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?

[LoisHatesChristmas]

I'm surrounded in garish pink plastic op! Dd is in her glory so meh. Is life with young kids. I quite enjoyed playing with Malibu Barbie in her mansion this morning.

[Artandco]

I agree op

We have done quiet well tbh, ds1 is almost 5 and we haven't had any plastic 'tat' yet. They have Lego but that's not tat imo.

We have very little space anyway as live in small flat so everyone has always checked first so we can direct to something to add to what we already have/ they need.

This year ds1 (4) has been given some lovely paints, brushes, sketch books, Lego sets, clothes, wooden marble run accessories ( to add to one we have).
Ds2 (3), brio trains ( to add to stuff we have), tennis racket, play dough, clothes.

They don't seem to have suffered from lack of plastic

[unlucky83]

baffled I'm involved with a toddler group - assuming by bizzie bee you mean a wheelybug? About 8 yrs ago we got some funding and so bought a bee and a ladybird - to add to the little tikes mini cycle, a cozy coupe and another plastic car we already had had for a good number of years...
The cozy coupe has always been the most popular ride on - the wheelybugs were popular but got the same amount of use as the mini cycle and car (extra just caused less disagreements!)
All the plastic ride ons - no problems - one of the wheelybugs (bee) we had to buy a new wheel (and it wasn't cheap) about 4 years ago , the ladybird now needs a new wheel too - and the broken wheel gorged big scratches in church hall floor before we realised ...
I would say the little tikes stuff was much more robust (although whether now, like everything else it seems, they are more cheaply manufactured and therefore poorer quality I couldn't say)

[Artandco]

The little tykes are super super noisy though! We live in a flat so let them use play cars indoors also. Had to make sure the wheels were rubber though as would have annoyed the neighbours and us otherwise. A friend has those little tykes cars with roofs in garden and the noise on paved garden is horrendous

[Tinselmouse]

I hated plastic 'tat' and wanted wooden toys for my DD. but niw she's 18 months old and is banging EVERYTHING against my furniture, I've realised that wooden toys create huge dents in furniture - plastic 'tat' doesn't. Needless to say, I've completely changed my mind now and the house is full of VTech, and the wooden toys will cone out again when she isn't as destructive!

[CharlesRyder]

I think there is a difference between plastic and tat. They are not one and the same thing.

[Playthegameout]

I don't mind the plastic, so long as Ds likes it. But, I cannot abide the Vtech voice! Why oh why does everything have to have THAT voice? Thought we'd escaped it with toot toot drivers, but the ticket booth has it!

[Artandco]

Oh and I hate those leap pad things. Ds1 was really confused trying to use cousins on Xmas eve. Leap pad goes ' what animal is black and white', DS says ' a panda bear', leap pad goes ' penguin'. The darn machine doesn't recognise more than one pre set answer, so despite the question potentially being simple things like panda, zebra, etc it won't like it. After x3 goes DS gives up.

[RandomMess]

The good news is that so long as you get PLENTY for building purposes then you can stick with duplo until they are 9ish IME before going into the painful world of Lego.

[Windywenceslas]

The cheap plastic tat annoys me, but only because everyone knows she loves technology (phones, tablets, computers) so they buy her pretend ones. She's not fooled for a second and hates them because they don't actually do anything other than light up. It's such a waste.

We went through the whole wooden toys phase and DD loves some of them, but mostly she loves those bloody noisy toot toot drivers cars and anything with that bloody pig on.

[unlucky83]

art with you on plastic wheels..DM bought DD1 a character push along trike (many years ago) with plastic wheels. I thought it would be fantastic for taking just walking DD to the play park (15 mins walk) at 9.30 on a Sunday morning ...didn't have to fight to get her in the push chair or carry a scooter/balance bike/her if she got fed up/tired legs...
I was so embarrassed - we live in an extremely quiet neighbourhood anyway and those plastic wheels were so LOUD...and of course she didn't want to get off it so I could carry it ... I was expecting someone to come flying out their house to find out what earth was going on...never again -carrying a scooter and small child was a pleasure in comparison ...
Bought one with rubber wheels for DD2 ...much better...

[Plateofcrumbs]

I think there is a difference between plastic and tat. They are not one and the same thing.

We got some lovely plastic toys that I'll be delighted to give house space. And a couple of pieces of genuinely cheap tat that aren't even age appropriate that will be gracing the nearest charity shop very soon. In all honesty it was probably just the Vtech stuff that I can't bear but will probably be baby crack.

[Hobbes8]

All together now: hello puppy calling do you want to play with me...

[RonaldMcDonald]

We all wanted a perfect and made wooden or knitted instagram life

we got tat, endless placky tat

drink it in - we are blessed and it is soon over

[Plateofcrumbs]

Ha I think I might adopt "knitted Instagram life" as shorthand for all my unrealistic aspirational wants

[Esmeismyhero]

I used to feel the same way when ds was less than a yr, I was snobby about toys etc but now I have 2dc and the plastic tat is educational and it gets broken and I don't actually mind.

My two are very destructive my mum promised me my kids would be worse than me and guess what they are, karma so I'd rather they broke cheap stuff than expensive stuff. Thankfully they haven't smashed their Ipads yet, thank god for griffin survivor cases.

[Panzee]

Let's play Puppy Says! Puppy says clap your hands!

[Hopefully]

I do dislike plastic tat, and actually my DC all loved the plastic crap when it first came into the house, but after a few days/weeks returned to their well made robust toys (sometimes plastic, mainly wood, never tat). And the hippy play silks are one of the most used items in the house.

Three DC in and we have minimal plastic, no tat, and I don't think any of them have been terribly damaged by an absence of Vtechs/leappads/tablets in their lives thus far.

[liquidstateisonthemulled]

Pegga Nope OP not a troll. Just another mum of a 5 month old questioning the value of some of the plastic tat.

My 5 month old does like banging a wooden spoon on the kitchen floor am going to try and strike a happy medium with plastic and other toys charity shop any that are too annoying and don't encourage free play or just remove the batteries

[Mehitabel6]

Fairly typical of a first time mother I would say who wants everything aesthetically pleasing to an adult. Children have other ideas!

[fivepounds]

My nine-month-old tot has a Leapfrog picnic basket and the child's voice goes: 'Cam on! Let's go for a packnack!' He's not even Scottish