Toys for children

[Stroller]

Given half a chance, I'd still be in the sandpit blowing things up.
I got my first pocket knife at 6 and hatchet a year or 2 later -I did grow on a farm.
Only recently my Mom admitted to blunting my hatchet, grrrrrr, which I was inclined to use a machete, so I guess she wasted her time.

I think shielding kids from threats places them at greater risk. My nearly 3 year old is very good around a bbq, but we don't dare light a fire when his mates visit. (We still watch him like a hawk around the fire, but mainly to stop him using a plastic salad fork on it.)

Farm kids have the best toys!!!!!!!!

 

[DaveWL]

Another vote for farm toys (scale and real)

My kids have inherited forty years worth of Britains farm toys Their only problem is how much Dad and Uncle keep joining in at play time.

 

[Tengu]

At least its not all those grim girls toys which are pink.

some are really creepy.

 

[Mesquite]

At least its not all those grim girls toys which are pink.

some are really creepy.

Like Pink Sporks :evilangel:

 

[oldtimer]

Some friends of ours had two sons roughly at the same time as we did: they banned guns and anything agressive as toys, and discouraged rough games like rugby. We went with the flow and let our two have toy guns as I had as a child and took them to mini rugby as tots and later to the full game as teenagers. Their kids grew up to be agressive and troubled drug uses alienated from their parents: one of ours grew up to work for Oxfam and the other to run a drop in for recovering drug users and alcoholics. We remain a happy and close family.

While I'll accept that this is anecdotal and that the particular does not make the general, my posisition would seem to be supported by most of the posts above. I also hope it doesn't come over as smug, but I'm proud of my boys.

 

[Tengu]

Yup, too much PC is bad for kids.

 

[DaveWL]

At least its not all those grim girls toys which are pink.

some are really creepy.

Trying to find anything for a 10 month old girl that is not lurid pink is an almost impossible challenge.

To my mind controlling what toys your kids get to play with is never going to work - for example when Father Christmas came to my 5 year old son's school to hand out some early pressies my lad got a "police" kit consisiting of ... a helmet, a combat knife, a truncheon and a hand grenade!

I can only conclude Father Christmas is going paramilitary.

 

[Tengu]

Crikey, thats a bit tough, isnt it?

(Though pretty normal for Elfland...)

 

[Toddy]

My 90 year old Uncle gave me a Mamod traction engine a month ago
How cool is that ?

My sons want my toys; I used to want my brothers; toy iron and ironing board or a spud gun ? That's not a hard choice now, is it ?
I still have a scar on my ribs where my bother shot me with an arrow.
I ran down the park with this thing bobbing in front of me stuck in my chest, and I could hear my brother's voice saying, "Oh no, she's going to tell! " :yikes: too right I was going to tell ......Mum just looked at me, looked at the arrow, yelled on my brother, decided that it couldn't be that bad since I could breathe to run, bent me back and pulled it out (flattened bit of copper pipe hammered on the end of a bit of stick and cut to a point) there could only have been 3/8 of an inch in me.
I got a flyting at for being so damned silly as to participate, and my brother got his backside warmed for being a better shot than I was The bows and arrows became kindling

Barbie (well it was Tressy and Cindy) or Action Man ?
Comics were another source of irritation. Jackie & Bunty? or Commando magazine, Warlord, Eagle, etc.?

Funnily enough I didn't often buy my sons comics once they could read, I bought them a subscription to the New Scientist every year instead and later on added Private Eye to the list.

Real life is messy, and fascinating, full of interesting things; smothered in candy floss pink would have turned me into something really nasty I reckon ..............and what is that weird hello kitty thing about?
I thought the American super hero comics were daft enough, but that's like the stupid gonk thing I got given one birthday. I hadn't a clue what to do with that green thing, and I still can't think of any use for one even now The daughter of the aunt who gave it to me was always pristine; I don't think she jumped in a puddle in her life, or played in the mud, or lit a fire, or guddled in a burn or climbed a tree, slept outside overnight, or knew what a skelf was or learned that nettles stung, and bees (but you could catch them in a jar if you were careful) or that brambles were delicious but jaggy, and rosehaws itch, and rabbits can be vicious little brutes.....yet her life was more like the childhood of many nowadays.

I don't think it's right; I think kids need to play outdoors, need to use their imaginations, need to explore, need to be slightly feral; the alternative is no immune system worth a button ( how many kids are on inhalers nowadays?) and vegetation of mind and spirit and body. I was a real bookworm as a child though (I suppose computers would fill that role for many children now
Children need to get filthy through the day, scrubbed clean at bedtime and sleep sound all night; and get up the next day with expectation and a smile that there's stuff to do
The seasons turn, we delighted in every one of them and the games and toys we made that changed through each of them
I am delighted to say that my sons did so too....and if I'm ever blessed with grandchildren, they better come with old clothes to play in when they visit me

atb,
Mary

 

[British Red]

Best post of the year Mary