For fuck’s sake - I cannot take this anymore

@Hobnobswantshernameback 🤣🤣🤣 good idea I could do with a drink

"It's horrendous for the planet" and "deliberately sending new plastic toys and colouring pencils directly to landfill" doesn't really compute for me.

Give them to charity shops. Yes you think the toys are poor quality and beneath you, and therefore beneath anyone, but you'll be surprised how much of it gets bought up in the lead up to Christmas. Some people have no choice but to shop at charity shops. I think a lot of posters on Mumsnet have no idea how poor some people are in this country. The best things consumers can do in terms for the environment is to re-use and buy second hand - charity shops and second hand sales help slow demand which ultimately reduces the burden on the planet.

OP I agree with you. Does he buy something every day? Can your DH think about what he’s teaching the kids by doing this? Success in life is more likely if kids learn delayed gratification and they’d benefit from him giving them the money, saving and buying a better thing after a few weeks. He could teach them this. Also, I’d be tempted to save all the magazines and crap for a week/month put it in a bin liner, tell him how much it all cost and dump it on his bed/favourite chair/ bike/whatever. Just to make the point. But I may be petty as sometimes i collect all my DH’s shoes from around the house and stack them on his desk…

It's like a mumsnet drinking game this thread
take a shot every time the op uses the word "tat"
bonus shot if it's "plastic tat"
extra slurp for "climate emergency"
we'd all be wankered

Definitely with you on this one. I bought my dd far too much crap she asked for when she was younger, she now has a bedroom absolutely overloaded with stuff she never plays with but refuses to throw away. I have to throw things out every now and then without her realising. I wish I'd realised it sooner and never bought it all in the first place, now when she asks for anything like that I have to literally tell her what crap it is and how she'll play with it for a day before it's added to the piles of other stuff she never even looks at.

FWIW I do actually agree with you, I just don't think you can really put a moral value on this. The vast majority of people see no issue or harm in buying disposable plastic junk. Your standards are similar in this respect to being vegetarian (which in this case, I am not).

It's definitely true that eating meat causes suffering to animals, so if a family has two parents, one who is vegetarian, the other who is not, is the non-vegetarian parent wrong to feed meat to the children, because eating meat is objectively less moral? Most people don't actually feel that strongly about it, and if they did, then they wouldn't have chosen to have children with someone who enjoys eating meat to the extent they want to share that with their children.

Just because this issue is less obvious and so perhaps less likely to have been discussed before the children were conceived doesn't make it any different IMO. You don't get to impose your morals or values on somebody else just because you think they are better, obviously you can try to persuade him to see your point of view, ask him to consider your distress about it, or try to find a compromise where you don't feel it's causing as much harm to the planet or your living environment or budget. But I don't think it's right to just expect to impose your own morals, even if they are stricter.

OP what is your stance on Christmas crackers? That is basically just tat that gives a moment of joy too.

I think there is a compromise. When the novelty of the comic tat wears off spirit it away to a box out of sight. When you have enough donate to school for lucky dip prizes. Use it as party bag favours . Churches might like it for boredom bags they hand out to keep kids quiet during service.

One of the things I failed at with parenting was teaching my dc to enjoy themselves. Maybe this is your dh’s way of bringing a little joy or fun into their lives. Looking forward to going to the shop, being allowed to choose what piques their interest. Enjoying that item. Whilst it doesn’t appeal to you, maybe the strange character on a purse appeals to them. Allowing people choices helps them grow in a way.

Putting them in the bin doesn’t cancel out the fact that they were made. Binning them and making way for more of this stuff is worse.

I’m guessing one of the reasons he keeps buying more of it is precisely because the kids want more or want to replace things, because you keep throwing it away.

Tell him to find a place for it the minute he steps in the door. This has helped in my house with this issue!

It all adds up. I used to buy bits and bobs for my son and then I saw how much it actually added up to (about £300 in one year!) I stopped. Can you tot up the cost of it all? I also dont think it's good for kids to be inundated with stuff all the time. It takes the excitement out of getting little gifts.

And therein lies the problem. You’re rigid and overbearing and you married someone with completely different values to yours.

You think different things are important. If you have completely different ideas on what’s ‘right’, you can’t expect him to meekly roll over and just agree that your views are more important than his.

You need to accept that he feels differently about this, or you need to compromise between you. You can’t expect to just overrule him completely.

It’s not as though they’re going to last more than 2 minutes tho is it?

Because you put things in the bin because you’re angry about your DH buying them.

Exactly. Why the hell would a charity shop want this shite? And my goodness the embarrassment of passing it on to a charity shop and admitting that you think it was ever a good idea to buy such nonsense. It’s like donating Shein to a charity shop. Just don’t!!!

Just keep throwing it away / donating it - that’s what I do with my MIL’s plastic tat. As soon as they lose interest it’s donated

I agree with you. Not sure how to tackle it though neither me or DH would buy it . We have a few good toys and don’t buy much throughout the year so the kids don’t ask / expect it. I’ve even managed to avoid it for Christmas! Mine are 18 months , 3 & 8.

Sorry cross posted!

I really hope that this this is a fake thread. If your DH really won’t listen then at least donate the pencils etc to a pre-school or similar, as a job lot over a few weeks.
Lego is plastic too.