to think that CBeebies magazine shouldn't bother with the rubbish gifts?

[fremnant]

I know it's a fabulous marketing ploy, but does anyone really want the plastic tat that they give away each week?! Novelty value will last a few minutes with the kids, then it breaks and ends up in the bin. Considering there are so many programmes on CBeebies promoting recycling and wasting less surely they should be setting a less wasteful example to children? Save the money and the environment and ditch the tat - anyone else agree??

but then they couldn't charge as much for it

Agree. Enjoy the magazine (well DS1 does) but we're moving house next week and I've lost count of the number of small pieces of plastic I've binned while he's been at playgroup.

you're kidding
DS buys it for the tat and the stickers. Once her has broken the tat and stuck the stickers all over him, DD and us, I try to interest him in the games and stories!
Have to amit I don't mind the tat - usually gives him a couple of hours of pleaseure then I can chuck it in the bin without a twinge of guilt when it breks
(tho we still have the chuggington trains)

Even worse is when the same old tat starts coming round again. I think we've got about 12 crappy plastic mobile phones, 84 crappy cameras through which you can see various Cbeebies characters and 381 of those cars which shoot out of some sort of contraption but usually stop working immediately.

Luckily dd2 doesn't particularly like the Cbeebies mag so now we have Disney Princess plastic crap instead...

We have moved on from Cbeebies magazine now. The gifts were shite, YANBU.

DD likes 'Animals And You' (nice magazine and the gifts from that are quite good tbh)
DS(7) is yet to find a magazine that he would like to get on a regular basis.

I think my kids only want the tat, not the magazine. :(

You are kidding . Although not strictly the cbeebies magazine, DD was and still is totally besotted with her Stuffy and Mr Tumble toys that came on the front of Show Me Show Me / Something Special magazines.

I think you would need to subscribe but storybox is a good magazine. My DD is a bit older and gets aquila. This is a christmas present that gets me out of buying shite magazines full of adverts.

YABU

You have to think as a toddler/pre-schooler and how pleased you would be with the plastic piece of tat.

I think you are taking some of the joy of magazines from your child. It's not like they are really capable of reading them - just looking at pictures at that age.

Do you not remember being thrilled by the free gifts with magazines? Even in my 20s I was excited when Cosmopolitan or Marie Claire came with a free lippy.

Back in my day, when I used to get Bunty comic every week, and then when I was a bit older, Mizz, I used to be soooooooooo excited when it would say that in next week's issue there would be a free gift. I would look forward to it so much all week.

I think it's a bit sad that now every single week every kids' magazine or comic has some bit of tat strapped to the front of it. And that's what kids choose the comic by, not the actual comic itself. So you are basically paying £2.99/£3.99 for some bit of horrible crap that will break in 5 mins.

YANBU

the post office set a few weeks ago was fab. DS loved it and so did I. Generally I try to go for Charlie and Lola as it usually crafty type stuff which DS likes but last week it was jewellery which wasn't quite his thing!

"Even in my 20s I was excited when Cosmopolitan or Marie Claire came with a free lippy." Garcia I'm 46 - it still thrills me

that we missed the one with free Chuggington trains on.

don't worry spring chicken ours were broken before we even got them out of the packaging! I hate the free crap toys that Cbeebies comes with, in fact I've even avoided buying it because I don't want another neon phone/plastic car. I would probably buy my dd a magazine every week if they did one that was say 50p cheaper without a gift. I would rather buy her a sticker book or activity book or something.

As an adult I totally agree with you but I remember when I was a child and the free gifts were the most exciting bit of getting a comic, even if they were rubbish and broke after half an hour!

We get the cbeebies one every week. It is our ritual after Thursday playgroup.

My DD wants the gift, but as she gets older actually does the activities.

She LOVES the gifts, even when she has had the same one dozens of times.

YABU - 3 yr olds love them!

They had Alphablocks the other week, and if I had found another copy of that magazine, I would have bought it for the Extremely Educational Tat alone!

(Bourgeoise, moi?)

Some of DS's favourite toys are cheapy magazine freebies, so YABU.

(and I work in magazines, and people always moan about the free gifts, but they make a huge difference to sales, so whether they believe it or not, people want them!)

The Alphablocks letters were quite good. They came with their own little drawstring bag and we still have them!

Rhian82 is quite right. It's just like that other thread running at the moment: so many grownups hate various CBeebies programmes and presenters, but the little ones evidently adore them, as they are commissioned again and again by people who know better than us (but who don't have to live with the domestic consequences!)

DD loves the alphablocks letters, and loves matching them to pages 2 and 3 of the magazine. However, the magazine is getting more and more tatty. I was going to laminate the pages of a new copy but can I find one? NO! They've sold out everywhere and the new one comes out tomorrow. :(

My DDs choose the magazine by the 'quality' of the free gift on the front.

DD2 loves the tat. The magazine is a side issue frankly for her.

Hi ,

If anyone has a set of the Alphablocks that came with the magazine they don't want could they email me at [email protected] as my 4 year old (Mr I'm not interested in words or numbers, just diggers) has suddenly become obsessed with them! I'm happy to buy them for a few pounds or the postage or whatever.

Thanks,

Jim

YANBU. The tat is horrendous.