I grew up in suburb of a big metropolitan city that is Kolkata (Calcutta). Though, 1/3 rd of my day was spent in a very quite school of south Calcutta, I cannot say I was a city girl.
I spent all my afternoon playing with my friends in my neighborhood, and a lot of us came from a wide range of socio-economic background . But that did not infiltrate in our bonding or made me to learn some bad words (this is another wrong opinion about playing with kids coming from different background). I think that helped me to be better person, by knowing and trying to understand the difficulties which some of us face. Never the brand of cloth we wore or the price-tag of our toys did matter. In fact, we had all same kind of toys..a boy and girl pair( i think Rs 10-15 that time) and lots of kitchen cooking utensils. A new shoe box had a lot of value that time, because after that one of toy families would get a new house . The lack of ingredients never hindered our enjoyment and enthusiasm, in fact often having not much will boost up child's imagination and ideas. We grew up in a generation ( I would rather say a better generation when we did not have a 5 year old playing in i-pad), technological advancement often take out a lot from a child's imagination and has profound effect on his developmental growth.
Now, when I am a mother of a five year old. I did exactly the same thing what my contemporary mothers did. I loaded my child's room with loads of toys...each one of my friend knows how does it look like. I got lured by Big store toy rooms. First came "Thomas the train." My God! It was like an explosion. First Thomas, then his friend Edward..then Henry...Gordon..James..Percy.. the list continued. and It was not always my son. It was me too.Like comparing with other Mom , I would go to store and run to buy Emily..or blah..blah..blah.. But this post is not about catharsis of my feelings or self-declaration but a note to any new mom. It will never end...the list will never end. We are the easy piece or soft target..we are nothing but consumers..dad..mom..grandma..grandpa...and our precious little ones. No.. I am not against these toys..but somehow I feel its really pointless to buy so many of them just to increase the number or variety. One always can have some of them but not all of them.
Some of the toys I really love to buy and play.Like LEGOs, again I am telling myself..no more different types of LEGO boxes. I bought LEGO pieces in grams/in weight basis and gave Adi to play... what ever he wants to make. Some other good toys I feel are TRIOs and JENGA. All are building/construction toys and good for fine motor skills. Another game "Candyland" is suggested by Adi's school teacher. She emphasized to play with him to increase his social interaction and communication skills.
Our present younger generation is so much addicted to technology that really not good for their mental health. Most of the little kids get glued with the i-pad and i-phone, tablets ...becoming more introvert. Often by playing together, people learn lot about team work. And its so much good to see them play together. Few days ago I went to take my son from school. And somehow I felt to watch him playing with friends without his knowledge. It was so good to see them playing together, running..laughing and jumping together. Childhood should be like this..without electronic gadgets and expensive toys but to play and laugh together from generation after generation.
