No Imagination Left
Now that Thanksgiving is over, I guess its time for Christmas. Garren is listening to his Charlie Brown Christmas CD, neighbors have Christmas trees and decorations up, and the commercials for holiday shopping have been extra obnoxious this weekend.
You might think I am a scrooge; I am not, I guess I just long for the days when you had a time to rest between the holidays. These days the stores are selling Christmas items a week before Halloween. But I digress.
Garren and I have been looking through the sales papers, talking about things that Gracie might enjoy for Christmas, and I have noticed a scary trend. Look through your sales papers and count how many toys there are that require batteries. No, I am not complaining about how much money it takes to keep these toys going, I am talking about how kids are using less and less of their imaginations. When I was a kid, toys were toys. You played with them, you had pretend tea parties and Barbie weddings. I remember getting lost for hours in adventures with my dolls or bears. I was a school teacher, a nurse, a wedding consultant (and often the bride), a rock star, and many more. Now that I am 27 I have an amazing imagination. And, I would like to think because of that imagination I have become an creative writer, and an entertaining mom.
I worry about Gracie's generation, and what will happen without that healthy creativity that kids design on their own. Already the world longs for the newest gadget that will do everything for them from planning their day, to recording a tv show they don't have time for. And, now you find more and more toys that talk or sing or bounce. The Tumble Tigger is adorable--but that's all he does. He has a hard body that you can't cuddle and he says a certain number of phrases and does cartwheel after cartwheel. I would rather Gracie have a stuffed Tigger (or any other animal) that she can hug or read to, or dress up for a tea party or take pretend shopping.
How are our children supposed to develop imaginations if the toy companies do it for them? In Gracie's room, you'll find blocks, books, stuffed animals, a tea set, an oven, and Little People playsets. I love to look in on her playing, and listen to her as the dolls or figurines have conversations with each other. She will pour and stir your tea for you. She can build high towers with her blocks. She doesn't need the Dora talking kitchen, or Rusty the talking dump truck to do it for her. She gets a better sense of accomplishment doing it herself.
I want the sky to be the limit when she pretends and plays. I want to cultivate her imagination and her dreams. Children need to be children, they need to play and develop a sense of self. What will Tumble Tigger do for her, or Chicken Dance Elmo, or Go Go My Walking Pup? They will make playtime shorter. After all, the toys only say so many things, and why make up conversations for the toy, or read to the toy--it can already do that.
With so many toys and gadgets plaguing our homes, where will the creativity go? And for that matter where will the time to play go? After all, any time left in the day is spent on replaying the Desperate Housewives episode you missed last week.
Now, I don't want to be a hypocrite, Gracie has three talking toys; 2 Barney's (one I paid .45 for, the other was free), and a Blue doll that says something like 75 phrases. And as much as she likes these characters, she tends to play with the things that she can decide what they say.
You might think I am a scrooge; I am not, I guess I just long for the days when you had a time to rest between the holidays. These days the stores are selling Christmas items a week before Halloween. But I digress.
Garren and I have been looking through the sales papers, talking about things that Gracie might enjoy for Christmas, and I have noticed a scary trend. Look through your sales papers and count how many toys there are that require batteries. No, I am not complaining about how much money it takes to keep these toys going, I am talking about how kids are using less and less of their imaginations. When I was a kid, toys were toys. You played with them, you had pretend tea parties and Barbie weddings. I remember getting lost for hours in adventures with my dolls or bears. I was a school teacher, a nurse, a wedding consultant (and often the bride), a rock star, and many more. Now that I am 27 I have an amazing imagination. And, I would like to think because of that imagination I have become an creative writer, and an entertaining mom.
I worry about Gracie's generation, and what will happen without that healthy creativity that kids design on their own. Already the world longs for the newest gadget that will do everything for them from planning their day, to recording a tv show they don't have time for. And, now you find more and more toys that talk or sing or bounce. The Tumble Tigger is adorable--but that's all he does. He has a hard body that you can't cuddle and he says a certain number of phrases and does cartwheel after cartwheel. I would rather Gracie have a stuffed Tigger (or any other animal) that she can hug or read to, or dress up for a tea party or take pretend shopping.
How are our children supposed to develop imaginations if the toy companies do it for them? In Gracie's room, you'll find blocks, books, stuffed animals, a tea set, an oven, and Little People playsets. I love to look in on her playing, and listen to her as the dolls or figurines have conversations with each other. She will pour and stir your tea for you. She can build high towers with her blocks. She doesn't need the Dora talking kitchen, or Rusty the talking dump truck to do it for her. She gets a better sense of accomplishment doing it herself.
I want the sky to be the limit when she pretends and plays. I want to cultivate her imagination and her dreams. Children need to be children, they need to play and develop a sense of self. What will Tumble Tigger do for her, or Chicken Dance Elmo, or Go Go My Walking Pup? They will make playtime shorter. After all, the toys only say so many things, and why make up conversations for the toy, or read to the toy--it can already do that.
With so many toys and gadgets plaguing our homes, where will the creativity go? And for that matter where will the time to play go? After all, any time left in the day is spent on replaying the Desperate Housewives episode you missed last week.
Now, I don't want to be a hypocrite, Gracie has three talking toys; 2 Barney's (one I paid .45 for, the other was free), and a Blue doll that says something like 75 phrases. And as much as she likes these characters, she tends to play with the things that she can decide what they say.
I totally agree about the toys. I had dolls that didn't dance, sing, walk, or come to life. It was my job to make them do those things! I also had a playhouse and neighbors that spent endless hours in my backyard where we played our own made up games and created some awesome obstacle courses! My playhouse served as a doctor's office, bank, school, house, restaraunt, church, veterinarian's office, and so on! What happened to those days?
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