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.