Toys for children

[Itssosunnyout]

Im trying to instill non plastic toys use for my child to family. Does anyone else do the same?
I've read a lot about the benefits of wood, using imagination and problem solving.

Does anyone else struggle with family buying things or pushing plastic use as though that's the only toy choice? Obviously apart from soft toys?

We use mainly wooden and second hand here.
We are quite frugal in terms of we don't need much material stuff but we buy as much as we need. So no terribly minimalist but small house and big on that life style.
The way we do it is that if someone asks what we would like then we say or send links and that.
If we were gifted something out of the blue we are grateful.
I have to say that because this is the way we have always been all of our presents are very much what we like. Lots of books, trains, wooden bits...
We havent been given anything anything that we didn't like.
In my opinion people these days tend to ask or buy things that they have seen you like.
And we are always grateful for anything anyway

Maybe you could just talk to close family and say well IF you are getting something there are a couple of things we would love

We don't have tons of money here and we are very simple and easy going so it has never been a problem.

My mum hasnt asked this year, but last year she got DC an expensive scooter so if she doesnt send anything this year it would be absolutely fine

Sometimes even just talking to them about what DC like is plenty.
We always say how much he loves books, cars and wooden animals.
Which is true.

How old are your DC? Lego is plastic; Playmobil is plastic; Happyland is plastic; our plastic marble run is infinitely better than the wooden one; PlayMags are plastic.
In the early years, there are some good wooden toys but my primary age children have none now.

16 weeks little one. Ive got a few plan wooden toys and fabric jingly toys. I have had a look at wilko for wooden toya and aldi so but on the other hand buying the odd staple that will last such as grimms rainbow.

Ive started with the suggesting but already weve had a lot of presents that I have. Huge plastic toys that I have nowhere to store. I wouldn't say 'no thanks, as I don't want to be rude.

As pp has said I'm bug on outdoor play. I'd much rather that than sat in the house pressing a button that makes the same flash/ sound.

I think you’d do well to be a bit more open-minded if I’m honest - it isn’t as simple as outdoor, wooden - good; plastic- bad. With my DD we aim for a mixture of things - she has wooden stacking blocks, trundle wheels, vehicles etc, Duplo, a plastic SkipHop stacker, soft toys, lots of books on different themes. But she does have a few “press button” things - a book with buttons for animal noises, another that counts cumulatively when pressed repeatedly. And I can see clear value in them, they aren’t passive.

Soft toys are good enough make sure it looks cute
Wooden toys aren't bad too no chemical contents it depends on how it is processed.

I decided to let my child lead. I thought I'd be into wooden toys, he doesn't like them that much (yet). He loves some plastic fruit I picked up for a fiver, and sensory bottles I made, and chasing balls round our living room and a drawer of Tupperware. I'm telling family we can't have things for space reasons but we're open in terms of what toys he plays with.

I agree it’s about the toy itself. If you’re being given huge plastic tat, focus on the fact it’s too big rather than plastic.

I think when people say they don’t like plastic what they mean is noisy, light up, enormous crap that people feel compelled to buy toddlers and babies.

Sometimes plastic is better - we have wooden stacking rings that proved pretty painful when thrown by a 12 month old! DD2 has a plastic set that does exactly the same job, develops the same skills but without being dangerous or expensive.

I've read a lot about the benefits of wood, using imagination and problem solving.

I can understand the environmental impact but I don't understand how two sets of building blocks, one wood and one plastic can make a difference in imagination and problem solving.

We have a mixture of plastic and non plastic. The vtech baby walker we have must be over 10 years old and is going strong and will be going to the next family soon. Lego, playmobil, Peppa small world have had lots of use here and most was bought second hand. Hours of using imagination and problem solving.

Nerrsnerr

Its the pressing buttons with the same. High pitched singing sounds and Instant gratification rather than something plain coming into life.

I am in the process of making sensory bottles and will do the classic 'get the pots and pans out'

Each to their own though

I won't be turning things that have been gifted away.

That's nit 'plastic toys' though, that's electronic toys. There is surely nothing wrong with lego, duplo, playmobil etc that are all plastic. You said in your op that you want to 'instil non plastic toy use'.

Instead of saying no plastic why not look at the merits of each toy.

Nerrsnerr

Its likely i won't be using those types either.
However i will look at their merits and when DC is older and wants those then thatd be fair enough

Each to their own but is seems daft to exclude toys just because of what they're made of. I genuinely cannot understand why you wouldn't want your child to have lego as it is brilliant for development, fine motor skills etc and you won't get a wooden equivalent.

We don't have loads of plastic, but not all plastic (and wooden) toys are equal.

not all plastic (and wooden) toys are equal

^^ this.

We have had our fair share of annoying plastic toys - too big, or noisy one dimensional toys with too many noisy buttons to press, or so badly made that the plastic breaks in about 5 minutes.

But there are some excellent open ended plastic toys out there too - e.g. Duplo / Lego, Playmobil. These can be found second hand if you’re worried about the environmental impact. I’d advise keeping an open mind about toys rather than automatically dismissing them because of the material they’re made of.

And as for Does anyone else struggle with family buying things or pushing plastic use as though that's the only toy choice?

How well this will work will depend on your family, but the approach I would try would be to think about what toys you would like for your DC, and make a list of toys.
So then if family ask for ideas, you can give them specific suggestions, like wooden toy from manufacturer X, soft toy from range Y, or book by author Z.
There’s an awful lot of plastic toys in shops, so it is a very easy present choice to default to if you don’t have any specific ideas of what a child wants.
It would probably also be a good idea to directly say to them that you don’t have much space so don’t have room for massive toys.

It depends what type of toys you want. You can't really know what sort of toys are going to be favourites with your children or what interests they will develop. If they become obsessed with animals and want to play farms what is wrong with good quality plastic made animals (like those Dutch ones whose name I can't spell). People have already mentioned Lego /Duplo. I have Lego from the 60s that is exactly the same as the modern bricks. Playmobil and Happyland are fantastic toys for learning about society and life. What about board games? Will you turn down Monopoly because the houses and hotels are made of plastic? There is a massive difference between noisy gimicky toys, cheap poundland stuff, toys based on the latest film characters (so they date) and high quality fantastic toys such as Lego which is educational, creative, uses both imagination and learning how to follow instructions and good for motor skills development but just happens to be made from plastic.

bookmum08 do you mean the Schleich toy animals?

HopeGarden that's the ones. I wasn't going to attempt to spell it!

We already have lego from when my DH was little so will be using that.

Its new things im talking about and also as a pp has said the environmental impact.