Why Buy Tech Toys for Kids as Gifts this Season?

When I see the markets flooded with tech toys for kids I feel sorry for the children are missing out the vital moments of connecting with nature.

One of the most joyous and wild experiences I recollect of my childhood was that of our gang climbing up a cashew nut tree and sitting on one of its extra long branches. We used to take turns to shake it vigorously, twice or thrice we have fallen from that branch to the ground 3 to 4 feet below. We would get up laughing our stomachs out and climb back again and again for the same experience.

We played several street games like lagori, rolling old tyres, kith kith…. Our indoctrination to basic literacy, number skills and reflexes was through traditional methods and outdoor toys. That was then!

See this post on a rural toy: Street Game: Village Boys Play with Old Tyre

Unfortunately toys are no longer for fun and entertainment. They are more for ‘brain race’. Today, trees are replaced by jungle gym structures and the traditional toys replaced by the high tech toys. In the west, top in gift list of most toddlers for this Christmas are items like cell phones, robotic pets, toy computers, digital cameras and MP3 players.

I agree, as parents, most of us are compulsive toy shoppers. But giving children high tech toys….. I mean are we aiding their intellectual growth in any way or harming it. Isn’t it a bit of extravagance?

Toys for Children this season

Tech Toys for Tiny Tots

These are for a 3 year old! “ClickStart My First Computer provides a safe computer learning environment.” “Easy Link Internet Launchpad makes it easy for kids to visit preschool-appropriate websites where they can play online games.”


Have a look at this. “V.Smile Baby Infant Development System gives your child a sensory rich learning experience from 9-36 months.” Attractive colors so will definitely attract a child, but will the child understand its actual utility?

Anxious parents expose their children to technology with the intention of getting them ahead in life and toy manufacturers are taking full advantage of this, labeling them educational.

No research supports this claim.

One shouldn’t get carried away by the marketing hype. 9 month old tots or 3 year old ones are too young to understand online-offline concepts or the education curriculum. Handling a laptop or a broken plate and spoon will mean the same to them.

Why Buy Tech Toys for Kids ?

Children will demand the moon – the full moon, they have for ages, and even we must have. Succumbing to every demand of theirs will make them human robots without sense, sensibilities and sensitivities. Uncontrolled TV viewing has produced obese children, these high tech gizmos will produce brain blobs.

Quality parent-child interaction time is what helps the child most. This holiday take your child out on a nature walk, chase butterflies, dance with the wind, go skating on ice or simply lie down and count clouds. There can be no better gift than this!

This festive season gift a Kondapalli toy for your child! For educational toys for children check out my post on Flintobox, play-based activity kit ‘Wildlife Safari’ to creatively introduce children to wild animals and their habitats.