'Turnkey' toys of no real value

During the holidays, I am under pressure from my son to buy him something called a Skylanders Giants Starter Set. I had never heard of such a thing, so I checked online and found that it is an expensive kit that comes with a game and a couple of creatures. It is a "starter kit", which means kids will have to collect additional Skylander figures, each of which costs around $15. Once collected, such figures cannot be taken apart, re-designed or reassembled. Children just collect more and more of them until the trend is replaced by the next big thing. As Spring Festival approaches, I am afraid many other parents face a similar situation.

I asked my son why he wants this Skylander thing so badly. He replied, "Everybody else is getting it." He gave me a list of names, which made me wonder what is wrong with children today. Can't they just collect stamps or something? They just move from Pokemon cards to Angry Birds to Skylanders. The manufacturers create such toys in series so that kids will keep buying them. It is very addictive for children. The manufacturers also set prices deliberately high to give an illusion of value. Children use such prices to manipulate their parents into thinking that they need to buy these products to show their love.

Let's face it. Some people nowadays cannot value anything without a price tag. If it is expensive, it must be good. As Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, points out, outdoor play, valuable as it is, is quickly diminishing because it is free. Nobody promotes something that isn't helping someone make money.

I almost fell victim to this game. A voice in my head kept saying: What is $75 compared to the joy of my children? However, reflecting on the electronic cars and Transformers and Angry Bird toys that used to bring them happiness, I see a pattern of initial merriment in the morning, quickly followed by boredom in the afternoon, and clutter in the house in the evening, and often environmentally unfriendly waste when they were thrown away.

My son is partially right. Price is indeed a factor in my hesitation, but my greater concern is that these manufactured, single-purpose toys do not provide sustainable fun for children. When I was a kid, we played with sticks and rocks and clay and never got tired of them. These are raw materials with no particular purpose, they are called "loose parts" toys, a term coined by British architect and artist Simon Nicholson. Many educators believe that loose parts toys are better able to cultivate creativity. Daycare centers and kindergartens use the safer alternative of Lego and wooden blocks. To make something out of these loose parts toys, children have to exercise their mental muscles.

All quality play, from card and board games, to playing a musical instrument, or in my case writing columns for China Daily, requires effort, and such effort is rewarded by a sense of satisfaction that becomes deeper due to the delayed gratification. "Turnkey" toys are easy to operate, provide instant feedback, and require little thought, and that's exactly what's wrong with them. They have little-to- no nutritional value for a child's mental and psychological well-being.

Buying something expensive for their children may ease parents' guilt about not spending enough time playing with them. In this sense affluence has its own undoing. Others may follow the trend unconsciously as their children manipulate them into believing in the value of such toys, and they do not want to look bad either to their children or other parents.

At the end of the day, we are held accountable for nurturing our children and providing the things they really need. To buy a toy our children want is easy, to fight the currents of commercialization takes greater resolve and courage. It may take a group of us to form a movement to fight such trends. Christmas and the Chinese Lunar New Year follow one another in quick succession, I encourage fellow parents to say no to the drug-like commercial play that is of no benefit to children.

The author is a US-based instructional designer, literary translator and columnist writing on cross-cultural issues.

(China Daily 01/31/2013 page8)