As the population pyramid changes to a rectangle, the latent toy:child ratio continues to increase.
Every day I see piles of free toys around the neighborhood being given away for free.
People with 1-2 kids are drowning in toys.
That works fine for adults, but it's sketchier with kids. Maybe a better system would be to make them trade toys and choose which ones they keep?
We have many relatives and friends, everyone wants to gift something at every occasion (x2 kids), and several times friends gave us whole bags of toys their kids outgrew. Over time they pile up more than you may think.
And in the end - it doesn't matter how many toys they got - a measuring tape or an empty box will keep them occupied longer than any toy you can imagine :D
I'll admit that the circumstances were quite special but it seemed like a relief from the burden of all those toys we would have had instead.
You could outfit a kid’s room with toys pretty respectably from scratch with $30-40 at the thrift store or garage sales, plus maybe about that much again at Target to fill in the gaps (bucket o’ LEGO and a base plate or two, or some dolls that still have their accessories, or whatever). Could stretch that second amount further with some good Ebaying, I bet. Drop another $30-40 every couple years (even for bikes—$10-30 at a garage sale) and you’re good until they start wanting electronics (and then you can just say “cool, get a job”)
They play with their iPads, watch TV, draw, paint, sculpt with clay, and poke bugs outside -- my childhood + an iPad.