Does your baby actually play with their toys?

[Writerwannabe83]

I have a 1 year old (he turned one last week) and despite having so many toys he seems completely disinterested in them.

He likes to get them all out and spread them across the living room floor but that's where his interest usually ends.

He sometimes walks round with a block in his hand and uses it to hit everything in sight but otherwise he isn't bothered.

He is a little bit better if I sit down with him and really try and engage him with them and play with him but after a few minutes he loses interest again.

He much prefers to run around the living room playing with the TV remote and our mobile phones. He likes to grab our empty mugs off the table and run around with those and he also enjoys running after the cats. He also has a massive balloon that he chases around the living room. He also likes grabbing the curtains, pulling the cushions of the sofa and hitting the radiators.

I love seeing him have so much fun but I worry that by him not playing with his baby toys he isn't going to learn and cognitively develop as he should.

Am I being paranoid?

[MistletoeBUTNOwine]

Don't worry!
My 14 mo (dc2) has FAR fewer toys than his big sister did..
Like yours he prefers household objects (remote, phones, kitchen utensils) so we don't really bother with 'toys' as such
Tbh I think it's better... Most Toys are manufactured crap designed to bankrupt parents

[moomoob]

My 2 eldest ds were never interested in toys as a baby and at 7 and 4 still aren't I've wasted hundreds over the years buying all sorts. They're happiest with a jigsaw or colouring book & pens from the pound shop that the latest gadget or play set. Don't worry about it as long as he's happy, my eldest loved cards as a toddler not every child loves action figures or dolls etc

[NickyEds]

Remote controls, mobiles, wooden spoons, boxes of tissues, the lap top.... all favoured far above any if ds's actual toys. His eyes light up if a pen is inadvertently left unattended. One of the few toys he actually likes is a crappy light up phone my sister bought him, and this after we spent a small fortune on naice, wooden toys. I think they just want to destroy play with whatever you're playing with don't they??

[jugglingmonkey]

I could have written your post, OP.

DS is 17 months. House full of toys, walkers, mini kitchen and utensils (this was the biggest hit so far, played with for a whole ten mins).

However, give him a phone, pen, kindle, or anything with a cable and he is beside himself happy.

Embrace it. Someone recently pointed out that he's not hooked on social media... A mobile phone is really no different to the classic fisher price one.

I'd like him to be more engaged in 'role play' playing, but maybe it'll come later.

If not, I'm happy that he's learning anyway. He knows exactly how to swipe my phone unlocked, and where the charger plugs in. These are his puzzles

[choccyp1g]

A few years ago there was a big craze for "Treasure Baskets" to solve this very problem. You just give them (safe) stuff rather than toys. Eg wooden spoon, large curtain ring, plastic bowl, tea towel. Then you can also have less safe things under supervision: pine cone, metal measuring cups, clothes pegs, tea strainer...

The one proper toy my DS loved was stacking cups. And a horrible noisy pull along thing even before he walked he used to shove it about to make the racket.

[SolasEile]

It's normal to be more interested in day to day real objects than plastic toys at that age. Think about it: you aren't using his toys or doing anything with them ( unless as you say you get down and engage with him) so they have no value to him. In fact there are theories that under-2s learn better through play with real life objects than they do with toys anyway.

Even my 3.5 year old still prefers to mess with Daddy's toolbox or ransack the cupboards for our pots and pans rather than play with his own toy tool bench or kitchen...

[SolasEile]

Edit to say: plastic toys or even 'naice' wooden toys

[Writerwannabe83]

I feel much happier now

I bought out his shape sorter toy earlier which is in the shape of a bus, but all he did was tip the shapes out and then use the bus to hit the radiator

[TechnoBabble]

No he has his little routine depending which room he's in:

KITCHEN: opening the kitchen cupboards and pulling stuff out, flipping the lid of the bin, putting things in the bin so I can't find them, pulling things out the bin - particularly leftover food which he then eats, sitting watching the washing machine

LOUNGE: knocking all the books and DVDS of the shelf, trying to grab the remote/mobile phone/cup of scalding hot coffee, messing with the buttons on DH's record player, hitting the glass doors with his wooden hammer

BATHROOM: sticking his hands in the toilet, unravalling all the loo roll, climbing in the shower cubicle just after its been used and getting a soggy bum

BEDROOM: opening the drawers and wardrobes doors repeatedly, getting his fingers trapped and crying, trying to get into DD's rooms to eat lego

GARDEN: eating soil, putting small stones in his mouth

The toys sit in the toy box unloved, apart from the wooden hammer and his books.

[trilbydoll]

DD is 22mo and I would say has only started properly playing with things in the last 3m or so. She is still at her happiest running around carrying a basket / bag / bucket!

[Writerwannabe83]

All the stories are making me smile so much. I'm picturing all these little ones just running round causing mayhem and generally just being adorable

How lucky we all are

[jugglingmonkey]

??

Harder work but surely funnier!

[gubbinsy]

Technobabble - I think we have the same child!

[Missymoomoo1979]

9 month old dd much prefers the virgin remote

She does play with her toys though.

[Pointlessfan]

My one year old is the same. She likes to sit in her ball pit and throw all the balls out and she likes her stacking cups. Apart from that she likes to get hold of the remote control and record random programmes for us, empty the kitchen cupboards and chase the cat. The cat food bowl is the holy grail, she is always trying to get it!
This week she has discovered throwing towels in the bath, preferably when it's full of water and pulling down all the fridge magnets!
I live my life in constant fear of het hurting herself or consuming something nasty!

[mrsmeerkat]

Yep, no interest in toys here either .. Remote control, wood logs for the fire, saucepan, wooden spoons

Starting to enjoy books a lot though

[mrsmeerkat]

Ah yes, and throwing toilet rolls down the toilet .. Hmmmm

[Pointlessfan]

That's why our loo rolls now live on the window sill, out of reach!

[toffeeboffin]

My DS is 15 months and exactly the same.

Loads and loads of toys, but loves: trying to turn the computer in and off, mobiles, remotes, tissue boxes, spoons, Tupperware, an empty water bottle full of lentils, sliding down the walls (from standing to land on his bum) and generally causing mayhem.

Just loves wandering round looking at stuff, they are so curious at this age!

[Missymoomoo1979]

Dd2 loves pausing our TV