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Taking Sides: Kid Stuff: Toy culture is out of control

By: Mark Kennedy
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By: Karen Nazor Hill
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Mark Kennedy: Toys are taking over our house, and I don’t know how to stop it. We don’t buy our sons, ages 6 and 1, frivolous toys, but somehow they sneak into our house anyway. My 6-year-old was playing with a new toy the other day — a basketball goal that you wear on your head — and my first thought was: “How do I get this thing in the trash?” I think it was a prize he won at school, but it’s typical of the kind of junk toys with 30-minute life spans that seem to make their way into our home. With birthday parties, grandparents and McDonalds all conspiring to add to this avalanche, what is a parent to do, Karen?

Karen Nazor Hill: I’m in the same boat, Mark. Though my 20-month-old grandchild and her parents live next door, my house looks like Toys-R-Us. But it’s my fault. My daughter and I have gotten in the habit of going to garage sales and buying everything under $5. It’s ridiculous. I didn’t do this with my own children, so why am I doing it with my granddaughter? And, then you’ve got your doting relatives who pick up little toys for your child (grandchild) — such as the wear-on-your-head basketball goal — every time they go shopping, and before long, your home is overtaken by toys. Enough is enough.

Mark: Just this weekend alone, I cleaned “Slime” — a toy? — off the leather furniture, Play Dough off the carpet, and I picked up enough toys in the living room of our house to fill a half-ton pickup truck.

My sons both have birthdays in late October, and I’m thinking of celebrating their birthdays with a big toy bonfire, which might at least make room for the new junk.

On the bright side, our 6-year-old doesn’t have a video game console, so he needs a few more toys, I suppose, to keep himself entertained. I’d much rather see him have a toy habit, than a video (or television) addiction. Actually, he’d rather be playing sports than anything else — which is good.

Karen: You are exactly right. My four children loved sports more than any toys they ever owned. What we parents/grandparents need to do is weed out the toys every month and take ones they don’t play with to charitable resale shops. If the resale shop won’t take the toys, then recycle. I am guilty of buying my granddaughter too much, and if I don’t stop now, she’ll grow to expect it. Meanwhile, we’ll keep up our routine of going outside every day to pick raspberries, feed the fish in our pond and watch the birds and squirrels — things to do that you can’t buy in a toy store.

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