I wanted to post this in the general parenting stuff forum, but it won't let me post. Anyone know why?

We're going through the girls toys. It's TIME to downsize. I've been giving a lot of thought to the toys they have. I am realizing that the way I am parenting my children and hopefully teaching them to parent their own children is not being reflected in their toys. If we co-sleep, breastfeed, and cd, why do my girls have cribs, bottles, and 'sposies for their dolls? Hmmmm?

Has anyone else here given the same thought to toys? What kind of toys do you have in your household to emphasize your AP values?

I'm with you on that one. It stresses me out seeing my dd "feed" her baby dolls from a sippy when we don't do bottles. I realize that is one of the consequences of her having gone to preschool/daycare and seeing the babies there be bottle fed.

At the same time, much of it does demonstrate caretaking which is a trait I do want her to develop (and by playing mommy, she is showing caretaking). AP doesn't really have much "stuff" associated with it for child play other than a sling and playing feeding baby by pretend breastfeeding (which, now that we have a baby in our house again, she is doing again).

so, I'm with you on that one.

Well, we do have plastic, unlike many mamas here. My son is the Fisher Price Little people fiend. And also, anything with wheels is cool. buckets and buckets of cars, and trucks. lol. Lots of blocks - wooden blocks, soft blocks.
OH, and the train table - man, can't forget the train table.

My daughter prefers dress up and play kitchen. My dh (and santa) built her playstands and she has a stove, fridge, play food etc. Lots of dress up clothing - princess, fireman/woman, animal costumes, gypsy costumes, pirate costumes., a big basket of hats, beads, gloves, boots, shoes, playsilk scarves etc.

And lots of "babies". we have plastic babies, cloth babies (yes, they all have slings and cloth diapers and most have been nursed by one of us at one point or another). Strollers tho - must have strollers for the babies.

I have buckets of miscellaneous toys. Barbies and clothing, musical instruments galore (drums, maracas, recorders, tambourines etc),
Baby toys for the little ones I watch, a bucket o' balls.

We have lots of wooden puzzles, board games etc too. Tons of arts and craft supplies since my dd wants to do crafts every day.

and they have a swing set, sandbox and dh is building them a wooden climbing fort thing as we speak.

I guess what I consider toys that emphasize AP values are toys that let their imaginations work. If they are interested in something, I try to expand on that.
Does that make sense?

Have you considered not having ANY toys? That's where I am right now. We still have lots, don't get me wrong, but I keep thinking my kids might be happier with almost none.

So, what we have that I think supports my ap-ness. We have doll sized diaper covers and we use baby wash cloths or handkerchiefs for inserts. Our dolls are not specifically baby dolls, so my kids can pretend them into whatever age they need the dolls to be at the moment. We have absolutely no baby bottle or sippy cup approximates. Currently DS brings DD1 all the dolls that need to nurse. We use silks for slings. We do have a doll stroller, but it's the umbrella kind that I personally think is fine for older babies and therefore a good pretend thing. They also use it for a grocery cart and a car. We have doll sized beds, because sometimes the dolls need their own beds when my kids are pretending something for the dolls rather than the dolls being their babies, kwim? We have lots of dressup stuff that results in lots of gender bending, which I think is good for both genders to be able to do. We have non-girly house stuff, like the fiesta ware style teaset, wooden little bowls and tiny metal mixing bowls. No plastic, no plastic, no plastic. I want my kids to interact with stuff that is more natural so that when they're older, they might have more respect for the world that stuff came out of. I have no idea if that's true, but I would like to think so.

Now, I'll let you all know if I actually get rid of almost all their toys. We are seriously considering it. We did get rid of all of the little metal cars, because we realized that we were encouraging a car fascination that is so common in our society, even for dh and me, and we did not think it needed any help from us.

Have you considered not having ANY toys?
No, but we're downsizing the toys for sure. This will have some bearing on the ones we keep. I think Barbie should have a pretty good tax deduction, because she's making a big fat donation to the GoodWill! 1 Jeep, 1 Corvette, 1 mansion.

how about a sand box
you can even use a large but not deep storage bin(plastic I know :( )
my dh came home with an outdoor snad and water table for dd a month ago and she loves it, of course it's filled with real sea shells, lol

I constantly downsize the toys all the time, all in I don't think she has that many. Well, I have an older son and did have a home daycare, so I have a few shelves of 'good' toys down cellar, but I rotate them or give them away all the time.
My dd's favorites are blocks, kitchen set and dolls and strollers and other doll asseccories
she loves real tools too, she has a gardening set outdoors, a dustpan and brush, etc I think having real tools child sized is great! They can accomplish anything they set their cute little hearts on ;)