I’ve been thinking about this for a while, now that our home is littered with the inevitable accumulating detritus that comes with having a toddler.  She has a few toys that I love.  They are wood or fabric and feel hand crafted and I don’t really mind when I find one stranded in the middle of the hallway.

I’ve tried very hard to avoid purchasing our daughter too many things. I’d like to believe that this has more to do with a spiritual rejection of consumerism than a snooty prejudice to all things non-biodegradable.   I waver back and forth.

What I do know, is that there is something much more sacred in a wood block than one of these.  We (unfortunately) own a set of the latter and after 2 minutes and three bite notches, they now reside in the closet.  I’m not sure that we’ll be removing them even when my daughter stops teething on everything within reach. I know that when she builds with (or chews on) a wooden block, she is not only connected to the tree from which it came, but also connected to a long line of budding architects who have played with blocks for centuries.  The foam like substitute wasn’t only manufactured in a human rights violating factory, who knows what crazy chemical compounds make up its essence.

I don’t think too many religions have an edict against plastic, but I would love to see less of it in our home.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Gladware and rubber duckies but I’m starting to really try to be much more careful about my purchases.  I can’t control the gifts others give my daughter but I can gently direct her play to those things which are more in line with my values.  It’s not really a problem anyway.  Most of the flashy and blinking toys are novel for a moment but now that the weather’s nice, she’d really rather go outside and rob the plants of their flowers.