Exactly One Gazillion Pieces
Written by The Square Parent Friday, 29 May 2009 00:00
Why is it that when looking for suitable toys, it's so so difficult to find anything that contains less than exactly one gazillion pieces? When you choose two toys, what you're actually getting is two hundred separate and distinct objects. Oh, it's great to see the excitement of mini-me digging into a new toy, checking everything out, and handing all the pieces, but then what happens exactly 37 minutes later?
Obviously, given the prevalence of such toys, people are currently buying them, have been buying them for some time now (think of Lite-Brite from your childhood), and very likely will be in the future, because... well, that's the nature of children's toys. On the other hand, it's a complete drag having to constantly clean up hundreds of pieces of a given toy, after being played with for only a couple of minutes. And then all of those pieces need to be stored somewhere, and then eventually be gotten rid of.
And what if the kid doesn't necessarily like the toy, or only plays with it a few times? Then you're stuck with hundreds of pieces either randomly floating around the house, endlessly in need of being picked up and put away, or simply taking up space, and in need of disposal sooner rather than later.
It seems a very common parental notion that more pieces will keep the kids occupied, like a sort of all-purpose solution to the alleged problem of boredom. So the parents are left to tend to the piles of pieces and parts around the house.
Of course kids need many pieces to hold their attention. Or is this really true? Going for toys with as few pieces as possible seems like a low-hanging fruit way of making life easier, that is, keeping the house in better order by having less stuff to clean up, having fewer small objects to step on, and less chance of rendering a toy unusable because one or more critical pieces has been lost.
But the siren song of complexity calls. Toy store employees, especially, have a very difficult time answering, or even fully processing this question; naturally so, they're trying to move merchandise.
But overall, it seems that the complexity and so many pieces reflects the notion that kids need a huge number of objects surrounding them in order for them to be entertained. Actually, the opposite seems to be true. They can do fine with one object, seem to be able to have many creative uses for it, and come up with scenarios not easily imagined by the parents. This is something fun to watch.
This is a task at once difficult and easy for the parent, or interested gift-giver. On one hand, it is difficult to find toys with minimal pieces. But when that toy is found, chances are pretty good that it will hold their attention pretty well, and provide many different uses. Use a process of elimination. Once you've eliminated 90% of the toys in the store, you're left with a much smaller selection, which then paradoxically makes the selection process easier. From that 10%, then go with the kid's gender, interests, or something that simply appears cool and novel. You may hit, and you may miss, but that's true of anything. At least some thought will have been put into it, which is really the most important thing of all.
If you really want to have something with exactly one gazillion pieces around the house, look no further than the kid's imagination.
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