to think that these things are totally appropriate for a 5yo?

[EnchanciaAnthem]

My DD is 5 and a half and in reception. And according to my friend (who's 5yo is apparently 'not into playing', just monster high and drawing )

• Charlie & Lola
• Play Doh
• Tea Sets and Play Food
• Sand Pit
• Books such as Elmer and The Jolly Postman.

AIBU to think that these things are perfectly fine for her age?

How does Monster High not count as playing? They're dolls. Like Barbie, but Goth.

Ds is 6 now and still likes some of those things.

Sure he's into other more big kid stuff too, but we can have a really good game now with the toy shop and the play food.

Same with TV, he likes power rangers but still reverts back to peppa pig when he wants to.

The good thing is there are no rules and anyone who tries to make them is a bit thick imo.

I still love play doh

Looks like I should be cracking out the copy of the Jolly Postman that I put away until dd "is old enough" .

May be her child lacks imagination and isn't into roll play. There are so many games that you can do with play food for example. Your child may need it for props in plays and shows they do at home too.

DD is just 6 and loves Minnie Mouse, Sophia the First, Disney Princess'. She still likes play dough and sand pits. She still likes Peppa Pig and Humf sometimes.

My friend gave away all her DD's PP toys at age 4 as she was"too old" and said she was too old for PP World. I told her that there were loads of kids there aged older than 4. But she had an older sister.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what she is into as long as she is happy. I'm not going to push my DD away from any of her toys.

One of the mums at school told her DD she was too old to have a fairy party for her 6th birthday and made her have a makeover party instead, my DD then wanted a fairy party for her 6th birthday and I did have a slight wobble thinking the other girls wouldn't like it or laugh at her but I went ahead and they didnt

My 8 year old still heads for the 'That's not my' card books in waiting rooms.

There's no rules.

If she enjoyed them at 15 she wouldn't be too old for them!

I read in some book, somewhere, that the average age for interest in certain toys is actually falling. It's a deliberate ploy to get kids to want, and parents to buy, more shit.

So 15 years ago, a child would be interested in (for instance) Postman Pat until they were 4 or 5. Then they'd be into Disney Princesses or equivalent until say 7-8, then they'd start to move on to more 'grown up' Barbie. Nowadays, apparently, you can shave a few years off each of the stages.

Children are all different, of course, but I do know what you mean OP, because I've seen it myself. Parents declaring that Cbeebies is too babyish for their 3 year old, that sort of thing

Most playdoh is 3+
If they've outgrown it by 4 or 5 when are they supposed to play with it?!

Ds likes the sand pit, he likes play doh, he likes the mud kitchen at school.

He has outgrown some stuff he used to love like octonauts, his brio set, duplo and replaced them with Star Wars and fighting

Ds is nearly 5 btw.

Some things that people seem to think are babyish are too grown up for children of 2 or 3 but then babyish for a child of 5. That's a bloody narrow window of opportunity!

I haven't grown out of Charlie and Lola. :(

No way, I have a 5 1/2 year old daughter and she loves all of those things...I possibly love Charlie and Lola a bit more than her though.

I also don't think I grew out of liking play doh for a long time, then moved on to fimo.

Children like what they like and the longer I can hold barbie off for the better.

I think it's a sign of a confident child that they play with what they like, even if it's designated as appropriate for another age. But in this case everything you listed was appropriate for her age, so I can't see what your friend is on about.

^^ This

The things you have mentioned are perfectly age appropriate, and if your dd gets pleasure from them, that's all that matters.

My dd is 8, and recently parted with her tea set, toy kitchen and plastic food to make way for her growing collection of sylvanians. We gave her old toys to my 2yo goddaughter, but I was reliably informed by said 2yo's mum that it was actually said 2yo's 10yo sister who wouldn't stop playing with them!

In my experience, it tends to be the kids who are a bit insecure who are anxious about being seen as "babyish".

Ds is 5 in september, he loves all them things though he can't read, I have to read for him (hoping he picks it up in school september) your friend sounds weird.

YANBU!! 5 is just a baby. I like playdoh and the sandpit

My just turned 7 year old loves playdoh, tea sets/play food and sandpits. She likes the Jolly postman too.

