Toy Boxes Overflow as Playgrounds and Wallets Empty
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY on 08.20.07
If you live in the U.S. and have a life experience similar to mine, you’ve probably spent at least a bit of time in a house or two where the children’s toys have literally taken over the entire place.
Overflowing from the toy chest out onto the floor long before the first child ever reached the ripe old age of one, and subsequently sprawling out to every nook and cranny of the home in a tremendous avalanche of toy products, which have often been marketed with the “education” of those who play with them featured prominently on the box.
Of course, that doesn’t keep them from being thrown in a heap with the rest of the stuff, waiting the liberation of the next yard sale or trip to the local charity for donation. And as grandparents, close family, friends, and assorted relations continually bring over heaping mounds of new ones to engage and entertain the youngsters for various holidays, Howard Chudacoff’s new book Children at Play: An American History makes some interesting assertions.
His central thesis is that “Kids should have their own world, and parents are nuisances,” but he takes the time to quote a portion of another book which indicates that you can literally divide the history of play in America into two eras, “before” and “after” Mattel’s decision in 1955 to advertise toys directly to children on national television 52 weeks a year by sponsoring The Mickey Mouse Club.
That led to all kinds of changes, not the least of which that the act of play itself was transformed from traditional forms like going outside and running around, or using your imagination to create toys from sticks while playing in places like playgrounds, to playing with pre-packaged, pre-planned toys that come equipped with a history and a mode of play already pre-destined indoors. And that, I think, has significant implications for the natural environment as well.
As the ever growing mound of new toys no one will ever really use takes over the home we are, of course, certainly not helping them to appreciate what they already have, or understand the fact that it actually takes energy and raw materials to produce them, or that it helps to contribute to global warming and resource depletion of the natural kind while we deplete our financial resources ensuring that they’ve got a shiny new toy “this week” in the process either.
I’m also willing to bet that there are more than a few children out there with little in their college savings account, but with thousands of dollars of unused toys just laying around on the floor as well.
In the interests of full disclosure, and with a significant number of nephews, one niece, some cousins, and even a few friends children on whom, occasionally, my wife and I have lavished gifts, I’ll be making no claims of personal purity on this subject matter, though I will say that we’ve often moved in recent years to purchasing books and giving donations to the college fund in place of a new toy.
I will also not pretend for even a second that it won’t be a real challenge to manage the influx of new toys as my own son grows up, as he certainly has all those same family relations as we do, and as they are some of the best friends and relatives one could hope for I do suspect that they’ll most likely be reciprocating our generosity over the years. But I do, however, hope that in some fashion we can begin to find our way through this maddening onslaught of excess toys.
After all, I do suspect the kids already have far more than they’ll ever be able to use in their lifetime, and they may not even notice a few less under the tree in favor of a new book or addition to the college fund. And who knows for sure, but just maybe a trip to the local playground is in order; I’ve heard there’s no line forming to use the swing.
via:: The NYT
People should do what I and my wife do... buy used toys. Especially for the first two years when the toys are practically brand new because the prior owner grew out of them so quickly... we do that with clothing as well.
Saves us money and saves the landfill for another few years. We'll hand the toys down to our nieces and nephews as well... hopefully the toys/clothes will get a good 5 or 6 years of use rather than a few months. Then we'll try to make sure they go to the goodwill or Children's hospital or some such where they'll make even more kids happy.
In Australia toy libraries are pretty common. They function just like book libraries and either can be an extension thereof or separate entities. Works great for any toy or game that can be cleaned.
It's too bad that we no longer value communal property. Wouldn't it be better to keep up our parks and playgrounds than for everyone to spend their money on individual swing sets and sand boxes in their backyards? But apparently we want it all to ourselves, thereby depriving us and others of the benefits of properly funded and maintained public assets. And with that attitude, how are our children supposed to learn to share?
I totally agree, James. Although I don't have kids, my mom and dad did this for me when I was small. I'd say that about 75% of my toys were garage sale purchases. At the time, my parents did this beacuse they were frugal, but I'm glad that they saved as much waste as they did. And honestly, my very favorite toys from childhood were my weeble wobble tree and barbie apartment, both garage sale procured for a few dollars each.
Sounds like an interesting book. I'm reading Richard Luov's Last Child in the Woods right now, about how a whole generation of kids has "nature deficit disorder" ... and what to do about it.
Man, this hits close to home. Think about Legos - at one time, Legos were fantastic toys. They've slid and degraded over the years to being exactly the pre-packaged crap that's described above.... terrible.
Love to see a 50's vs 00's comparison of energy consumption, and all that includes, to care for the "average" child in the US. I’d bet the current paranoid culture (and I’m not value judging it) that isolates, regulates, transports, reports, spies, and sedates kids 24/7/365 is as abusive to the planet as the personal excesses of their proud parents. We’re funny folks, we yanks. I know it’s apples and oranges, but the cultural and financial realities in Bali, my adopted home, results in the young kids (and there are many) being out and about whenever and with their imaginations in hyper drive. One of benefits to living here is the opprtunity to absorb all that joy radiating from their happy innocent faces, very cool. Not much paranoia here; creepies would be dealt with swiftly and the extended family/community network doesn’t help breed degenerates in the first place.
Yet one more great reason to get outside! Interested parents and caregivers should visit, www.greenhour.org
I am not sure exactly how our house filled up with toys, but it did. A few months ago, when our only child was out of the house, we Freecycled, sold on Ebay, took toys and clothes to the consignment shop for resale, donated to charity, recycled and threw out!
We even managed to remove her videogames without tears.
She still has enough stuff to play with--we kept the "imagination" toys--dolls, blocks, art supplies, toy buildings, books. She has been asking for a new dollhouse, so the whole family made one out of a huge shoe box on Sunday. She's happy.
She watches PBS instead of commercial TV, so she doesn't beg for the latest toys.
New policy: no new toys. No new toys except Christmas and birthdays. If she wants new toys, she can make them (and ask for help). We have a book called "Crafty Ideas," filled with toys kids can make. We get materials around the house and from nature.
You can't purchase your kid's happiness.