To love “plastic tat” toys

[minniemummy0]

Someone recently gave us a load of 6+ toys for baby. Think Fisher-Price piggy bank, cook jar shape sorter etc. I spent a happy afternoon cleaning them and putting new batteries in etc. I can’t wait for baby to use them, they look like they’ll keep her occupied for ages! I admit, the songs may annoy me after a while.

On the other hand I have also got some wooden toys. They look so boring... don’t worry, baby will have a good variety and I do see the need to help with imagination, motor control etc etc

I just don’t get the snobbiness about “plastic tat”. I read/hear it all the time. Personally I can’t wait for baby to use them!

It depends what you think your child will learn from each toy... The money box (disclaimer- we don't have one but I think I've seen it at a playgroup) may well teach hand - eye coordination, as the child is 'rewarded' for noise as it feeds in a coin. If it says the coin's colour, ask yourself how clearly it says this (you understand what it's saying, but would a child?) and whether the child can still see the coin, or will they just hear a random colour name. Once you've put the coins in, is there anything else the toy teaches you? Or is it a 'one trick pony'.

Over use of simplistic toys has been shown to reduce attention spans and limit creativity.

We have plastic stacking cups and they're also great for hand eye coordination, but also you can colour match, stack and tessellate in different combinations, hide little ones in big ones, give the big ones a hat, hide little toys in them, use them as cups or dishes, use them in the bath to discover full/empty /tipping and the fun of pushing it down with air in it so it pops up again.

So plastic definitely does have its place, but more open-ended toys teach imagination and creativity. Eg If you give a kid a car it's harder for them to imagine it's anything else, whereas give a kid a cardboard box and it can be a car - or an aeroplane /submarine /boat/house /castle /den....

Don't mind a bit of the Asda wooden toys range and plastic landfill-in-waiting has it's place too. The thing that pisses me off is how every damned toy has to be 'educational'.

YANBU I hate wooden toys, the people who only use those are snobbish.

And don't get me started on those bloody rainbows they all go on about. 😶

We have a mix and I much prefer open ended toys - most of which happen to be wooden. The plastic toys generally have one purpose and I love watching my daughter come up with new ways to use her more open ended wooden toys - one of the best things we have bought is the Grimms rainbow, she gets hours of joy from that, even after 3 years. I don't think we've got any plastic toys that have lasted that long.

Yes. Second hand plastic toys are great. I got my dd the Fisher price piggy bank, phone , stacking rings and plastic duck in a ball all cheaper than new. I don't get the snobbishness either.

"Time to share a cup of tea
One for you, one for me
Let's pretend and always say
Please and Thank you"

That one goes right through me. Not as bad as the vtech

"Hello puppy calling
Do you want to play with me
Lets have fun together
While you learn your a b c"

They don't last ages
Break easy
Not eco friendly
Usually from a mass produced factory
Needs batteries
Rubbish

the people who only use those are snobbish.

To be fair the OP said they were from a friend, secondhand, so what was the alternative for the friend? Straight to landfill? I think it's far better that they have been passed on and another child will be getting use out of them. And hopefully OP will do the same when she has finished with them.

Yes hopefully. The DCs toys are all second hand and we then pass them on.

Production of plastic is a huge issue as well, not just the recycling or lack of.

We have a mixture. Most of our toys are from the charity shop. The v tech push along thing (hello puppy calling) seems indestructible as do Toys like the hide and squeak eggs.

Thank you for the replies, nice to see different perspectives! I found leeloo1’s post especially helpful!

We do have some wooden toys too. I have the Grimm’s rainbow, btw, and find the texture goes right through me! Expected it to be more “quality” feeling the way people hark on about it! But it’s not for me is it!

The one thing I will definitely get wooden is a train set. And a dolls house.

I still have my Fisher-Price yellow house, garage, etc that I’m going to clean up so don’t think they are all completely throw away.

woohoo, I don't think I've ever been especially helpful before.

Tbf, I have small children and work in education - and spend a shed load of money on toys (and a lot of time decluttering them!), so I should be an expert by now.

I wasn't as impressed by the grimms rainbow as I'd hoped to be either op (apparently the quality has gone down as they've got more popular). After the initial fun of stacking it I think it's more of a tool - so making fences for animals etc. Or if you have little people you can kind of build a multi layered house if you build it up leaving spaces between the arches. So there are possibilities there? And right now you can make a tunnel for your fp money box pig to live in. :)

Ooh and before you buy a wooden train set, look at the duplo ones (we have both). They're both good in their own ways, but duplo is great for building up the carriages etc. And you can add towns etc with the duplo blocks and people. :)

Lego
Plastic schleich type farm animals
Playmobil
Plastic dinosaurs
That game with the plastic pegs into a plastic board.
A torch
Walkie talkies
Dolls

All absolutely open ended in my mind, and all apart from the dolls pretty much have to be in plastic to be realistic or functioning.

I have to laugh at the posters who think they have to fork out for the Grimm rainbow for open ended play. DS has hit peak creativity with an old plastic desk tidy. It's been turned into dozens of things.

I mean, fine to get the Grimm stuff if you like it, but I object to the underlying suggestion that it's somehow more worthy.

But kudos to the Grimm marketing team, they've done an outstanding job

I'm actually a fan.
My son has a plastic shape sorted and he loves it! It's his go to thing.
He also has loads of noisy books. He likes anything with buttons.
He never showed an interest in any wooden toys at all so unfortunately I've got a pile that have hardly been used and some plastic ones which have had several rounds of batteries!

I love wooden toys. We have a lovely grimms rainbow which is used as an ornament as neither of my children are interested in it

My kids prefer plastic. My 2 year old got the fisher price piggy bank from santa and it’s the best thing ever! She loves toot toot drivers too.

But counting cakes is so much fun @jollyjester !

Bastard teapot. I'm sure my mum bought it purely to piss me off, I now have a policy of no speaking toys except the ones dc already owns.

The ‘tat’ garage that my son has is, at a guess, about fifteen years old. It’s lost the lift due to toddler excitability but it’s otherwise in fine fettle. Lots of the plastic toys I’ve bought my children over the years have been second hand and robust as hell.

There’s an argument to be had for not buying cheap and flimsy plastic toys, but then not everybody can afford the really robust stuff, not everybody can find things second hand, and some people really don’t like wooden stuff. I know my son hates the rainbows and mosaic palettes that people gush over, but loves his IKEA kitchen.

Do toys have to be educational? Can't they just be fun? I'm SO glad I grew up in the 80s before neurotic parenting was a thing.
Some people could do with getting out more.

In defence of the piggy bank, my children all preferred it when the batteries died. They just liked the methodical filling and emptying actions.