The column I didn’t write: “What Not to Buy Your Kids for the Holidays”

Sometimes I have an idea for a column, and then I never get around to writing it. Maybe it’s because I’ve lost interest in the topic, or it seems dated — too many others have written about it — or I’ve realized there’s not enough there to make a column.

Here’s one I planned to write and chose not to: “What Not to Buy Your Kids for the Holidays.”

I thought about timing this for Black Friday. Then I worried it would be too curmudgeonly. And it probably would have been.

The general gist of it: Cross off gadgets from your kids’ holiday lists. (I’m talking about your kids who are 10 years old or under.) Don’t buy your 8-year-old an iPod touch or a Kindle Fire or a DS for the holidays. Kids are immersed in technology, and they’re better off if you delay those devices, especially the ones doubling as advanced communications tools (with email, social networking, phone capabilities, and the like).

I know it’s hard to resist: My daughter wants this stuff.

OK, there it is. I didn’t write it — as a column. But I thought it.