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

[Anonymous]

WOW. You people have babies, right? Clearly, because none of your gibberish makes a word of sense to anyone with older children who are in AP! In sum, in really does not matter what they play with. Plastic and batteries won't change the child one single iota. Are you really that neurotic? Really? Chill out, for your child's sake.

[Anonymous]

I'm ok with plastic, but I don't buy many battery-operated toys. I like how my daughter uses her imagination more with old-school toys. Also, I'm incredibly lazy about replacing batteries, so eventually any battery-operated toy will end up as an old-school one. I'm glad I have a daughter and not a son - less pressure to buy a video game console.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you for the well-thought out replies, I appreciate them, and they make a lot of sense. Now I have a follow up question: does your daycare also just use wooden/woolen toys? Or is it the kind of thing where when the kids are in an environment you can't really control, you don't worry about it? Or do some of you stay home? I ask because I appreciate your answers, and would think about putting away some of the more obnoxious toys, but I know in her daycare there are plenty of plastic toys (not necessarily ones that run on batteries, though). Thoughts on that?

Thanks again for non-snark (for the most part!)

OP, i have the same question. I know there are preschools (Waldorf and some Montessorri) who don't use plastic or battery toys, but I am not sure about daycares. Right now I have a nanny but eventually DD will go to daycare and I need to find one that shares my philosophies on imaginative play

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you for the well-thought out replies, I appreciate them, and they make a lot of sense. Now I have a follow up question: does your daycare also just use wooden/woolen toys? Or is it the kind of thing where when the kids are in an environment you can't really control, you don't worry about it? Or do some of you stay home? I ask because I appreciate your answers, and would think about putting away some of the more obnoxious toys, but I know in her daycare there are plenty of plastic toys (not necessarily ones that run on batteries, though). Thoughts on that?

Thanks again for non-snark (for the most part!)

Dear OP, don't obsess about it and live your life and raise your kids. This is just one of the examples of paranoid parenting in the world where people apparently have nothing else to worry about. Unless you put your kid in a bubble, and there are some crazies who sort of attempt to do that, your kid will be exposed to his/her fair share of noisy plastic toys, TV time and videogames. This is just the times we live in.

Most of the obsessive parents of today forget that the world we grew up in when we were kids in the 80s or so has changed greatly. Different skills are now required to succeed and to navigate in the world that is inherently so much more complex, more choices, more decisions, and much more orientation on being able to navigate in the virtual world. Why look at the games of today as negatives because they have *buttons* that do things and make noises. Is not figuring out what buttons do and understanding cause and effect a valuable skill? These days a lot of stuff is virtual entertainment, this is just the way it is and it is not likely to change, we adults, get sucked into this world ourselves. Screen time and technically enhanced toys are not going to go anywhere, sorry. You can shield your kid from them up to a certain age, but it won’t last long.

A lot of what your kid will become has to do with genetics, A LOT. If you are creative or have high IQ or bossy or intense or easy-going and mellow, chances are your kid will be getting a lot of this no matter what you do. Sorry to put it bluntly, but if you are a dumbass, your kid most likely will be one too, same goes for someone with the genius IQ, no matter how much you over-obsess about their toys, education, etc. This is a general rule I observe in our family and among friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where did the philosophy active toys = passive child and vice versa come from? And honestly I dont care because its ridiculous.

Damn I grew up obviously living in hell since my mom gave up microwave dinners, we watched TV, had loud noisy toys, plastic etc. Where are all these insane standards coming from? Why cant a kid be a kid wihtout parents agonizing over every damn thing?

There's really no agonizing involved. I just don't buy my kid toys that aren't good for open-ended play. It's a waste of money. As he's gotten older he's gotten more plastic toys and watches more television, but he's great at playing. I like toys myself and when I look at a toy I think about what I would like to do with it. If all I can do with it is push a few buttons and listen to the same electronic noises over and over, it just doesn't seem very fun.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thank you for the well-thought out replies, I appreciate them, and they make a lot of sense. Now I have a follow up question: does your daycare also just use wooden/woolen toys? Or is it the kind of thing where when the kids are in an environment you can't really control, you don't worry about it? Or do some of you stay home? I ask because I appreciate your answers, and would think about putting away some of the more obnoxious toys, but I know in her daycare there are plenty of plastic toys (not necessarily ones that run on batteries, though). Thoughts on that?

