To buy my 3 year old what she wants for Christmas?

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Dd3 absolutely loves playing with tat. Anything small, fiddly, plastic and pink, DD loves. She’s asked for LOL surprise dolls, Mini Little Live Pets, Barbie tat etc for Christmas.

AIBU to buy DD these kinds of gifts (which is what she enjoys and has asked for), over ‘better’ and more educational toys? Or should I be trying to steer her towards these better toys as she is only 3?

Older cousins choosing their birthday presents was it for us.

Santa brings the crap mummy would never buy.

Im not sure if it's what you mean, but my 3 year old also loves trinketty things. She spent all evening putting marbles in a toy plane and moving them from room to room. Personally I steer away from buying landfill, but I can get loads of trinkets in charity shops, and she's delighted. We once got some tiny little porcelein cat models from a car boot sale and she ADORED them. At Xmas, I might get her a Jigsaw and book too, and she loves them as well, but i wouldn't fuss too much about educational toys.

I agree with a lot of others. Otherwise she might say when she is older that she didn't get what she really wanted.

🙄🙄

Every playgroup we’ve ever been to and even my 3 year old’s preschool has Barbie “tat”. She loves it! In fact it was her preschools Barbie’s that got her to stop hiding in her settling in session. She also loves puzzles, books, building and crafts.

Lets not shame parents and 3 year olds over what toys they like 🙄

Buy what she likes.

Theres more education in buying this stuff and then playing with them than there is buying “educational” toys and leaving them to it. Modelling language, talking about experiences and empathy, comparing sizes, numbers, shapes. Loads of educational opportunities.

It's fine. I'd do a mixture, if possible. Partly because plastic tat sometimes breaks easily.

Also, to all the people saying "why are you discussing Christmas presents with your 3 year old": we spend a lot of the year telling my DC to put whatever you they see on their Christmas/birthday list. The 6 year old has a birthday near Christmas so adds to her list for most of the year.

Wow some people… well done on your superiority.

OP I’m mourning Christmas with little kids right now as mine are now both entirely too old for anything like this.

I wish I could go back and give them absolutely every piece of exciting Christmas magic they asked for (I think I gave it a good go!)

Sometimes Christmas magic, is plastic tat 😉

If they love it, do it. Childhood is a devastatingly small window when you look back.

When I was a child (4ish) all I wanted was a supermarket Barbie and accessories. The accessories were a really big deal 😂. Could not wait for Christmas, was so excited about this Barbie and the bits that came with her. my parents decided on a wooden post office as it was more educational (not that I knew that at the time)! It was lovely and I was gutted. 30 years later and i still remember it really vividly. I got plenty of Barbie’s as I got older but I remember how much it bothered me.

Just buy a few bits they really want and add a couple of ‘nicer toys’ in if you can.

I buy a mix of both. Some things they love and some things i want them to have. Also the plastic tat will eventually go to the charity shop or in the recycling bin, but also the educational toys will as well once they move to the next stage.
I used to buh a load of things just to open then put half away and get them out through the year.

My dd is 3 and aside from her first bike, she'll mainly be getting little bits, including a hatchimals alive egg from father Xmas (bargain buy), doll clothes and shoes, and toys she will play with her brother, pokemon stuff and so on. It's Christmas, they like what they like. Im on the lookout for a plastic till from our awesome local charity toy shop though as they love to pretend play toy shop. She also wants a nutcracker soldier, not sure why...

I remember the one year i got the toy i was desperate for, a furby, and what it meant to me. I'd like my kids to have that magic too.

Just get them some but as with all kids toys, buying second hand. Save the planet and save some money so you can do some fun stuff on top.

What I find weird abut this thread is the assumption that Barbies or lol dolls aren't educational because they are plastic and don't say educational on the box.

Any toy is just a prop.

Children don't need to be intoning phonics or have toys emblazoned with times tables to be learning.

