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

I'm imagining a gigantic child, bigger than a diplodocus!

Seriously though this sounds awful - I'm sure i still played with dolls at age 11 - it could be misguided competitive parenting or something? My DD is 18 now but I remember thinking WTF? when another mum seemed to turn her nose up at the duplo DD was playing with at age 2 or 3 - saying her DS was now "on to" Lego. Who cares!!

Dp keeps ribbing dd1 (11) because she still plays with barbies and has a massive dolls house for them. I've told him to leave her be, I'd rather her playing with dolls than walking the streets causing trouble like other kids (we're not in a very nice area) She does have an internet tablet which id say she goes on 50/50 betwen that and her dolls.
Dd2 and 3 (5 and 6) still have loads of toys and can't see them out growing them anytime soon. But again they love minecraft/roblox and change between the 2 all the time. It's so sad kids are growing up too fast already, why would you (general you) want to speed it up even more?

YANBU. An old friend recently visited me for the first time in a while and saw our big dolls house in the playroom (I'm a CM so the spare room became the playroom). She immediately assumed it belonged to our youngest daughter who's 3 because 'of course' at 9 years old our other DD is too old to play with dolls.
In fact they both play with it it regularly and neither show any signs of stopping.
Likewise 14 year old DS still has his huge collection of hot wheel cars - I've seen half a dozen teenage boys in his room getting them out before now! It happens less as they get older of course but we would never tell them they're too old for toys, they're still children.
It does indeed sometimes feel like WALL - E is happening sadly.

My two are 19 and 21 and it was no different when they were little. Ds1 had a Mickey Mouse bath towel passed on to him because the 8 year old donor apparently found it too babyish. Ds1 still uses it as a sports towel whereas donor child had a pretty bad skunk habit by the time he was 15. Just saying...

So sad, my 7 nearly 8 yo dd is still fully engrossed in a whole ream of toys and role play situations with dolls and lego and I would never dream of suggesting this stop. A friend of mine recently told me her BIL has instructed his 3 yo ds to call his mother 'mom' and not 'mommy' (American friend) as it's babyish. The little lad is THREE!

Yanbu
It's like we're creating a nation of kids who'll only use tech & need a snack every hour, basically Wall-E is happening!

It's so lovely seeing kids use their imagination to make games out of nothing, I'd hate to take that innocence away from them too early.

I agree with you. Its sad as I really think too much screen time stops them being imaginative and they can almost 'forget' how to play with toys.

Dcs were still playing with playmobile in year 6. Characters are really good for narrative play. Unstructured play is really important, play dough is great for improving fine motor skills and all these things are fun.

Bloody hell - outgrown toys at 5?! YANBU. It's so strange in most countries kids haven't even started school at 5.

Elkind* sorry, bloody purple pop-up keeps obscuring the text box!

YANBU. You might find the book 'the hurried child' (David Elkins I think) a good read

I agree. My DS is nearly 7 and still plays with playmobil, play doh and his toy kitchen. All things that some of his other friends mums have got rid of. I remember still playing with toys well beyond the age of ten.