Are children given too many toys?

[klr]

Retailers are starting to gear up to sell the latest generation of Christmas toys, but some campaigners are advocating a change in attitude. Do some Western children have too many toys, asks Joanne Furniss.

I stood in the playroom holding an empty suitcase. We were emigrating and could only pack a few toys to keep us going until the rest arrived by ship months later.

In went the Story Cubes - ingenious picture dice that inspire stories, drawings or full-scale theatrical productions. Both kids are "crafty", so in go pom-poms, pipe cleaners and paper punches. Next, a kingdom of animal figurines marches two-by-two into the case.

I subject the rest to an eligibility test before I transport them half way round the world from Switzerland to Singapore - has either child shown the slightest interest in the toy in the past month?

An ancient game of Pass the Pigs passes muster. A bucket of unisex Duplo and then, after a tantrum, a second bucket of pink Duplo. At the last minute, I spot a "snakes and ladders" game that my son enjoys (provided he gets to take all the turns).

But the rest has not been touched in a month - and the shelves are still packed with dolls and jigsaws and trains and kazoos and knitted muffins and the emergency vehicles of several nations and enough wooden blocks to build a bridge to Singapore.

So why do we have so many toys?

Psychologist Oliver James, author of the parenting book Love Bombing, believes children don't "need" a vast panoply of toys.

"Most children need a transition object," said James, "their first teddy bear that they take everywhere. But everything else is a socially generated want."

It seems we are keen to generate our children's wants - the Toy Retailers Association reports that the British alone spend £3bn each year on toys.
...

continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24759728

FWIW - and seeing my own nieces and nephews in particular - I would say " definitely yes". One of the reasons is very aggressive strategies by toy companies to produce, market and sell new lines of toys that kids don't really need, but make a lot of money.

[Clinton Huxley]

I think they probably do get too much. It is a conundrum we have every year with the MHs. Myself and Lady H believe they should be happy with some books (one can never have too many) and maybe a nice selection of jigsaws. Advertising seeks to convince everyone that unless an ipad mini is sat under the tree, you should call Childline. Yet, all the surveys show that all kids really want is.....more time with their parents.

[klr]

I think they probably do get too much. It is a conundrum we have every year with the MHs. Myself and Lady H believe they should be happy with some books (one can never have too many) and maybe a nice selection of jigsaws. Advertising seeks to convince everyone that unless an ipad mini is sat under the tree, you should call Childline. Yet, all the surveys show that all kids really want is.....more time with their parents.

Absolutely. They want to play - but with their parents.

I am agog at pace at which (say) new ranges specialised of Lego comes out, but which adds very little value in terms of encouraging creativity, which is what Lego should be all about. It seems to be about encouraging kids to build up collections at considerable expense, but which the kids never really do much with. I've seen the same with other toys. Movie tie-ins are of course another key strategy.

On tablets: None of my brothers' kids have them yet, but they sure as hell know how to operate a tablet or smart phone, to view videos, play games, etc. But the implications of that would probably be worth a completely separate discussion.

[Clinton Huxley]

Lego disappoints me. I remember getting a box of generic Lego one Xmas, I played with it all day, making a motorised tank. Now each pack has too many specialised pieces that can only be put together in a small number of ways.

If you bought a kid an Airfix kit these days, they'd lob it in the bin in total confusion.

[klr]

Lego disappoints me. I remember getting a box of generic Lego one Xmas, I played with it all day, making a motorised tank. Now each pack has too many specialised pieces that can only be put together in a small number of ways.

Not only is a lot of that Lego specialised, it tends to be very expensive. You can still get generic boxes/tubs, which are very good value.

If you bought a kid an Airfix kit these days, they'd lob it in the bin in total confusion.

A 5-year old nephew of mine (who is totally spoiled with toys IMHO), has shown considerable fascination with some of the kits that I've bought, even though they are obviously a couple of orders of magnitude too difficult for him, and will be for years to come. Whether he actually ever builds any kits remains to be seen. A generation ago, most boys built a few kits, but not now. A good friend of mine tried to get his eldest boy interested, but that didn't take. Many traditional toys just can't complete with computer games, the internet, and so forth.

[Clinton Huxley]

Airfix teaches you patience and motor skills and......slowness. Slowness is under-appreciated.

[klr]

Airfix teaches you patience and motor skills and......slowness. Slowness is under-appreciated.

Building kits teaches you monumental patience, if you stick with the hobby. Perhaps it might have helped to stop me flying off the handle big-time at work.

But that day will come.

[Clinton Huxley]

I really can't imagine you going postal, old chap.

[klr]

I really can't imagine you going postal, old chap.

Oddly enough, that view would probably be shared by the overwhelming majority of people who know me, real world or virtual*. But I assure you, it its very, very possible. It would be done my way though. Much venom, but probably not too much screaming or bad language. Malcolm Tucker I'm not.

Wait, what has this got to do with Lego?

[Clinton Huxley]

This is the "KLR exorcises his demons thread" now.....

But re Airfix, I remember doing things to a Lancaster kit in the 80s that would make you faint. Man, I was rubbish at Airfix.

[klr]

This is the "KLR exorcises his demons thread" now.....

But re Airfix, I remember doing things to a Lancaster kit in the 80s that would make you faint. Man, I was rubbish at Airfix.

So was I for years TBH. I'm still a plodder in many ways. But even so, you are likely to see some pics of newly finished kits real soon ...

I built a Lancaster kit in the 80s that was absolute crap - an old Revell kit, not the good Airfix kit of the time. But you should see their Lancaster kits now though ...

[Clinton Huxley]

It's the kind of thing I think I should do to relax but i know I would just get infuriated if I couldn't get some fiddly piece to fit. Counter productive.

[klr]

It's the kind of thing I think I should do to relax but i know I would just get infuriated if I couldn't get some fiddly piece to fit. Counter productive.

Getting parts to fit is much less of a problem nowadays, as the kits tend to be very well engineered. But the mass of parts does make for some fiddly situations. The two things that really get me are the painting and the decals. I spent a couple of hours last Sunday evening applying about 60 decals to a Spitfire. I have a rule of thumb that says it takes two minutes to apply a decal. Some decal sheets - especially for modern jets - are truly frightening.

[Clinton Huxley]

My Lancaster was a foot long mass of black plastic covered in lumps of glue. I still hung it from the ceiling by a string, mind. One of my grandpas was a Lancaster bomb-aimer.

[JimC]

When Nick got a bit older, wood-working tools, powered or otherwise, were the go...

These days, wine for David, money for Nick...