do modern kids have too many toys (saturday guardian article)?

[Fillyjonk]

here

was it really better back in't day when all they had was an apple core and a chair leg?

I dunno, am thinking hmmm

Couldn't agree more. Far too many toys, all of them made out of plastic, in similar colours, playing the same stupid music, with flashing lights.

Burn the lot of 'em!

I totally agree. My two dd's have so much stuff, most of which doesnt even get played wiht. They also don't really appreciate when they get 'presents' as they get bought stuff so often. (not in a spoilt way, but in a "we're in Asda thats really cheap, here you can have it" kind of way")

I also feel that todays society is very 'throw away' (afaind I ammm soo guilty of "oh, don't worry if its broke/run out/ accidently damamged we can just buy a new one")

And don't all kids ultimately spend more time playing with the box and wrapping paper?

I noticed that my children played much more with their toys when I put lots away and made sure that the rest were well organised. I felt that until I did this they did get swamped by the amount there were there, which I have tried to limit - but failed miserably as relatives like my Dad would come down with bags full at Christmas.

I had several long conversations about this with him before Christmas this year and finally got my message through. He came down last weekend with just a few carefully chosen toys that have gone brilliantly and I think will be played with for months to come, whereas usually the majority sat there unused.

Wouldn't like to go back to one chair leg and an apple core days but do think there is a balance to be struck.

oh dear god yes, the 'music' why it is so **ing LOUD!!!!! most of which don't even haver a volume control!

dd's fav oys at the moment:
train 'walker'
the basket of clean washing
me
the dogs
drum kit
tennis ball

(dd 9 months)

Large cardboard box that an appliance came in was our favourite for ages until it go crushed. DD even painted it.

i dunno

agree that flashing things are vile but...

its such a knee jerk thing, isn't it, to say kids have too much stuff?

we kind of have this idea that kids should be grateful for everything.

Agree though that time spent playing with kids is very very important. oh course. we all know that. oh heap on the guilt.

"My mother's generation is dismayed" made me snort. IME her mother's generation is largely responsible for the mounds of toys in children's bedrooms. When I was a child in the 70s, my maternal grandparents bought me a pretty dress and a bag of sweets for Christmas. Whereas my own children get heaps of clothes and toys from my Mum and Dad who grew up in the 50s. And same from the ILs. They are all still working and have reasonable disposable incomes and spoil their grandchildren.

I have to say though that DS is a really good "player". He plays with his toys loads. DD OTOH tends to follow me around all the time.

my dds have hardly any toys

puzzles/books
baby doll each with a buggy to push her in/few teddies each
slide in the garden
dd1 - scooter
dd2 - dd1s old trike

and a box of junk - old egg cartons, cereal boxes, toilet roll tubes, sellotape, scissors, small box of paint, crayons

guess which one gets hauled out every single day

they love to play games like hide and seek, tig, etc, and with my kitchen utensils and water, etc etc, you can make a toy out of anything really

yep - mine have faaaaar too many (mostly given my relatives) They only play with a handful of them and at the momnet their favourite things to play with are a couple of £1 pop up net laundry hamper thingies!

spot on bozza

ditto

pretty much all the plastic shite in this house is from grandparents

mainly my PIL, who equate thiftiness with plasticky toys

Grandparents have a lot to answer for. Having had the 'not too many toys please' chat before Christmas, dd still got about 20 presents just from the inlaws.

Arrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

And fillyjonk - it is not just your children and mine. All my friend's children get spoilt rotten by their grandparents. I was spoilt by mine, but not really in such a material sense. It was more things like strawberries and cream for breakfast when we went to stay, which was considered to be the height of decadence and something my Mum just couldn't afford.

God I had nothing when I was little. I would have been lucky to have an apple core (slight exageration but you get the gist). My sister's response was to lavish toys etc on her kids and I vowed not to do the same. So we adopted a policy that no toys (other than books) at times other than birthday and Christmas. We relented a little during the SummerHolidays as we did not go on holiday and I felt guilty and wanted DS to have something instead of a holiday.

DS deffo has less than his peers but still he has sooooo much. Every so often there is a cull.

I don't think ds has that much really. the thing is that I get really bored playing with the same old toys again and again. And the toy that ds has played with every day for about 2 years (OK, with the occasional break when I put it away) is a plastic 'piano' that plays umpteen versions of Old MacDonald, each more awful than the last.

