Comments on: Kicking the Toy Addiction

By: Shannon

Shannon — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:49:29 +0000

On the grandparent issue, we and the kids ask the grandparents to give lessons or activities instead of toys. We aren’t able to afford gymnastics, karate, ballet or the like on our own, so it really is a wonderful gift that the children are truly grateful for.

By: mumspk

mumspk — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:43:56 +0000

Toy gluttony I call it! We’ve had some success with the grandparents overseas. Instead of them asking me to purchase pressies for the kids’ birthdays and Christmas. They pay for the kids’ recreational activities… soccer, gym, swimming. Next year we might try art, dance and karate as well. It’s great and the kids really benefit.

By: Tammy

Tammy — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:24:39 +0000

All these ideas are wonderful and I totally commend these Parents and Children on their will power, but I have an only Child. It’s very difficult not to give my Daughter every toy she wants, or toys that my Husband or I would have loved as children. Of course we do have control over ourselves and do think long and hard on the merits of every toy we buy, it is still difficult.
Now that she is 3, our Daughter is more fixated on certain series, such trains, or a type of doll, or figure, so most of the toys we have been buying lately are just a small addition or accessory in a particular collection.
Thankfully, we don’t have “problems” with Grandparents and gifts. My Parents give books and put money in a college fund and my Husband’s Parents give her money, which of course gets put away for her. Neither one of us has any close “gifting” relatives.
As far as toy departments go, I normally let her hold what she wants while we are in the store and she is so very good about saying “all done” before we leave and we put it back, so an unplanned toy purchase is quite rare.
As far as giving toys away, I just don’t have the heart to do it yet. I haven’t even started to put the baby toys away, cause my Daughter will go back to them every once in a while. But some day they will get packed away, in hopes that when she grows up, she will want her own children to play with them.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:54:01 +0000

I have 3 children ages 7, 8, and 14. We do not have cable or satilite. All we have is network TV. It is all available in our area we just make the choice not to have it. The kids watch plenty of TV but it is DVD’s and Netflix. This way we know what the kids are watching. Because of this, they are not exposed to marketing geared toward kids. It is interesting because at Christmas and birthdays, the kids don’t have a long list of what they want because they arn’t exposed to all the marketing. My 7 year old sons favorite toy is palletts. He builds forts and houses and all sorts of things with them!!

By: Ellen C. Braun

Ellen C. Braun — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:03:09 +0000

Annie, I really appreciate your comment.

When I think back to my childhood, it’s the experiences, trips, and events that stand out as wonderful memories.

The few toys and games that stick in my mind were those that I used to expand my skills, like my weaving loom and crocheting kits.

By: Jean

Jean — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:13:56 +0000

We have decided that at Christmas time, our son, age 4, gets three gifts from us just like baby Jesus received from the wisemen. We buy him a book, a sweater, and a piece of fancy chocolate. We don’t control what the grandparents and aunts and uncles buy him, but from us, we try to help him remember the reason for the season.

By: uggbootdiva

uggbootdiva — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:46:23 +0000

I think the two need to be separated – clutter vs toys.
They are two very different issues. Just because the room is uncluttered doesn’t mean your children have the “right” attitude to toys or vice versa. I suppose less clutter is just a very big plus if you like a neat house (I do!)

Certainly rotating toys is a fantastic idea, I’ve found even occasionally moving furniture around in their bedroom creates squeals of “thanks for my new room mum!” (they are only 4 and 8 after all)

However not letting catalogues get into our house goes a l-o-o-ong way to removing desires for things, we don’t watch commercial TV, we talk about what advertising is and does ie. creates a desire for something you don’t need. Those “collect them all” ads for little pet shop etc, we talk about that you only have two hands, and what would you do with them all anyway? educating about plastic and effect on climate change etc.

But, yeah my kids get toys and it’s very hard for them to let go. It’s much better to just remove them without them knowing about them at this stage, if I don’t want floods of tears. Not happy with the ethics and teaching opportunities of that method, but I’ve got to pick my battles! plus they like their clean rooms. Love all your ideas, it’s so helpful.

By: Annie

Annie — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 04:30:49 +0000

When my kids were little it made me sad that even though we lived near a major tourist destination, our family seldom experienced the theme parks and attractions because they were simply too pricey. Every now and then when we managed to get discounted tickets to something the kids always had a BLAST. It was SO frustrating that Nana would spend a small fortune each year on plastic stuff that would get stepped on, broken, left outside, and just basically not appreciated becasue the kids already had too much. I tried to no avail for years to gently convice her that the kids would value an EXPERIENCE more than toys but she never really got it. The only reason I post this is because if you’re looking for a great gift (grandparent or not) for a family that doesn’t have a lot of money, please consider providing funds an experience or outing that will create a lifelong memory for the kids….a camping trip, horseback riding adventure, theme park or water park tickets, zoo, science center, or planetarium pass, family themed dinner show, etc. The kids will know it was from you and appreciate it…honest. They will have the pictures and the memories WAY longer than they would have some plastic toy. Even better, come along on the outing and make some memories WITH your grandkids. They value time with you more than stuff from you anyday.

By: geethanjali

geethanjali — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:44:14 +0000

My sentiments exactly. Toys were made for exciting childrens minds… stage for everything in life . A little bit of everything is a balanced approach….my younger kids are 8 and 6. I now buy toys when they receive 5 A grades. Its an incentive to maintain there grades and a wonderful and irreplaceable feeling of having ‘earned’ the toy.

