What Would Grandma’s Kids Play With?
It is obvious what my kids play with - a mountain of plastic. Actually, it is obvious what my kids think they want to play with because they do not play with most of the toys you see in the picture. Right next to this mountain is a ”camper” my boys built out of blankets and chairs which they prefer. This picture only represents one third of the toys in my house. Toys seem to have a life of their own. It is like they multiply when I am sleeping.
Unfortunately, most of the toys in my home will go the way of the landfill. Plastic cracks and breaks and cannot be repaired. Toys from my grandparents’ generation were most often made of metal and wood. Metal and wood dent but rarely do they crack. My grandparents did not buy plastic toys for their kids and they turned out just fine - some would argue better because they more readily engaged their imaginations.
This is one of the primary reasons I decided to start My Grandma Was Green. I realized if my grandparents could teach me a thing or two about living without plastic products - toys included - they could probably teach me about other issues related to sustainability and simplicity.
With that said, I know plastic has brought me a lot of benefits. However, I want to reduce its presence in my life and use it when I really need it - like when I had emergency surgery a couple of years ago. There was a lot of plastic involved and it may have literally saved my life. That may sound a bit dramatic but I think it represents how difficult it is to sort through these issues. There are no easy answers, but I think there are better answers. I know I can learn a lot from my grandparents as I go looking for those answers.
What Would Grandma’s Kids Play With? This is a picture of a toy made by a distant relative from my grandparents’ generation. It is a wooden board with a series of metal hooks. To play the game you had to try to toss the paper rings onto the hooks. Each hook represented a different amount of points. Apparently it occupied kids for hours. My kids would probably enjoy it today.
Imagination is the best gift we can give our kids.. A cardboard box, sticks and a yard! Enjoy!
I see you’ve also got the plastic bins to keep all the plastic toys in. I won’t tell you how many of those bins I have in the basement.
I think my girls may finally be getting to the age where they’d rather get one or two birthday/Christmas presents they really like rather than a dozen variations on the same cheap junk. Or maybe it’s just that all the people buying for them are starting to believe it. Either way, it looks like the quality may be going up and the quantity going down. Here’s hoping.
We continuously struggle with the plastic in our house. Besides the non-biodegradablity (what? that’s not a word?), plastic can be toxic to small children.
Most of our plastic toys came as gifts, which are hard to refuse. Since moving to a smaller place, though, our family and friends understand more that we don’t have space for many toys. The vast majority of our kids’ toys fill baskets that take up four bookshelves. Our daughter also has a very small wooden play kitchen and a wooden dollhouse.
When we moved, we donated almost all of the plastic toys we owned. Our kids never noticed. I recently heard a someone who chose their child’s Christmas gifts this way: Something you want, something you need, something to play with, something to read. I think we’re going to try this this year to avoid going overboard with gifts and to help us think about why we’re buying what we’re buying.
We try to ask people to buy our kids books or art supplies, but it is hard to ask them to avoid plastic because it is, unfortunately, actually difficult to find children’s toys that don’t contain plastic.
Reading, skating, riding bikes, walks, learning skills - carpentry, plumbing, mechanic, for the boys, girls - cooking and sewing - housekeeping chores.
Jump ropes, baseball, basketball, building with real wood and nails (treehouse anyone?), fishing, nature walks…
I won’t deny the massive quantity of toys in our house, but I will say that my kids love to bike rides and are up for family hikes. They also play with the dog and the neighbor children a lot. Sometimes I can’t figure out what they are playing…there aren’t any toys involved!
I haven’t given up plastic toys for the boys - we’d have to give up Legos then! But I can say that I am much much more deliberate about what they get, and what they give to friends for gifts. One of the best reactions we go from a b-day party was when my son gave a friend a small telescope set for a gift. The birthday boy, his parents, and the guests all gave words of appreciation. I was a little surprised b/c whereas my son and I thought it was cool, I didn’t know if our ideas of cool would fit into the masses. Just goes to show something that isn’t necessarily a ‘toy’ can be fun too.
I guess the point of that plastic filled paragraph is: toys are not always fun, and fun is not always a toy.