None of us, no matter how back to nature we claim or want to be, are likely to deny our kids, during these excessive gift-giving days, the joy of ripping open the wrapping to reveal the most popular, must have toys of the season.
What defines the top toys remains a mystery to me—but my bet is my marketing friends carry the day, not the intrinsic value or fun in the toy itself. How else could you explain the popularity of multi-color rubber bands on one’s wrist? The pet rock? The “Chia Pet”?
Watching the irreverent David Letterman the other night, I laughed out loud as he ‘tested’ some of the season’s best kids’ items. When he wasn’t breaking them or shooting at innocently bystanding toys, he challenged the toy expert (a most patient, good sport of a guest) to defend the value of the items. In full tongue and cheek manner, he swatted the air as he waived a high tech wand while watching a high def screen showing bugs flying around. Turning to the audience, he vouched for the fact that, sure enough, it was just like swatting real flies—but why then wouldn’t you just get up, go outside and swat away? Or why, when most kids wouldn’t spend the morning doing just that, would swatting them virtually be so appealing?
Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, has for years been writing and lecturing (what others of us have been voicing) that our kids suffer from a nature deficit disorder. To just go outside and use their imagination and creativity, to learn to find the beauty, the fun without the aid of plastic, to use all their senses and benefit from all the outdoors has to offer would significantly improve their lives and our world.
Before you go and throw out last year’s electronic gadgets that lie idle on the kids’ shelves or beat yourself us for succumbing to these trends, take a deep breath and take it one step at a time. You can find a balance.
With the snow storm bearing down on us, load up on the hot chocolate, get your ingredients ready for your favorite cookie baking project, dust off the sleds, pull out some accessories for snowman building, get out your cross country skis, make a bird feeder ice wreath . . . and enjoy what nature sends our way—together.
And when you’re snowed in and sitting in front of the fire, get some seed catalogs to select what you’ll be growing in your garden this spring—make the plans now before somebody invents the virtual garden on-line!
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