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kelly divine

So yes some toys to make an impact on kids..
I just think it is the way they are brought up also. I feel that if some parents pay close attention to their kids, then some of what goes on today wouldn’t be going on.

Also what you and your family did was wonderful..

Little Pan African Cloth People

I believe that toy purchases are important enough for parents to spend some time thinking before buying.

I purchased toys beginning in the seventies and ended that trend during the ninties. I saw the difference in the type of items that were being produced and sold on the mass market.

I feel that it is on the parent to determine if the toys are worth the investment. I have larned over the years that there are some items that just were not that great after we purchased them.

It’s not the toys as much as it’s the lack of parental imput. My little cousins play GTA but I ask them who they know that’s like the characters. They can name all the guys from the hood who are in jail or dead from doing such video game acts in real life. The sports games are good for helping them understand the X’s and O’s by the time they need to learn to read a playbook. Letting them see the end results of driving like a Need For Speed game helps them understand the consequences. Explaining how and what to prioritize (armour, weapons, etc.) in a fighting game can be used to help them learn organization skills.
It comes down to the parenting (or lack of).

So you want to know what folks think about the impact of toys. I’m glad you wrote about this as I hadn’t seen one of these in a long time.

I’ll put it this way: the military discovered years ago that violent video games desensitize people. I saw this happen in my own son when he hit 13, but for him it was a combination of listening to violent music and the games. I didn’t buy them, but he accessed them at the homes of friends.

When your lil guy gets older, I’d suggest sticking to sports games. While he’s young, give him a cardboard box to play with; hell, he won’t remember it and you’ll save a bundle. At two and three, a ball and art supplies – and at three or four, I see no harm in water guns or cap guns or those cool electronic space guns. Lots will disagree with me there, but the generations of the 50s, 60s and 70s didn’t turn out desensitized.

I didn’t buy my daughter the pregnant Barbie either. Now, if at nine she said she was dying to become an obstetrician, I’d have gotten one and maybe two along with a Dr. Barbie, but since she wants to be a celebrity lawyer (rather than a groupie of celebrities), I didn’t.

Take care and see you around.
~ Kit