To wonder if we rush our children through childhood too quickly?

Having just had the conversation with ds (11) about the fact that he is not allowed Grand Theft Auto for his Xbox as it's an 18 I would say yabnu. I have this argument daily as all his friends are allowed to play on it (say I know this is true).

I think kids will indulge in imaginative play till quite old when they're with friends. If they're alone then they're probably getting more stimulation from screens. Mine didn't have a ps2 until ds1 was 11 poor deprived things! Parents who don't allow a tv in the house always seem rather smug, but their children are the ones who won't budge from the screen when they visit friends. I've told the story previously of the little lad Thomas Watson who became known as 'Thomas What's-on-the-telly' . He's now a well-adjusted adult with a telly of his own He was also the child whose mother swapped a nasty sugary lolly handed out at nursery for a lovely cream cracker. By the time he was 14 he was turning up at sleepovers with enough sweets to put a whole class on a sugar high!
Everything in moderation...

I agree with you OP. Children up to adulthood still need to play to develop all their physical and mental skills. Lego used to be marketed up to age 16.

I think people are deluding themselves and are severely misguided if they think their children are too "grown-up" and "mature" to play with toys, and are severely letting them down by encouraging them not to. It will have an effect and will hamper their development and potential. As to recent reports of 6 & 7 yos on social media, I really have no words.

How can a five year old out grow playmobil that is ridiculous.

Yes we do, the government targets certainly do not help. SATS, children as young as nursery age, under constant scrutiny and assessment in the EYFS. Taking no account of individual differences between children, they are not robots fgs. Children expected to be the finished article by the time they start reception school. Childhood as we know it is being eroded. My friends mum told me that her 7 year old NT dd likes Mr Tumble, she whispered it to me as her dd was near by and would have been embarrassed. Childhood is supposed to be a small window, where children can be carefree and enjoy life, before the onset of adulthood.

Um... I'm mid 30s and still 'help' kids with lego. Come on I'm playing really! You're never too old.
I do think it depends on areA. I have a 10yr old nephew who only really does scooters n screen time. All my 10 yr old pupils here are out climbing trees building dens and role playing. It's one of the reasons I want to stay!

I agree.
DD is 10 and her teacher said to me recently that she was the right 'age' and that a lot of her peers were mainly 'too old' . This by the way was a young teacher speaking not some old fuddy duddy.

In my experience, my children lost interest in most of their toys by age 8 or so. After that they were more into board games, collecting pokemon cards, and console games. There were one or two exceptions which went along with their interests though.
That was their natural development, not rushed by me.

Granny still has a basket of bricks and a marble run at her house, all the DG's in an age range of 10 to 16 play with them when they visit (they were made for DM by her grandfather!).

Actually it maybe is more our (parents) need to get rid of stuff - 'declutter' that is the problem ...cause our children to grow up too fast. We see them mainly playing onm screensh screen so grab the opportunity to get rid of some crap and they can't play with things if they are no longer available...

There is a move in NZ towards Discovery Time, which is essentially unstructured play in school and this is up to the age of 13. Research is suggesting that there are massive benefits for oral language and social skills in this kind of play. DT activities can include a whole range of play activities, but things i have seen include playing with dolls, blocks, train sets, water play, marble runs, creating things out of bamboo canes and sheets, blocks of wood and planks ... In fact, I think that play should never end!

Really? My 5 year old has only just really got into playing with toys properly Ie Lego he would just stick, now he's making really creative buildings/ cars etc. I can't imagine him stopping any time soon

We also have no tv at home, and both have no access to an iPad so neither have screen time at home to distract them from playing.

