Why Battery Operated Toys Mean More Clutter

Our house is crammed full of toys. A large proportion of housework involves picking up toys scattered around the house, toys which should be in the children’s bedrooms.  It takes an age to collect the dolls, building blocks, cast-aside soft toys, jigsaw pieces and trucks and put them back where they belong. And yet, the children constantly complain that they’re bored, that they can’t find a good toy to play with.

On the rare occasion when our children's bedrooms are actually playing host to the majority of their toys I have taken the opportunity to check the children’s shelves, look in their closets and peek under their beds. There are toys everywhere! In fairness, however, I have to point out that a great number of these toys are not working properly because the batteries in them are long dead. The batteries are seldom replaced after the second round. Having such an abundance of battery operated toys is a phenomenon familiar to most families. Even more familiar is the occurrence of these toys being inoperable because of run down batteries.   

I frequently wonder why, as parents, we continue to buy battery operated toys.  Shouldn't be have begun to figure it out somewhere along the way? Do we think our children can’t amuse themselves with plain, non-battery toys? Do we get caught up in the hype of a new product? Maybe we buy them because, like children, we assume a toy that moves or makes a noise or flashes lights is somehow better than an ordinary toy. Do we ever actually think of the cost of replacing batteries before we buy a toy? In all likelihood we buy the toy knowing that we won’t replace the batteries, but we figure the children will lose interest quickly anyway.

Whatever the case, I know in our family we have so many toys that require new batteries that should we choose to replace them all in one shot, it would likely cost us a great deal of money.
We have tried buying from dollar stores. We've bought massive packages of batteries, thinking we’re getting a great deal because they’re so cheap. But of course, they don’t last. A few minutes of power and then they’re all but drained.

In the end we've simply decided to pick out and keep the best of these toys, leaving the others to go to a garage sale. These toys will then be passed on to another unsuspecting parent who figures that the toys are so cheap they’re a good buy. And at last, we'll be rid of most of those battery operated toys we've amassed.  They will be someone else's problem!