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Ok, I admit that I sound like a broken record when I keep saying; we as parents this and we as parent that, but in actual fact it is true that we take a lot of things for granted when raising our children. There are a lot of things that we do not even try to think about, but rather do what we have seen traditionally done around us. In these few words I would like to talk about toys and how we as parents buy them for our children.
Do you stop and think about the teachings, the ideas you are implanting into your child’s mind when picking up a certain toy?
Call me Adrian Monk for all I care, but I am super paranoid when I pick toys for my daughter. I do not want to end up like those parents who were surprised by a video game their children where playing in one of the restaurants in Johannesburg which had pornography in it. Allow me to list a couple of toys I do not want for my child;
· Dolls
· Guns
Well, let me not bore you with my foolish superstitions and paranoia but rather stick with what I think should be the right toys parents should get for their little-ones.
I strongly believe that we need to get educational toys, mind stimulating toys among the entertaining selection for our kids. The point first and foremost is to help grow the minds of the children. Resist the celebrity selection; the bling, the noise making selection, unless you are breeding the next Kim Kardashian or Khanyi Mbau or Babes Wodumo, no disrespect intended. Pardon me for only listing females, I only have one child and she is girl. Go for something stimulating that young imagination with the open-ended toys like building wooden blocks, Legos, rubber animals to play with in the bath tub, Puzzles and mostly colours and patterns.
Smart computer games are also good more especially in this generation of technology, but all of this needs to be taken in stages in reference to the age. In other words, parent supervision is vital at all times.
When my daughter was only 4 months old, I was playing with her on the floor of her room which I had laid down very bright colourful alphabetic tiles. I laid her on the floor on her back and I was so overjoyed seeing how the little-one was tossing and turning trying to see these bright colours on her floor. That small body which was still growing used its muscles turning to her to her stomach. She started looking at the colours, trying to touch them. I could see the curiosity in her face as she was exploring the whole floor which was bright and colourful.
I stand like a freak at Craze Store when buying toys for my daughter. I look at each toy that captures my attention. I read it to understand what it is about and what it will contribute in my child’s grow and mental development. It is my strong view that if its end purpose is only to entertain, then that toy is useless and is a waste of your child’s time even if the children themselves show interest in it.
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