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!

@PegPeople CONCLUSIVE. Thank you. My brain is addled with a cold and I couldn't think of the word 😃

I think it is also a good point not to retaliate to people being judgemental with judgement yourself, so that's a good reminder thank you

I am not a fan of heavy wooden toys around multiple small children. I have seen them wielded very effectively as weapons. I know someone who broke her nose when her toddler threw a wooden shape sorter at her.

Young children prefer bright contrasting colours. Look at things designed using the latest research into toddlers - Teletubbies. Bright contrasting colours and constant repetition. Drives parents mad, but children love it.
Pastel toys will not do any harm. But the pastel colours are for the parents, not the children.

Nobody has said anything to you about your toy choices, OP, so why do you think they are judging you?

I think it’s because you’re judging them, so you think they’re doing the same. Trust me, they’re not. They don’t give a shit whether your kids have brightly coloured plastic tat or pastel wooden blocks.

You’re a judgy reverse snob and you need to take a look at your behaviour and attitude before it rubs off on your kid.

I have seen them wielded very effectively as weapons. I know someone who broke her nose when her toddler threw a wooden shape sorter at her.

I’ve had a piece of wooden fruit lobbed at my eye and what wasn’t fun at all 😆

High quality plastic toys are totally indestructible. They’ll keep their condition far better than wood.

Absolutely. The very old-fashion fisher-price are still going very strong in my parents house, and they have been through A LOT of kids and various generations.

Something like the old telephone comes from the 60s (very useful so kids actually know what a telephone used to look like and work, they remember that one! )

[quote 21Flora]Walkers are illegal in Canada as they are so dangerous!

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10533994/

www.bmj.com/content/324/7352/1494

jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2478386

www.imaginationplayground.com/images/content/2/9/2965/Effect-of-Block-Play-On-Language-Acquisition.pdf[/quote]
From what I've read the danger from those type of walkers come from injury due to poorly supervised use hence the blanket ban because it's safer than trusting the entire parent population to use them correctly. I am aware they can cause issue with hip development too if used for too long etc but that goes for most things designed for infants to sit in, the best place for hip development is the floor.
I do appreciate you providing sources for the development and use of toys but there are a lot of variables including how the parents interact while using them (with the electronic toys did the parents interact less because the toy did the talking for them for example).

@TheKeatingFive

I have seen them wielded very effectively as weapons. I know someone who broke her nose when her toddler threw a wooden shape sorter at her.

I’ve had a piece of wooden fruit lobbed at my eye and what wasn’t fun at all 😆

When toddler DS started to throw toys as all toddlers do the lovely wooden rainbow we were brought was very swiftly relocated to a very high shelf. My face thanked me for making this parenting choice.

@JellyTumble

They have actually... as mentioned earlier that's what triggered it

I am also a first time mum so not being sneery about that, was just thinking it might be difficult to keep up that kind of aesthetic when they get older / you have more than one

When you have a baby, you have to accept that you apparently will be judged on the brand of your buggy, the colour of the clothes you choose, the colour of their toys... and it won't stop until they leave home.

Some people do need to get a life, what is it to you if I buy my kid a pastel blue or bright orange toy?

I did feel sorry for the parent of young kids who seemed to be dressed completely randomly with clashing colours etc.. as I always assumed they were too overwhelmed and the house was a tip so I was really sympathetic,
until I read on MN that it was supposed to be a fashion statement 😂

@PegPeople I didn’t only respond to that but chuckle away by all means. Two studies are about the detrimental effect on development of walkers and two are about toys.

[quote FreesiaFairy]@JellyTumble

They have actually... as mentioned earlier that's what triggered it

I am also a first time mum so not being sneery about that, was just thinking it might be difficult to keep up that kind of aesthetic when they get older / you have more than one[/quote]
From what you have said in your posts—I have RTFT—nobody has said anything to you directly.

People have had conversations around you about the toys they like and what they’re buying and you’ve attributed them to meaning they’re judging you because you feel insecure about the colour of your kids toys

I did feel sorry for the parent of young kids who seemed to be dressed completely randomly with clashing colours etc.. as I always assumed they were too overwhelmed and the house was a tip so I was really sympathetic

Why would you assume someone's house is a tip just because their child wasn't dressed in matching clothes? Surely the more logical assumption (if any were to be made at all) is that most children go through a stage of wanting to choose their own clothes.

[quote 21Flora]@PegPeople I didn’t only respond to that but chuckle away by all means. Two studies are about the detrimental effect on development of walkers and two are about toys.[/quote]
I'm chuckling because neither study actually shows what you said it does. There are so many variables and it's such a small scale that to argue they are proof that plastic noisy toys lead to children having poorer vocabularies and development delays is nothing short of rediculous.

@misspattylacosta

When you have a baby, you have to accept that you apparently will be judged on the brand of your buggy, the colour of the clothes you choose, the colour of their toys... and it won't stop until they leave home.

Some people do need to get a life, what is it to you if I buy my kid a pastel blue or bright orange toy?

I did feel sorry for the parent of young kids who seemed to be dressed completely randomly with clashing colours etc.. as I always assumed they were too overwhelmed and the house was a tip so I was really sympathetic,
until I read on MN that it was supposed to be a fashion statement 😂

Why would the house be a tip because the children are dressed in clashing outfits? my house is not a tip but sometimes the baby doesn't have on a matching outfit because he's thrown up or spilled food down it for the umpteenth time that day and I just throw on whatever is clean because....well he's a baby and he doesn't give a shit what he wears. That's a weird thing to assume just by looking at someone.

I did feel sorry for the parent of young kids who seemed to be dressed completely randomly with clashing colours etc.. as I always assumed they were too overwhelmed and the house was a tip so I was really sympathetic

And you think other people need to get a life because they’re so judgy?

Sheesh, not much self awareness here.

Patel coloured paddling pools as a status symbol - now I've really heard it all

I can remember studies showing that TV caused poorer language development in children. This is when TV for children was still a new thing. The parents sitting their child in front of TV and not communicating with their child were stunting language development. Just as a parent giving a child a talking toy and not communicating with their child, will stunt their language development. The same has been said about forward-facing buggies.
Communicate with your baby and toddler. That is the issue, not the other things.

Isn't it you being a snob, judging others' taste in toys for their babies ? Which is none of your business.

I like the wooden toys, natural materials and more muted colours but I also like free or very cheap stuff either passed on from friends or bought at the charity shop/ spotted on thrift sites so our house is a mishmash and definitely not insta worthy. We’ve only just got rid of the hideous jumperoo (found on thrift site and rethrifted) and now have a garish and obscenely noisy ‘activity table’ passed on from a friend. DD would swap it all in a heartbeat for the chance to chew the tv remote 🤷‍♀️

I got suckered into buying these pastel Russian doll things beloved of an instamum I follow. They were stupidly expensive and DD could not be less interested in them, she can barely bring herself to look at them, so I’ve learned my lesson I think!

I will probably sound very judgmental, but I hate the grey ball pits, there is something so joyless and clinical about them. They are only bought to fit an aesthetic.

As soon as the kids want a Barbie Campervan it’s game over for the “matchy matchy” anyway so I’d let them enjoy it while they have any say in the matter.

Yeah I hate the all grey aesthetic too and defInitely wouldn't impose it on small children. But I guess if that’s what you want knock yourself out. 🤷‍♀️

Yanbu at all. I just don't believe people who say they 'invest' in these toys. Kids lose interest sooo quickly and move on to the next thing.