The Price of Their Toys

What is the dumbest toy we ever bought our kids?

There are so many to choose from....

The $140.00 Life Size Barbie that Alisa HAD to have the Christmas she turned four, that she looked at once and then never touched again. Barbie wound up at Dan's work at USU, standing in the hallway and scaring unsuspecting co-workers as they came around the corner.

The $50.00 Millennium Falcon we bought for Mitch that he didn't even ask for. We just thought it had the ultimate in coolness factor, and would make us the best parents ever. That one kicked around the bottom of the toy box for a decade before we chucked it. The real irony here is that Duncan got a tiny little Millennium Falcon out of a Taco Bell kid's meal, that everybody wanted to play with, and that he took everywhere he went for a couple years.

Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. Sorry, I know they are classics. That's why I bought them. But they just can't compare to Lego's. And nobody could ever get a decent roof on the log cabin anyway.

I was thinking about all this yesterday afternoon, which I spent sorting through the piles of tiny plastic toys in Olivia's room. Olivia and her friends, meanwhile, spent the entire afternoon on the trampoline, with a blanket as their only imaginative prop. Every time I looked out there, they were completely immersed in one pretend drama or another, and having an excellent time.

A 15 year old trampoline and a $15.00 blanket. That's all they needed to not only keep themselves entertained, but also completely out of my hair. In three hours, not one whine, complaint, or fight.

I wish I had my money back.