to think 7 years old is still too young to stop playing with toys?

[SoggySocksAgain]

Something my relative said that surprised me. They said that at 7 years old, they can't imagine their LO will be playing with toys for much longer. Really? Surely they'll be playing with toys until at least 10-11? We were discussing their birthday and it made me realise how we expect our children to grow up far too quickly.

Great post GlamGiraffe
Social and unstructured play also good - local play too.
You can apply to the LA to close your street to cars for a few hours for kids to play in the street and there are also very small grants available to buy bits of play equipment
www.playengland.org.uk/what-we-do/street-play/

It's very sad, I know a five year old who prefers to watch YouTubers unbox toys than actually play with the multitude she has, but it's how they're raised I think she had a tablet by the age of two and her parents spend a lot of time with noses in phones , rather than engaging with each other

I could have said this about my middle one at seven, he has never played much with toys and at seven I could see the end would be nigh-ish.

He’s always been much happier being outdoors, making dens indoor and out, would do some drawing and reading and actually will still do some Lego.

One of the nice things about having a much-younger sibling was that there were all sorts of toys (and someone who wanted a sibling to play with) in the house for so many years after I might otherwise have gotten rid of them.

(I hadn't really thought about that aspect of my youth in a long time. It brings back happy memories.)

Yes, I'd expect a child to want toys much longer than age 7, personally.

Some parents seem to be in a race to make their kids grow up as quickly as possible.

Miss toys !! Mine are 9 and 12 and it’s all screen 📺 time now
I miss toys more than I ever realised

My 18 year old has pulled the Lego out of the loft during lockdown-you’re never too old!

Play is so important that the UN recognise it as the right of a child and state that a child is to age 18. The type of play and toys change as we get older but play is integral to development. I've just gone an assignment on this for a TA course.

What a ridiculous comment! I still played with toys till I was about 12. Mixture of crafty, Lego/playmobil, baby dolls & Barbies etc. But I carried on with the crafty, arty, jewellery making type things well into my teens. Also still had a barbie sat on the side of the bath until I got my first boyfriend at 16 (Then she was hidden in a drawer 😁).

My 6 year old still loves toys and I can't imagine them going anywhere fast. He plays with Lego, train set, k-nex, imaginex, robots, dinosaurs along with orchard games and Top Trumps. We have a younger (4)dd too who he plays with a lot, maybe having a younger sibling has made playing with toy ha toys last a bit longer?
I know what you mean though op, a friend with dc of a similar age was surprised at I was replacing some bath toys, she thought it was a waste as hers didn't play in the bath anymore. I was buying foranother friends little boy who was turning 7 and asked if there was a toy he wanted only to be told that he didn't play with toys anymore.
I agree with Beatrix, or at least it has been my experience among our friends that when consoles and tablets are introduced the other toys get less of a look in. I hear " he/she just wants to play on the tablet/ds" a lot more now.

Refer your relative to the Playmobil Pandemic threads on MN. Adults still like playing with toys.

I've encountered this too, it's bizarre! My MIL bought my 7 year old a jewellery box for Christmas as she said she probably has too many toys... she doesn't, we are a very small family so it's not like she has got tons of presents coming in from everywhere.

My 7 year old doesn't really wear much jewellery yet! She'd much prefer a toy!

I had a talk with my DD about this. She said some of the kids at school (year 3) don't play with toys. Just bikes/scooters/skateboards and IPad/kindle/Nintendo switch. We've talked about it and I showed her my nano blocks, adult colouring books, fidget spinners, etc. I explained that there is not an age limit on any of these things. That play is important at all ages.

But you can't force kids or want to do that can you? If they are doing some exercise, finding a way to be creative and a way to be sociable, toys do become obsolete.

Dd2 is 7.5 she got a new barbie today she was delighted. Dd1 (10) and dd2 have been spending lockdown making elaborate barbie cities out of packing boxes.

A few years ago now my DC went to visit my friend's DC who were the same ages c. 13 and 16. It was very quiet so my friend popped upstairs to see what was going on.

They had got out the Lego and were building cities. You're never too old!

Dd2 is 10 and still likes to "play with toys" but the toys are often not physical any more. So she"goes on the computer" to play on Roblox, where she plays dress up and dolls, just in a virtual world. She still likes the idea of physical toys but they don't actually get played with any more, which is a bit of a shame. She would happily play with all the toys she's got if only she had other people to play with her. She does play with toys at the childminder, but that's partly because there's no electronics allowed there (so the younger children don't break them)

It is open, creative play and physical manipulation of objects that matters more than the form of the "toy". Being drawn towards crafts, a "toy", or using random objects creatively have broadly similar benefits for life.

Not playing creatively at all (playing closed task computer games to fixed outcomes is not creative) and having that encouraged does children a massive, long lasting disservice.

My DCs are the youngest in the family and their older cousins in their teens/ cusp of adulthood and love an excuse to play with younger children and pull out a few boxes of the remaining toys for visitors (all kept Lego!)

Playing is a vital part of child development, and using toys as part of play is necessary.

I was certainly still playing with toys until I got to secondary school age.

Your relative is a complete nit-wit - just ignore.

Let your children play with toys as long as they like.

There is plenty of time for them to grow up - but having said that, have you noticed how Dads (and Mums) can't wait to play with the children with their toys - trains, lego, bricks etc. So we never really grow out of toys and hooray say I !!

whiterose my nephews have often gone upstairs to 'help' ds with his Lego. Many times I've found them still 'helping' long after ds has wandered off. They're 20 and 23! The 20 year old bought ds a set that he's keeping at his house for lock down. He's definitely playing with the lego.

When.ds got an Xbox I was sad that that would be the of toys, but he's nearly 11 and still playing with them. Breaks my heart a little bit cos I see the little boy and the emerging teen and all the vulnerability there.

Dd is 7 and mainly just arranges her toys. I sometimes think she lacks imagination. She likes watching you tube of people playing with dolls.

I made myself stop playing with barbies when.I was going to.high school cos the other kids took the piss. But I wrote lots of stories instead.

My Dad has a train set. He's mid 70s.

Surely a toy is just an enjoyable thing to use without an essential porpoise? Something fun.

There is no age which is too old to stop playing with toys. Plenty of adults enjoy things like Lego, model railways, board games, fancy dress, dollhouse miniatures, puzzles etc.

The idea that there is an age limit on toys is a bit like suggesting there is an age limit on fun!

I didn’t get my baby born doll till i was 8, abd tbh i have never stopped playing with sylvanian families. I “paused” for a few years but now as an adult i have more fun with them than ever! There is a whole community of adult collectors, and often more imagination and playing, and customisation and crafts than what i did as a child tbh!

I wonder if my two dc still play a lot because they see me still do, and because I refuse to get them a tablet, and don’t encourage them to use my partners game consoles?