How often do you go to a toy shop?

[womblemeister]

and buy them a toy for no particular reason?

Just wondering.

Far too often.

But mostly go to local shop and buy them something tatty and pointless from their "pocketmoney toy" section.

Kids like tacky plastic shit.

Never. New toys are always for a specific reason, such as being linked to a reward chart or for a long car journey or something. They get loads of random presents from my parents (I mean a stupid amount) so I can't really justify adding to the growing pile tbh.

Hardly ever. A few bits from the nct sale, and even then I 'stagger' them over a few weeks. And a couple of new things from a toy shop, only small toys though.

My family and ex p's family buy them so much they are hardly deprived.

Seldom because they are so expensive in Switzerland and the games are in German. I do buy dd a lot of books from Amazon though.

Never! Just birthdays and Christmas.

About once a month. Saturday morning trip after the Library. The get £10 a month from PIL, and they spend it in the toyshop.

I never did that. The house has too much brightly coloured plastic as it is from Christmas and birthdays. Now they are older we're starting to get rid of some stuff.

Kreecher - I also have an expensive Amazon habit for the same reasons (I'm in Germany). I do get them books from time to time, but mainly they have to save up and buy them themselves.

Rarely. During the summer holidays I might buy a few small toys on outings as a treat, but otherwise it's Christmas and Birthdays only. I do buy books quite a bit, though, and the odd DVD. I would rather saw off my right arm with a rusty hacksaw than take my child with me to somewhere like Toys R Us. Not my idea of fun.

Have a wonderful toy shop nearby that sells things that aren't in the big shops. It's super & I get birthday/xmas things there.

'AnotherBloodySugarBabe' - LOVE your name !

Thanks

I never take dd to real toy shops (never occurs to me!) but I sometimes pick something up for her, and we often cruise the bookshops and charity shops. Tend to buy books and the odd dvd. If there's something we really want her to have (e.g. dh just got a good globe for her) we might just get it.

I find it takes months to work through the bday and Xmas presents anyway.

I get her a magazine with workbook with the shopping every week. She spends hours on them and I feel that's money well spent.

She's only 4, but if she gets into some kind of toy stuff that has lots of parts to collect I can see we might get bits more regularly. I'm not crazy about making bday and Xmas a focus for buying stuff.

Far more than I should. Dd can find something she wants anywhere though.

It's a particularly bad habit we have developed. She is becoming quite spoilt, really.

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I'm not in the habit of buying stuff from toy shops either, but did buy them a small thing each yesterday because DS keeps asking for things everywhere we go and I feel tight saying no ALL the time.

Tried reward charts and pocket money but DD always got three times as much as DS because she behaves ten times better, so it became counterproductive.

It was a model car, he has now taken it to school, probably never to be seen again.

Gosh, I must be mean. I only go into toy shops if I need to buy a birthday present, usually for another child. My dc don't get pocket money and I think they have enough stuff in the house as it is. All my dc need is lego anyway. It's all they play with and they've gathered loads over the years.

No local toy shops but internet toy shopping every month either for a mixture of books/toys/games. Its nice to treat DS.

I love buying my toddler toys and books and seeing the delight on his face, so a weekly treat for us both!
We go to a bookshop for the books. I have to buy all his toys online as there are no local shops that sell lovely wooden toys such as Playsam and Vilac.

Do you people not know about toy libraries?

my nearest toy library is about 1,500 km away, so not really an option

pah, womble. make the bloody effort, woman!

Never. I don't even think there are any toy shops around here.

If I'm feeling very generous I might give him a pound and go to the charity shops for him to find something.