To think that muted pastel baby toys that cost about X5 the price of the average are a waste of money and a bit pretentious?

[FreesiaFairy]

Have noticed that some mums seem to only tolerate muted pastel baby toys from brands such as Little Dutch or Liewood, that usually cost about X5 the price of the average for that toy, is this a first time mum thing?

I like to think I have good taste and appreciate good quality, but it's starting to annoy me how snobby some people are about kids toys, surely at some point they are going to have to break free of the muted pastel colour palette? I think Instagram might have quite a lot to do with it.

I get most of my little ones toys second hand and as long as he finds it fun don't massively care what it looks like. I feel like I'm getting judged on my taste for this!

I actually can't get my head around you caring what anybody thinks of your taste good or bad.

It’s because kids toys are hideous and people don’t want their homes ruined by having brightly coloured rubbish lying around. I forked out for a monochrome ball pit because it’s on display all the time, and a monochrome baby walker. Everything else gets hidden in storage boxes unless it’s actively being played with. I don’t know why manufacturers can’t just make kids toys in bearable colours!

I know someone like this, unless it looks good on Instagram her children can't have it. I mean her house is incredible and her children are always beautifully dressed but they aren't allowed anything that isn't neutral or wooden. She specifies it around birthdays etc which is a shame as her eldest LOVES bright pink but isn't allowed it :(

Surely we should be buying our kids toys in a wide variety of colours, so we can performatively teach them their colours
"Please can you pass Mummy the scarlet brick? No darling, that one is vermilion." to anyone in earshot "She's known all the colours in the Pantone chart since she was 12 months old"

secondly plastic toys break easily and let's be honest are essentially disposable,

Some of the plastic stuff we have had is the stuff that lasts years. The fisher price Walker (the one that says 'hello puppy calling') we got third hand and went off to a new family last year. We got all our Peppa Pig toys second hand and they went in perfect condition to someone else recently.

My 4 year old's favourite toy at the moment is a Terminator plastic toy he picked up from the charity shop. Date on it says 1991!

@Donitta

It’s because kids toys are hideous and people don’t want their homes ruined by having brightly coloured rubbish lying around. I forked out for a monochrome ball pit because it’s on display all the time, and a monochrome baby walker. Everything else gets hidden in storage boxes unless it’s actively being played with. I don’t know why manufacturers can’t just make kids toys in bearable colours!

Errrm because the toys are for the children and they prefer bright colours? It really is that simple.

No child is going to choose muted pastles over bright bold colours and people are kidding themselves of they think a toddler wouldn't choose the noisy all singing all dancing plastic monstrosity over a pastle rainbow.

Good quality plastic is a very strong material that lasts for donkeys years. My children are still playing with lots of 30 year old plastic toys from DH & my childhood. Ambi toys that look identical to the ones sold now, a lovely Tomy train set, lego, playmobil, polydron etc.

Absolutely this. I really wonder what people are talking about sometimes, good quality plastic toys are indestructible. Much of our duplo collection is 30+ years old and as good as new.

Plastic is a far more suitable material for kids toys in many ways.

That rainbow is so obviously aimed at pleasing the parents, not the kids.

That f*king rainbow

Anyway, let the insta crew spend their money. Most kids love bright colours and I’m not precious about filling my house with them.

I always bought the very toys you hate OP when mine were small. It was because I preferred them. Can't say I ever judged anyone else for their own choices though. That said, there did seem to be a definite cohort of parents seeking validation for their choice in buying these toys, I was never sure why!

I think it’s both hilarious and a bit sad they feel the need to put on such a show. It’s like those neutral coloured dummies that cost about a tenner.

21Flora if a paddling pool from Argos only lasted a few weeks I would return it as not fit for purpose. If you have had ones that only last a few weeks then you aren't looking after it properly.

There's also Grimms and Grapat toys that are not muted, lovely bright colours but £££ and potentially a bit protentious too!

Most kids seems to prefer anything that makes loads of noise and has flashy lights anyway :P

That’s a lot of judgement about other people’s choices from someone who doesn’t want to be judged.

Abd how do you know they are being ‘snobby’ about your choices?

Just mind your own business.

@Donitta

It’s because kids toys are hideous and people don’t want their homes ruined by having brightly coloured rubbish lying around. I forked out for a monochrome ball pit because it’s on display all the time, and a monochrome baby walker. Everything else gets hidden in storage boxes unless it’s actively being played with. I don’t know why manufacturers can’t just make kids toys in bearable colours!

