please explain the "no plastic toys/no batteries" school of thought

[Anonymous]

"I do not let DD play with anything plastic or anything with batteries. I am sort of an "old soul" and believe in calm play (no flashing lights, loud noises, distracting movements). I think it leads to ADD and other attention issues."

What?

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP with the "toy inventory." I used that wordage because I do feel like we are building one. Like a PP said, some of these toys are expensive. We are not rich. To be clear we have a HHI of 80K. This is why we live in a small condo. But, we have been onboard with this from birth. For her first birthday she got her first set of HABA blocks, and she got 2 more sets the next birthday. Each Christmas she gets a few Holztiger Animals. She got play silks one Easter, etc. etc. etc. When you try to not buy a lot and go crazy, you can save for the more expensive stuff.

Luckily, my parents and in-laws ask for ideas. They have given her the wooden toy kitchen and the dollhouse among other things. When people ask what they can get her we always say books. Otherwise, we accept all gifts. (we also do not host birthday parties for her yet. just small family things) Personally, I love seeing the though put into a gift. I have never thrown out a gift. never.

I can remember two times she got battery operated toys that I did not like. One was a crayola glow thing that broke after about a weeks use. The other was a V-tech laptop thing that I kept in our bedroom. She played with it a lot. But, grew out of it so quick. Also, once my mom bought her the cheapest plastic food ever. I let DD play with them despite myself. Of course, our DD tried to bite them and they were misshapen in a week.

This is not about plastic vs wooden. She loves her few playmobil sets. I love Lego. I actually dislike very much all of the Mellissa and Doug wooden toys. I prefer felt and knit food above wooden food. One of her favorite toys from birth have been plastic stacking cups (a gift.) She is 3.5 and still incorporates those things into her play!

[Anonymous]

Can't afford batteries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"And surrounding your baby and young child with tried and true traditional things (like wooden blocks) is probably safer in terms of chemical exposure than giving them lots of plastic to chew on. But my kids do have plenty of plastic toys. "

Hypocrite Alert!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For me, it is about buying high-quality, open-ended, toys that my DD will be interested for many years. It is about building a toy inventory that grows with my child and will be around for the grandchildren. It is also about not overwhelming my kid with flashy junk (that, yes annoys me!).

She has an awesome set (multiple sets) of HABA blocks, play silks, dozens of Holtztiger animals, a simple wooden dollhouse, a couple wooden trucks (Fagus), and simple wooden peg people. She also has a small kitchen filled with wooden and felt food, and two baby dolls. She plays with this stuff everyday, and has for years. She has never needed more.

I don't like buying things that will only serve me and my family for a limited period time, toys included. We are somewhat minimalistic. We live in a small place.

I also try to buy local, support small business, avoid made in china.

We are also TV free while DD is awake and put our foot down on electronic toys. Plastic is OK sometimes (she does have some playmobil which we love), but we do not need anything interactive like Leapster or TAG, or whatever. We do not buy any type of educational electronic. We read books together. We also plays tons of boardgames. And, we will play some iPad apps together. DD loves books. It was important to DH and I that she enjoy books. She sat on Santa and asked for more books this past year. And, at 3.5 she can read at a beginning of the year first grade level.

I am a WAHM. DD is an only child and can entertain herself for hours in imaginary play. I don't think I have too much time on my hands. I have done a lot of reading on this subject. We all have different priorities. Her preschool has no battery-operated toys, though plenty of plastic for pretend. I never care if she watches TV or plays barbie at a friend's house. But, we can control what goes on in our home. I don't feel like it is "controlling." It is how we choose to raise our family.

Why on earth do you want a toy inventory and to keep the toys for the grandkids.

Bragging rights. Pay attention!

[Anonymous]

Speaking of "toy inventory" - I still have toys from my childhood that I'm keeping to bring out for my kids to play with. Mostly dolls and TONS of Playmobile. I have chunky Legos that my kids love to play with that used to belong to my brother when he was little. I was disappointed my brother took all of his other Legos - we'd be set for life if he hadn't.

I like investing in open ended toys that I know my kids will play with (even if they are a little more expensive. Often they are Christmas/birthday gifts anyway). If you invest in toys that your kids barely play with that's more of a waste of money then investing a more expensive toy that your child will play with for several years. But I'm not necessarily completely anti-plastic or anti-battery.

