General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Americans have too much money and too much stuff. [View all]mopinko
(70,076 posts)my kids had a ton of toys. because i knew that every knew toy wired a new brain circuit.
it is the work of childhood to finish wiring the brain by digesting the world. in the time since my kids were babies, we have discovered just how much they know, and how programmed they are to explore and understand.
yeah, there are stupid crap toys. we managed to avoid a lot of them.
but then there were legos and little people.
my #2 is prolly on the spectrum, but that wasnt even a word then. i just knew what he was up to, the way he devoured the world.
his thing was legos. every xmas, he asked santa for whatever the big set was that year. since there was a drunk cousin who showed up in a red suit on xmas eve, we were stuck.
but we never regretted it. once the plans were followed, the thing assembled, the real fun started. the stuff that boy built blew me away. and the stories that went w them.
that kid now? has a phd in theoretical math, but working as a computer guru. crunching big numbers. did i mention that he taught himself 3 computer languages after he dropped out of high school? he also had computer games starting at age 3.
play is the work of childhood. dont lament that american kids have too many, lament that the rest of the world's children have so few.