To think Oliver James is spot on, parents need to stop spending so much on toys and spend it on holidays instead

[LardLizard]

Couldn’t agree with him more

Link Here

[TempStamos]

I wouldn’t say toys as in useless bits of plastic they couldn’t care about but I prefer to spend money on our house and garden, to make where we live an enjoyable place, before spending money to go on an expensive holiday.

[confusedlittleone]

It's not always as simple with that, and it's bullshit that he's trying to make it seem like it is

[Eolian]

Nice theory, but I suspect most parents spend a fraction on toys compared with the cost of a decent holiday. Plus many of the toys a child receives will be on birthdays and at Christmas, from extended family and friends. What should the parents do? Request that family and friends instead make a contribution to sending the family to Tuscany for 2 weeks?

[justdontevenfuckingstart]

With links to his books about how to reset my child's thermostat and lots of adverts for holidays. Think I will give the advice a miss.

[sinceyouask]

Given the choice between a £2k holiday and £2k to spend on things that we can use to enrich our lives every day of the year, I'll go for the latter.

[HornyTortoise]

I much prefer memories to 'things'. Obviously we still get them 'things' but we do spend much more on days out and holidays than on stuff thats likely going to be shoved in a corner and not used again. My kids only have a few toys that they play with regularly.

[DJBaggySmalls]

Personally, I put money towards college and after. The DC's didnt have anywhere near as much as other kids, but they understood why. And they appreciated it the day they started uni.

[BeyondThePage]

The guy is living in cloud-cuckoo land - a fiver goes a long way with toys... and makes a person with no money feel they have been able to provide some fun for their kids - so now they've got something else to feel guilty about...

people that can afford a £400 playstation can generally go away on holiday TOO.

And buying toys - especially from local toyshops or charity shops, helps to support the local economy rather than the economy of some other place. I personally think he has not got the bigger picture.

[bibliomania]

Speaking as someone who really values trips and experiences and spends far too much on those.....this is just parenting as consumerism.

[DesignedForLife]

Nice theory but I probably spend max £200 a year on toys for two kids and still can't afford a holiday. Even if I half that it's not going to go very far.

But I agree too many kids have too many toys. A couple really good quality toys go a long way.

[Tawdrylocalbrouhaha]

Toys are cheap and holidays are expensive. If you added the cost of every toy my DS(2) has ever received, it wouldn't pay for a weekend away - and the holiday examples they give are laughable. Prices "from" means you can treble it if you actually want to book anything.

I will add that holidays with DS are living hell, and (apart from travel to see family) he will not be having any for at least three years.

[Lucisky]

Why anybody would take notice of what that self important twat says is beyond belief.

[Lucisky]

Ooh, sorry! I misread it as Jamie Oliver. My mistake, I take that back.

[TorNayDoh]

"Let them eat cake" springs to mind.

[Tawdrylocalbrouhaha]

Hey, so did I! Still think he's a self important twat though, just a jumper wearing one.

[RosyPony]

I sort of agree, but neither DH or I are big 'holiday' fans, we like weekends away, but our toddler still goes on about his 'holiday' when his Auntie and Uncle came to stay and they went on a train (whilst his parents jetted off for a long child free weekend :D).

I also think there's a line to be drawn with making every weekend 'special and magical' I think there's a lot to be said for leaving children to get bored.

Everything in moderation!

[busyboysmum]

Oh well, I'm with you OP. I told the grandparents this year we don't want piles of crap but could they please contribute towards experiences for the kids instead.

Not sure how well it's gone down BTW but at least I tried...

[gillybeanz]

We aren't huge on holidays.
Occasionally we will go if there's somewhere/thing we want to experience. Can't see the point in spending money to sit on a beach.
Holidays are great if you have a life you want to escape from, if you are happy and don't escapism there seems little point, irrespective of what toys you buy for your kids.

[InDubiousBattle]

I think it's a crap article.

I'm guessing that for the vast majority of parents there isn't a choice between a holiday and toys. I certainly couldn't afford a holiday if I stopped buying my kids toys, and I buy them quite a lot of toys.

He says that buying material things for children is all about propping up the industry that profits from it. He says this in the middle of what is essentially a massive advert for the tourism industry with a bit of parental guilt tripping thrown in!

[artisancraftbeer]

What a surprise, the Telegraph travel section posts an article about how important it is for children to go on holiday.

[DaisysStew]

But the cost of a holiday is much more than what most parents would spend on gifts throughout the year, so it's a pointless argument.

[InDubiousBattle]

Exactly artisan! Half way down there is a link to 'seven bucket list holidays your family should take in 2017'. The first one is to see the Northern lights and costs £595 per person. That is a fucking shit ton of lego.

[Josieannathe2nd]

This is silly. A toy is £5-50 and a holiday for our family of 5 between £500 & £1500. And most toys come from other people at birthday & Christmas- you can't say can I have easy jet vouchers instead?!

The sentiment of experiences over toys I do agree with but there's a basic problem of holidays being so much more expensive than toys, even camping in the UK.

[cheminotte]

I agree with experiences over toys so tickets to the panto or a magazine subscription have been suggested to GPs in the past.

[dingdongdigeridoo]

He's a judgmental twat and I'm sick of reading articles where him and 'Jools' bang on about what parents should be doing. The guy is worth £240 million. He doesn't live in the real world.

I remember when he was doing that school dinners campaign while simultaneously selling junk food through Sainsbury's. Such a hypocrite.