Father's Day is coming up soon, and it reminds me of something. When I was a kid, I would often ask my parents why there was a Father's Day, a Mother's Day, a Grandparents' Day, and a Secretary's Day, but no Children's Day. My parents claimed it was because every day is kids day, and as an only child this was definitely the case.

From a marketing standpoint, however, I can't understand why there *isn't* a Kids' Day. Think about it, our economy revolves around buying toys for children. A store's profitability for an entire year is usually related to Christmas sales, and while electronics stores love to pump up Father's Day as "Buy your Dad a plasma-screen TV" Day, the truth is that nobody really gets expensive electronics for any holiday except Christmas (sorry, Dad).

So why not Kids Day? Plop it right in the middle of summer, when kids come running out of their favorite mindless blockbuster animated feature just itching to play with the action figures and the video game and the officially-licensed knockoff DVDs. If you wait until Christmas, the buzz is gone. But if you throw a major consumer spending holiday in the middle of, say, August, then you get a fresh shot to clear out the excess summer inventory to make room for the sweaters, jeans, and Halloween candy.