Here’s a truth: Parents like things that are pretty to look at, thoughtfully designed, and often free of logos. Kids like bright colors, buttons, bells and whistles, and icons they recognize.
These two taste groups often butt heads, and in early parenting, the parent wins. A one-year old does not know she’s been dressed up as Frida Kahlo for Halloween.
At some point, she’s going to have her own opinions and will want to dress as Jessie from Toy Story or a big-eyed princess, and we have to be okay with that.
Show me an 8-year old boy who picks a striped Mini Boden shirt over a Minecraft T-shirt and I’ll eat my own son’s sweater, which, for the record is 100% clean because he has absolutely no use for sweaters. They are not made of athletic fabrics.
This post is about crap that kids just don’t like.
For several years, every time I asked my daughter to show me some toys she didn’t need or care for anymore, she offered up this hand-knit style doll. I thought it was too cute to discard, and it was from a special friend of mine, but I finally surrendered.
She’d rather have a shelf packed with these guys.
During Easter when I saw bloggers and friends sharing pictures of eggs dyed with natural materials, over which people seemed to unanimously ohh and ahh, I refrained from sharing what I felt must be an unpopular opinion: Aren’t kids, while inspired by the amazing spectrum of colors derived from our natural world, a little bit bummed out by those eggs?
photo: wabisabi
Don’t kids want these?
Yes, it was sad for me when my daughter asked that we remove this Nikki McClure print that her dad and I both adore from her bedroom.
She wanted this kitten poster hung up instead.
As much as I personally like the way this black and white bedroom looks in a photograph, I feel sad if the little boy who lives here has to keep any toys with colors hidden under the bed.
No LEGO for you!
(photo: Project Nursery)
Mom of two, Mena Lazar, likes pretty things too, but agreed with me that bookcases with a single item on the shelves is a bit hostile toward children.
In fact, Mena compared this room to a “1940s tuberculosis ward.”
And these straws, which I cannot stop complaining about because they continue to show up in every photo of a drink on the Internet, are a disaster for children.
Imagine you produce extra slobber, because, you know, you’re three years old. Drinking through a paper tube is a recipe for failure. I can just hear the pttoooh-ing of all the children at a sweetly decorated party with shredded paper stuck to their tongues.
You know what I thought was a cute ride-on toy? This simple, kid-powered seat on four wheels by Hape:
You know what my kids had their eye on? This battery-sucking monstrosity because it has a “real radio, Mommy!”
Life is a compromise, friends. May your house be filled with beauty, laughter, hugs, and Disney merchandise in tasteful amounts.