But that's because kids like the brightly coloured "rubbish". I buy what makes my child happy not what makes me happy. They're only little for such a short amount of time who cares if your house has flashing, mismatched, bright toys. A happy, stimulated child is more important than an insta ready house as far as I'm concerned. You do what you feel is right but just because you think something is a bearable colour doesn't mean that's what your child wants.

My child has a monochrome room and I don’t see why we should have to live in a pigsty just because we reproduced. Friends talk about how they can’t have nice ornaments because their DC would play with them and break them, and I’m like - Just discipline your child and say no? 🤷‍♀️

Who’s living in a pigsty ?

@Donitta

My child has a monochrome room and I don’t see why we should have to live in a pigsty just because we reproduced. Friends talk about how they can’t have nice ornaments because their DC would play with them and break them, and I’m like - Just discipline your child and say no? 🤷‍♀️

Who the duck associates having plastic or brightly coloured toys as living in a pigsty??

I don’t see why we should have to live in a pigsty just because we reproduced.

Ah yes because there's no middle ground between monochrome and bright plastic fantastic pigsty. 🙄

By all means buy what you want and decorate how you wish, but remember your child isn't you. Their likes and dislikes will be different.

@Donitta

My child has a monochrome room and I don’t see why we should have to live in a pigsty just because we reproduced. Friends talk about how they can’t have nice ornaments because their DC would play with them and break them, and I’m like - Just discipline your child and say no? 🤷‍♀️

I tell my 7 month old no when he's doing something he shouldn't be, I fully agree you should be disciplining children but ornaments are the issue here are they? That's another subject all together. And my house certainly isn't a pigsty, it just has colourful toys that my child loves. They are all over the place during the day and get tidied away when they go to bed 🤷‍♀️ yes some of them are still on show but a child lives here, it's his house too

@Ilovemaisie nothing I buy only lasts a few weeks. Those cheap blow up ones you see in the shops inevitably get punctured, our neighbours get one of those huge, cheap swimming pool every year that gets chucked away. Don’t try and pretend that the cheap blow up swimming pools are lasting for years and years. They are designed to be disposable.

All of these flashing, singing toys are detrimental to development. The less a toy does the more it benefits children’s development. Sure they attract babies attention but they aren’t better - there are lots of studies that show this.

21Flora well I have had Argos pools that have lasted years. They usually even come with a couple of puncture patches so you can mend it if needed. What your neighbours do with their pool is just daft and wasteful. But that's their choice. Personally I would clean, dry and pack away carefully for next year. If you do that then they are fine.

Would have thought bright colours more stimulating for little ones?
No doubt someone will let me know

I had not heard of the two brands mentioned by the OP, but I have seen a lot of toys sold by Babipur on my FB page.

I thought these were ridiculously expensive, but at least they are cheerfully painted. The posts by happy customers are amusing. Shots of beautifully arranged wooden toys accompanied often by a photo of the mum in one of the hideous wrap dresses the company also sells.

At least the producers of noisy colourful plastic toys don’t usually try to sell ghastly adults’ dresses.

All of these flashing, singing toys are detrimental to development. The less a toy does the more it benefits children’s development

You do know that sometimes toys can just be fun don't you? They don't all have to have the sole purpose of aiding development.

A plastic walker for example that plays music and makes noises is not inferior or detrimental to development in comparison to a wooden one that doesn't just because it happens to be plastic and light up. It's a very narrow view to think anything colourful, flashing or loud is inferior.

[quote 21Flora]@Ilovemaisie nothing I buy only lasts a few weeks. Those cheap blow up ones you see in the shops inevitably get punctured, our neighbours get one of those huge, cheap swimming pool every year that gets chucked away. Don’t try and pretend that the cheap blow up swimming pools are lasting for years and years. They are designed to be disposable.

All of these flashing, singing toys are detrimental to development. The less a toy does the more it benefits children’s development. Sure they attract babies attention but they aren’t better - there are lots of studies that show this.[/quote]
Do you have a source for that? Just saying there are lots of studies is meaningless unless you can show evidence (from peer reviewed papers as there are a lot of "studies" out there that promote the narrative that they want and nothing more)

@PegPeople my daughter loves her toys and has fun. She’s not sat in an empty room bored. Studies show that children who have mainly loud and flashing toys have smaller vocabularies, poorer motor skills. Everyone makes personal choices, it just seems mad to call people pretentious for making choices they see to be best for their child’s development and the environment.

All walkers are detrimental to physical development, whether wooden or plastic so I wouldn’t know.