate -- he does, after all, have a beloved stuffed monkey that has plastic aqua teethers instead of feet. But this seems like such a simple thing to get right, and yet the toy people are constantly getting it wrong.
(And yes, it's possible that with some of these 2-D representations, the other two tentacles are supposed to be "behind." But isn't that a bit misleading for kids, who are mostly of the what-you-see = what-you-get mindset?)
Anyway, we've turned it into a learning opportunity. Our son already knows about the hexagon shape, so when we see a hexapus, we just name it for what it is, complete with an explanation that includes a fun tentacle-counting game. A little math, a little lesson in Greek prefixes -- what more could a geeky parent want?
Ellen Henderson is a novelist and web strategist. She lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband and son.
