Children not interested in toys at all

Spendless

How old are they? My eldest (8)has never been very interested in toys. This autumn (when he's back at school;) ) I intend clearing out the last few bits he has, leaving him with his games consoles, books, and lego (the item he has played with the most).

DD (5) plays a lot more, mainly with teddy bears, that she lines up and teaches.:D and a bit less with dolls and other items.

carroger

I have 5 kids the eldest 17 and the youngest 2 ....I had two girls first and then tried for 6 years for another hoping to have a boy ...when he came dad went boy toy crazy enough for 10 kids I had two more boys and I have found when they are youngest 2-4 they are like wow toys lets investigate after that they just have no interest unless their friends are here ...I practically have to beg them to play at all other times ..they are at the mo building themselves a camp out of sheets in the garden ... cheap and easy and very inventive

lisa_martin_2

I am 28 and from what I can remember of my childhood I never played with toys, I do remember having a cindy house that gathered dust, Finders Keepers and My Little Ponys. I was not interested at all. On the other had I had puzzles, word searches, paper and pens galore that I loved and used all the time.

I do suffer badly with imagination. I don't have one. My husband agrees with me aswell.

tiamai_d

I am finally working out that my kids (DS1-6yrs, DS2-3yrs) only fight over 'electronic' toys, but will happily play together with say... a wooden fort and lots of soldiers/kings/dragons or a load of cars.

Then they will find something like (this happened 5mins ago) a legnth of plastic string with a clip on one end and have a HUGE fight over it! It was a dog lead for their doggies (soft toys).

All the elctronic toys are locked in a cupboard now.

People are asked to buy clothes for them instead and we buy them toys that we choose. For birthdays we have started taking them on a day trip (full extended family have now adopted this idea), or having a party rather than buy them a lot of toys.

MiasMommy

My Daughter is only 21 months but she isnt interested whatso ever, Ive recently sold hers, just kept her dolly and her pushchair as thats what she loves the most,, proper girl's girl. She prefers to play /intereact with me more than anything.

cobbingstones

hi

I have a girl whose just turned 4 and a boy of 2.

Thanks for all the replies.

MM

melancholly

we had lots of toys and i was attached to one of them and not bothered by the others. i also ate lego whenever i 'played' with that, which wasn't so great!

keep them interested in reading and being outside - far far better than sitting playing games on a computer.

sounds like you have quite the opposite of a problem - kids who can entertain themselves!!

sarahc44

let them play outside - what could be better.
My two hardly ever get out their toys unless it's their, dolls, scooters tents.
they enjoy board games and snap puzzles etc. x x x x x

Loopy_Lobes

Oh gosh yes they just get way too much, my older two are 10 and 13 and have had a huge variety of toys over the years. Some of them were hardly played with, I try not to think about how much money was wasted but most things went to the charity shop so at least they got some use out of them. Some however were played to death my son loved his construction kits such as lego, mega bloks, playmobil etc and my daughter loved her girls world model head and baby dolls and art things. They are both book mad and we have book shelves heaving with books and often go to the library. Now they're a bit older of course they enjoy consoles and the internet like all children do nowadays.

Sometimes I think you just need to let them get older and grow into the toys they've got. Put them away safely in the loft. Some toys are recommended for age groups, such as Barbie from age 3, so you think that's the optimim age but really my daughter played with those properly when she was 7/8.

I think if you want to buy something it's a case of taking them to other peoples houses and seeing what they like before you splash out the cash. Also get stuff from Ebay and bootsales so it's not a huge problem if they ignore it and you can sell it on again. Also for younger children go to the toy library, it's free! or arrange a toy swap with a friend with similar age children.

Chloe5

My children have never been that interested in toys and consequently, we've never really bought many.

The way the extended family do things anyway is to provide lists so the children will have a 'list' and we follow that. It can still be enormous fun doing it that way but you do also cut out the unwanted problem presents so everyone gets what they want.

If I'm buying a present I prefer to know it is what the person wants rather than they are taking it back to boots the next day! Wastes my money and they probably don't get the full amount.

The other thing we do is give 'experiences' eg my son and a friend had a driving lesson at Brands Hatch for their 13th birthdays. Another year, we did up his bedroom with the stuff he really liked.