If I make playdough for DD2 (8), (something I do only a couple of times a year) the cutters, tools and hair salon come out and DD1 will come and make a few models - DD1 is just 14! (And normally glued to her laptop/phone)
But then I will make things too... surely you are never too old to make models - a year or so ago we made snowmen - DD1s was all skewiff and we were laughing at it- she said it was drunk and went on to make a patch of snow for it to stand on with green bottles littered around it!
Same for Lego - 8 yr old needs help to make models -some of them are age 7-12 aren't they? And I have a box of assorted playmobil which DD2 will stay get out and play with (DD1 will join in too to an extent)
Also DD2 and her friend were happily playing with Sylvanians for hours the other week - friend's mum said they had been thinking of getting rid of them as her DD was too maybe too old - in the end we stayed for tea because neither of us wanted to disturb them ...
I (embarrassingly!!) have a box of baby toys in my bedroom waiting to be got rid of and occasionally I'll find DD2 has been having a rummage....I find the beads on the wire type things oddly therapeutic...and the wooden bricks still come out to make towers and the alphabet blocks -still trying to make a tower of all the blocks!
(Yes -I am seriously in need of a declutter - supposed to moving into a house we are renovating ...so I think I'll sort everything as I pack ...3 years later and we are no closer to getting moved! at this rate DD2 will have access to alphabet bricks when she is at university!!)

If you want the kids to spend less time online how about this for an idea?

I have got rid of toys dd has outgrown, but replaced them with the "older" version. Megablocks became lego, happyland to dolls house etc

My DD2 had Minecraft Lego for her 12th birthday today.

She's thrilled with it.

She would stay on screens all day every day given the chance but that isn't going to happen. When the screens aren't an option, the Lego, Playmobil and Sylvanians come out and provide hours of fun.

seems a bit of a vague assumption - my 3 all still play with things - including super cool teen who is eye rolling champion of the world (I've caught her playing with her sisters Monster High dolls)

They all have technology - they all use that as well - and they have bikes which they go out on and they play football a lot outside together

I wouldn't worry too much about childhood disappearing just yet

my dd (6) loves her toys - still plays with happyland and peppa pig. I have no plans stopping her. she is always dressing up and adores building lego.

However me and dp have discussed technology and tv in room and both agree that not till end of primary or start of secondary. she has restricted access to family ones. we have thought about a kindle this year (basic one with no Internet access) to aid her in reading as she does struggle.

There's a difference between outgrowing something and just changing interests

I absolutely agree with this. Some people seem to think children progress through toys in a sort of linear way - if you are old enough to want to play with X, that means you have outgrown Y, and that's just a ridiculous view imo. You can like more than one thing at once, and you can come back to old toys after a period of being interested in something else.

I do think there is a bit of a drive to have your children "grow out of" toys, and to dismiss things as babyish, and I really don't like it.

Toys are what your imagination makes of them, and I don't think you should really "outgrow" a well-designed toy. It should grow with you.

I still like joining in with the DC, making stuff out of play doh, or building with Lego, setting up Playmobil, tidying the dolls house and making furnishings for it, after all, and I am considerably older than 6!

When I 1st bought playmobile 2 years ago (i never had it as a child) I was over the moon with it and kept putting it "the right way" when the dc weren't playing with it. I love all the tiny bits, wasn't expecting so much detail.

ps: DD got really into her dolls house at around age 10-11. I hated dolls & was so busy with nose in a book that I never played with Barbies until I was 10.

We still have baby/toddler toys to get rid of and when DS catches sight of them he always wants to play. Loves all manner of Playmobil / Lego type figures, Imaginext things and so on. How can anyone have outgrown PlayMobil at 5? It's also a shame that people seem to think they are 'past' soft toys then too - DS doesn't play with his as much but still takes his teddy when we go away anywhere. He doesn't have an Ipad but many of his friends do.

we have loads of screen devices & DC still play loads with toys. Screens are just another type of toy, not incompatible at all. I expect toys will still be closely loved until about age 12, based on older DC. After that they start letting go (a bit). Thank goodness because I need to declutter by then!

I am surprised when MNers propose books like The Hunger Games for 8yos, though. Or books for 7-8yos that were written for 10-12 yos and I know I didn't read them until that age (and I wasn't mature enough to get much out of them before that age, either).

When I suggested to dp that I get my ds who is playmobil pirates for Christmas he thought ds was too old for them as he spends a lot of time on his tablet and playing Minecraft. As it turns out, they were a great buy - ds loves them and they have kept his away from the tablet.

My 8 year old dd still has her doll's house but it is more of a decoration now.

YANBU DD is six, nearing seven and loves her toys still. We have an ipad but she's only allowed it for half an hour before bedtime reading. If I were to remove her toys, my life wouldn't be worth living for the grief I'd get, however I don't know many kids her age who don't have toys, I'm not sure it happens as much as we think?