Naturally Suckered
Nearly everything about being a parent is great, and the things that aren't so wonderful have their benefits down the road. I can be philosophical about the parts of my life that have changed in ways I don't necessarily enjoy 100%. I can also see how the things I made decisions about - like no TV or sugar - before Little J was born were made out of total ignorance. There is one thing, rather a small matter, but it hasn't changed one iota since having a baby. I dread have a house and yard full of plastic, primary-colored toys. Because? They're gaudy, cheap looking, and a disposable symptom of a super-consumer society. Yech.
So when we got to Toys R Us to look at things for the bubba, and he gravitates toward outdoor things like slides, swings, sand boxes and playhouses, I inwardly cringe because I know eventually we'll have our own personal collection of this stuff and we'll never get our money's worth out of it. Step 2, while being one of the biggest offenders in the ultra-plastic department, seems to have gotten a clue and made outside toys for nutty people like me.
Intorducing the Naturally Playful line of kids toys. We fell for it hook line and sinker (but not pocket book) today. The little Storybook Cottage was what really reeled us in at the store. I think it appealed to the Fantasy geek in both hubbo and I. There was a little matching sandbox that looked like it was made out of stone, too.
If I was really going for a not-cheap-and-plastic look, I'd think about a way to get this. However, the thing I keep coming up against is how do I justify all this money for something that will only a get a few years' use before Little J outgrows it? I can't guarantee that there will be another addition to the family that isn't furry and four-legged, either. Thus we're back to the thing that is easier on the budget: petrol-based (though no longer just brightly colored!). The road to debating the merits of children's toys is circuitous route, at least for me.
Eventually, with the price of a barrel of oil finally driving the price of petrolium to a normal (if heart-stopping) rate in this our fair America, children's plastic toys may start rival the wooden models in price range. By then, it might be possible that we've devised some more effective ways of recycling plastic so the content of plastic toys will be more enviro-friendly as well. Buying plastic toys for my child will always be something that I am skeptical about, even if things shape up a bit more to my preferred lifestyle. And for the time being, we won't be making any major purchases until we're settled back in our own place out West. But it is fun to look.
So when we got to Toys R Us to look at things for the bubba, and he gravitates toward outdoor things like slides, swings, sand boxes and playhouses, I inwardly cringe because I know eventually we'll have our own personal collection of this stuff and we'll never get our money's worth out of it. Step 2, while being one of the biggest offenders in the ultra-plastic department, seems to have gotten a clue and made outside toys for nutty people like me.
Intorducing the Naturally Playful line of kids toys. We fell for it hook line and sinker (but not pocket book) today. The little Storybook Cottage was what really reeled us in at the store. I think it appealed to the Fantasy geek in both hubbo and I. There was a little matching sandbox that looked like it was made out of stone, too.
If I was really going for a not-cheap-and-plastic look, I'd think about a way to get this. However, the thing I keep coming up against is how do I justify all this money for something that will only a get a few years' use before Little J outgrows it? I can't guarantee that there will be another addition to the family that isn't furry and four-legged, either. Thus we're back to the thing that is easier on the budget: petrol-based (though no longer just brightly colored!). The road to debating the merits of children's toys is circuitous route, at least for me.
Eventually, with the price of a barrel of oil finally driving the price of petrolium to a normal (if heart-stopping) rate in this our fair America, children's plastic toys may start rival the wooden models in price range. By then, it might be possible that we've devised some more effective ways of recycling plastic so the content of plastic toys will be more enviro-friendly as well. Buying plastic toys for my child will always be something that I am skeptical about, even if things shape up a bit more to my preferred lifestyle. And for the time being, we won't be making any major purchases until we're settled back in our own place out West. But it is fun to look.
