To think kids don’t ask for half as many toys etc these days cos of less exposure to advertising?

DD didn't just want any slime - it had to be PeachyBbby slime. This was obviously seen on a YouTube video - and yes to PP - she can Google the exact one on her tablet for "magic" home deliver. The stuff is £££ plus shipping from the US. Luckily we have US based relatives who bought her some for Xmas but I couldn't tell you where in her room it is now tho!
There's no real longevity with toys anymore.

Am pretty certain that the Argos catalogue improved my youngest son’s reading skills! He hated reading school books! It was read religiously from October to December 😅

My kid asks for everything 🙃

There will be trends in your near future, don't worry! I think kids still want stuff, it's just channelled differently.

I find that modern day kids have a sort of attitude that anything you can think of, mum can just get magically from the internet. This is definitely the case on our local FB group where people are always posting nonsense like: "my DD really wants an oak tree costume with an acorn hat, has anyone seen one anywhere?" Or "my DS wants a teddy which is really a lion but purple and dressed in a unicorn onesie," where do I start?"

I blame the demise of the Argos catalogue.

i used to love circling all the toys I wanted for my mum to take note of 😂

When I was a child, I was gifted toys for Christmas and my birthday only. Maybe something little from a tourist shop whilst on summer holidays. I remember sitting down with the Argos catalogue to write my letter to Santa - but neither me or my sister got a Mr Frosty!

We would have watched ads on ITV but day-to-day we didnt pester our parents for new toys as I think we knew the answer would be "no", probably due to family finances. We played with Lego and Sindy dolls and board games.

Now, when we go out, eg supermarket or garden centre DD will ask for a random toy - just whatever is on the shelves. I will say "no" but DH will often buy one for her.

My DD is more influenced by what other kids have at school - rather than advertising eg labubus or PLouise lip gloss or JellyCats.

My 5 year old loves toys. My only issue is sometimes he sees something on YouTube that a retro toy and then I had to try and find it!! Like at Christmas he asked for akiedo. I had never heard of it, it was a cartoon from the early 2000’s!! Thanks to eBay we managed to get him the toys

The look of sheer joy on my 3yo's face when he saw the Smyth's catalogue 😂 used to love it in the 90's, circling all the stuff you wanted for Christmas 😊

I can still sing some of the advert music from my childhood (primary school 1989-1996). Keypers, Sylvanian Families, Mr Frosty (Mr Frosty is such fun, he makes drinks for EVERYONE!) and Polly Pockets as mentioned by a PP. Also those Clarks shoes with a key in them.

DS gets birthday money and we will take him to Smyths Toys where he always finds something - normally Hot Wheels related or a board game. But he doesn't usually want it til he sees it on the shelf. Lack of ads is probably one of the positive things about him spending time building worlds on Minecraft.

My DS wants toys he sees in the competition page of the Beano quite often and loves a browse around toy shops or charity shops. He plays with toys a lot and loves to collect different sets.

At 5? None of mine had much screen time at 5, maybe 30 mins of TV a day, whereas I was glued to cartoons after school!

My 6 yo is always wanting cuddly toys and also there seems to be a craze for laboubo dolls in her class (impossible to get and also to remember how to spell!). She sees lots of you tube toy ads.

My 9 yo has stopped being interested in toys though. Some of his friends still like Lego.

My dcs are a little older as teens now but there was a stark difference the year we got rid of sky (which the kids often watched live tv) and moved to them watching Netflix /disney + /iplayer. My kids went from having a long list of things they wanted to struggling to think of more than one or two things they’d seen in someone else’s house. (think it was really noticeable as we did the change between a Christmas and birthday.)

I think the only live tv we ever watch as a family now is on the bbc so no one gets tv ads anymore.

I think in general you’re right.

Mine did ask for Minecraft because ‘everyone’ had it - so I guess the focus is shifting to digital products.
But also he very often kept saying ‘can I have a toy’ - not specifying any, and is the biggest Lego fan asking for all the sets even though none of his friends at school are.

My kid watches a lot of CBBC and Nickelodeon so she sees a lot of ads and is constantly asking for specific toys.

I agree and one of mine is 9 and this hasn’t changed,
rather than asking for the barbie house or whatever they’ll use another dolls house with a mix of toys, lego, sylvanians, teddies etc all piled in together. Some toys (playmobil!) include a handy leaflet with details of other toys in the range and mine look and that and briefly want all of it but it’s fleeting, I presume because it’s not reinforced by loads and loads of TV ads.

ipads and games consoles seem to be all kids want.

I loved watching toy adds when I was a child, they were only really on the tv in December though, trying to sell the latest toys. There was far less choice of toys then too. We would also circle what we wanted in the Argos catalogue. There were always the toys everyone wanted each year….that parents struggled to find. Nothing can really compete with the tech kids have now, the iPad does so much, the games consoles are addictive and high quality. By the time kids reach 8 years old they don’t really want anything other than screens.

Yes! Coming here to say that in our house it was definitely the Argos catalogue that primarily drove toy pestering, not TV adverts or peers.

My children were born mid 90s early 00s and they were definitely exposed to more advertising,toy catalogues , toy shops etc .
Grandchild loves going into our local charity shop to look at toys.
Argos and Woolworths catalogue was the family bible when my lot were small!

I don't think children play with toys the way we used to. I would say by around age 7 my kids didn't play with actual toys they played on games consoles or outside with friends with bikes/footballs etc.

I completely agree. At times we have struggled at Christmas to buy something they really wanted. I remember as a child being desperate for a keyper, a rainbow brite doll, sylvanian families, polly pocket etc. I don’t think my kids have ever shown that much desire for a toy. They don’t really see adverts anymore as they just skip them and our subscriptions are mostly ad free. They still ask for lego but I don’t think we ever had that “must have” toy.

Maybe parents are finally finding their voice and actually saying no

We were asked we said no so they stopped asking

The lack of the Argos catalogue in paper form perhaps, my DD’s spent hours ringing things they weren’t going to get because it was branded plastic tat

Are there even adverts on TV these days? Don’t think I’ve seen one for the past 15 years.