Children also need to learn skills of empathy, imagination and creativity. All of that can be done with a sparkly pink doll. I honestly think children spend too much time looking at talking blocks who only say basic sentences like "I am Number One. I am half as big as Number 2" instead of lining up their dolls for tea parties, imagining - using their own brain - what the menu might be, making the food out of beads or stray pieces of wool, practising social skills like offering the food to Teddy, or deciding what Lion should wear and what gift tin soldier will bring for Dolly, or developing empathy when one of the "guests" gets a tummy ache and needs to lie down. That sort of play was standard once and now we just have children pushing buttons on educational toys that have a recorded voice saying "F is for Fish."

Buy her the Lol dolls and let her make up stories about them or encourage her to make clothes for them out of leftover Christmas wrap. No, it won't mean she grows up to be a dressmaker and not a doctor: it will teach her about sizes and shapes and dimensions in a real way, not a synthetic "which dot on this page is bigger?" way. Build the Lol dolls a house out of a shoebox. It's so much better than a "50 Facts about Dinsosaurs that I can Rattle Off and Look Clever at Nursery" book.

Exactly.

How about Sylvanians? They're gorgeous, such high quality, really durable. Ours were still like new when we passed them on.

You sound fun

I would get some of the tat for her stocking from Santa and then a couple of bigger/better things from me. Balance bike or scooter, maybe?

My only concern would be her changing her mind between now and Christmas… if you’re not thrilled with the idea could you check-in with her again mid-November to see if it’s still what her heart is set on?

The bendy Pollys? My DD, nearly 30 now, used to love those.

By all means get her some worthy educational toys. But be aware that she will love the tatt that litters the bedroom floor and ambushes your bare feet best of all.

One year, when she was about 4, we tried to counteract all the incoming "girly" stuff by buying her a garage set. She was very meh about it. And, OMG, I remember for her fourth birthday she requested some good awful thing called a WuvLuv!

Eventually the bendy Pollys, doll's house people, Playmobil and Lego figures were all muddled together and appeared to be involved in a great big make believe so we let well alone.

When she was 7 or 8 I did try building a robot with her from a magazine part work, which was actually quite good fun. However, I discovered her girly, nurturing side must have won out when I found she had used the lid of the laundry basket to make a comfy nest for the robot!

Despite this she got a BSc and now works in a STEM role.

I agree with this. I have just been out with another mum, both of us have jaded 8-year-olds who open their gifts dead-eyed, and have no concept of excitement or anticipation... To be fair, my child isn't very materialistic at all and prefers an (animal themed) experience. However... don't spoil your kids. The landfill will be another burden on their generation and it's all so empty, pleasure-wise. Teach them to find joy in other things. Music. Cooking. Playing. Crafts. Buying shit is so endlessly disappointing. I say that as someone with a Vinted problem!

I'd buy her the stuff she wants but reign it back a bit.

I'd be concerned that she could change her mind.

As a child I remember being completely delighted by the “tatt” on Xmas day. The tatt is what I played with most and enjoyed…there’s nothing wrong with it.

Buy her the magic for Christmas - you don't need to go mad and buy loads but there's nothing like seeing their faces when they get the gift that they dreamed of - honestly I wish I was buying for a 3 year old - the joy, the wonder - I had a Sindy and a pippa dolll and had endless fun and make believe - making them clothes, going on adventures - I don't think it made me a terrible person

As she's 3 though just check casually nearer Christmas what she is hoping for in case it changes

My son on his Christmas letter to Santa once asked for a waistcoat and a pencil and one of those spiral bound notebooks as he wanted to be a waiter ....

Do you appreciate when people intentionally ignore what you say you really want and buy you presents they think will help you improve yourself? I certainly don't. Model gift giving that is about bringing the recipient joy and making them feel known and enthusiastically accepted.

Set a sensible budget for Christmas presents and then spend it on what she actually wants, not what you think she should want. It's perfectly reasonable to give suggestions and see how she reacts, and if there's a great idea that you genuinely think she'll adore then go for it, but don't select presents based on what you think is more virtuous or educational.

If there are more educational things you think she would benefit from then set a separate budget for that outside of Christmas. There is absolutely no need to dump your entire toy/craft/clothing budget into one overwhelming pile of presents to be opened in 30 minutes.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of girly tat. Have fun and enjoy it.

When I opened the thread, I expected it to be about a Pony.