To despair at the garish, noisy, plastic tat

[Plateofcrumbs]

First Christmas with PFB and until now have managed to keep our toy collection small and free from plastic eyesores. PILs have gone to town on presents and we are now the 'proud' owners of all kinds of light-up, flashing, beeping, singing plastic monstrosities.

AIBU to want to bin the vtech and its ilk before DS gets near them?

Stop reading magazines and repeating cliches. It is not original or clever.

If it's Vtech it's decent quality, and as you have a DS it's presumably not all lurid pink. You've got off lightly.

My children got not one, but three toot toot driver sets today. All with those little vehicles that flash their lights and drive around playing annoyingly catchy tunes. "I'm a police car off to solve a crime doo be dooooooo"

Well your post shows you havent much experience of kids - they lurve plastic tat. Why spend the earth when they love cheap tat and will get most pleasure of out that rather than eco friendly, educational, 'worthy' (& boring) stuff. Or are you an Islington type 'earth' mother who cant bear such hideusly common stuff for poor lttle Tarquin? I hate that middle class 'everything for baby must be white and pure and organic and designer perfect'. It perpetuates the myth of motherhood having to be 'perfect' in every way.

Words like 'design snob' and 'tasteful' are fine but realistically they dont go with sticky fingers, clumsy toddlers, projectile vomit or pools of drool when teething, potty training accidents etc etc etc. Unless of course one has a playroom and a separate sitting room that is off limits to anyone under 18.

Vtech is tat? I thought poundshop stuff was tat? Or the toys on DS' Peppa Pig magazine? Can't afford vtech here and Playmobil 123 is pretty eye watering for us.

Tit for tat.

YY VTech and Playmobil were £££££s even when my two were small ten years ago.

Of course she can hate the plastic tat.
The environmental cost.
The low paid exploited workers in factories abroad.
The eventual landfill.
The crappy toys that kids bore of quickly.
Yes, we do return or give away gifts like this, because we love in a small flat and don't want to be crowded by tat. We have tried dropping hints and being honest, but it keeps coming.

So what would you want them to play with?? What toys are acceptable?

hand carved wooden educational ones 26.

Snort!

I hear you! You are getting an unreasonably hard time here. We try to minimise vtech type stuff too. We have a few little bits, as it does keep the boys (2 and 4) occupied for a bit now and then. But largely we go for wooden blocks ( zillions of variations!), wooden play kitchen, books, puzzles and the biggest hit of all is the brio train and road set, which we just keep on adding to.

Luckily GPs always ask for suggestions for presents and then stick to what we suggest!

Blimey, what's up with everyone on here tonight? The op said it wasn't serious so its unlikely she's filling the wheelie bin at the moment. I hate the plastic stuff but I'm sat looking at loads of it anyway because Ds loves it, not a big deal.

Every thread I've seen.tonight

tonight with a slightly tongue in cheek op has people over reacting. Lighten up, its Christmas!

I hated my family for the plastic rubbish, as my child wouldn't touch the lovely wooden toys ever again.

Agree with Rollercola, if you truly are inundated (and grandparents can get a bit overexcited when buying), then donate, don't bin!

DS has some plastic toys, some of them flash lights and make noise. But there's something peculiarly hellish about some of them that as a previous poster said, makes them harder to actually play with because they don't leave any room for open ended play.

The quantity over quality thing makes me so cross/sad-some of the many, many toys that well meaning, kind friends and relatives have given to my children have broken as soon as they've come out of the box or not worked properly-it's just a waste of money and resources and upsets the children.

I would really rather people gave them nothing and saved their money or gave to less fortunate children as mine are lucky enough to have plenty, but I realise that people get joy from choosing them presents so don't know what the answer is.

Hand carved wooden toys?? ha ha ha

Fast forward a few years.... Yeah right!

'I hope he has inherited my sophistication'.
If you were that sophisticated you wouldn't lower yourself to sneer in such an ugly manner.

C'mon I thought it was fairly clear I was taking the piss out of myself a bit here. Chill out!

I'm amazed by how generous PILs have been, it is lovely they care but it is a bit OTT. The best gift we've had is them spending time with him and giving me a break!

I have never heard of 'open ended play' so I am a bit worried that I have made an error with my DC's upbringing. If DS1 doesn't get good grades in his GCSEs next year it will be all down to that V Tech telephone or steering wheel my best friend bought him for his first Christmas I guess.

I used to be snobby about plastic tat but four and a half years into parenthood I have found that kids often prefer the plastic toys because they can do more, have special effects etc etc.
when DS turned 2 I bought him a 'tasteful' wooden toy kitchen. He never played with it as it doesn't 'do' stuff. Friend's DD has a little tikes plastic kitchen and he was always playing with it when we went there as it had a pretend toaster, a 'sizzling' hot plate and other special effects.
One of our most loved toys has been a plastic cashier till from sainsburys. It has so many cute features, like a card reader.

I still do love wooden toys though. OP if you go to amazon and search for Haba, a German toy brand, you will find some lovely tasteful toys. Not cheap though.

I'm with you plate. Its not that I mind the plastic tat its just there is so much of it and not all of it is necessarily good and in my DDs case - age appropriate. She could really have done with some of her presents on her birthday next July. Also the american accents and promounciations/spellings are a bit odd.

Am not necessarily snobby but I did track down this which plays classical music. I figured it would be less grating on my ears and it is just bearable.

direct.asda.com/Baby-Einstein-Take-Along-Tunes/002606117,default,pd.html&cmpid=ppc--ad-pla--ggle-pla--Toys-and-Games--002606117&cm_mmc=ad-ppc--ggle-pla--Toys-and-Games-_-002606117&istCompanyId=71f4ae42-94c5-4821-aa58-05eff6da2486&istItemId=wpqxwwlpa&istBid=tztx

and if all else fails there is always gin.

Babies like bright primary colours, they like the flashing lights and sounds and are not ready for 'open ended play'

It is a present for your child not you.It is whether he/she likes it that is important.

YY to plastic tat from environmental point of view - but if it is 'quality' tat - as opposed to poundshop tat - it should survive a lot more than one DC and if you donate to a charity shop/freecycle/sell cheap at car boot, someone else's DCs - maybe less advantaged - can 'enjoy' it too - and they won't have to resort to poundland tat to give their DCs something to play with...
And Dcs do like it ...
On the other hand if it is just you don't want it to upset your decor I think yabu
(someone I know redecorated their 5 yos bedroom (think farrow & ball paint and lovely tasteful (expensive!) furniture and furnishings). They were complaining about their DC being 'ungrateful', upset that all their old toys were being got rid of, some they loved, because they now 'looked out of place', just didn't match the new colour scheme (and it wasn't all plastic tat). I was - not like a mountain of pink plastic on display in the living room - although personally I wouldn't mind that (or maybe I would the pink bit) -it is only for a few short years)

However I will also be the voice of caution ...I hope your PIL didn't sense your disapproval ...
I told my DM that I was getting DD1 bulky toys on loan from the toy library - we didn't have space to store lots of big things. She disagreed - DD1 should have toys of her own (she had lots anyway -always did!!!!). Ever since she has made a point of buying massive toy kitchens, baby doll changing unit (FFS), a half size table football game ...so my poor DDs are not deprived
On the other hand ...if you were too good at pretending to be overjoyed that may well back fire...

and if all else fails there is always gin

Cheers to that!

Crikey, sounds like wanting a toy that does more than one thing and might be played with for more than half an hour is now committing the ultimate snobbery of "open ended play".

Didn't realise that idea was so offensive to some.