It was at Sants station, contemplating with delight a very young father with a backward baseball cap and sagging pants who was spasmodically moving his baby's stroller. A baby, needless to say, that came as a surprise, not being "planned." At first, I thought the father was traveling alone with the child, but soon a girl, also very young, appeared, sipping a soda. "I come from Accessorize", she said. And immediately, to the baby: "I've brought you a little something". She gave him a lollipop, without opening it.
I had just read in ARA that the European Commission has fined Temu – we must call it an "Asian giant" – for selling baby toys that contain chemicals "that exceed legal safety limits or pose choking hazards due to detachable parts."
The child was already licking the lollipop stick. The parents, meanwhile, were engrossed in their phones, and he, anxious, stretched out his arms. "Let Daddy give it to you", she said. And the boy, like the child he was, said: "Noooo!", with a stubborn and contrary gesture, as if he were the older brother. The child, who knew how to assert himself, huffed like a cat – "Fgggsssxt!" – which must have been a gesture copied from some animal series. Then the boy, fearing an outburst of childish fury (the huff was the warning, like cats do), gave him the phone. "But only for a little while!", he exclaimed. And not because he considered that watching reels of reggaeton and perreo wasn't the most educational thing for a child, but because he didn't want to be without his phone for too long. And behold, the child, with surprising skill, with graceful gestures, was swiping through what many years ago would have been pages.
With this toy, the European Commission has not been so brave.
