My husband and I took our daughter and nephew to Build-a-Bear for Valentine's Day. For those who aren’t familiar with this, each child gets to construct an animal, and then choose clothes, shoes, accessories – and leave with a custom animal. On the company website, it says “Select a heart, whisper a wish and seal it with a kiss!
During the whole ordeal of kissing the heart and rubbing it on your heart, the salesperson who stuffs the animals said to my daughter, "Kiss the animal’s heart and it will keep all your secrets."
I almost lost my noodle!
I told the girl very nicely that our families don't keep secrets. She looked at me like I was a green alien and I think I might have embarrassed her, which was not my intention. I told her it is about preventing sexual abuse. She just looked at me kind of awkwardly. Other parents overheard too and they kept looking at us. I am really glad I spoke up.
I tried to reach out to Build-a-Bear but have just hit a dead end. I looked on the corporate website and it uses this language: “Select a heart, whisper a wish and seal it with a kiss!”
Here’s the tel # if anyone else wants to try to reach out: 1-877-789-BEAR. Otherwise, it may be something to take up individually – as a teachable moment– if this matter of “secrets” arises at your local Build-a-Bear store/factory.
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