Tuesday, 30 September 2008

Toys

In the various bag loads of baby clothes and other items we have recived from friends, there was a bag of toys. Items of bright colours and plastic that make noises at the slightest provication. We are trying to avoid plastic - the research on it tells us to - yet surrounded by this multi-coloured junk i cant help but think we are depriving our child. What toys should we have is the question? Does our child need these brillently colour monstroserties? IT was the biggest argument the long suffering wife and i have had in a long time - i felt that to just hand them on - free cycle them - was a bit much. It felt cruel to decide that no these are not the toys that our baby will have. I am lost folks...HELP!

Yours as ever

Surronded in plastic,

The Broken Man
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15 comments:

MotherT said...

I know what all of the research says about plastic toys. I know that you want the BEST for your little one. My opinion, as a Mom and Grandmother---keep about 5 or 6 brightly colored plastic toys. They are soft, light weight, and easily held by little fingers. AND you can immerse them in boiling water for a few seconds to sterilize them as needed.

30 September 2008 at 22:10
Laura ~Peach~ said...

or you can put them in diluted bleach water to clean them too... My kids and myself too grew up with plastic toys and we lived ... of course I grew up in the era of lead based paints and everything else thats supposed to be so bad for us... I was so thrilled to find at a yard sale things I had enjoyed playing with as a kid for my kids and I am sure when this grand baby comes I will be finding it some retro toys too and all will be well... but each parent has to pick and choose what they feel is best for their child... however none of it is worth fighting with your better half over :D as always my 0.02 cents worth
Hugs Laura

30 September 2008 at 22:20
MaBunny said...

Yeah, I say keep them, but keep them cleaned. They are easier to clean after the baby upchucks on them then a stuffed toy and the bright colors usually fascinate.
If you don't want the baby chewing on a teether ring when the time comes, consider a frozen waffle - already has built in drool cups;)

30 September 2008 at 22:50
Anonymous said...

I'm curious about the "sex toys" tag on this entry.. :)

1 October 2008 at 14:44
August said...

I wouldn't have even noticed that tag if Sophie hadn't said anything. Hilarious!

If I were in your shoes, I'd probably give the lot of them away to Goodwill or a charity and keep a couple if I particularly liked them. We're planning on having mostly wooden and fabric toys for our littlies. Ideally, I'd like to be able to make most of them myself instead of buying them, but of course if that's the case, then I should get started now.

1 October 2008 at 15:55
Anonymous said...

The Montessori approach is that too much variation is overly stimulating and detrimental to learning - so shape sorters should have different shapes but all the same size and colour, stacks of different sized bricks should be the same shape and colour etc. However not sure how this applies to babies. I know plain black and white is meant to hold their attention the longest, and it did with mine (stripey t-shirts for Dad work well!). My daughter had wood and fabric only, and was quite happy with it. My son from 3 months on wanted to chew, and wanted plastic! Stacking cups and Duplo were favourites, and are both washable and very open-ended as the children get older.

For th e first few months your baby won't do much more with toys than stare at a mobile and bat the occasional hanging toy. You will be given more soft toys than anyone could need, and your baby will show you what he/she wants to play with. They wil see alternative toys at friends' houses and/or mother and baby groups anyway so are hardly going to be deprived!
Just my 2cents, as a mother of a 3 year old and 1 year old.

1 October 2008 at 16:13
Anonymous said...

Keep some, not all, and just clean them. I know it's hard not to imagine giving baby a perfect world, a bubble with only perfect things, but don't buy the lie. Parenthood is loud, messy, chaotic, Filled With Plastic, and absofreakinlutely Wonderful. It may not be everything you've been expecting, but I can tell you it will surpass your expectations. And didn't you know? Hell hath no furry like a pregnant Mama. Let her Have Plastic. :o) Blessings, Whitney

2 October 2008 at 06:20
Gill said...

My 3 have had, wooden toys, plastic toys, metal toys and cardboard boxes!! All have been loved, all played with and all provided stimulation, fun and entertainment.
But any toy is just a toy for me. We are given so much info on what is right, wrong good or bad for us that soon we will all be in strile white rooms with nothing to do ut twiddle our thumbs (after de contaminating them).
What happens when baby is 5 or 6 and gets a gift from a friend that is plastic? allow baby to accept it and not play with it? Politely refuse it, possibly causing offence?
Allow everything in MODERATION. Thats my advice ;)
But remember you guys are the Mummy and Daddy it's your train set!!

2 October 2008 at 07:50
Doorman-Priest said...

I predict your house will be full of primary coloured plastic before you can say "birth weight"!

2 October 2008 at 08:06
arwen_tiw said...

Jenna had all the plastic garish junk. Morgan we got rid of the plastic and got a wooden rattle and made some soft toys.

None of the above have been played with until stacking bricks and dolls starting holding interest at about 9 months.

Have you thought about a treasure basket yet? :)

2 October 2008 at 15:36
arwen_tiw said...

Oh and btw I think modern plastics only leach pthalates (etc) for about the first year of their life. So if you're going to have anything plastic, choose things that are up to current regulations but second hand.

2 October 2008 at 15:40
Vixbil said...

I understand where you are coming from and for the first few months you are not really going to need anything.....once toys are being played with you probably won't care what they are made of as long as your babe is happy and stimulated. The baby is bound to latch onto your least fav one too
xx

3 October 2008 at 11:10
The Broken Man said...

Thanks for all of your comments - and apologies for the slight error with the tags - it seems that if you use a word that has been used before, blogger randomly decides what you want say. Rest assured that we will not be offering our baby sex toys to play with!

We have pretty much decided to pass on most of the plastic toys, and stick to woodern and fabric things which require imagination rather than pushing a button. (we are very short of space too!)Hopefully, as it won't need much for the first few months, we will be able build up a collection slowly.

The Broken Man

3 October 2008 at 11:40
The Broken Man said...

Arwen - can you remind me what a treasure basket is?

The Broken Man

3 October 2008 at 11:40
arwen_tiw said...

http://www.contentedchild.co.uk/thecontentedchildbasket.htm

We found medium-sized wicker baskets in woolworths, and got those with canvas liners as easier to keep clean lol. We made or found almost everything in ours too, no buying of starter kits for us. ;)

3 October 2008 at 15:39

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