Do kids actually need to own toys?

[RimaB]

I’ve noticed that every time I buy my child a new toy, there’s loads of excitement for a few days… and then it ends up in a pile with everything else.
It’s made me question whether constantly buying toys is even the right model anymore. Kids seem to crave novelty more than ownership.
I’m exploring the idea of a monthly toy rental system instead of purchasing new toys all the time. The idea would be to rotate toys regularly rather than accumulate them.
Would that actually appeal to you? Or do children need to own things to properly enjoy them?
Genuinely curious about other parents’ experiences before going any further with the idea.

For toddlers, yes. I can definitely see a viable business from buying all those expensive sensory/wooden Montessori toys and renting them out.

They just need less toys not the novelty. We save novelty for Christmas/ birthday.

Toy subscription services already exist e.g. Whirli. We try to buy open ended toys like plus plus, lego, building blocks, magnet tiles etc that can be played with in many ways and encourage creative thinking.

If the novelty is wearing off in just a few days you're buying the wrong toys. DS and his friends have some toys for years now that they still play with daily.

Maybe instead of renting more things approach the situation as less is more.

I used to rotate toys in those crates with lids so the kids hadn't seen the toys for a month or two and it was like they were new again

We used a toy library 40+ years ago! But also just buy less.

There are some commercial toy rental schemes already. We used a toy library run by the local council when my son was preschool aged - it was amazing! £25 a year and you could have something like one large (eg a scooter) and five smaller (eg puzzles, dressing up clothes, blocks, trains) things at a time. I miss those days now he’s 11 and only wants to play on his switch…

I think there is room for both renting and owning toys. Renting toys - especially the more expensive ones - gives you a chance to see whether the child will actually enjoy them before spending money on buying them.

I wouldn’t have been interested no, especially when they are small and you can pick up toys fairly cheaply at Charity shops and nearly new sales.

I also didn’t buy toys that often, although they still seemed to have loads.

They played better if there with fewer toys so I would pack most away and leave 2 or 3 out.

I feel that you would have to spend an awful lot on advertising and also find your target market, which might be tricky.

There are already toy libraries as you describe. I think that children don’t need to keep having lots of new toys, but I think having some key favourites at home is worthwhile. I wouldn’t pay for a monthly rental service. I would, and did, just rotate my own toys and get second hand cheap ones to change them up every now and again.

There's already several toy rental companies. This is definitely not a USP

Good plan for the younger kids but as they get older they get very posessive over certain items. Best of luck 🍀 🤞

Yes kids need toys. No kids don’t need piles and piles, nor to be bought toys constantly.
No one has ever said they need to be bought toys constantly. Surely most people view that as spoiled not a model to aim for?
Mine are 4 & 2 and although they do own loads of toys they do play with them all and don’t act ungrateful.

Do they actually know what to do with the toys? If you give a child blocks, some will create a world, but others may not know how to build a house, or set up a road system or do anything beyond build a tower and knock it down. Children need to be taught how to play. There will always be things they prefer, but for some, you can't just give them a pile of stuff and crack on with the housework.

When my DC were babies and toddlers, there was a toy library. You could borrow a toy for a couple of weeks, return it and borrow another one. No charge.

My DC are in their 20s now but are toy libraries still a thing?

Toy library subscriptions exist and can be good; though I suspect some parents are put off by the added responsibility that comes with having to make sure that loaned toys don’t end up with lost pieces or get marked or broken. You’d need to do a lot of market research, including around the cost and feasibility of delivering and collecting.

ETA: from your own DC perspective, do you buy when they have an impulse want, or do you make them wait to see if they’re still interested in the toy in a few weeks’ time? The latter can help in not ending up with things they go off quickly.

We have a local toy library £5 a year. I’d never buy new toys unless birthday - often buy from charity shops.

Not an issue I have. I do a toy rotation at home and buy open ended toys. She's always very keen to see what's in the boxes when they come out for a switch around. And she'll play with toys for ages. I've looked at rentals and they seem expensive as I buy basic toys secondhand whereas they go for fancier things (montessori style stuff).

Constantly buying toys has never been 'the right model' and I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people know that! Most people rotate their own toys, buy secondhand, use a toy library, pass things on, swap with friends etc.

People who buy excessively do so out of guilt or their own need to consume, not really for the child at all. I think you'll struggle to convince these people to switch to renting, although it would be great for the environment if you could!

I use our local charity shops and Facebook marketplace like a toy library, especially for big toys - they play with a £10 kitchen for six months, lose interest for months, so it's sold or donated and then if they decide they want one again a year later, I'm happy to but another and £10 is a bargain price to have had that space for a year!

For-profit toy libraries almost inevitably fail because they cater to families who have low income, high morals and a lot of free time which is frankly a tiny fraction of the population. You need a family who wants to use a toy library for environmental and organisational reasons but who crucially have the free time to clean, organise and pack up every set of toys, THEN make the extra trip to exchange it with something else. And it has to be family who is ok with the idea of kids playing with repeatedly used toys which is not hygienic at the best of times.

In most families with two working parents, nobody has the time to faff around looking for every tiny component of a borrowed toy. Many other families simply can't be arsed to collect all the pieces or even return the toy so the library slowly loses items. Toys really aren't expensive in the bigger picture. They're an investment into the parent's free time and peace of mind. Giving kids a toy means they're meaningfully occupied for a while, without screens which is a bonus. It's often easier to just buy what they want and donate it to a charity shop when the interest is gone.

Lastly, toy library toys always tend to be a bit rubbish. Most kids prefer toys that are new or edgy or based on some recent trend. Toy cycles come out in at 3-6 months with new models and designs replacing old ones. Toy libraries will inevitably end up with tatty things that are 2-3 years out of date. It's fine for toddlers but at some point, kids will want to have exactly what their friends have and they definitely won't stock those in the library.

We rotated what we had, bought second hand or were gifted and went out to groups which had greater variety. There were also a toy library attached to the local library which did try but didn't use that much in the end.

There was usually one or two favoured for each child - that changes over time - one of the few to be like that for all three was second hand shopping trolley we had.

A good idea for some toys but not for all. The toys my son most often plays with, well they are the most often played with! He's attached to them and likes to play the same scenarios over and over with them.

I find this so strange as I was a kid who played with my toys for years. My toy horses and stables were played with for years and years, basically until I grew out of toys.
I find it strange when kids don’t play with toys over and over.