I've been thinking a lot lately about the toys I want my kids to have(assuming I ever get married and assuming, after that, we have kids). Here are some things I remember from my childhood that I wonder if kids will still think are fun years from now. I mean, I look at some stuff from my parents generation and think, "Really? They thought that was cool?" Anyway, here goes (and actually I'm pretty sure some of this is from my parents generation):
-Jump rope
-Skip it
-Hula hoop
-Jacks
-Marbles
-Pogs
-Magic/Pokemon/or even Yu-gi-oh cards
-Hopscotch/chalk games
-Hacky sack/bean bags
-Stilts
-K'nex (I"m specifically not including Legos or Building blocks because I doubt those will ever get old or go out of style)
-Lincoln Logs
-Polly Pocket
-Giga pet/Tamigotchi (okay, so kind of like a computer game but still, I think they're cute and usually you get bored after playing for like ten minutes at a time)
-4 Square (I had some homeschooled roommates who had never heard of this game!)
-Cardboard boxes (Every child should know the joys of a good, giant cardboard box and some colorful markers!)
-Rubik's Cube
-Pickup sticks
-Cat's cradle (and all the stuff that goes with it)
-Yoyo
-Bop it
-Slinky
-Etch-a-sketch
-Sprinklers
-Barrel o' monkeys
-Choose your own adventure books (I always wished I could find more of those. The few that I read I really enjoyed though.)
-Games: Guess Who? Twister. Battleship. Chess. Jenga. Sardines.
....what did I miss?
Things that will never be in my house:
-Tarantula
-Snakes... except maybe a small corn snake or two... nothing else though
-Bratz... I just think they're stupid
-Easy bake oven... my kids will learn the real way to cook. They will not be pansies.
-Furbies... Those things are so freakin' annoying!
I hope this doesn't offend anyone. I've just been thinking about this a lot lately, especially with the new Toy Story 3 coming out. I hear it's great!
I understand this list may entirely change in just a few short years. I may change my mind about any or all these things. Since I'm not a parent I have no clue what it's like. Sometimes I wonder what kind of mom I'm gonna be.
There's a water play area at one of the local parks around here. It feels like every single time we drive by I either witness, or hear about, another story where a little kid cracked their head open there (I can still hear the screaming of one little girl and see the blood going into the drainage area). It's super dangerous.
But yet there's always tons of people there. I wonder if I would let my kids play there or not. I mean, I wouldn't want to be over protective and I'd want my kids to have fun. It's lame to be like the only parent who doesn't let their kid play because it's possible they might get hurt. But at the same time, I would not want my kid to get their head busted open!
Yeah, you could take your kids there and say "No running." But that's like putting a bowl of M&Ms in front of a kid and saying, "Look at them, but don't you dare eat any!" It's just no fun if you can't run.
Good thing I don't have to worry about that right now. All I have to worry about is whether or not I'm gonna graduate college next Summer. No big deal.
Oh, and did I mention I'm going on a cruise in August!?
1 comment:
Well, we had all of those things when I was a kid except:
Magic/Pokemon/Yugioh
Polly Pocket
Gigapet/Tamigotchi, and
Rubiks Cube.
Some I think you may have forgotten:
Uno
Password, Catchphrase
Board games like Monopoly, Parcheesi, Chutes-and-Ladders, etc.
Chinese Checkers
And we also had: Croquet, badminton, volleyball, kickball, nerfballs, broom hockey, bolo-bats (the little rubber ball on a rubber band stapled to the paddle), the old "paper-doll" paper cutouts, paper airplanes, paper football (the folded paper triangle you could play on the cafeteria table at school after lunch).
And then there's air hockey, foosball tables, pool, and other games the rich kids had...
There was a game called "Mousetrap" and "Operation", and Rockem Sockem Robots, and one I can't remember the name of where little beans tumbled down a track in a race to the bottom of the little track.
We had barbies and GI Joe's, too.
And HO model railroad layouts. And slot cars.
Boy, those were the days.
We didn't have any computer games. In fact, I was a late teenager when the very first electronic game (Pong) came out. I remember PAC Man and Donkey Kong came out when I was in my early 20's.
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