BChristmas has come and gone, leaving children excited and parents despondent: How to find a place for your gifts in the wardrobes and a meaning in the lives of the little recipients? Between toy kitchens, dolls, superheroes and toy cars, the invasion of objects (probably still mostly plastic) is overwhelming. A huge amount of games, stressful for parents but, as he says an article that appeared on Voxeven for children. Overwhelmed by too many options, children may even end up not playing with anything at all. So: what to do?
Did Santa Claus go too far? When there are too many games at home: survival tips
The phenomenon seems to be taking on new proportions. And it knows no class distinctions: the excess of toys, in the Americans but also in us, It’s not just a problem for wealthy families.
According to data reported by Vox, game sales in the United States jumped from $22.3 billion in 2019 to $26 billion in 2020, and then to $30.1 billion in 2021. The explanation is clear: parents have struggled to entertain their children at home during the pandemic. Sales fell slightly in 2023, perhaps due to inflation, but remain firmly above 2019 levels.
Homes invaded by games: what to do?
Stemming the tide is difficult: often the toys come from grandparents or other loved ones to whom it is difficult to say “no thanks”. Or they are the spoils of increasingly gigantic birthday parties.
In the early 2000s, a team led by Jeanne E. Arnold estimated the assets of 32 middle-class families (the result is the photographic volume Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors). Well, in the face of an average of 139 games visibly on display, “unspeakable numbers” of dolls, trains and soft toys were hidden under beds or crammed into wardrobes. Not only that: “American children’s toys spill out of children’s bedrooms, into living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens and parents’ bedrooms, and are ubiquitous in middle-class homes.” The authors wrote.
A English research from 2010 he estimated that each child had 238 toys (worth £7,000) to use only 12 of them (value 330), leaving 95% in the basket. Today? It’s definitely not any better.
The phenomenon is growing, between e-commerce and birthday parties
The problem has only gotten worse, due to several factors. Like the fact that many games have become cheaperdue to lower production costs due to moving production abroad.
But it also affects the ease of purchase: games and toys are everywhere, at the newsstand and grocery store near your home, and of course onlineon Amazon and other e-commerce platforms. Today distant relatives who in the past perhaps would have avoided, can have anything delivered to their home comfortably.
It contributes to the growth of the phenomenon also the success on YouTube gods unboxing videoin which children or adults film themselves unwrapping products.
Not only that: yesIt is also established in our birthday parties the habit of giving something to each guest, as if the guests couldn’t handle the frustration of receiving nothing and just giving. Result: we may soon end up living on floors of plastic dolls and superheroes.
How many is too many toys?
After the initial enthusiasm, many of the new toys received at Christmas are destined to fade away, experts say. In a 2017 study, researchers at the University of Toledo they found that Children played longer and more creatively when presented with just four toys than when given 16 options to choose from. Sixteen. Let’s imagine what can happen in front of the hundred that our children own.
Educators – on average – know this. For this reason in nursery schools as a rule the games are divided into groups: Distinct, orderly areas, typically with social significance. Playing with others can give meaning even to objects that are not toysnor are they intended as toys: from the elements of nature to commonly used materials.
The toys we like best are simple
Play is what makes a toy a toy: if no one plays with it, a piece of the plastic floor on which we live remains. Or the cardboard box that contained it.
The most attractive toys in the long run are usually the simplest ones: basic pieces from which to start to create something else. «Toys that they require attention, imagination and creativity,” said Sarah Davis, parenting coach and co-author of the book Modern Manners for Moms and Dads.
Clearly, this that’s not what the kids ask for: Often their desires are instead oriented towards toys that others have. That game that everyone wants is then a status symbolwhich helped them feel part of a group and share knowledge about that toy. How can we refuse it to our children?
The control operation, on relatives as well as on desires, is mostly ineffective.
How to fix it: 5 tips
1. Rotating toys
Some experts recommend the rotation of toys. Montessori method which involves leaving a few in sight at a given time and hiding the others. After a certain period, weeks or months, it changes. The child will thus be able to concentrate on those available to him at a given moment and will then happily find the “new” ones. Clearly this poses significant issues traffic management issues to parents: the risk of giving away what is simply hidden a second time is real.
2. At each game, one place
The temptation (and practice) is to multiply the baskets in which to place (throw) the toys. Experts suggest instead, to avoid the playful hubbub, to give each game has its own dignity, and therefore its own space in the house.
3. Ritualize gifts (that are not prizes)
Obviously it makes a lot of sense to work on how the toys get into their hands: the child who asks and gets immediately what he wants, then abandons him. Why the emotion he feels is more related to receiving something than to what he receives. On the contrary, the game he wants for a long time and gets at the right time, he abandons him much less.
In this sense it is important ritualize the gift: children receive it on birthdays and specific collective occasions, such as Christmas. It is not due (but in fact a gift) e it should not be tied to “good” behavior or not: it is not a reward just as it cannot be a punishment not to receive it – or to receive coal for the Befana (Lo explains the pedagogist Elena Cortinovis here).
4. Donate games you use less
Another suggestion offered by the developmental psychology researcher Valentina Tobia, interviewed by The Postis of raise awareness among older children about the value of money and on consumerism.
To avoid reckless hoarding, you can invite children to donate what they use less (better than doing it for them): an invitation to be repeated periodically, contacting educational institutions and families in financial difficulty.
5. Gifts made to order: educational games and experiences
On occasions when you know that the gifts will arrive, it is best to take matters into your own hands and manage the flows, suggesting educational games to relatives suited to the child’s age and character. Trivially, if he is not yet old enough to play this game, he will use it improperly, ruining it.
Finally, as with adults, it is catching on the tendency to give wonderfully intangible experiences. To give as a gift on the next occasion.
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