My first stop was the boys section and I was really disappointed with the offerings; especially for the age range that my 9 year old grandson has reached now.
There was an entire row devoted solely to Legos. Legos are fine. I don't have anything against them, but really, is that ALL an active 9 year old wants to do? ....play with tiny plastic blocks?
The next aisle had movie based figurines mostly of the fantastic, fictitious or grotesque variety on one side and cars and trucks on other side. There again, they are okay but none of these things really do much to spark imaginations.
I moved on to the girls section where there is a plethora of dolls, ponies, puppies dress up type things. There actually was a little more variety in the girls section.
I finally landed on a gift for my 5 year old granddaughter and yes, ended up getting Legos for grandson and just hoped he would be more excited about them than I was.
I suppose my daughter-in-law is right in that most boys are playing video games at that age more than they are playing with toys.
I tried to think back to Christmas catalogs of my childhood and what the offerings were for boys back then. I couldn't remember that well because frankly I was looking for the things I was interested in, but I did find some pages online that give some idea of different offerings of toys back then and the search results seem to bear out that there really was a lot more variety for toys back then than now.
I think video games are OK in their place, but unfortunately, they seem to be crowding out everything else. I don't really "get" these games. I've sat with my grandson while he's tried to show me this wonderful imaginary digital world, but it looks bleak and cheerless to me. After years of being glued to the screen (I honestly thought our older grandson was addicted), he (he'll be 15 next week) began to lose his obsessive interest in video games and is now enjoying more outdoor activities (skateboarding and biking) and playing his guitar.
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