To think wooden toys aren't necessarily better than plastic

[BleepingSooty]

I was reading a blog where the author told a story about how she had an unexpected visitor and was worried because her son's toys were still lying out in the living room. Rather than be put out by the mess, the visitor praised her for being such an excellent mother for buying her son wooden toys. She then went on to list the benefits of wooden toys and how they last longer and have more educational value. She did make an exception for Lego.

Now, my kids are very hard on their toys so I feel somewhat qualified in this subject. We have had a mixture of wooden toys and plastic, cheap toys and expensive (mostly gifts) and I have to say I see no difference. The wooden toys break just as much as the plastic ones. We especially have problems with paint flaking off. I also don't get how wooden toys have more educational value at all.

I know I probably should have written this on her blog but don't want to upset her. And yes, her blog is a tad self absorbed but I love reading it!

She's nearly three. She's got quite a bit of plastic stuff (hand-me-downs, presents, stuff from the charity shop) as well as wooden things, and plays with most of it. She doesn't care, honestly.

Kitty plastic doesn't 'suck' the dirt in, but it often has very detailed bits that hold all manner of nasty yuck. And wood can be wipe clean if it's painted or varnished. DD has a Happyland pirate ship which is impossible to get clean. I just rationalise that by thinking that if I can't get at the dirt to remove it, then neither can she..

Mine were happy with wood or plastic. I didn't really care and I don't think it really made any difference to the way they played with the toy

Personally, from an aesthetics view, I prefer wooden stuff, but the kids played with what they wanted to play with, my preferred 'look' was pretty irrelevant

There are a few thing we have that are wood - garden playhouse, play kitchen, dolls house and furniture. The rest of it has been plastic, although at 7 and 11 we're out of the annoying singing toy stage and heading towards the small but expensive phase

It's nothing to do with what they're made of and all to do with the type of toy they are.

Wooden toys are better, they don't come with batteries :)

It's bollocks and is just snobbery. My DD has plenty of toys that are wooden but she also has toys made from fur/plastic and so on... plastic toys are easier to clean, don't break as easily and can do more interesting fun things!

I have a 'friend' who informed me that she only buys 'beautiful wooden toys' that look good in her house. I was blown away by that statement.
Shouldn't you be putting your children's needs before your home decor?

I keep meaning to start a thread on this to see if I am unreasonable in being annoyed by this comment or if I am just overreacting!

I think it's bullshit TBH. Some of the toys my kids have had the most use out of have been cheap plastic tat!

When my DD1 was 2 we bought her a Thomas train set - a plastic one. The other mums from my NCT class were 'oh but it's not Brio' - we got a lot of use out of that train set.

If something is permanently out like the play kitchen and dolls house then I'd rather have the wooden ones because they look nicer. But the beautiful wooden play cube that we bought before pfb was born has never seen any actual play. I really don't mind what people divas long as they don't inherently criticise others for choosing things their dc like and play well with.

Plastic or wooden they will still clutter the house up one day.

Maybe the beautiful, pristine wooden toys can be packed away for future generations to look at play with.
The much played with broken plastic tat can be thrown away.

YANBU. I can't imagine life without duplo and happyland, and I know DH and I my DCs will love the playmobil castle they are getting for Christmas! :o We have wooden stuff too, bricks and train set stuff.

Good quality toys are not tat, whatever they are made of.

The broken plastic tat will still be around in land fill for many future generations to enjoy. Unlike the wooden things which will have long since rotted away into soil.

There are two main differences.

1. Wooden toys are better for the enironment over all.

1. Kids prefer plastic. Plastic toys DO more, and have more detail and are just generally more fun to play with. They don't look as snooty nice as wooden toys, but ask a kid and they'll want the plastic shit.

The 'more room for imagination' with wooden toys argument is blether really isn't it? It's what hipster parents like me reason to themselves to justify buying the toy they prefer.

Yanbu. It was Vtech all the way with my dc and I thought they were great toys. They did have some wooden ones but tbh they were usually just left on the shelf looking aesthetic.

