All too often lately, I have seen parents spend hundreds of dollars on miniature toy cars for their children to drive around the yard, driveway, or sidewalk. While they look like they could be momentarily fun (until the kids get bored with them), these junior-sized vehicles send exactly the wrong message to young people. And just like candy cigarettes, they start can start young people down the road toward a future addiction to motor vehicles. Is this really what parents or society want?

Kids should be riding on two or three wheels and enjoying their youth learning to properly and safely operate a bicycle, not some imitation gas guzzler. A bicycle will carry them farther afield and provide/teach them many more lifelong benefits that a miniature toy car ever begin to, such as improved health, fitness, exercise, steadiness and balance, confidence, environmental stewardship, fiscal responsibility, and self-reliance just to name a few.

A miniature toy car has none of those benefits, instead it is simply a temporary flash-in-the-pan gizmo that re-enforces the worn-out mantras of energy inefficiency and a sedentary lifestyle. Other than in oil-giddy places, haven’t those dated philosophies gone the way of the dinosaur? For our children and grandchildren’s sake, I certainly hope so!