BABIES AND TODDLERS DON'T NEED TOYS - WHAT DO THEY REALLY NEED?

BABIES AND TODDLERS DON'T NEED TOYS

WHAT DO THEY REALLY NEED?

Perhaps the cruelest jokes of parenting is the whole thing about the toys. 

As new parents, or even parents through the stages as our kids grow, we feel compelled to provide our kids with the traditional toys, the newest toys, the hottest trends each year for the holidays, and the tech to go along with all of it.

 And then, our kids play with a random shoe or a stick they find in the backyard instead. 

Completely ignoring the toys we spent our hard earned money on, we are frustrated beyond belief and crack jokes. Our kids must be weird. There must be something abnormal about their development, about them. What kid doesn’t love the best and shiniest new toy?! 

The truth to the matter is: all of them. 

Studies Have Proven It…

Kids learn when they explore. 

Recent studies have shown, unequivocally, that children’s brains develop faster, and better, when they are put in a position to explore. Boredom is even more effective in developing the minds of the young, as imagination becomes the prime time goal of any child looking to be entertained.

 When left to their own devices, the minds of young children are opened to a world of possibilities. Rocks become mountains; sticks become a tight rope strung between two skyscrapers. A sheet of paper becomes the spaceship that finally takes a person to Mars. 

Without the opportunity to grow into their surroundings, children’s minds run the risk of being unable to develop into creative thinkers and overt problem solvers.

Children Learn Through Experience

 The most controversial notion in childhood development is the one that children learn through experience.

 Why this is controversial is simple: it spits in the face of traditional educational models that place children in desks for long periods of time, while ancient codgers talk at them slowly in concepts they could no way truly understand. 

Children learn through experience. Many cultures have even proven this through their long term success over entire generations raised on play and exploration, over busy work and time fillers.

 The Toys Are Really About Us 

The truth, which is hard to accept sometimes, is that the toys we give our children are really about us.

 How many times have you raised your voice over a mess, then when confronted with crocodile tears and a guilt-inducing “I sowwy,” promptly run to the nearest toy store to abate your guilt with a new, shiny gift? 

How often have you thought that because the playrooms of Instagram have been filled with new toys and shiny play innovations, this meant you were failing as a parent if you - too - did not get the newest and best for your kids? 

And in the dangerous times in which we live, how many of you can say that purchasing toys isn’t really about trying to compensate for the difficulty of being a kid today? When playdates have to be scheduled a month in advance, and bullying is at all time high, who wouldn’t (mistakenly) think that the obvious replacement to meaningful relationships is meaningless things? 

The facts point irrefutably, though, to toys being only a minor part of the overall development of children, from their earliest stages all the way through growing into their adult bodies.

 So let your kids explore in the backyard, with nothing but the clothes on their backs and nature at their disposal. Or resist the urge to drop everything and buy all the new stuff, and encourage your kids to redirect old toys or natural objects into worlds beyond even your own imagination. 

When your kids look back on their childhoods, they won’t remember the toys and the fluff. They’ll remember that time they turned their backyard into the most exotic experience of a lifetime, with nothing but some sticks, some rocks, and their very own minds.