By: Breaking the Toy Addiction: How Do You Deal with Toy Overload? | EmpoweringParents.com

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:13:13 +0000

[...] at “Raising Small Souls”, Ellen Braun blogs about this, as well as John Rosemond’s Parenting by the Book. I liked some [...]

By: Ali

Ali — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:02:30 +0000

Our son is only 7mo, so it’s easy to refrain from buying toys right now. He is just as happy playing with (or sucking on) the same toy all day long. And we have decided not to buy him anything for Christmas. We’d like to get him a keepsake ornament or something like that, but he absolutely does not need any toys.
But in two or three years, I might be singing a different tune. I would love to think that we will have a relatively excess-free house, but only time will tell.
Wish me luck!

By: Ms. H.

Ms. H. — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:37:20 +0000

We have a household of three kids each with a large collection of toys. This year when my daughter turned 10 and my son turned 8 we talked about what they wanted for their birthdays. They both had large ticket price items on their list. We talked about how reasonable it was to expect those presents from birthday guests. We reviewed some of the presents they received the previous year. They realized they received a lot of presents, most of which we no longer played with or were broken. They agreed that they did not need any more of these presents so for their birthdays we asked their friends to not buy a present. If a “gift” was to be given, they would accept a donation to a charity (they choose “Me to We” which was charity their school supported). Together they gave $360 to the charity and felt very proud of themselves (as I did of them). Of course, I have not had this much luck with the youngest but 2 out of three is okay for now.

By: karen

karen — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:29:20 +0000

Great article. At one point in our home toys seems to mutiply, and my children were overwhelmed with clean up time. So, we bagged up most all of the kids toys keeping only 3 per child out. The bags were in storage for 4 months!
Our children never missed them, and were out the door to play a lot more often. We have not looked back and love it. To help grandpaernts and other family members were ask for Zoo passes, movie tickets/rentals ect. for bithday and Christmas. One grandpaents gives small gifts and then pruchases CDs or stocks for the kids

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:25:19 +0000

It can be very hard to decide what is going to end up as junk. We have shelves full of untouched books because of my perception that books don’t count as junk and therefore don’t need to be restricted (despite an easily accessed public library system), ditto art materials. Yet the action figures and craze items that my children sometimes do indeed seem addicted to acquiring more and more of – they are constantly played with in imaginative ways. My children are not me and don’t have all the same tastes and interests that I did (alas!)

I also have a nasty suspicion that in these days of ‘anti-clutter’ computer games and DVDs are popular for taking up less room and being easily tidied.

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:47:42 +0000

Some toys really are junk, but others are very educational. My sons have a bunch of Constux sets, which I bought on ebay, it was a great Fisher Price building toy in the 80′s that was discontinued- I used to love it when I was a kid! Building toys really stretch their imagination, they build rockets, triple-decker buses and create elaborite stories around their vehicles! However, if I’m going to be honest, over 50% of the stuff in our playroom is simply junk. Great article.

By: Ana

Ana — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:08:41 +0000

My whole family is guilty of buying toys for the kids. We just didn’t have much as kids and we love the toys as much as the kids do. I have the smallest house and it has become a clutter problem. My children and I have decided that it’s ok to put the toys in totes in the garage and they can still keep them. My 12 year old likes computers now and that’s his hobby. The 5 year old still loves his toys and he especially LOVES his older brother’s toys that we find in totes in the garage. I go through totes once in a while and throw away broken treasures and organized sets of things. It’s not the toys that are important. I think it’s the sentiments connected to them that need to be respected. Clutter’s still a problem…..Just not the main battle I choose to fight right now in our lives. They will grow up and move away someday. The fingerprints will be washed away and baby teeth will be replaced by adult teeth. Youthful innocence will be replaced with adult concerns. I like the toys.

By: Stacie

Stacie — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:28:32 +0000

I love these ideas, Our daughter is almost 4 and she is already starting to ask for stuff each time we go into a store. I need to nip this now or it will be really bad when she’s older.

By: Angela

Angela — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:48:41 +0000

This is such a common problem among so many and we are just as guilty as the next family! My boys are 13, 11 and 8. In an effort to reduce the amount of “things” and increase our quality and educational time together, we are trying hard to look more toward expereince gifts. Last year, an over-indulgent grandparent was thrilled to give our boys a annual aquarium membership. The kids have loved going more regularly and we have loved the time together. Another idea is gift cards to the movies (such an expensive family outing…). We have also started donating to a favorite charity in the kids’ names and given a related gift. For instance, a sports enthusiast last year received a biography of a favorite basketball coach and a gift was made in his name to that coach’s foundation. Grandparents on the other side have given trips with them (priceless multi-generational family time) and gift certificates to summer camps in an area of interest to the child. We also are sure to donate time each year to our local toy workshop cleaning and sorting toys. Really puts things in perspective! we have done this since our children were in pre-school. I love looking for creative ways to look beyond toys and look forward to reading others’ ideas!

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:44:10 +0000

This is terrific!!! I feel sorry for all those who left this newsletter because they could not stand reading an opposing opinion! Go Ellen!

By: Sheryl D.

Sheryl D. — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:29:44 +0000

I am so guilty of buying the kids toys that clutter up our house, and after that initial new-toy-thrill wears off, my kids complain that they are bored. I really LOVE the advice about books and hobbies, and I am going to offer my 2 girls a choice of hobbies for the holidays this year- that is so much more educational than new games! Thank you for this! Warm regards, Sheryl