Furby

Yaya still has few stuffed animal from her childhood. One of which is a Furby.

It was about 6 months after we arrived in Vancouver, we were living in a 2 bedroom basement suite, I had no job and the money that I brought with me from Malaysia was fast disappearing and I had 4 more years to go through before I could get Canadian citizenship.

Prior to coming to Vancouver, my children never knew the word ‘suffering’. That is not the right word, but in this context it is. The clinic I used to do locum was in a shopping mall and there was a toys r us outlet inside. Every evening after work, I went to toys r us and bought new toys. Most evenings we went out for dinner and I remember taking my children to Midvalley mall in KL every Sunday because only they had a Barney ride on toy ( you pay a dollar and sit inside and the machine moves while singing a song !)

And moving to Vancouver and all of a sudden find ourselves with no money was a huge shock to my children and me.

And then my neighbour’s children got a Furby as a gift. They would come to my house with the Furby and play and every time my children asked if they could have a go, they wouldn’t let them. One night, Yaya came to me with her siblings and asked ” Mom, Can you please get us a Furby?” ( This is the same child who walked to school with wet shoes and didn’t tell me because she knew I couldn’t afford new shoes) I didn’t say “no, you can’t have one because we can’t afford” and I didn’t say yes either.

That night as I went to bed, I remembered the amount of toys, I have thrown away before we moved to Vancouver. I did wonder if my current state was  some sort of Karma returning the favor?

The next day, after school, children and I went to Canadian superstore. It was a long walk and  we went to the toys section. There on the shelf was the ugliest toy I have ever seen, Furby, grey colour body with humongous eyes. It was 37$. I explained to my children that I know how much they wanted to own one. But buying this means, we will have to reduce our grocery shopping. They nodded their head. After buying the Furby, I walked back home with three happy kids, who took turns to hold the Furby. I told them, they look like the three wise men holding the gold, frankincense and Myrr.

Neighbour’s kids stopped coming to my house with their Furby, the moment they saw that my kids too have a Furby. And my own kids stopped playing with the Furby, two days after we got it. And every chance I got, I sang “there goes my 37 dollars” in the tune of there goes my baby..and my kids knew why I was singing it. But after that, they never asked me for something because someone else had it. Because for one, they know I will sing ‘there goes my 37 $’ and I guess it is also because they know that I always came though solid when they needed me the most.

4 thoughts on “Furby

  1. I guess your kids learned a lesson from this experience, knowing having an interest in owning something won’t last too long as it becomes “old” and that it does seem to be a waste of money. Smart they picked that up with you singing “there goes my $37 dollars” 🙂

    I learned the same lessons from my own experience, some of them the hard way :p. Now I’m more conservative when it comes to spending money lol.

    I also had a Furby that I got from McDonald’s, so not as great the furry one but I loved it ! I remember my childhood with having things that were really popular besides – Barbies and dolls, cabbage patch kids, the beanie babies (which I still have and love), and most of all, collecting Pokemon cards, which was a HUGE hit during my kid era. I remember it really well..yikes do time fly !

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