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October 10, 2006

New vs. Old Toys

Old_toys I often wonder why new toys are any better than old ones, aside from the obvious hygenic aspects and dust bunnies.  Here's the thing: my daughter has been handed down toys from me, my husband, and other family members that look nearly identical to the new ones she has.  We don't generally keep things around that aren't loaded with sentimental value because of the space constraints here in Silicon Valley, but old and new toys alike trickle in from nooks and crannies in the midwest (aka her grandparents' and great grandparents' attics) as well as from local friends.  And trickle, and trickle...

We have a stuffed kitty that was my dad's.  It's now 65 years old.  We have a stuffed bear that was my husband's.  It's now 30 years old.  And we have a hand made stuffed salamander that was made by my first babysitter.  It's about 32 years old.  Juxtaposed with their modern counterparts, a kitty bought in Menlo Park that is 2 weeks old, a bear we found at Harrod's that is a year old, and an inchworm from Amazon.com that is 2 months old, there's little difference.  (Well, for full disclosure, I'll admit the old stuffed kitty squeaks when its tummy is squeezed and the inchworm plays music on some sort of electronic chip in its head.)

What's up with all of the blinky lights and digital chips in toys anyway?  Why does each toy now need to have a recorded voice that sounds like Bride of Chuckie and what on earth makes the toy manufacturers think our children will want them anyway?  I'll admit my daughter LOVES her LeapStart Learning Table.  She plays music on it and dances to it every day.  But she also loves her books and her stuffed animals, that haven't really changed over time.  And her other favorites are simple things like a xylophone and blocks.

As a relatively new mom, what I want to know is this: how does it get from a hand full of simple little toys to the collections of five X boxes, 27 computer video games, 318 talking stuffed animals, four bicycles, 42 barbies and overwhelmed parents?  How do you stop the influx?  Is it possible?  The culprits are the usual - grandparents, friends, other kids and their parents, and of course parents ourselves.  "Jane got this..." or "I found this in the basement" or "Maggie has outgrown this" or "it was a great deal on eBay" (yeah, you know who you are).

My daughter just turned 9 months old and already our house has become an insatiable kid stuff magnet.  Even if I knew where my "Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui" book is, I couldn't get to it.  So, sage parents, what's the trick?  Is it even possible in our consumer-driven, technology run, pseudo-eco-conscious, keep-up-with-the-Joneses area to have any sense of simplicity or minimalism to our children's toys, let alone their over-scheduled daily lives?  Or can we find some solace in a 65 year-old stuffed kitty that still squeaks?

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