Toys; how much is too much?

Dont think I am going to help you but seeing it is my sons second birthday next week I looked around at all the toys my two kids have. And I must be honest the kids have way way too much toys.

And best is my child loves playing with things that is free around the house. And guess what? I still bought too much toys for his birthday (or so I feel. feel a bit bad as I think he is getting less than what his sister did at 2)

My kids have too many toys. I've had comments from my mum, MIL, friends etc. and they drive me crazy to be honest (the toys that is).
A friend from coffee group mentioned that one of her friends commented the other day about her kids having too many toys ... so she asked what I think ... we decided that we know no different as everyone we know has toys everywhere! Older people think they have too much cos back in their day when we were kids we didn't have that much ... Xmas and B'days were the only time we got toys, but things these days are cheaper I guess.

So yeah ... they probably have too many .... but all kids seem to these days!

Nope, DS definitely doesn't have too many toys. We've been so aware of how many toys most kids have since before DS arrived and were determined we weren't going to spend heaps of money on crap.

DS just had his first birthday. Our friends and family are aware we're fans of wooden toys and 'educational' toys and hate plastic crap so he got some great presents. We bought him a stack of books instead of toys so he has a good balance.

The best thing we ever did was join our local Toy Library. Every two weeks we go and get out 3 new toys. Sometimes we get plastic noisy crap, sometimes a big toy like a slide or something we don't have space for permanently.

If I'm ever feeling the itch to buy something for DS I'll just go and buy him a book. I think it's easy to have too many toys but you can never have too many books.

Ruby i wish my husbands family heard me when i say i don't like lots of plastic, flashing crap in my house. Alas 2 boys later (and a few garage sales and trademe sell offs) we are inundated. Both boys got huge, noisy, plastic ride on toys for their birthdays this year. Despite us already having about 4 ride on toys and having just recently sold a few off. Thank god we have a big garage but i would rather not have had it in the first place really.

MIL is a gift giver, she shows her love with gifts and is constantly buying the boys stuff. She has only once ever come to visit during the week despite not working tho.

The toys drive me nuts so i put them in plastic boxes in the wardrobe and swap the boxes around regularly. Only one box of toys is out in the lounge, one in J's bedroom and Alex has a shelf with boxes with dressups, cars and lego in his bedroom.

TBH they never play with most of them!!

We don't have a huge amount of toys as I am very selective as to what I buy. We have no toys in our lounge and all are stored in plastic wheely boxes under her bed and only one box can be bought out into the lounge at once.

DD certainly has alot less toys than I did as a child. I still have all my childhood toys and they are in perfect condition and DD loves them! I had a huge collection of barbies and cabbage patch stuff. They are stored at my Mums house and its like Christmas when we go there and she only lives around the corner!

So, yes I do think children can have too many toys, and like jazzy, I also look at how much I have to pick up and put back!

We don't. There is NO toys in the bedrooms. All the toys are in the lounge. We have fabric boxes in the gab in our coffee table and a set of drawers for toys in the lounge. All toys must fit within these with the exception of the exersaucer and daniels carpark.

Buying sh*tload of toys is a waste of money.

Edited by kebakat

I gone through all the toy mailers and there is really nothing there that I have seen to really buy my kids for Christmas or McKayla's birthday.

For birthdays/xmas so far (said very loosely as we've only had one of each so far) I plan to buy a book and a new set of clothes, plus a toy or 2 depending on what we are getting.....

Family are aware that we much prefer wooden toys, or more educational stuff and we have been very spoilt with the toys we have been given, we have gotten plastic stuff but it's all been very well thought through.

I think getting things like a new outfit for xmas/birthday and a new book makes it 'appear' to be getting more, but at least it's stuff you know will be used instead of having *MORE* toys.

I also know people who at xmas put things like toothpaste, toothbrush, fruit, underwear, hankies, hairties for girls, hairbrush, socks, a new drink bottle/lunch box (for school holiday trips) and little things like that in stockings, instead of more little toys and junk food... Much better idea in my opinion and is something we plan on doing. A lot of those things you have to get anyways so save them for stockings- kids don't care what they get its more the excitement of unpacking/unwrapping it that I've seen so far!

My DD does have quite a lot of stuff but in saying that there is only me and her and I don't let her watch hardly any TV (2 x 30 mins a week thats it) so she plays with them all. I expect her to be able to entertain herself and she uses what she has to do that so I can't really complain.

She also has the tiniest bedroom which used to be my study and only has room for her bed and chest of drawers, so every toy that she owns except a couple of soft toys is in the lounge. It looks like a lot but I bet if some were in her room it would look a lot less.

She also has a lot of stuff for outside play which I don't see as a problem either. She has a trike, ride on, balls, t-ball set, skateboard, and sandpit (with sand toys) all of which she uses regularly. Plus water/bath toys as well.

I get really sick of people coming over and passing comment on how much stuff she has. She plays with it and I go through her stuff regularly and get rid of the things she has grown out of. As with anything else to do with kids people feel the need to comment on stuff without thinking about what works for me and her.

In saying all that - some of the toys I have brought her are really for me! Her and I spend a lot of time playing together and I get a bit board of playing with the same things all the time. Plus she has a Thomas train set and I buy stuff for it coz my (not so) secret passion is rearranging the train track in to new configerations

As children get older you will notice the increase in $ & wants. While they are little you decide what they play with when older they decide.

At the moment all I hear from the 5&6yr old are oh I want that..oh I want that, when they see things on TV advertised. I tell them to add them to the xmas wish list, lol.

I did a xmas layby at toy world & it came to nearly $700 & that was for 2 lego sets & a board game for each of my 3 boys, 3 presents for 3 other kids & nearly $100 for DS2 B'day 2 weeks before xmas.....& I am no where near finished with what I want to get them.