Webkinz Is Trying to Extort Me!

It all started innocently enough. My daughter received a cute, stuffed-animal husky as a gift for her sixth birthday. She named it Henry. He was also a Webkinz. My daughter learned that she could go on the computer and play with a computer version of Henry! She was ecstatic! I didn't seem the harm in this. My daughter learned she had to feed and clothe Henry. She had to earn "money" to do these things. She also "earned" enough to sign Henry up for classes and take him on tropical vacations. She helped Henry find his talents and helped him try out different jobs.

I thought this Webkinz world was great. My daughter was learning empathy in caring for Henry. She was also learning about how you have to earn money in order to buy things. All this seemed like a cool, fun way to learn these things.

I even laughed when my daughter told me that she bought Henry a bikini top and a bow for his fur, so he could sneak into a girls' area to spy on what happened there. Apparently, Henry started to like wearing the girl stuff so much, that my daughter decided to rename him Henrietta and essentially gave him a sex change operation! We still call her Henry though.

Then the evil of Webkinz happened! My daughter found a video pushing kids to "encourage" their parent to get them a deluxe membership (or duloox, as my daughter pronounces it). What do you get with a deluxe membership? Well, your Webkinz pet receives a new (virtual) clothing prize each month, gets a (virtual) special gold hat that only deluxe members can get, gets deluxe activities, and gets to play in a special deluxe area. To quote the video, "Sign up, get more, go deluxe!" The video makes all this sound really great and describes it as an "incredible value!" So, how much does this "incredible value" cost to get a virtual hat, a clothing prize each month, and some extra games to play? This isn't discussed in the video. I had to really research it on the site and discovered that it's $45 a year!

$45 a year? Are they serious? When my daughter first asked for this, I assumed it was going to be about $15 and thought she could pay for it out of her $.50/week allowance and tooth fairy money. But she couldn't afford this, and I'm certainly not shelling out that dough for a friggin' virtual gold hat. I do not give in to extortion! Poor Henrietta will just have to live within our means. Ganz (the company behind Webkinz) should be ashamed!