To flaming HATE horrid PLASTIC TOYS!!!!

[LittleOneMum]

OK, just for the record, I know that I should just be grateful and be quiet. And that many kids have no toys at all.

But when DS was born I said to my parents and PIL 'please don't buy DS any plastic toys. They take millions of years to break down in landfills and there are lots of brilliant wooden or second hand toys out there'. I don't think was an unreasonable request but it has been totally ignored.

My house is now littered with horrid big plastic things and this weekend PIL arrived with a massive plastic car which makes a really horrid loud screetchy noise when pushed along the floor and DS hates the noise as much as I do. So:
(1) Am I being unreasonable to hate plastic toys? and
(2) Would it be unreasonable to donate every single plastic toy in the house to my local charity shop?

sell them on ebay! then get the stuff you really want/like

Charity shop, freecycle or ebay

wooden toys are much nicer,ur house doesnt. look crapy if its full of wooden toys.they are sturdy and can be handed down to younger kids when yours out grow them. plastic ones are usually full of fiddily bits that get lost.woolies has good wooden toys(almost identical to elc ,but cheeper)

YA def NBU to hate plastic toys - I agree. Maybe do the donations in a drip drip way rather than in one fell swoop - then noone will notice!!

Or you could wait until your DS is a bit older and sell them on at an NCT sale? Could use the money to buy sustainable wood toys.

I do think that eventually you will end up with some level of plastic in your house, lego is a must when he is a bit older!

I'm sure you , as i will, miss all that plastic crap when are little angels have left home.
Your right though, it's the bain of my life aswell!! but you can't get awayfrom it.

Children actually like plastic toys. I think they would rather have something in garish plastic than in tasteful, natural wood.

i loathe them too. Anything made by Vtech seems to particularly wind me up -crappy tunes, irritating voices, aaargh. DD doesn't seem that bothered by them either. Would love to get rid off them but feel we should keep them for future dcs (reduce, re-use etc.)

Will be dropping massive hints to family in the run-up to xmas about wooden toys

I can see your reasons for disliking plastic toys, but getting rid of them won't solve any environmental problems; they'll just start cluttering up the landfill a little sooner. I would hang on to them instead for the greatgrandchildren's sake and just make suggestions to the PIls of non-toy presents.

My little ones love the plastic things that make noise over anything else! The nice wooden ones get ignored.

I feel your pain - it's the big things that loom that I hate the most - jumperoos etc as there's no getting away from them.

we have succumbed to plastic (my 30+yo fisher-price toys are fab and much less garish than the modern versions) but are standing firm re things that need batteries

otherwise dd enjoys a wide range of rubbish heuristic play items like cardboard boxes, loo rolls, baskets, newspaper etc, so our house still looks like a tip

Mine got hours of play from cardboard boxes etc. Toys that are aesthetically pleasing to adults are not always what the DC finds fun.

well said abbeya. i totally agree. im not keen on piles of plastic tat all over the house, and have a few wooden toys, but have found that dcs want/like the plastic stuff, and play with it a lot more, than the wooden counterparts.
im sure the lovely wooden toys would look much better strewn all over the place, but thats not really the point though is it???
let them have hideous colourful plastic!!!!!
so yeah yabu sorry

you can dish wash plastic!

You're all right, of course. I have no moral objection to Lego or Playmobil... Maybe I'm just more upset about being wholly ignored when I said that I didn't want any plastic.

Have now filled one of the plastic boxes with loo roll holders, old make up bag, wooden spoons etc and DS is happily playing with those.

Will subtly donate horrid screetchy car to the charity shop though.

hmmmmm non degradable naff plastic V's depletion of rain forrests

You get to the stage where you hate all toys, trust me . I can no longer distinguish between the bright, plastic Fisher Price tat and the poncy wooden stuff that clutters up my son's bedroom. It's all just stuff I have to tidy away constantly, after all.

MrsMattie, I totally agree - it is all bloody stuff that gets left on the floor for muggins to pick up, wooden or not. I always ask for books or puzzles or clothes for Xmas/birthdays, but get ignored!

While I think wooden toys are a nice idea, my experience is that they break much more easily than plastic ones. My boys got lots of lovely wooden toys when they were little and the only ones that survived were the jigsaws, dominoes and the wooden railway. All the trucks, tractors, etc, broke. My boys are not particulary heavy on toys either. The worst one was the ELC wooden fire station whose roof came off to reveal sharp metal staples.

Lego, Mega bricks and playmobil great stuff. I don't really like toys with batteries either, they drive me bananas. I don't know an easy way to get them recycled. I just get fed up with the hurt look my mum gives me when I just try and point this out. MUM he doesn't need anything except your love, attention and fab food. Really why is that so hard to understand. I try and point her in the right direct but it still goes wrong. Please don't let me bore you of all the expensive mad things she brought me as a child!!

Get your Myriad catalogue out next time parents and inlaws are about ... and POINT to the toys you want your ds to have!

Playmobil's great, I love playing with it too!

I love plastic toys - they are colourful, robust and easily wipeable. My DS and DD get lots of enjoyment from them. I much prefer them to wooden toys and find wooden ones are more easily broken.

However, if you don't like plastic toys, people should respect that. If you want to put them on eBay/in charity shop - then do that - it's your house and your child.

What about asking them to get him a wooden play kitchen? I've seen some that look sooo gorgeous - and all my boys have enjoyed playing with toy kitchens, though ours was a nasty plastic one we got second-hand.

Last year we visited some friends with little children, and ds3, then aged 10, had a wonderful time playing with the little girl's toy kitchen.

I agree with those who say that there's a lot of good plastic toys out there - but I can't say I blame you for hating the screechy car toy - frankly any toy that makes a noise is a potential hate-object, even if made from wood!