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.

Most of the wooden stuff has completely lost it's allure by the time the kid hits 6 or 7. For all the Brio and lovely wooden Melissa and Doug play sets out there, there's still a point when your kid pleads for some over-priced plastic shite - a Marvel action figure, a Lol Surprise Doll. Once they start watching kids TV/films or having play dates with other kids, it's inevitable.

My house is full of plastic CBeebies figures, Trolls, Playmobil etc.

It is an easy way to virtue signal.
They do also look pretty.
My dc always preferred the loudest most awful, most plastic toys every time!

I don’t hate plastic toys, I hate plastic toys that play really annoying tunes and noises and have flashing lights and then the batteries run out and it’s a stupid RVXYZ battery that you can’t get anywhere for love or money and even if you could you can’t open the battery compartment without 6 different sized screwdrivers...

Definitely snobbery by PIL's. They insisted on referring to our suburban house by the name on the original deeds, even when talking to us. So it was never, eg. are you going back home now? but ALWAYS are you going back to PenguinHouse now?. Also sent any post to PenguinHouse, Suburban Street instead of using the number. Good job the postman had a sense of humour, he still tells me it's something from the in-laws when he delivers

My DS prefers the colourful, noisy plastic toys to the wooden ones. I actually think the plastic ones are safer as my DS the other day just threw a wooden busy board from behind the sofa nearly hitting the back of my head. I have now hidden all the wooden ones away. My DS doesn't throw things to deliberately hurt you, he is just in that phase where he is interested in what happens to them when he throws it. He doesn't aim at you although I talk to him that throwing toys like that will break them and hurt people but he is too young to understand. I think wooden toys are seen as middle class and they are more expensive. But I believe young ones would prefer the colourful ones over any dull wooden toys. The only wooden toys DS enjoys are the Montessori ones, other than that they are dull looking heavy toys that could be dangerous in the hands of my DS.

My 2yo has mostly wooden toys. I try and get all his plastic toys second hand (he is currently an enormous fan of duplo, I got a massive bundle of FB marketplace for dirt cheap).

I never intended to go down this route - I originally thought wooden toys were for suckers - but he plays so much better with wooden toys. The example above with the child making the fire engine noise themselves is totally true. If the toy makes the noise for them, I've found he just sits there pressing the button repeatedly with a dead eyed look rather than actually playing with it. Whereas all of his wooden kitchen gadgets he pretends to play with - he makes a grinding noise when he's make us a coffee, for instance.

I have never arranged his toys nicely to take a picture. If I do put a pic up of social media, it is more likely to show his playroom in use - and looking like a bombsite. Because I hate the pretty posed pictures that look like a child has been nowhere near them.

I have never had an issue with him throwing toys at my head because I have taught him not to throw things or hurt people, I can't believe multiple people think that's an acceptable reason for buying a toy!

I think there are a few exceptions where wooden is usually better than plastic:

• wooden stacking/ building blocks - though not sure I've ever seen these in plastic.
• wooden doll's houses - they have an allure that seems to be lacking in plastic ones.
• wooden train sets - much easier for little ones to build and they play with them in a completely different way if they have to push the trains along.
• wooden toy food - we have a mix of plastic and wooden and the wooden cake, pizza and vegetables with velcro for "chopping" gets played with more than the plastic stuff. We have plastic toy pans where the food is cooked though... the wooden ones look a bit lethal!

Most of the other wooden toys we have were presents and, tbh, we could do without (rocket, toolbench, garage etc.). Take up lots of space and bash the wall.

See, my children both play with the dreaded wooden rainbow and love it. They use it as pens for their toy animals, or ramps for their cars, or rockers for their dolls. They also love their wooden and magnetic train set.

They also love the hideous, noisy, flashing police cars I've just bought them as well as their half chewed plastic dinosaurs and dragons.

It's just balance, when I tidy away their toys I put the wooden ones on top of the unit so I don't have to look at the plastic ones. I consider it my compensation for having hundreds of toys strewn all over the floor

@NotDavidTennant

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.

You'd be stretching your child's imagination even further if you just give them a lump of wood and told them to imagine it was a fire engine. Or even better give them nothing and tell them to imagine they have some toys.

Kids do that though don't they? Ds is 3. He has plenty of toys but he makes up games and toys out of anything even stones and sticks and things outside. I can absolutely see him pretending a lump of wood is a fire engine. He is currently sitting in the (plastic) laundry basket with a broom pretending he is in a boat!

Wood is a much better material for the environment . Plastic needs to be avoided as much as possible and a lot of poorly made, cheap plastic toys end up in landfill.

