Plastic beepy toys distract momentarily; toy manufacturers hope parents buy into this con. Discuss.

[hub2dee]

Babies and children have as much fun with everyday objects.

IMHO, plastic beepy toys are foul, homogenous, annoying beasts. They occupy children for relatively short amounts of time, before kids (of whatever age) move on to the next piece of similarly garish, sterile crap. These toys have no soul and do not allow true exploration nor the development of much in the way of imagination.

Crafted around a Pavolvian trigger and response concept, these toys serve up their rewards as blasts of noise, flashes of light or moments of fast movement. Their limited ability to sustain interest means that us parents need to relentlessly offer up the next toy to play with in a conveyor belt of stilted interaction.

We hope that by spending £10 or £20 on A Toy it will please and occupy our darlings, but ironically they tend to get the most fun out of the mundane and ordinary: The bunch of keys, the remote control, a dowel of wood. The toy industry is one giant con.

Or am I wrong ?

This rant has been inspired by revelations concerning Heuristic Play and things like FaZ's reference to treasure baskets etc.

DW took me to Babies R Us I think it was when we were looking at car seats. I felt it was a horrid place within about two metres of walking in... the colours, the packaging, the layout of the store, the toy selection, the Disneyitis and other in-your-face branding off the back of the TV / movie industry etc. It all conspired to pish me off big time. I am not a grump; I can recognise the educational and play value of some of the toys, but in essence, I feel the industry has robbed parents of an exposure to 'discovery' / 'natural' / 'heuristic' play, instead replacing it with sanitised, plasticised, homogenised objects (which tend to cost a fortune) and DOES NOT ENHANCE THE PLAY / LEARNING EXPERIENCE.

If I thought the contents of Babies R Us did improve motor co-ordination, allow the discovery of language, support the development of a vivid imagination etc. I'd be the first to buy heaps of the stuff in there, but frankly it doesn't. What kids need is a supportive environment, lots of time with those they love, and opportunities to learn. Not more of the Same Old Beepy Shite.

agree. am now considering binning all such plastic atrocities to free up space in toy box. seriously. the only exception is anything with wheels (ds's specialist subject: things that spin).

Following on from mawbroon's 'pre-1950' mention, thought I should share with the barksuckers and wooden block fans a fantastic book I once had lying around (probably from when my mum did her B.Ed. sometime in the mists of the past) called 'Play with a Purpose for Under Sevens'.
It's a bit on the worthy side (probably aimed more at educators than parents), but every single idea I've ever stolen from it has gone down a storm. And I don't think it mentions plastic once.
It's out of print, but there are a few online, and it's def worth grabbing it if you see it in a charity shop etc.

[end evangelism]

Mrs Badger, can you give us a sample of what's in the book? Just a quick summary of a couple of the ideas.

I see it here but it doesn't say much about what's in the book.

I have the Play With a Purpose Book but it's Upstairs and ds is Asleep. But will drag it out later if MrsB does not get time to reply

(MrsB is there no topic on which you are not preternaturally wise? )

can't lay my hands on it right now but it was mostly common-sense but slightly high-effort things that wouldn't neccesarily occur to first time mums drowning plastic, like fabric scraps, paper bag puppets, water trays etc.
Was v hot on what the authors had seen children enjoying at specific ages/stages so helpful when thinking 'isn't he a bit old/young for that?'

Actually I think I may be amalgamating it in my mind with a book of the same era called Play School Play Ideas, which definitely recommended the paper bag puppets but is out of print too. Had great illustrations by Quentin Blake, a few songs and finger rhymes and oodles of craft / activity suggestions, some more doable than others. Is out of print too but is a copy on Abe .

Will see if I can dig both or either out and work out which one I meant, and/or post suggestions from the contents!

F&Z - I'm a rubbish cook, I just post DH's recipes and take the credit

hmm not sure I agree entirely - we have some plastic 'beepy' toys which DS1 got when he was a baby - which both he and his brother still play with now (DS1 will be 6 in September)

She sodding likes those cars toadie. And at least you can do things with them. It's the beepy things that you can't do anything with except hit the button one more time that seem a bit pointless.

Ah - so some foul, homogenous, annoying beasts of toys are OK ...

I'm in two minds about it, really. Dd has both plastic crap and wooden stuff - and I have to say it's the bright, shiny, plastic crap she goes for almost every time. Wooden toys are aesthetically more pleasing from my point of view - but then again I don't have to play with them so maybe my opinion doesn't count quite so much as hers does!

My parents are always sending dd one-trick-pony type toys though, and they do annoy me sometimes. Some stupid Nemo fish thing that just goes around in circles singing weird songs for instance ... now that I agree with you on; it attracts the interest with noise and lights but doesn't offer anything substantial to go along with it. But not all bright, plastic, shiny stuff is as bad as that. I think there's room for a mix of things, including both ends of the spectrum.

The voice of reason.

Wooden remote control daleks and sonic screwdrivers? Wooden playmobil fire engines? Wooden thunderbird two models? Wooden lego? Wooden beyblades? Wooden light sabres? Oh dear me, no. There have never been any favourite wooden toys in this house I'm afraid. They did have treasure baskets as babies and stared thoughtfully at cotton reels and quizically chewed sponges. But as soon as they could crawl the treasure baskets were rejected. It seemed that while I was aware of heuristic play, my children were not. One of them even took a violent fancy to a plastic fish- his first word was "ISH!" said with passionate delight. I know, I know. It was wrong and I am ashamed. I should have known that allowing a plastic fish into my house was a categorical error. It was the beginning of the end.

It's not just about plastic v wood though. If such a thing as a wooden beepy toy exists, I'm sure hub would find it just as objectionable.
Or would you hub?

I do sympathise, Oppressed, we bought ds the most beautiful wooden till which he spurns utterly, while talking longingly about his friend's plastic pink beepy one. "But you've got a till," I tell him. "But my one doesn't do anything," he replies

Ooo, everyone, please chuck out your unwanted plastic flashy bleepy things in my direction! 12 month non-mobile Ds LOVES them (hasn't got the fine motor control for creative play due to his cp), I honestly cannot have enough of them. and they cost a blimmin fortune! I got him a flashy singy plastic workbench thingy today (£22 no less!) and he was enthralled for 40 minutes and had a mini tantrum when I took it away to feed him!

I don't really mind beepy. I don't really mind plastic. What I mind is mindless toys. What I mind is the industry with their weekend AM adverts and the lack of creativity in the toys available for sale. I think I mind the fact that these days everything must beep and flash and vibrate and transform to be any good, and that heuristic play (in the home with 'mundane' objects or even outdoors with 'creative playspaces' instead of predictable climbing frames) is not more widely encouraged.

Additionally, the politics of branding and franchising spin-offs from the movies into character toys and all that other crap generally makes me puke. It seems to be that if it makes money for someone then it's OK.

Maybe I'm just in my bitter and twisted phrase, concerned at what the future holds for my 1 year old who doubtless will soon insist on some piece of plastic shite Barbie or worse.... a plastic till.

Dystonic cp hub. He's great - really healthy, inquisitive and driving me mad keeping him entertained! He's turning into a bit of a chatterbox too

No! Was it a thumbs up?? I got am '89 740GLE in the end and I love it!

an!

LOL, a Volvo girl. Glad you like it !

Yeah, the old Merc stood up very well to a lot of abuse !