We moved from a playbased daycare into a Montessori school with berfore and aftercare when DD was 3. This was one of the differences that we really liked about Montessori. The daycare was very cluttered with tons of plastic toys, character stuff stacked on shelves floor to ceiling. The whole atmosphere in the 2s and 3 s room was very chaotic and always a mess. In contrast the Montessori rooms were so nice. There was tons of natural light, all the materials had a nice place on shelves that were all at kid height, everything was accesible to the kids, and it was just a nicer to place be. They did have some plastic toys that they would pull out for aftercare but it was far different than the daycare. They had a basket of plastic animals, a basket of magnatiles, a basket of cars, a basket if legos etc. The kids could paint or do art stuff at the tables. The kids would play together in small groups with the toys and were expected to put them away before jumping into something else. In contrast at the daycare there are sections with all the toys scattered about and the space was small so thay all ran together.

[Anonymous]

kids who don't use electronics will be behind since all manual forms of learning are going away, ex. FCPS is getting rid of texbox in favor of ebooks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, thank you for the well-thought out replies, I appreciate them, and they make a lot of sense. Now I have a follow up question: does your daycare also just use wooden/woolen toys? Or is it the kind of thing where when the kids are in an environment you can't really control, you don't worry about it? Or do some of you stay home? I ask because I appreciate your answers, and would think about putting away some of the more obnoxious toys, but I know in her daycare there are plenty of plastic toys (not necessarily ones that run on batteries, though). Thoughts on that?

Thanks again for non-snark (for the most part!)

OP, i have the same question. I know there are preschools (Waldorf and some Montessorri) who don't use plastic or battery toys, but I am not sure about daycares. Right now I have a nanny but eventually DD will go to daycare and I need to find one that shares my philosophies on imaginative play

Are you yourself imaginative? Because if you are not, chances are your kid is not likely to be the creative type either. If you are then dont' worry about it, your kid will catch up. My family happens to be the creative types and I inherited this myself. DS also inherited this most likely as he always engages in role play nad uses toys in non-conventiaonal ways, and our house is full of plastic and battery operated toys. DS plays with them and gets bored and uses them as props in other more impaginative play. No big deal. Creativity and imagination especially to a large degree usually is genetic. On another note, this isn't the quality that necessarily will make you successful or even happy, plenty of people who are not creative and imaginative live fullfilled lives, are happy and quite successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:kids who don't use electronics will be behind since all manual forms of learning are going away, ex. FCPS is getting rid of texbox in favor of ebooks

What a persuasive spokesperson you are for this argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:kids who don't use electronics will be behind since all manual forms of learning are going away, ex. FCPS is getting rid of texbox in favor of ebooks

Is this supposed to be a joke?

[Anonymous]

OP, you will have eventually your fair share of these toys, you will get gifts and if you tell people what not to give you they will think you are nuts and rude. Just take the batteries out if this bothers you.

Not all battery operated toys are passive either, some teach things, even the ones that play music only can be used for creative play. My son dances when he hears the music, he loves it, music of all kinds, no matter where it comes from. So, he presses the buttons on some toys he learned the music he likes and dances. He uses this to his advantage, he is not just sitting there staring at it mesmerized.

Kids learn their way to play with toys and how says plastic toys cannot be used for imaginative play. Kids are kids, they are different from adults. All these obsessive moms try to measure the kids with the adult stick. Ladies, what is interesting to you may not be interesting to your kid and if you find something boring, your kid may think otherwise.

[Anonymous]

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/886880-312/turning_the_page_forget_about.html.csp

[Anonymous]

kids who don't use electronics will be behind since all manual forms of learning are going away, ex. FCPS is getting rid of texbox in favor of ebooks

..so just get them a kindle and teach them some programming when they hit elementary school. I haven't see too many Winnie the Pooh electronic button books or push the button to hear a honk and see a red light tools in any a workplace or university lately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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. I also hate the annoying sounds of battery operated toys myself. I also think it stunts the imagination.

Woah. Clearly you have a single female child, and probably a pretty young one at that. At least now we know who we are arguing with.

As a mom of two boys, I have to tell you that your ENTIRE PHILOSOPHY would go against their natural instincts. I've only rarely seen my 2 and 4 year old boys "play calmly with no loud noises or distracting movements." And that is even with our limitation on toys with batteries. My goodness, their favorite game in the world is to basically chase each other through the house yelling "aaaaaahhhhh!" Then the chaser becomes the chasee and they turn around and retrace their path.

HATE when people say stuff like this. My daughters love to run and are just as rambunctious. Stop stereotyping.

[Anonymous]

Just because you expose your child to a plastic or battery-operated toy doesn't mean he's going to lose all sense of imagination. He will play with that toy however he chooses, guided by his imagination and possibly not in the way the manufacturers intended the toy to be played. Think about some of the coolest toys you had growing up... weren't many of them plastic? Who loved the Easy Bake Oven or Barbie Fashion Plates?