As a parent, you live and you learn. I’ve definitely done my fair share of learning, and experience is absolutely the best teacher. I thought it would be helpful for me to share the things that in retrospect I would never buy again for my kids (and maybe do a little ranting around some of these items). Of course all of these are just my own opinion, some people may love them, but I think it’s worth proceeding with caution before buying any of these.
Expensive Newborn Sized Anything
If something is expensive and made to only fit a newborn, it just isn’t worth the cost to me now looking back. I bought all of these cute little outfits for by daughter imagining that I’d get to take some photos of her in them, only for her to outgrow many of them before we got around to it. And baby shoes? Forget it…they’re totally useless since babies don’t walk and they’re outgrown in a flash. The same is true for so many items intended for newborns, in the blink of an eye they were grown out of it. There are the obvious items like shoes and clothes, but also smaller sized inserts to make something adapted for a newborn (if they aren’t necessary) or stroller seats made just for newborns are examples. I’ve even found that some bassinets are just sized too small, and looking back it would be better to have invested in something that would work both for a newborn and a larger baby. As much as you can invest in items that grow with baby, the better!
Kinetic Sand
While Kinetic Sand is a very cool concept, even I enjoy watching the way it falls apart and condenses back together. This stuff makes a complete mess every time my kids play with it. I’m always finding tiny little impossibly small pieces of it on the floor when my kids are done playing with it. They also coat the floor making it quite slippery. Unless you take it outside and only use it there, and then maybe it’s okay (but I can’t imagine that it’s eco friendly to get blown away). I really just can’t with the kinetic sand. Give me play doh any day over this stuff.
Toys with sensors that go off when you walk buy
As a newbie mom back in the day, this wasn’t something that I knew to look out for. However, it didn’t take long before my daughter’s interactive doll scared the living daylights out of me one night. I was picking up downstairs and letting the dogs outside in the backyard, and I unknowingly passed in front of the sensor, and this soft creepy little voice started talking to me. I was scared out of my mind until I realized it was just a doll, but man was that creepy. I also had a similar experience with one of my son’s toys that was a drum set. After not playing with it for 30 minutes or so, it says goodbye. It’s quite terrifying to hear a disembodied voice say “goodbye” to you from your kids room when you know no one is in there. I’d recommend that any toys you buy that talk have an off sensor that truly turns them off.
Super Long Books that are Intended for Toddlers
Don’t get me wrong, I love reading books with my kids. We read together every night at the bare minimum. My mom was a librarian, and I thoroughly enjoy passing on the love of reading to my children. With that said, I hate the incredibly long books with tiny print that go on and on and on for toddlers, or are really a series of many books. It’s inevitable when I let my daughter pick 3 books to read that she will grab these off of the shelf, and I have to either fight the battle of trying to explain short versus long books or I give in and read them all and let her stay up past her bedtime. To me, this just isn’t worth the battle. I’d rather have books that are the right length to hold a toddler’s attention span and are a reasonable length for a bedtime story.
Glitter
I’m sure I don’t really have to explain this one. No matter what you do, when kids get into the glitter it is inevitably everywhere (and I do mean everywhere) in your house for weeks afterwards. It’s like living in a Ke$ha music video. And boy do little kiddos love playing with it too. My solution is to buy the glitter glue or glitter paint instead. Then your kids can still have the sparkly shine from glitter, but since it is in the wet paint / glue, it doesn’t fly around your house and get into every single corner.
Alphabet Foam Playmats
I know you know the ones I am talking about. The foam mats that fit together like puzzle pieces with shapes and letters in the middle. Instead of getting used as an actual mat, babies and toddlers always end up using these as toys to pull apart and play with. Which is great for their entertainment, but it sort of defeats the purpose of buying a playmat. I’d rather get them a chunky wooden puzzle to play with and have a real playmat that would stay in place.
Is something missing from my list that you absolutely would never buy again for your kids? If so, let me know in a comment down below so that we can all learn from your experience too.
Thanks for stopping by! If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out this post on the Podcast Episodes you NEED to hear as a parent.