To think children have far too many toys nowadays

[atthewelles]

Remember the days when your toys all fitted into a drawer instead of requiring an entire playroom, all to themselves? And you played with most of them everyday and loved them to bits and thought they all had personalities, even the toy cars? And how imaginative you had to be because a lot of things had to double up as something else eg your doll's cot became a cage when you were playing 'Zoos', or the bucket from your bucket and spade set became a soldier's hat when you were playing 'Wars'.
Nowadays playrooms are stacked high with toys that kids play with a couple of times and throw in a corner and that break if you look at them; and everything has a switch that makes it move and talk and flash lights at you; and Barbie doesn't need you to make her a wedding dress and veil out of tissue paper because you can buy wedding Barbie (and ice skating Barbie and gymnast Barbie and nurse Barbie and.....).

AIBU to think that children would be better off with a few well loved and worn toys and left to use their imagination a bit more when it comes to maximising the fun they get from using these toys, than having everything handed to them cheap, shiny, plastic and no imagination required?

It is over thinking it-they may have had less toys in the past but they were just toys!
They only have more now because they are cheaper, more choice in the shops and can be picked up for next to nothing second hand.

A lot of very defensive parents on here.

Of course kids will use their imagination when playing. But I agree with other posters on here. They will use it even more when they have to be that bit more creative in the way they utilise their toys. It's hardly a revolutionary idea. I've seen it being discussed in lots of articles and publications on childcare.

From memory we always had lots of toys, but never playroom amounts. It was boxes of toys though.

My mum has complained that as a child in the 1950s, she would get colouring books and crayons for Christmas, I would sympathise, but she lived in the countryside, and had a pony, a piano and
Piano lessons. Not forgetting the bike. She was also able to play without health and safety restrictions. I often hear about her cycling/ riding pony to various friends houses without any adult supervision. She even had ice skates for when the nearby lake froze over.

I don't think the amount of toys affect imagination, but its interaction with others and hobbies that really matter.

YANBU, my kids have far too many, but family will not stop buying them more stuff. We have big families both sides and every birthday and Christmas there is a deluge. Some of it never even gets looked at. I've got my lot reasonably well trained to contribute small bits towards a big present e.g. Pieces for our wooden railway, but DH's family are a lost cause. I have no idea what the solution is.

Children are creative with how they use the toys whether they have one toy or a house full of them!

No, MrsDanvers, just the ones who are getting defensive and snippy as opposed to voicing their opinions. Nothing passive aggressive about my statement at all.

I never said people who disagree with the premise are defensive and I never called anyone aggressive MrsDanvers.

but everything can be bought these days. we had to make many of our playstuff and improvise. didn't have all these elaborate dress up stuff - we used bits and pieces. same with all the plastic food - we used stones, sticks and leaves etc. i know it sounds a bit damaic but i acually get a bit down at he amount of plastic in the world and all these tatty plasic toys which often break just adds to more astic for landfill.

I was a child in the 80s and we had that stuff.

The two aren't mutually exclusive. DS has a great toy kitchen with food - he still makes mud pies with stone and alsorts in when he is outside though!

That's fine mrsDanvers. That's your opinion and my opinion is that some parents on here sound very defensive in the way they have worded their posts. What's the big deal? Do you think I'm talking about you specifically or something?

Whose mrsDanvers?

Re your other query, you could buy separate outfits for Sindy but you didn't buy a different sindy everytime you wanted her to wear a different outfit. And the Sindy herself was just a generic looking doll that you could dress yourself. She didn't come ready made with a crown or roller blades or suchlike.

You can improvise clothes for a plastic Barbie just as well as for a stick with eyes drawn on it. Dd did, even though she also owned Barbie clothes. The fact that stuff can be bought in the shops doesn't mean nobody will want to make their own. I still cook a meal every night. Dd used to write novels though heaven knows there are enough of those in the shops already. Creativity will out.

And plastic toys don't necessarily break earlier than other toys: I still have my plastic animals from the early 60s; my dc played with them as happily as I did. Dc's playmobil toys will no doubt do for at least one more generation. My mother has an enormous tub of lego, the legacy of several children and grandchildren and still brought out for visiting children. It's not going near any landfill.

I said you didn't buy a different Sindy doll everytime you wanted to change her outfit. Any little girls I grew up with had the basic Sindy and had to dress her themselves. I remember a girl in school from a well off family got ballet Sindy and we were absolutely in awe and made her bring it into school so we could look at it (and then went home and made wonky looking ballet dresses out of bits of brillo pad . There may be a generic Barbie now but any children I know have several Barbies and they all come ready made and dressed and accessorised.

Anyway, I'm not arguing anymore. We have different views on this. Possibly neither of us is totally right or totally wrong and its not really a topic that is worth fighting over.

But people did buy different sindys. My sister had loads of them with even more outfits.

i only had one sindy. always wanted weebles though, very much for some strange reason. remember making a dolls house from a cardboard box. made kites, bogeys, skateboards. we recylced lots of stuff.

DD2 has tons of Polly Pocket.