What to consider when buying toys for toddlers

Who doesn’t know that feeling? You just bought a great present for your loved ones. They love it, scream full of excitement and play with the new addition to their toy box for…. all but 5 minutes! Then the novelty factor wears off and they refer to their old favourites. Or worse start begging you for another toy they really, really want. Yes I thought you know exactly what I’m talking about. What can you do to avoid this from happening? Well you never have a complete guarantee that it will work, but read my three golden rules to give yourself a chance to increase your success rate.

1. Stimulation
The most important question to ask when buying a toddler toy is: ‘Can this toy stimulate their inquisitive minds?’ Toddlers especially build their own little fantasy worlds and need to feed the need to explore. It’s very simple buy them a battery operated guitar that plays 3 tunes and it will take about 10minutes for a toddler to figure out that there are only 3 tunes and that all the guitar is doing is playing one of them depending on which button they press. Buy them a wooden kitchen with a couple of pans, food items and cutlery like this HABA Kitchen and don’t be surprised if they play for hours? Why? The possibilities to interact with the HABA kitchens are endless and toddlers are constantly looking for something to stimulate their senses. Secondly it can act as a great educational tool teaching them about different foods and why they are healthy or not. And laslty it’s also relatively easy to keep them involved with it by asking questions like “Pia I’m cocking pasta for dinner, what are you going to cock with your fabulous kitchen?” “Egg soup with apple juice and tomato sauce, Mummy!” and you know you have a quiet half an hour to whip up a gourmet dinner for your family.

2. Know your child
You obviously need to have a general idea as to what they are interested in. No point buying them a kitchen when they are ‘obsessed’ with Disney Princesses. But again do ask yourself if the toy can stimulate them or not. Actually if you’re kids are into princesses you might want to check out these Disney dolls. My daughters absolutely love them and we had to actually double up Cinderella, Jasmine, Arielle, Belle, Aurora and Snow white, so that they both have one of each to play with. Yes sometimes it’s easier to give in, when the old ‘please share your toys with your sister’ isn’t working. Feel free to also check out my ‘Disney Princess Product review’ if you are after a truly magical present. 

3. Make a roster
Even if you buy a toy that stimulates their senses and is generally something they are interested in, the day will come where even the best toys will have to take a back seat. Or do you think Woody stood a chance against Buzz in Toy Story if it wasn’t for a Hollywood-Happy-End-Scriptwriter? Well here’s what I do to avoid them getting too attached to just the one toy. I rotate the toys and lock certain ones away for a period of time every couple of weeks. Yes sure you have to be careful when and how you are doing this. There are a couple of tricks my husband and I use like remove batteries when it’s battery operated. That way Daddy can take it to the garage to get if ‘fixed’. Sure they will ask a couple of times when it gets fixed but lose interest pretty quickly after the 3rd time asking for it – provided you have replaced the toy with something equally stimulating. By the way girls, it also makes your hubby look good and he will thank you for it. The other trick is to simply take it when they are asleep and then help them search for a while. Warning this one can result in tears though, so be prepared.

Of course every child is different, but make sure you find something that inspires their little minds and they will play for hours. If you want to know what my kids and I are rating highly, read the ‘My daughter’s 3 favourite Toys’ here.