Selling Nostalgia

When I was newly pregnant and even shortly after Lil' Bit's birth, I used to wander the toy aisles scoping out all the toys, looking to see what was new since I was a kid.  And, if I came across a toy from my childhood, I got giddy at the thought of buying it for her so she could have as much enjoyment as I did playing with it.  But, here's the thing, it only works with *some* toys.  Things like Lincoln Logs or Legos are fun because you get to build things with them and that doesn't change from generation to generation.  [I speak only of the "regular" Legos and do not include the new "girl" Legos as I think they are an affront to females everywhere.  But, I digress.]  Care Bears, Cabbage Patch Kids, GI Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony, and Strawberry Shortcake can get facelifts and be sold for years into the future as well.

It works less well with what I call "household item" toys.  In particular, I remember seeing two Fisher Price toys that I loved when I was a kid and initially wanted to snatch right off of the shelf then and there, so I would have them for her to play with--the record player and telephone:

Fortunately, I overcame my impulse and didn't buy them, for which I am grateful.  See, as Lil' Bit has grown up, I realized that these toys would not be much fun for her.  What made them fun for me was that they were play versions of things my parents and older siblings had/used.  That is no longer true.  Lil' Bit loves her fake cell phone because it looks like mine.  A rotary phone and record-player don't have that same appeal.  At her age, she wants to do what we do and use what we use.  These objects don't fit that mold.

Watching Lil' Bit play with certain other toys has only reinforced my belief that this is true.  I have an old-school Winnie-the-Pooh Busy Box that was mine as a child.  It has switches, knobs, and dials which, when pressed, cause a character to pop up.  Lil' Bit mastered all of them quite easily--except the rotary dial.  Why?  Because she doesn't see one anywhere else so she has no behavior from which to learn how to use it.  I also got her a Super Grover remote, which she enjoys, but even that has issues--namely, rewind and fast-foward buttons.  When the buttons are pressed, Grover makes these great noises that are hilarious to anyone who ever had a VCR.  But for Lil' Bit, who has known only DVDs and DVRs, the sounds may be silly, but she'll never get the joke.

The truth is, toy companies are selling is nostalgia.  They are intentionally preying on our emotional attachment to our childhood to get us to buy toys for our kids.  I don't know that there's anything necessarily wrong with it, mind you, as long as we're aware of it.  Why?  Because if we give in and buy the toys, our kids may not play with them, or may not enjoy them the same way we did, and we might be disappointed.  This is not to say that we can't or shouldn't go ahead and indulge our nostalgia.  Besides, isn't that part of why we have kids in the first place--to have an excuse to buy toys for ourselves?  So go ahead.  Buy that record player and listen to that tinny, plinky version of "twinkle twinkle little star" as many times as you can stand, or run your fingers along the "needles" to make a cacophony of plinks.  Enjoy every second of your nostalgia.  Just be honest about it.