Confession: three years ago, when I was a new mum, I thought wooden toys were a bit poncey. I thought that mums who bought them were a bit pretentious, and I chose the brightly coloured plastic toys every time. “Ha!” I laughed to one mum friend who lives in Kensal Rise (a very well-to-do area of North West London). “Isn’t it funny how some mums buy posh wooden toys, when actually, it’s the brightly coloured plastic toys that babies respond best to?”
I have no idea where I got that fact from. Oh OK, I made it up. But I genuinely believed it was true. (Sidenote: three-years-ago-Alison also thought that Bugaboos were pretentious. Three-years-ago-Alison was snarky.)
But now, I have done a 360° about-turn. I will always choose a wooden toy over a plastic toy. For her second birthday last year, we bought our daughter a wooden kitchen. For her Christmas present this year, we’ve bought her a wooden doctor’s kit. She has wooden puzzles and wooden musical instruments. Yes, we still have a shed-load of plastic toys but I have developed a love for all things wooden. One of my absolute favourite websites Not On The High Street sells an array of wooden toys – and apparently searches for wooden toys have increased 400% year on year. So I’m not the only one who’s a new fan. This infographic shows a history of wooden toys – we’ve gone full circle from the first ever toy shops opening up in 1891, selling traditional wooden toys, to mass production of plastic toys in the 1960s, to a new appreciation of wooden toys in 2013. Take a look…
Which do you prefer to buy – plastic toys or wooden toys?
Thanks to Not On The High Street for working with Not Another Mummy Blog!