Mum in the City

By Sonya Fladun

DESPITE the economic gloom, I’m sure most parents of young children have been out trying to hunt down that particular must-have toy; more often than not, urged on by their TV-watching and catalogue-savvy offspring.
One of the hardest tasks for parents at this time of the year has to be the management of great expectations because, let’s face it, a blow out in expectations can very easily produce a serious household budget deficit in the New Year.
Most of us remember the long campaign of lobbying parents for some hideously expensive toy. Expectations would be fuelled by the fabulous department store toy displays, the city’s annual parade (I grew up in Adelaide), themed television programs and at least 12 weeks of toy advertising campaigns. Anticipation was huge. I figured that if I got that Cabbage Patch doll or ballerina Barbie, it really was going to be the best day ever.
These days, children have the most amazing toys: Baby dolls that walk, talk, crawl, cry, wee and eat; stuffed dogs that beg and shake hands; dancing robots; computerised raptors; see-in-the-dark goggles and even horrible-looking aliens that you can grow in test tubes if you feed them correctly and don’t forget to put them to bed at night.
Last year Australian consumers apparently spent around $1.6 billon on toys, most of it around this time.
My children’s lists are long and daunting, but the truth is they often get as much enjoyment out of the box a toy comes in as the toy itself.
Boxes and cartons become racing cars, rockets, buses, planes, trains, cubby houses – just about anything imaginable. My two can spend hours, indeed days, working on these projects. Toilet rolls and egg cartons are equally prized, along with straws, plastic cups and balls of wool and string, sticky tape, paint, chalk and crayons. 
This is not to say that many toys have not given them hours of joy or that I haven’t been out there with all the other parents in the long queues at the big toyshops. But I have tried to remember this year that fun doesn’t have to cost a fortune.  Simply taking the time to play with children and help them push the boundaries of their imagination may be the best gift of all.