I understand your ways but try to spend a little less, i have 3 children 5,4,3 and i am almost 40 weeks pregnant i buy my children educational toys but fun toys with the. I am on the poverty line according to the government i buy new and i buy second hand but my kids welfare come first and last. Your sister needs a kick up her **** for being selfish most mothers always put their kids needs first. You dont needs brand new upto date toys to teach your children either. I take them for walks and i show them flowers animals bugs clouds and how everything works this is science they are all amazed. Then while we are shopping i let them count items into a bag and read the labels, and colours. They cook at home. When they are ill i also teach them the right way how to get better vitamin c helps your immune system e.t.c everything in life is a learning curve so you dont know need expensive toys or educational games.

She sounds kinda selfish… I buy my little boy lots of toys aswell and I am also the complete opposite of ‘well off’ my kids come first always!!! (I have 2 more on the way, that’s what I mean by kids)

I believe kids need toys to build the imagination. I am not talking about spoiling them and giving too many but finding the line. Mine always had many toys but as boy girl twins they had very different interests. Tell your sister that you are not interested in her nasty comments

It doesn’t matter how much you spend on them, but we as parents always seem to feel we need to give to our kids all that we didn’t have.
I don’t buy mine lots of toys anymore, but the ones he gets are pricey and he’s old enough to understand it, but when he was younger I did. He’s my only and I’d get him something every paycheck.
Tell your sister to **** out-and to get some bleach for the freebie toys that arent cleaned. (and dont let your kids play with them until you know they are).

we allways buy our kids toys. every year we end up taking two garbage bags to the salvo’s because they have too many.
we let them choose which ones they want to give away and they enjoy doing it.
kids need toys, whether they are wooden blocks or top of the line robo pets. why would anyone deprive their children of fun by locking the toys away?
that’s just horrible.

I have 4 children, 3 who are adults. When i had the 3 children, They had toy’s but not as much as the 4th does now, he is a bit spoiled because he is our only one left at home and he is 9 years old. To tell you the truth, I regret spending so much money on toy’s that he only plays with for a short time, Then it gets pushed to the side and never gets played with again. I’m sure it’s because he gets more toy’s that amuses him. They do go into many phases of toy’s they like. My husband bought our son a dirt bike he wanted so bad to ride around our property, He only rode for 3 months and has no interest in it now. Having too many toy’s is not very good in my opinion. Not all toy’s help with imagination. They will get bored easily with it. The more toy’s you get for them… the more they will expect you to buy it for them, Just wait until they get older, they will wont more and the toy’s they want are very expensive. Don’t lavish them with so many toy’s, you will regret it later. They don’t understand your reason for buying them, they only understand their reason which is I can get anything I want.
As for your sis… It isnt any of her business. I would never buy my children toys second hand.

Your sister sounds as though she needs to get priorities straight. Children’s needs come before parent’s wants. She sounds lazy. Not because she’s buying weight loss gimmicks, although that is a symptom, lol…but because she she doesn’t wash the second hand toys before giving them to her kids, won’t let them play with the toys because she’ll have a mess to clean, and because she yells at them instead of talking to them and explaining why things are the way they are.

That said, buying your kid second hand toys makes good money sense, even for people who have money. Actually, especially for people with money. Ever wonder why they have it? It’s because they don’t spend it, and when they do it’s on something they won’t have to throw away in a year. You want to be rich? Do as rich people do. I learned that from my father, who is a Cheapskate to teach all Cheapskate’s but has got everything he could possibly want or need and money to boot. He’d rather spend $1500 on one good tv, than $400 several times on crappy tv’s that keep breaking.

It’s the same concept with toys. Kids grow out of them so quickly it’s foolish to spend too much money on them, you’re literally throwing it away.

My kids didn’t have tons of toys, one doll each. They had buckets upon buckets of blocks, hotwheels, k’nex, and little animals from the dollar store. They had puzzles and more BOOKS than they could count. That is where money is well spent. Education imagination. We bought a lot of board games, even when they were 2 there were games they could play and learn with. They had soccer balls, basketballs, skipping ropes, chalk…outside toys.

Now they’re teenagers and don’t want everything in sight. They know that what they ask for better be something they really want because Greedy gets nothing, and they’d much rather have a $200 camera than a bunch of little stupid things that amount to $200.

They also work and save to get most of their belongings. We buy them stuff at Christmas and birthdays, but if they want that Wii game that’s being released next month they had better find a driveway to shovel and pray for snow.

Toys at their age are not necessity. They are luxury. That’s a lesson that should be instilled at a very early age. They’ll appreciate everything they have so much more.

As for the stuff I have bought them….all still being used. They’re 14 12. What they don’t use themselves, my nieces and nephews get lots of use out of when they come over. They don’t take a lot of space (and I live in an itty bitty apartment, so I’d notice, lol) so I don’t see myself ever getting rid of them (aka, throwing away money).

Quality not quantity.

I buy heaps of toys. I need to spend my money on something.
We are in the middle I think, neither Rich nor poor. I can always justify spending money on them kids of mine. I just can’t justify it for myself.

heck ya….well i make good money now so i can do that…i can’t go to the store and not get something…i think he had 40 presents from us and family at xmas and he was only 6 months old…however some where clothes and toys for when he’s older. I always said i wanted my children to have more then me with the same morals and values. I think every parent wants that.

Oh Lordy yes….my granddaughter has more toys than any 3 children should have!

To each it’s own. Personally, I don’t find toys to be a necessity but a privilege. Children do not need toys to learn and grow into healthy adults, they need parents who are willing to take the time to be there for them, teaching them hands on what is right and what is wrong, helping them with learning all the important things in life that will make them better people.

It’s really easy to sit there and judge others….although your sister makes comments to you…it sounds like you to a lot of judging yourself. Have you ever thought that the reason you are below the poverty line and she seems to be above it is b/c she budgets her money appropriately?
I know children learn through play (and toys) but they learn a lot more interacting with others. They also learn a lot by being BORED and coming up with their own things to do.
Try to set a certain amount of $ each month to toys and do your best to stick with it.

I also buy my kids lots of toys. I cant help it. When we moved one of the movers said was there a sell at toy’s r us, buy one get the whole store free. LOL. So i can understand where you are coming from. But then again my kids dont really play with there toys very much because they have so many. So i can understand what your sister is saying too. When my kids birthday and Christmas comes along it is sooo hard for my family to get my kids anything cause they have everything. Me and my husband are trying to cut back now on buying them toys. My husband is in the army and i am a stay at home mom so we too dont have a whole lot of money. But the feeling of being able to give my kids things that they want and need is a great feeling for a parent.