Why are wooden toys seen as superior to plastic ones?

[catinbootsx]

I'm ancient and it's been years since my kids had toys. But just had a colleague boasting that her kid only has five plastic toys and the rest are wooden.

Wooden ones are less polluting and biodegradable. Plastic ones are now thought to be environmentally bad.

As pp said, less polluting, biodegradable. But also very durable. So less likely to break and more likely to be an heirloom that can be used by generations of children in same family.

How old is her child though?
The older they get the more likely they'll want plastic toys/characters

Wooden toys are more durable than their plastic counterparts, and often able to be used in a variety of ways. Obviously this is also the case for some plastic toys, Lego for example, but many plastic toys are cheaply made and easily broken.

Wooden toys are environmentally better.
My children preferred the all singing, all dancing, flashing lights plastic toys over their aesthetically pleasing wooden toys!

All the reasons above but there will come a time for your colleague that the plastic tat will infiltrate the house. It’s not a 6th birthday party without the ceremonial opening of micro machines, need guns and action figures

Because they are seen to be more middle class.

I used to live in a very middle class area when my first was little. Other families had beautiful wooden toys set out amazingly in playrooms. I used to know a couple of very uptight mums who would flinch one of the wildly over priced rainbows were messed with.

After a toddler party at one of their houses once, my Dh asked me which Scandinavian website she'd bought the stick up her arse from.

I had a house full of fisher price flashing stuff. The kids all used to love it. I got a lot of tuts, especially when I told them it was mostly from eBay it charity shops.

I think usually it's just a short hand for non electronic and non branded with TV characters.

Extra points if you put a brand like Grimm's or Lanka Kade? In the description.

In reality... Many wooden toys are great. So are some plastic toys. Depends on how well made they are.

So many typos, my baby is trying to eat my face.

More environmentally friendly and durable. Also they are often more open-ended and encourage much more imagination - think of a 2 year old pushing a wooden fire engine around and making nee-naw sounds rather than a plastic one that makes the noise itself. Or small wooden figures that can be any character or lots of different scenarios rather than ones that are specifically spiderman etc that tend to be played with in mainly one sort of way.
I think there is some snobbery about it though and I certainly know a couple of presents who do act like they are quite superior for only having wooden toys.
As much as I am keen to look after the environment I can't deny that things like Lego and Playmobil are brilliant toys that my dcs love. Luckily there is quite a good second hand market for them though!

People just love a good reason to feel superior. I doubt most of them actually feel that way because of the environmental impact - it's just the new us vs them clique to belong to and most people will go for the side that seems "better".

In theory I wanted all wooden toys. In practice I changed my mind after one was launched at my head. Plastic hurts less, but I lessen my guilt by making sure that the plastic ones are mostly second hand.

I like that in general wooden toys are more open ended and less susceptible to constant fads and changes

But there are lots of plastics also in that vibe ie Lego. Although with all the sets now, I feels it’s becoming less imaginative. But the bricks themselves are great and high quality plastic so they last being past on or kept ( and really hurt your foot if you stand on them!)

Because they’re more expensive and “exclusive” - you can’t pick them up in Tesco for a few pounds the way you can a plastic doll or Thomas train or whatever. A lot of it is just middle class virtue signalling and snobbery.

I don’t like very cheap plastic tat of the “party bag” variety because it’s just instant landfill, but I think Lego, plastic dolls, Sylvanian families, metal die cast cars, playmobil, plastic animals etc are great toys and are handed down in my family just as much as wooden train sets and blocks. My kids have never been the slightest bit interested in playing with wooden rainbows.

I don’t think wooden is that much more now, Aldi’s had a lovely range of wooden toys before Xmas and really reasonable . Things like toys kitchens and other small play items

There are sound reasons for wooden toys but I agree there is an element of snobbery about it too. My in-laws (raging snobs and always desperate to prove their middle class credentials) would only buy wooden toys for our children and would also insist on passing on old wooden toys from DH’s childhood. Some of these old ones were positively dangerous - there was one wooden truck, in particular, that had all sharp pointed corners and I was always wary in case a toddler fell on it, or tried to clobber another kid with it, etc. Of course this could have happened with plastic toys as well but modern stuff tends to be more safety focused.

I like the creativity that comes with some wooden toys - like a wooden rainbow is a car seat, a doll’s bed, a train track, a marble run, etc. I personally prefer the feel of wooden toys and they seem to have lasted the course of time, every time I go to put them away they are squirrelled back out of the “too young” box and played with a lot more.

But we aren’t precious about them. They are marked and worn, as a child’s toys should be. Plus we also have piles of Lego’s, barbies, etc. Anything with batteries are mainly out for me because I hate replacing the batteries

@Caspianberg

I don’t think wooden is that much more now, Aldi’s had a lovely range of wooden toys before Xmas and really reasonable . Things like toys kitchens and other small play items

I agree the ones in Aldi are lovely and well priced, and Ikea and Asda also do some great wooden toys as well.

Snobbery.

Fair point that wooden tend to be good for basic skills and open ended plsy, but that's not exclusive to them.

Yes there is poorly made, unimaginative pladyic with a poor lifespan, but not all plastic toys are like that.

The reality is that most toy boxes will contain a combination.

@Fuckadoodledoooo your dh's comment has just made me guffaw out loud

Old fashioned. More expensive. Look aspirational. There are a few classics like
wooden railway, jigsaws and the IKEA toy kitchen stuff, but it can get a bit try hard.

Traditionally wooden toys have been the norm. They are great and if that's what you want for your kids then great. If you like a more modern plastic toy that you can clean/sterilise and pop in the toy box that's great too.

One thing I do remember a wooden shape sorter ( triangle ) block getting launched by one of mine in excitement, and it hurt more than the plastic ones 😂

Wooden toys are more durable than their plastic counterparts

Not here they are not. Wooden toys get chewed and damaged and then thrown away, even very expensive ones. I dreamed of lots of lovely wooden toys and now have a house full of plastic stuff.

Facebook reminded me today of a memory from when my twins were 1 - I learnt then that plastic may be worse for the environment but wooden toys are worse for your head if you pick them up with your feet and drop them on your face.

All the toys that my twins play with regularly are plastic - the few wooden toys we still have (because they’re sturdier, like say Plan Toys) don’t get used much. But then my twins both have additional needs and respond best to light, sounds and movement.

59 years later, my youngest relatives are playing with wooden Galt toys I had as a child, and my parents still use my very strong wooden Galt chair to reach the top shelf in the pantry. Wood lasts.