I think some people hark back to a romantic unrealistic simpler age in which they envisage boys in knickerbockers playing with hoops or a cup and ball and curly haired darlings in white smocks

My dcs prefer chocolate to vegetables and character clothing over nice stuff, doesn't mean they get it. You have to teach taste and what's best.

Where is all the paint flaking off DD's wooden toys going??? I'm sure it's not organic

I love the plastic stuff we have inherited - VTech tree, Fisher Price etc. And I'm buying Happyland, Playmobile for birthdays/Xmas etc - it's brilliant.

There is no point in being snobby about toys. Alot of the wooden stuff looks "good" to parents but is actually pretty crappy.

You don't have to teach a three year old good taste Posie. If there's any one point in life where none of that shit matters, it's in toddlerhood ffs.

My kids wear naice clothes and eat veg too (polishes medal) - but getting hung up on the look of toys is silly. I buy the thing that will get played with. I learned from experience. If you want something to look nice on the shelf, buy an ornament.

It depends what they are. The upside of wooden toys is the lack of battery powered madness!

I still have nightmares of DSs 'wiggly worm' and its bloody tune that went on and on and on....

He's still got some lovely wooden toys (dinosars that 'walk', cars, etc) that I can imagine him having as an adult.

I love lego and playmobile!

There's plastic toys, then there's 'plastic tat'!

Yep - I agree. We have a mix of both.
Things that get played with in here regularly (as in actually played with) are Lego, Duplo, Playmobil, the wooden train set, and all the cuddly toys.

I have been looking at garages for ds2's xmas, and have seen some very lovely wooden ones. I know it would be ignored though - my money will be better spent on Fisher Price.

Some will hate me for this but when my first child was born 13 years ago I stipulated to all family and friends that I did not want him to have plastic toys. This was only for environmental reasons really as it seemed pretty nonsensical to me to bring a baby into the world only to pollute the place with lots of excess plastic.
People respected my wishes at first and then around aged 2 they started to buy plastic toys, until with further offspring the house was filled with plastic like most other families.
I wish I had stuck to my guns as a lot of the plastic toys have been rubbish!
This was not about being snobby, at all. I wanted to limit our landfill contribution.

I have always been fussy re toys as play has such a huge impact on child development.It's widely known that the simpler the toy the better as simplicity encourages more use of imagination.

I also think bombarding kids with beeping,flashing toys overloads them and gets them used to screens and toys doing it all for them.They don't need beeps and flashes to learn.Books are a prime example.I never bought those awful flashing books that do it all for them but we had/have piles of real books.All 3 were early avid readers(and still are).

I think there are many fab open ended plastic toys like Duplo,Playmobil,SF and Lego(we have all that)and there are wooden toys made in China painted with dodgy paint and varnish I'd avoid.

I think wooden toys can get too simplistic after a while and kids need fiddly toys like the above.

I've always tried to teach my kids to value everything we have in the house and to avoid filling landfill so I've always avoided the latest all singing all dancing tat and gone for less but higher quality I can pass on to grandchildren eg Brio,wooden dollhouse,Gotz and Corolle dolls,Le Toy Van pirate ships,Lego,Playmobil,SF etc.

Couldn't give a stuff if I seem fussy.We've had practically zero money wastage and my dc have always learnt a lot from their play.

I get that, and agree, but Lego and Playmobil are not tat - they are bloody good toys that can be passed on.

I don't have a house rammed with plastic tat or anything. I am stating though, that more often than not, wooden toys are the mother's parents preference, simply for the snoot value and aesthetics alone....which to me kind of defeats the purpose of 'toy'.

There's room for both. WE started to wooden toys route (even having beena child of 80s and brought up on plastic tat), but ds loved, loved, loved his Mega Bloks trucks more than anything else.

He now plays with his Fireman Sam fire engines for hours and makes up games about rescuing people or fighting dinosaurs.

His wooden toys are barely played with; howvere my 30 year old Big Yellow Teapot is a big favourite.

Pictish did you read my post,I didn't say PM was tat quite the reverse.

Sorry - my post was to zzz.
I agree with you Prairie.

I love wooden toys. Our house is filled with plastic though!

I do worry about young children (those at the chewing stage) with plastic though, because of the chemicals in plastic.