Tiffany Raiford
As my twins walk around the house playing with an empty water bottle and a hairbrush, I ask myself why we spend thousands of dollars every year on toys for these little humans. Why? We buy all these amazing toys that seem as if they are going to keep our kids entertained for hours and hours and all the do is make random noises in the middle of the night and turn into weapons of mass destruction as they are launched at one another in the midst of a heated argument.
When I pick my big girls up from school and they come home and immediately head into my office to grab computer paper to use to make signs for their doors, draw pictures for their rooms and decorate cards they make for their friends, I wonder why “Santa” brought them that exceptionally expensive play set in the yard or the Escalade or the Corvette or the Range Rover they have parked in the garage that they could be riding around the yard – getting sun and playing something creative and fun.
Why, why, why do we buy our kids anything to play with? They don’t want to play with it. All they want is empty boxes, my makeup and anything that looks like anything but a toy. It makes me wonder what my life would look like if we simply stopped buying toys. After all, we would still have plenty of water bottles, remote controls and coffee tables they could play with, right?
Well, kind of.
Kids aren’t always into playing with their toys, but it’s not because they don’t love them. Here’s my thought on this one; kids like what they like and you just never know what they will like at any given moment unless you put it up high and out of their reach and they can find a way to get to it. Most of the time, those things are remotes, phones, drinks and other adult items. Put a toy up high on a shelf or the table and the kids will find a way to get to it – it seems forbidden. I’ve thought about not buying my kids anymore toys since they do not seem to appreciate what they have and this is what I came up with.
Life without Toys
No more toys in our house; it seems nice, right? Our kids can go outside. They can play games and use their imaginations and get creative. The house will be clean. There will be no clutter. There will be nothing screaming out a nursery rhyme unexpectedly at 3 am because it’s batteries are dying and it wants you to know that Mary isn’t going to have her little lamb much longer unless you bust out the double A’s.
Our kids will be richer in their knowledge. They will get more sunlight and they will be more creative. They won’t be bored anymore. They won’t be so materialistic. It sounds like so many wonderful things will happen if we take the toys away from our kids. They’ll be less likely to argue over things. They’ll have nothing to argue over. They’ll become worldly and wise and take adventures in the yard and learn about wildlife and be more intelligent. Did I mention we’d be kind of rich since we’d save so much money on toys? Well, maybe not, but we’d have a lot more money not buying toys for four kids anymore.
OR…
They’ll end up in the house whiny and bored because it’s pouring rain and there is nothing that they can do outside. Or they’ll be like our 4-year-old, covered in welts and inflamed skin requiring a hefty dose of Benadryl to stop the swelling from the 30,000 mosquitoes that attacked her when she walked outside for all of three minutes. Our 7-year-old won’t have a bite on her, but our 4-year-old will be swollen and in pain for days. Her shoes won’t fit her swollen feet. Her face will hurt. She will be miserable.
That’s what would happen if we didn’t have toys for our kids. They’d be bored. This is Florida, and it always rains here. They can’t go out and play in that. So they’d be inside making me crazy at all times, or begging to watch television and then rotting their brains in front of that while they wait for the rain to let up because there is nothing else we can do. They’ll then expect me to entertain them endlessly while I’m trying to cook, clean, work, care for our toddler twins…or they’ll do something creative.
And by creative, I mean that they will decide that they want to play a game of tag around the house. This means that there will be broken décor all over the place, babies on the floor screaming and crying after a big sister ran around a corner and knocked them over without stopping. They’ll be loud and obnoxious, wake the babies up from their naps upstairs and make me crazy.
Sounds like fun: Not
At the end of the day, there seem to be a few ups and downs associated with not buying our kids toys anymore. But it seems that toys are not the awful stuff that people like to make them out to be. When my husband and I returned from three days in NYC this past weekend, we brought our 18-month-old daughter a stuffed, talking Peppa Pig. We brought our 18-month-old son a monster truck of his own that makes noice, and we brought both of the big girls their own double bicycle with an Anna and and Elsa doll on it and an Olaf in the basket attached to the front.
It’s been four days since we arrived home and those kids are still dragging those things around the house nonstop. Our four-year-old begged to take her toy to school today to show her friends so she could tell them that even though her mommy and daddy were in a big city, they missed her and thought of her and brought her the best toy in the whole world. Our oldest has been outside riding her bike up and down the driveway with her toy in the basket playing her own imaginary game. Our twins have been carrying their toys around the house hugging them and smiling these ridiculous smiles that melt your heart in an instant.
If we didn’t bring those toys back for them, we’d have missed out on a lot of big hugs, kisses, pride and imagination to go along with the entertainment they provide our kids. So, yes, we will continue to buy our kids toys because even though they don’t always want to play with them, they love them.
Photo by Getty Images
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