We were walking through the toy section of the Superstore the other day when Wyatt grabbed a toy, stating "I want this one, mommy." and threw it in the cart. What!? We don't just get toys for no reason! but that's not true. We do get toys for no reason. A lot. If I see a good garage sale, I stop and pick up something fun for the kids. I often get Wyatt a little Hot Wheels car to keep him happy while we're shopping. There have been plenty of times I picked up a cool toy or game for no reason, other than I thought the kids would like it.
I look around our house and it's just cluttered with toys. My kids have SO MUCH and my friends' houses are just as bad, maybe even worse. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the loud rattling sound of someone stumbling over something, followed by Dayven swearing "BLAGH!! Why do we have so many FRIGGIN' toys in this HOUSE!??" He threatens to start throwing things away on a weekly basis.
When I was little, you got presents on your birthday and Christmas and even then, it wasn't over the top - maybe one nice thing you really wanted a few other small things. Even though something like a Hot Wheels car at the grocery store sounds trivial, I just don't remember getting stuff like that. Since we only got things sporadically, I think we appreciated them more. It was really a special treat. If you took all the toys my brother and I had an combined them with all of our friends, I'm convinced they still wouldn't equal what you'd find in one house today. We had everything we needed as kids and lived a good life. It was just a simpler, less cluttered life. I think about the stuff kids today get and it just blows my mind. It's not like kids today are any happier than we were, probably less so actually. 
Some of my happiest childhood memories didn't involve stuff, but just our imagination. My dad is an artist and my mom's really creative too so they always encouraged that in us. We were always creating, building or decorating something. My brother, Josh and I attended a Saturday Morning Art Class above the local fire house, taught by two local artists who were friends of my parents. Every Saturday we worked on something fun that allowed us to explore our creative side. We made cardboard castles (with a parade around town in costume to show them off once completed), paper mache masks, paintings, mosaics and sculpture.
Josh and I played for hours in the woods near our house (ok, so it was more of a swamp, we did live on an island). We actually referred to it as "Alligator Swamp". Who knows what kind of creatures were living in there, but we didn't care. We cut trails, explored, collected treasures and bogged around in the mud. We went canoeing in the back canals around the island, sailed our little Sunfish in the bay and caught crabs off our dock with raw chicken and a crab trap. We went boating on weekends with other families. We all met up on one of the surrounding uninhabited islands to cookout, play volleyball and go knee boarding. My Dad even built us a boat that looked like a car with a little trolling motor, which we drove around for a while, until we decided it wasn't "cool". What I wouldn't give to have it back now! We built forts out of blankets and cardboard boxes and always had some sort of craft project going. My Dad would let us make creations out of pottery and then fire them in his kiln and glaze them for us. Once, he and my brother created this abstract "totem pole" that consisted of pieces of driftwood they'd found that they painted and glued things to, then draped rubber snakes over. They stuck them in the sand at the beach for fun and someone in town thought they were evil and threw them in the trash. My Dad happened to be driving past the dumpster and found them and put them back on the beach, not realizing why someone had thrown them away. Of course, imagine how shocked the person that pitched them was to see they were BACK! A sure sign they were evil indeed... We still have a good laugh about that one.
I loved my childhood and I love looking back on it. I wish my kids were growing up in the same world I grew up in, but I know it's different now. People take exotic vacations, buy fancy toys and throw over the top, elaborate birthday parties. It's easy to get caught up in it, but I'm going to make my best attempt to stay true to my roots. My kids still have a blast playing with an empty cardboard box so I know they have it in them...
4 comments:
I hope you stick to your guns with not so much "stuff". I agree, kids have way too much stuff now days. I remember having so much fun pushing my momma cat with her kittens in my baby buggy. Making ballarina dolls from the blooms off of holly hock flowers. Catching fire flies at night and making rings out of them. Climbing way high in the trees. Making "mud" pies in my play house. Riding my bike in the barn and roller skating in the hay mow around the huge hold in the floor. Climbing up the windmill ladder and also climbing on the roof of the barn. The only boughten thing was the doll buggy and my used bike, boys infact. I never bought the grandkids much when they came to our house we did all kinds of crafts at the table and they loved it.I did buy games at the Thrift store and we played lots of games. I also forgot about the big hole in the ground where the water pipes were and I had my toads that I loved to play with down there.
I loved reading about your wonderful, imaginative childhood -- it sounds like it was filled with so much adventure and love! Fabulous. I just know that even though the world we live in is different now, that you're creating that same environment for Wyatt and Hadley. Love, Meg
I loved my childhood too Chels. We too used to play outside for hours (until we were forced to come inside and eat dinner or go to bed). We rode our bikes, played in the woods and creek. I guess my parents believed in the "less is more" theory too because no one came to our house to play because we never had the "cool toys." Now that I am thinking about it, perhaps that was my mom's plan all along....
Here, here Chels. You know I'm right on board with you on this one. It's hard to do though sometimes. I find commercial pressure quite intense, even though I hugely disagree with it. We have just had a beach holiday for 8 days and we took 4 little cars, a little bit of track and a couple of mini-batmans and that was it - 3 little toys each. And they didn't say anything or mention their toys at home. It spoke volumes to Jim and I. Now I just have to navigate my way through Christmas!!!!! Love the blog, Nai xx
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