A collection of our free-with-meal toys, headed for the recycling bin.
Toys. I don’t even know where to begin. Seven years ago (i.e. before our daughter was born) we had zero toys. Zero.
Now we have more. A lot more. If it was up to the toys, the toys would be winning in our house. Thank goodness I have low tolerance for clutter and sentimentality.
Over the years my feelings about toys have changed. I used to think toys were fine and fun, and felt generally positive towards toys. Now I think that most toys that can be bought just take up space, create waste and I feel agitated about them.
I always have to be vigilant about toys… playing with them, thanking people for them, culling them, throwing them out, donating them, reselling them. I always feel like I might get hit by a toy tsunami, or a toy tornado.
Toys, leave me alone!
In reading up on the ‘toy problem’, I learned that the United States has 3.1% of the world’s children and 40% of the world’s toys. It does seem like, in the U.S. at least, we are letting the toys win. To boot, the toys (and all the other clutter) are distracting us from things that really matter in life (i.e., not toys) and are stressing us out and perhaps making us sick.
Perhaps I should rephrase: Toys, leave US alone!
I want to get angry at the people who make the toys, and sell the toys, and resell the used toys, and market the toys to my kids any way they can. However, while I feel they should make more ethical decisions and they do share in the blame, they are just doing what business people have always done. Try to make a buck.
Then I want to get angry at society. After all, we as a collective group are buying the toys that the makers/marketers/sellers/resellers are peddling. We are perpetuating that more toys is better, that ownership and possession are important. Yes, society is to blame.
But the journey of a thousand steps begins with just one. The only way society will change is by individuals deciding to change, one by one. And the only way manufacturers will change is through the laws of supply and demand. If we demand less, they will supply less.
So the change starts with me.
I vow to do a better job at giving non-toy gifts.
I have started ordering non-toy-containing food for our kids at restaurants or requesting that the toy be left out.
I re-gift many toys gifted to our kids that I know they won’t play with or value.
Toys: Hear me now. You will not win.
About Mary Beth Cox