to wonder how long avoiding plastic tat can last?

[ParadiseChick]

Oldest dc is 8.

For as long as I can remember we've been surrounded by brightly coloured plastic.

Dc2 is ten months, I'm not bothered by the fact most of their toys are Tomy, v tech, Fisher price and plastic, bright and noisy.

I have a few friends now on their first dc quite smug about not wanting plastic toys. Opting instead for nice classy neutral wooden painted things. Fair enough, easily done when they are under 2 but I'm wondering how long it's achievable?

Anyone managed it?

Nope, never have never will be free of platic crap.
They wont be so smug in a few years when their dc want all the action figures and dolls etc they see on tv (unless they're banned from watching it because it was invented by the devil).
Watch and wait..it'll get them!

When my DC was a baby, friends who were expecting vowed that their child would have only wooden toys. I was somewhat confused and couldn't see the point but then wondered if I needed to examine my DC's toys and rethink. Thought I'd missed something I should have know. Needn't've worried by the time their DC was born, their house looked like and explosion in Toys R Us!

I can't understand why people are so against tat either, well...I can a little bit, but the amount the DC can get out of it is so much more than what you pay for the toy that it makes it worth the limited hassle.

Or is it just being a snob?

I think the theory is that wooden toys are more open-ended in terms of interaction as they rarely have sounds/lights on them, so the child can determine how to play with it better than a plastic toy which can be quite directive. IMO a balance is good and 18mo ds likes a bit of plastic tat much more than his expensive wooden toys so far!

Plastic hurts less when they throw it. They are also less likely to leave teeth marks in it

To be fair our baby will crawl over any toy that's out to play with a stray shoe, throw the cushions off the sofa or turn the sky box off.

Up to 12 months I bought toys I liked - pretty, wooden stuff.

1st birthday came and everyone bought noisy, flashy plastic stuff that he loved.

After that I gave up. Isn't the point of toys that children like them?

I do try and get nice stuff rather than tat regardless though - like Wow toys, plastic but solid/well made.

Oh yes we just got rid of dc's wooden high sleepers, half eaten.

I managed it for at least 2 weeks after dc1 was born.

I think that it is a shame when parents put what is aesthetically pleasing to them as first importance.

Hahahahahahahaha.
I was one of those.
I honestly thought that babies only really needed a rattle type thing and a single wooden pull-along thing, along with a soft toy or maybe two, until they were about 18 months when I might get one of those wooden hammer bench thingys. Being a bit of a smug eco-type I probably bleated on about the superior environmental qualities of non-plastic toys too. In fairness I tried to only do this with DH, who vehemently agreed (and was probably even worse).

About a month in, we both changed our minds.

After a while my only limitations were 'try the charity shop first' and 'nothing too monumentally annoying for me' (which ruled out a lot of VTech). We have a reasonable mixture but plenty of plastic crap. I think I would still draw the line at buying a four month old a toy mobile phone 'just like mummy's' though.

Oooh, you did well Chao, two weeks is an impressive feat

Wait till you have an 11 year old Ds.....welcome to the world of Nerf guns

My ds is 9 months and we have a house of plastic crap. He adores it anything that light up or makes a noise and he gets so excited about new plastic tat that we and the grandparents cant resist buying it!

I never wanted plastic baby type dolls, I find them a bit creepy. I lasted about 3 months after it was clear that DD's favourite toys at nursery and other people's houses were plastic dolls. Being a parent is so different to what I expected and this counts for toys too.

Lol at no plastic "except a few Bob the builder toys, a marble run, playmobil, lego, and a slide in the garden"

Vetch is amazing, you never need to talk to your toddler again

Seriously. Buy a walker.

We just found one of our dc1's v tech wonders in his room the other day

'I am a lion, I roar all day '

DS is 12 weeks - Dh and I are both (pretentious) architects and are trying so hard to avoid the tat but you can't avoid being given it.. Also noticed ds taking way too much interest in one of those super colourful Lamaze toys the other day. If babies like and benefit from it, I guess we should do what's best for them...?

I don't remember a huge amount of tat from our youth, but playmobil, Lego etc was fairly standard.

First birthday is the absolute limit, beyond which you have no contol over the tidal wave of tat.

DD2 ignored anything that wasn't really life like and detailed and that means plastic.

Happy land, wow horse box, hot wheel and similar cars and boxes and boxes of playmobil, especially vehicles she could put people in, push chairs and a really detailed wheel chair.

She can't be bothered with crude wooden dolls house furniture or building things out of Lego.

Her imagination comes out in the elaborate lives her toy people live not in building things. Drawing and Lego drive her mad because things don't turn out exactly as she wants them to.

I'm dreading this with my own children. My bosses (with three aged 5-8) manage with minimal tat, I'm really impressed by it actually! It depends on what you mean by plastic tat' though, as for some it means any plastic, for others (like me) it means the pointless shit which has no purpose other than to be annoying for all adults within 100 metres!