There are some well made, high quality plastic toys and poorly made low quality wooden ones. But for the planet go for wood if you can

My 5 year old can easily pretend with plastic toys too

In fact he regularly makes himself a maze with all of his toys and then used a dinosaur to destroy his maze

I am an unapologetic wooden toy wanker because my children play better with them. They are just much more engaged with wooden blocks, the rainbow, building boards, etc. They also enjoy magnatiles and Lego. They just aren’t into small world play and far prefer making ball runs or building towers. They have asked for superheroes and Barbies before, which we have bought, but they just don’t get used. The wooden toys always prove to be better investments.

Even when a bit old and bashed up, wooden toys have charm.

Plastic has no charm and no visual appeal at all. Except for the people the toys are made for

Tasteful toys in muted tones and wood are for the parents!

In my experience the kids love the plastic, bright, noisy ones over wooden every time. DC2 had a lot more plastic than dc2!

They both have their place, my dc benefited from the wooden brio AND the plastic duplo from own childhood and my nieces and nephews are now enjoying it too. I certainly found it easier to pass generic plastic on to the charity shop rather than feeling obliged to keep them as family heirlooms like I did the hundreds of wooden ones dgm gave us!

Plastic is bad for the environment. Wooden lasts a lot longer and less likely to break. No brainer really.

Colours on wood also stand the test of time better than plastic as they tend not to fade. Plastic left in bright places fades remarkably quickly.

I’m not fussed what people do - we like most people have a range of toys. However I do wonder why some people are so fixated on wooden toys but yet drive a petrol guzzling 4x4, fly abroad for their holidays and use plenty of other single use plastic.

My DS likes taking thing in the bath or shower and it makes the wooden toys spilt. The baby chews them and the paint comes off. They get dropped, chipped or cracked. I certainly can't pass on any of our wooden bits.

Where do you put your broken wooden toys ? In the bin if they cannot be reused? Then won't they be in landfill anyway. I thought many things that are biodegradable, don't biodegrade due to lack of oxygen in landfill.

Plastic toys are often more fun. You can't get a wooden Barbie!

@Ionacat

I’m not fussed what people do - we like most people have a range of toys. However I do wonder why some people are so fixated on wooden toys but yet drive a petrol guzzling 4x4, fly abroad for their holidays and use plenty of other single use plastic.

Yes! I know someone exactly like this. Drives a huge car, lives off ready meals and takeaways but only lets the dcs play with wooden toys. I offered her some baby and toddler toys our kids had grown out of for her youngest and she refused on account of them being plastic, even though they would clearly be second hand, not creating new plastic waste!

For me part of it is the resale value. I can spent £50 on a plastic fisher price toy and then sell it secondhand I would be lucky to get a tenner.
If i spend £70 on a grimms rainbow, I can sell it secondhand for £60.
More expensive in the first place but actually cheaper in the long run, and less likely to go in the bin.
Mine do have some plastic toys but mainly playmobil which also has a good resale value and is good quality so will last for multiple kids.

I also find that open ended wooden toys have a longer life span and better play value, kids play with them differently as they get older whereas a flashing Fisher price baby walker all they do is push all the buttons, whatever age they are 🤣

Third on the list is the environmental impact, and the fact that they dont play annoying music!

@gratitutesmynewthing

My DS likes taking thing in the bath or shower and it makes the wooden toys spilt. The baby chews them and the paint comes off. They get dropped, chipped or cracked. I certainly can't pass on any of our wooden bits.

Where do you put your broken wooden toys ? In the bin if they cannot be reused? Then won't they be in landfill anyway. I thought many things that are biodegradable, don't biodegrade due to lack of oxygen in landfill.

Plastic things also easily get dropped, chipped or cracked. Much more easily IME. Also you can say "no" if your child wants to take a wooden toy in the shower. They can't take plastic toys with batteries into the shower either.

I think the environmental argument is more about the production than disposal. Wooden toys can be sustainable, whereas producing plastic is a very damaging process.

Wooden is more natural, open ended and nicer to look at. But also plastic toys have their uses as well. Wooden toys don't have to be expensive. I have a couple of wooden toys for my baby that were cheap.

Brother's just had his first child and they are still at the tasteful, everything white and grey, wooden toys only phase. Both him and his girlfriend are very minimalist, tasteful, must look good on instagram people and I think they're trying to do the same thing with all the baby paraphernalia... I'll wait and see how it pans out - but after the noisy plastic shite he's bought for my kids over the year - I AM buying THAT FUCKING COOKIE JAR as an act of revenge at some point.

Plastic hurts less when they go through the throwing phase.

Mine have a mix - wooden playfood and kitchen and the like - and then a mountain of little plastic playmobil people who are very very very loved.

You'd be stretching your child's imagination even further if you just give them a lump of wood and told them to imagine it was a fire engine. Or even better give them nothing and tell them to imagine they have some toys.
This made me laugh out loud 🤣🤣😁