An outraged mother took to TikTok recently to vent her frustration and anger about a toy purchased as a Christmas gift for her nine-month-old son that spewed off-color jokes instead of the expected baby-friendly songs and sounds.
“I was just coming on here because I need TikTok to do its thing,” said user Ashley Lynn, who shares content on TikTik under the handle @mamabearash, in the video she shared on the platform on Christmas Day.
The toy, a colorful pretend TV remote control made by the Linsay toy company, was a gift for her young son from her grandmother, who purchased it at Walmart, Lynn said in her video.
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The Linsay toy company’s website lists its location as Tokyo, Japan.
Soon after the mom opened the colorful toy for her child and loaded in the batteries, the baby to begin to play with it, Lynn said.
She said her baby son was soon “going to town chewing on” the toy, and “pressing the buttons.”
However, Lynn’s mom soon alerted her that the colorful toy “just said something about a drive-by shooting,” the frustrated mom said on TikTok.
She then played that “joke” for her social media audience by pushing a colorful button on the toy. Right after that came a sexually themed joke about priests.
“What? What?” Lynn said in the video.
It’s “a kid’s toy,” she added. “There’s a baby on the box.”
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A third joke could be heard coming from the baby toy: “Tom told his friend he has a job with 10,000 people under him,” as Lynn demonstrated by pushing a button on the toy and playing the joke in her video.
The toy’s audio continued, “His friend replied, ‘Wow, he must be the CEO of a corporation.’”
Then, the joke’s punchline: “Tom said, ‘No, he cuts the grass in a cemetery.'”
Lynn said that joke was “kind of funny — but still, for a baby?”
She then played the drive-by shooting joke for her TikTok followers.
Lynn ended her video by looking into the camera and saying, “Walmart, explain this. Linsay Toys, explain this.”
In a directive to her TikTok followers, Lynn said, “Blow this up. Do I have a lawsuit? Lawyers, help me out.”
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The description for the toy on the ShopHQ website reads, “Light up toy remote for toddlers and kids with ABC songs, stories, music and fun sound effects and buttons with different shapes and textures.”
It continues, “Baby remote control toy lets baby’s curiosity take itself [sic] to develop its exploration … to learn the world.”
It also says, “Colorful buttons introduce colors, numbers to keep your child’s attention. Learning remote helps baby discover cause and effect, develop his cognitive and thinking ability.”
The toy, which also retailed on the ShopHQ site for $29.95, is listed there as both “sold out” and “not available.”
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In an update to her TikTok story posted on Dec. 31, Lynn shared that she had reached out by email to the Linsay toy company, sending the firm a photo of the toy and saying she felt the audio was “very inappropriate.”
She says she asked the company, “What are you going to do about it?”
The company got back to her promptly, Lynn said.
It apparently told her that it had “opened an investigation” into the issue and that the toy “would stop being sold.”
The mom then listed the five online retailers she had checked — including Lowe’s, Macy’s and Office Depot — and said that the toy was not currently available on any of them.
The toy, as of publication time, does not appear on the Linsay toy company’s website.
“To my knowledge, this [toy] is done being sold,” she said.
Fox News Digital reached out the Linsay toy company for comment.
“We have opened an investigation and recalled the items by software issue,” the company said in an email reply, noting that “only 27” toy remotes were sold.
“Meantime, the product was retired from the market,” the company added.
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Fox News Digital also reached out to Walmart for comment.
In a statement, a Walmart spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “This item was listed by an outside third-party seller and removed from our site because it does not comply with our prohibited products policy.”
The Walmart spokesperson also said, “Like other major retailers, we operate an online marketplace that allows third-party sellers to offer merchandise through our eCommerce platform. Walmart strives to maintain a marketplace that customers can trust.”
Dr. Meg Meeker, a Michigan-based pediatrician of more than 30 years, said that being a good parent necessitates reading what the kids read, listening to what they listen to and watching what they watch — even before they do.
“We shouldn’t be paranoid, but we must be wise,” she told Fox News Digital by email.
“Our kids can’t discern a great book or movie from a harmful one or a fun toy from a dangerous one,” continued Meeker, who is also the creator of the Parenting Great Kids series.
“This is a lot of work, but if we want to preserve our child’s mental, physical and spiritual health, we can’t afford to do less,” she said.
Source: foxnews.com