[Anonymous]

Oh, no! My kids are screwed. They played with Star Wars Lightsabers! Mercy me.

[Anonymous]

I'm probatteries and pro plastic, but I'm very much in favor of open ended toys. But I looked at our toys and realized that because my preschool kids play with open ended toys there is lots of plastic (magnatiles, duplos, plastic animals, plastic dolls in a dollhouse, etc). But almost none of them have batteries, with two exception: cameras and flashlights. My kids each have their own flashlight and they play with them all the time in different creative ways. I highly recommend the flashlight in particular as an exception to the non batteries rule for those who have that rule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP with the "toy inventory." I used that wordage because I do feel like we are building one. Like a PP said, some of these toys are expensive. We are not rich. To be clear we have a HHI of 80K. This is why we live in a small condo. But, we have been onboard with this from birth. For her first birthday she got her first set of HABA blocks, and she got 2 more sets the next birthday. Each Christmas she gets a few Holztiger Animals. She got play silks one Easter, etc. etc. etc. When you try to not buy a lot and go crazy, you can save for the more expensive stuff.

Luckily, my parents and in-laws ask for ideas. They have given her the wooden toy kitchen and the dollhouse among other things. When people ask what they can get her we always say books. Otherwise, we accept all gifts. (we also do not host birthday parties for her yet. just small family things) Personally, I love seeing the though put into a gift. I have never thrown out a gift. never.

I can remember two times she got battery operated toys that I did not like. One was a crayola glow thing that broke after about a weeks use. The other was a V-tech laptop thing that I kept in our bedroom. She played with it a lot. But, grew out of it so quick. Also, once my mom bought her the cheapest plastic food ever. I let DD play with them despite myself. Of course, our DD tried to bite them and they were misshapen in a week.

This is not about plastic vs wooden. She loves her few playmobil sets. I love Lego. I actually dislike very much all of the Mellissa and Doug wooden toys. I prefer felt and knit food above wooden food. One of her favorite toys from birth have been plastic stacking cups (a gift.) She is 3.5 and still incorporates those things into her play!

I have to agree with this poster 100%. My family also does not have a lot of money for this area, and we buy only wooden toys, no plastic, no batteries. We have an amazon wish list so family (I only tell family about this) can buy her wooden or cloth toys or books. My DD is big into books. Then I buy some wooden boys on amazon and they are affordable -- mostly Plan Toys, as I consider them to be high quality and reasonably priced. I also don't like Melissa and Doug, they are good prices and available at a local thrift store I shop at, but they are made in china and have had quality assurance issues in the past.

You get what you pay for -- if you buy cheap plastic stuff made in china, it will break, it will look like crap and leach toxins. If you buy a few quality toys, they last longer, are safer and you save money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live such a simple life! Couldn't care less what the kids play with. If it it is loud and annoying, it stays in their room, if I step on it then it gets thrown in a bag. If I saw them licking the paint or or chewing off chunks of plastic, I'd probably take it away but otherwise they just play. So far the kids still seem relatively normal.

I live such a simple life, too. My children have toys and they play with them. Why are people acting like choosing toys we like to have in our homes makes some of us overwrought and neurotic? Families are different, parents are different, children are different. And, yes, all our children will learn to use computers, no doubt about it.

me three. the kids had it all growing up and are no worse for the wear. I have a daycare in my home, and I have a mix of wood and plastic. In retrospect for daycare, toys coming in contact with multiple kids, that plastic is by far much easier to clean and disinfect. I can easily disinfect with the bleach/water solution the county/state recommends when cleaning the toys. For the babies i have a combo of things I can toss into the washer as well as plastics I can clean with the bleach mixture. Wooden toys are not as easily as able to do this with for the obvious reasons. I dont understand the big deal. They have some toys that make noise, yes, but not an over abundance. Yes, some of the toys themselves may mooooo and baaaa and neigh. but the kids also learn from that and mimic the sounds they make. I think there is a lot of over-reaction here.