Both my 7 AND my 11 year olds play with playmobil, sylvanian families etc. They have weird and wonderful games with playdoh (escaped prisoner was the last one I walked past where they were constructing elaborate jails around cutters and then destroying them as the cutter tunnelled out ) and make paper doll schools and card house villages and things. Slightly weird but kind of cute and I'm certainly not going to cut their childhoods short. I played those kinds of games with my sister till I was at least 12 so maybe it's genetic.

I think children are a weird mix of very young and very old nowadays.

My 11 year old is a child who both plays with dolls, makes up imaginary worlds with her little sister and has a den in the woods at the bottom of the garden. But she is also a child obsessed by exam results, competitive dance, very conscious of the acceptability of what she wears and looks like and on the verge of being diagnosed with anorexia. It's an odd dichotomy. She seems simultaneously 6 and 16 to me.

I think this is dreadful - making imaginative games, stories, role play, often (tho not always) applying the 'intellectual' things you have learnt about or experienced to the game, is a huge skill and something I love my DCs doing, be it a sophisticated piece of kit or a bit of old hoof they found in the garden.

Likewise enjoying the pleasure of textures and creativity with playdoh (would it be different it is marked 'clay for 5-10s on the box?), sand etc is a fantastic activity and one to maintain. And relaxing with an easy, trusted favourite eg Charlie and Lola etc - great. Sometimes it is nice to switch off and/ or not be getting endless cerebral development from everything, so what if it is slightly dumbing down? it's like when I read vacuous celebrity magazines

I am thrilled my similar aged DD does all these still - she is at school all day learning the key skills, I think it's great and shows appetite for life and learning to continue to find new things you can do with what you already have and think you know. Appreciate that sounds a bit earnest and hippy but I would be positively sad if I thought she responded to weird-looking-but-that's-a-different-point monster high dolls and drawing and nothing much else.

There is some stat about the age at which girls give up actually playing with toys, because they move onto their focus being on makeup, hair, boys etc, an age getting increasingly younger. This makes me very chuffed that my DCs value the feelings and sensations they get from play, whatever it is with. It's kids who are easily 'bored' and need to be staring vacantly into iPads all the time that are most worrying not kids who play with the 'wrong' things.

I always feel a tiny bit sorry for parents who want their kids to grow up too quickly. Childhood is so short anyway, why wish it away?!

I am 42 and still like some of those things! Ds who is 6 still likes a lot on your list. He likes other stuff to like his dads PS2. I don't think toys can be to young. He has a year old brother and makes games with his baby toys.

The other thing is - it's great to keep all those easy books for them when they learn to read themselves. My 8 year old likes to read 20 books a night of Winnie the Witch, The Large Family, Ahlbergs and so on- some of her friends are reading Harry Potter. It can be very relaxing and enjoyable to read books with just a few lines on each page, especially for a less confident reader, or just someone who loves looking at pictures.

It can be very relaxing and enjoyable to read books with just a few lines on each page, especially for a less confident reader, or just someone who loves looking at pictures

Yes, even for a good reader when they're tired or poorly. DD reads exceptionally well for her age but likes to go back to some of her old favourites when she is feeling a bit nesh. I'm like that too. Nothing I like better than re-reading the books I loved when I was younger!! :)

Every reception has a 'home corner' because tea sets are one of the things 5 year olds love. My reception dd likes all those things.

Whoever said that sounds like someone to keep at arms length.

I am 70 years old and love my Playmobil and Sylvanian families. My dgc like to play with them with me. We also love my Brio railway layout and my 78 year old dh plays with our N guage railway and builds balsa models. I'd be very sad if my younger dgc only liked toys based on computer games and the like.

My DS8 is delighted to play with his little sister, DD2 with her playdoh. Gets suckd into watching Cbeebies too.

DD also seems mersmorised by Boomerang which DS likes to watch before school (once he is ready)

DD bashes cars but also 'mothers' her soft toys but not the dolls...

As long as they are playing and be ing creative, constructive, learning a little along the way does it really matter?

Play dough, tea set and play food are some of the things my 7yo, 5yo and 2yo all like playing with together. And sandpit is something they'd all enjoy too. Yes, the older 2 also play with more advanced lego kits, oldest enjoys reading Horrible Histories and chapter books, but at Christmas we all played a Jolly Postman game together and got the book out. The things you've mentioned sound like fab toys for your dd that she'll play with at her own level, in an open-ended and creative way - I'd much prefer mine to be doing that than playing Monster High - so there!