I reckon that part of the problem is the "toy with meal" thing everywhere you go, in particular the fast food restaurants. I feel that it cheapens the value of toys generally, and reduces the appreciation of the "good" toys that they get at birthdays and christmas time. We avoid places that give out toys with meals as much as possible, and ask for no toy when the kids are out of earshot if we are visiting one of those places (as you can't always avoid them). Mind you our house is also full of toys and we are always struggling to find places to put them.

Our dds don't have that much in the way of toys - probably slightly more than I had, but not that much. We are lucky really in that they don't get showered with toys by rellies either. They have a lot of books and read prolifically (sp?) but much prefer to play "imagining" games rather than play with specific toys. They don't feel hard done by - on the contrary, if they get birthday money to spend they struggle to think of things they would like to get!

I do worry about this. I encourage rellies to buy clothes or books not toys (though they still do - often totally inappropriate ones for much older kids, which is a pain) and I tend to give clothes or books for kids' birthday presents. I also intend to have a no party bags rule if we have birthday parties for DS - or if I buckle, I'll have things like paper models to make or bubble bath, so as not to add to the cheapo toy mountain. We try to choose imaginative toys for DS - construction kits, simple wooden models etc - and I do hide most of them away so he can focus on a few at a time. (Though he does have some noisy plastic ones too - he particularly loves his plastic phone with lights and buttons, and talks on it a lot so I hope that's not too restricting - and he has a plastic ELC rocket, mainly because me and DP are obsessed with space!). He has loads of cuddly toys too (mostly presents) but I hide most of them and there are only about 4 or 5 he really loves and plays with a lot.

His fave toy at the moment is a big cardboard tube deliberately left for him by the builders we had in recently. He loves sending wooden cars and other objects through it, looking through it and shouting down it.

He has a friend who has a playroom of her own, absolutely stuffed with toys - it's like a toyshop. I do notice that when we're there, both of them just wander around grabbing at things but can't focus on any one thing for long...

I do think that too many toys restrict the imagination. The only kids I know who routinely moan about being bored are the ones with (IMO) too many toys.

snowleopard my DS and his friends do that. But if DS is playing on his own or with his friends he will definitely play in depth with whatever it is.

And he is never bored. I rarely get him asking me what he could do. Although atm is favourite hobby is playing on the hall with a bouncy ball. It is more a case of he doesn't want to break off what he is doing for meals/getting dressed etc.

oh my two have lots of toys but quite frankly I don't care and am not going to overanalyse it

inlaws get stuff and my family and I am a soft touch as well

dh's aunt has a dd of 11 and we inherit all the Barbie and dressing up stuff and they LOVE it when a big cardboard box arrives

JT and MrJT think mine have too many toys. They always say 'you don't need to buy toys' - well actually, I don't! The only time they get toys is birthday and Christmas. They do get money spent on them on days out and books/colouring stuff but not on toys.

When you've got 3 children they mount up pretty quickly. 3 children getting presents from 3 sets of aunts and uncles, 2 sets of grandparents, 1 set of great grandparents, some from family friends and also from us - it's a lot!

Tbh, mine don't play with that much of it. Mostly cars or else they make dens with the bedclothes and play hide and seek. THe fact that all the toys are there doesn't mean they play with them all. Their imagination doesn't seems stifled to me. In the summer, they barely play with toys at all as they spend the whole time in the garden.

Oh yes summertime totally different scenario. But DS still doesn't need 11 different footballs, despite being obsessed. Poor thing has to have an op in April and a month of no PE/swimming/football - he is going to go spare.

We keep having a cull but xh tends to buy love and he is always bringing soft toys and stuff that is ignored rather than played with.
Dd2 loves little dolls /figures.DD2 loves books and Cds.
We have masses of books though

Guardian article annoyed me, such a knee-jerk slag off.

There was a list of "classic" essential toys in the printed version. Some were okay but many were just not workable.

E.g., a skipping rope; as a child I got a concussion trying to use one, so now can't do it, and can't show DCs. They use it to tow things around, instead.

Or marbles... the number of men I know who nearly choked to death on marbles as 4-7yo boys, forget it. DCs not allowed.

The article cited as a model the German nursery where children got only tables, chairs and blankets to play with. Did the nursery staff let the children stand on the tables? or better yet, pile tables on tables and chairs at the very top of the pile of tables, and climb to the very top? Of course not. Modern health and safety standards and expectations get in the way of children's imagination as much as "too many toys".