On BarbieGirls you can window shop to your heart's content. You can even try things on. But you can't buy a single virtual thing unless you cough up some real world cash for a VIP membership. Oh, and in case you didn't already know that, there is a sales attendant at the door of every store to remind you.
Sure those Posh Pets are ridiculously cute, but don't even think about adopting one unless you are a VIP. And as for all those Barbie coins you've racked up playing games and such in hopes of buying a digital pup, well, they won't do you a lick of good without a paid membership.
There are a few (basic and boring) games that are available to Barbie Girls with free accounts, but if you want access to the good stuff - like Jungle River Boogie - you need to be a VIP.
It seemed that everywhere I turned in this online Barbie world was someplace else that I couldn't go without a paid membership. If I were a real kid, it wouldn't have taken me five minutes to start nagging my parents to crack out their credit cards and let me become a BarbieGirls VIP.
Sparkle Coaster Place
Tail Shakin' Tree House
SHARON DUKE ESTROFF
Sharon
Duke Estroff is an award-winning educator and author of "Can I Have a Cell Phone for Hanukkah? (Random House,
2007). Her parenting articles appear in over 100 publications including
Parents, Good Housekeeping, and Woman's Day. She is a parenting blogger for Huffington Post. Sharon is the creator of KIDSPLORATIONS enrichment classes, camps, and birthday parties which provide imagination-fueled learning adventures to children.