[Anonymous]

Well, when I was Christmas shopping I asked DH in toys r us "do people really buy all this junk?" (obviously we have a 2 yr old.) So I went on one of those wooden toy websites and-- lo and behold, a lot of it was expensive junk, too. Really expensive, somewhat well-made (my father's a carpenter so I wasn't all that impressed) stuff. If you want your children to be creative, I think buying overpriced (and sorry, but even if it's on sale, if it's a cloth doll with yarn hair or a chunk of wood with a little paint, it's probably overpriced) seems kind of like a typically thing to do in a consumer-oriented society.

If I'm wrong, somebody direct me to some really good toy sites that might change my mind. Otherwise it seems to me you could just give your kid a bunch of common household objects and start a thread dissing people who are dumb enough to spend dough on wooden toys for young kids. (And yes, I'm dumb enough-- I have all kinds of toys littering my house, and have never rejected a gift, even when they're SO not what I would have chosen myself. The pink plastic dollhouse for instance-- total piece of crap, yet it is my DD's favorite toy...and she plays creatively with it. Excellent.)

[Anonymous]

Wood toys hurt like hell when your kid throws them at you. Or maybe it's just that my kids make more "distracting movements" when they play. I guess I failed somewhere.

I'm honestly surprised at the number of delicate flowers who are bothered by the noise that battery-powered toys make. In fact, I'm going to go so far as to say that plenty of them are lying. Come on, you all live in a densely populated urban area, and even if you live in the suburbs, you are BOMBARDED with noise. Toy noise is so minimal compared to all that other noise that it seems very disingenuous to say that it's so bothersome. Also, I'm sure your kid makes far more annoying noises than most toys.

[Anonymous]

Oh come on people, everything in moderation. Some of you are so literal with the polyanna disposition. I would rather have a balanced exposed child then a sheltered one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wood toys hurt like hell when your kid throws them at you. Or maybe it's just that my kids make more "distracting movements" when they play. I guess I failed somewhere.

I'm honestly surprised at the number of delicate flowers who are bothered by the noise that battery-powered toys make. In fact, I'm going to go so far as to say that plenty of them are lying. Come on, you all live in a densely populated urban area, and even if you live in the suburbs, you are BOMBARDED with noise. Toy noise is so minimal compared to all that other noise that it seems very disingenuous to say that it's so bothersome. Also, I'm sure your kid makes far more annoying noises than most toys.

''

Another great one. Keep em coming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For me, it is about buying high-quality, open-ended, toys that my DD will be interested for many years. It is about building a toy inventory that grows with my child and will be around for the grandchildren. It is also about not overwhelming my kid with flashy junk (that, yes annoys me!).

She has an awesome set (multiple sets) of HABA blocks, play silks, dozens of Holtztiger animals, a simple wooden dollhouse, a couple wooden trucks (Fagus), and simple wooden peg people. She also has a small kitchen filled with wooden and felt food, and two baby dolls. She plays with this stuff everyday, and has for years. She has never needed more.

I don't like buying things that will only serve me and my family for a limited period time, toys included. We are somewhat minimalistic. We live in a small place.

I also try to buy local, support small business, avoid made in china.

We are also TV free while DD is awake and put our foot down on electronic toys. Plastic is OK sometimes (she does have some playmobil which we love), but we do not need anything interactive like Leapster or TAG, or whatever. We do not buy any type of educational electronic. We read books together. We also plays tons of boardgames. And, we will play some iPad apps together. DD loves books. It was important to DH and I that she enjoy books. She sat on Santa and asked for more books this past year. And, at 3.5 she can read at a beginning of the year first grade level.

I am a WAHM. DD is an only child and can entertain herself for hours in imaginary play. I don't think I have too much time on my hands. I have done a lot of reading on this subject. We all have different priorities. Her preschool has no battery-operated toys, though plenty of plastic for pretend. I never care if she watches TV or plays barbie at a friend's house. But, we can control what goes on in our home. I don't feel like it is "controlling." It is how we choose to raise our family.

Why on earth do you want a toy inventory and to keep the toys for the grandkids.

Bragging rights. Pay attention!

Bragging rights? NP here. You're being kind of an ass. The pp did not start a thread asking why people let their kids play with junky, plastic toys. She gave a thoughtful, personal, non judgmental answer to a somewhat hostile OP, and she is the one with a problem?