I sat down recently and watched the documentary Babies with my wife for an at home date night. A mistake in selection on my wife's part, because I sat down to critique the movie. Now let me first say that documentaries usually contain bias, inaccurate conclusions and paradigm shift materials. Keep that in mind when you watch the film, or any other documentary.
The best part in the entire film was the depiction of the rural Mongolian infant and the urban Tokyo infant. The Tokyo child was shown in a toy room with lots of options of toys to play with, and playing with a mind stimulating toy. The child in Mongolia was tied to his parent's bed; he could only travel a certain distance on the floor around the bed because of the rope. This child only had a roll of, what looked like toilet paper, to play with. Now, which child do you think is happy in their given state? The Mongolian child.
As this comparison moved along, the restrained child was happy and content playing with his roll of paper, despite being tied to the bed. The child in the toy room was getting frustrated in not being able to work the manufactured, labelled brain stimulating toy. The child was throwing tantrums, and ignored all the other toys. This child was clearly upset.
This had me thinking about the toys that we buy for our children. Are they fit for our child? Are they age appropriate? Does our child even want to play with them?
As any parent knows, or will learn, a child finds a box that a toy came in more fascinating than the actual toy itself. Why? Sometimes we purchase toys that we think our child will understand and love to play with and enjoy being rewarded with flashing lights. However, our child finds that toy tedious to play with at the moment, instead finding interest in a box. An item that is usually off-limits. I have found with my second child that he enjoys playing with Tupperware containers, smashing an old keyboard and chewing on a Rubik's cube more than he enjoys a rattle or other toys that we as parents are told are suitable for six-month-olds.
As parents, we are proud of our children. We want them to be smart and we feel they are smarter than their counterparts, so we buy them toys suited for three-year-olds instead of for a one-year-old. This can create frustration. Even though your one-year-old may be intelligent for their age, they yet have to master their motor skills. When you have a toy that requires fine motor skills, it can become upsetting for the child and they will reject the toy.
I remember once walking through a mall with my wife and daughter and seeing a display with various sized and coloured balls in it. My daughter streaked over to the container, grabbed a yellow and blue ball and took off with it. Of course we had to chase her down before we were accused of anything, and went to pay for the ball. This ball, because my daughter could play with it and because she had made a choice to take it home, became her ball. We couldn't go anywhere without it. That's why, when it was stolen, it was devastating for her.
Nonetheless, when it comes to buying toys, give your child choices. I am not saying take them to Toys R Us and have a free-for-all. Any child would grab anything and everything. But let them choose a couple of toys they like, or you think they would like, and then let them pick one to take home. This way the choice is theirs and the toy may have some value to them.
