My house is being swamped by the things my two year old has been given – I have never seen him play with a single cuddly toy he has been given despite my attempts at introducing them into play.

I have already asked for people to give money or specific items not junk. I am going to make some presents for Christmas – a puppet theatre, fishing game and a bird table.

I will not be making the same mistake with my second and it has made me think carefully about the gifts I give.

Some of my favorite memories? Definitely not all the game systems. Yes, I had every one of them, too. But the very best part of my childhood, beside outdoor games, was spent with siblings and friends in a room my father refinished in our basement.

And guess what was in it? Absolutely nothing!! My dad told us it was our playroom, we could do whatever wanted to in it, but after we had to clean it up, and return it to it’s normal state. It had decent carpeting, paneling, and lights on the ceiling. No furniture, closets, nothing in it all. That room became a school, a disco, a jungle, a theater, a haunted house, a hospital, an underwater sea with hidden treasures, a pirates’ lair. We invented so many things to do there. We had great fun, gathering things from other places to use as our props, or just inventing imaginary things and defining their places.

It was a great place to use our imaginations because nothing was predefined for us. And you know what? Even though the room was always returned to it’s totally empty state, it was never, ever boring. Just sitting in always presented an opportunity to create anything we wanted. It was awesome. :)

Thank you for this funny and inspiring post about your daughter. It just goes to show that toys are just outlets for children’s innate creativity and inquisitiveness. In that sense, the simpler the toys are, the better. There’s not much room for creativity when everything’s pre-designed for you by “a team of experts.” But give a kid a wooden spoon and things to bang on – and you’ve got weeks of creative (albeit somewhat deafening) music.

I do wonder though – will legacy toys always be legacy toys? Is there room for more techy, gadget-y things to become legacy toys as well? I mean, bicycles used to be novelty items too, right? What do you think?

I am done with all the toys (and we have too many books we should give to friends.) One thing I learned to do, mainly since we didn’t have the money, was ask grandparents for memberships to our local children’s museum, zoo, etc. and/or classes for the kids. “things to get us OUT of the house, not things to keep us IN the house” It was actually a big hit and it was great having a present last us all year. We also ask for magazine subscriptions- the kids love getting mail.