Am I That Crazy???

OK, I know that most of you are saying "Hell yes" at the moment but actually hear me out before you call me crazy.

I realize that I parent a little out of the mainstream - mainly because the kids don't watch TV - though admittedly Greyson seems to catch more hockey on TV than I would like. But other than that I thought I was pretty typical - but with every passing day I feel like I am just more out of step with what passes for the norm these days.

This morning Quinn and I headed to Target. Warm weather appears to be here to stay and I thought I would get a couple of new outdoor toy items for the kids. Last weekend they had the best time with our neighbor's hoola hoop and it just wouldn't be summer without bubbles to blow. My list, I thought, was pretty simple - hula hoop and bubbles. Apparently not. All I wanted was a plain hula hoop - I didn't want it to flash, or make sounds or have a TV character that my children have no idea who it is on it. I didn't want tacky day-glo or anything obnoxious on it. I just wanted a plain old hula-hoop. If Target is any indication of the hula-hoop population out there then no one makes a plain old hula-hoop anymore. They all have to do something whether it be sing, or flash or shoot fireballs out (OK I am exaggerating there a tad). Is all that really necessary??? My kids had a blast with the plain old hula-hoop that our neighbor Becca has - which obviously Nancy bought a long time ago. I think that all that additional stuff is not only unneccesary but sort of takes away from the purpose of it. I settled for the least obnxious day-glo colors I could find and the one which contained water which I found the least offensive of all the options they had.

Next came the bubbles. There was an entire aisle of every kind of bubbles you could imagine. Unfortunately, all of them were battery powered and required no input from the kid with the exception of using one finger to turn it on. When I was a kid I had the best time with the great big wands running through our yard and making huge bubbles all by myself or sitting with a small wand and blowing a bubble and trying diligently to get it to land on the wand again without breaking. I never just sat there passively watching a machine do all the work. After combing through the aisle I finally found ONE package that was just a plain old wand with bubbles. In a whole entire aisle I found ONE that wasn't battery operated.

So am I crazy?? Am I just too old fashioned and way out there for my and my children's good?? Is what I am looking for, in terms of toys for my kids, that ridiculous?? I am looking for honest opinions - even if they are that I am crazier that a shithouse rat.