Buying suggested toys

[handsdown]

If I am being U, I will stop doing this immediately or at least be less obvious...
My friend and I both have DCs who are the same age (8 months), pfb. I don't know much about toys and don't have any handed down. She has a sister who has handed down some toys. She always seems to know about the latest toys and what's good for their age group etc, so when she talks about an interesting toy, I'd go out and buy it. I may also sometimes ask her where she'd got something from. We were in a toy shop together and she showed me a nice toy, she said she would save it for her DC's birthday but I liked it so bought it straight away. She seemed annoyed. She made a couple of comments that made me feel a bit like she did the homework and I was the kid who copied her work the morning it was due in - if you get my drift! I'm a copycat. A bit silly but am I in the wrong here??

YANBU, but I still think you should humour her.

Some people are like your friend. Personally, I don't understand feeling that way, but it isn't unusual. She likes to feel that she has something special for her child which other people don't have. There are plenty of toys out there, so you should be able to find some good ones which aren't identical to hers, most of the time anyway.

Can you get advice and suggestions elsewhere instead of from her?

An 8 mo can be easily entertained by ordinary household objects - a wee pan and a wooden spoon will keep them happy for a surprisingly long time and isn't too irritating to listen to. A selection of pans even better, the sound varies and you can kid yourself dc is learning about musical stuff. Don't waste your money on all-singing, all-dancing electronic toys, dc really won't learn to read/count any sooner and the noise will drive you utterly bananas. Nothing wrong with building blocks and nesting cups, hours of fun while improving gross motor skills, and you can teach colours and sizes at the same time. Be aware that everything will go in the mouth so should be easily cleaned. Everything will also be chewed, so get stuff without rough edges, detachable fluff or small, swallowable pieces. Look out for the CE mark while you can, and don't buy toys aimed at older kids. Oh, and little ones prefer strong primary colours, so don't fall for the wishy washy pastel shit, often tied in to some film promotion.

There you go, advice! Bear that in mind when you're toy shopping and you won't need to copy your friend.

I don’t think YANBU, but as it annoys your friend, I’d still be less obvious about it.

And maybe look for other places for advice on toys too. For instance, I’ve seem plenty of threads on Mumsnet asking for toy suggestions / recommendations for children.