What happened to the good old toys?

I was walking around the stores lately looking at toys to get for my son, when suddenly I stopped halfway down an isle of infant toys and asked myself what happened to the good old toys. Nowadays it seems like everything requires batteries.

I was looking for a teething toy for my son so I stopped a sales associated and asked her to please direct me to teething toys that do not contain water or liquid. When we got to the huge wall of teethers it came down to two options: one of them was a raspberry shaped pacifier and the other was a vibrating star or strawberry. I stood there feeling puzzled. Not even the teethers are free from batteries; apparently some genius decided that the vibrations of a rubber toy soothed a baby. I decided to buy the raspberry (which by the way is an incredible product that doesn’t require batteries).

On another shopping trip we wanted to look at ride-on toys, exersaucers, and those walking toys that children push when they first start to walk. Everything needed batteries! I swear the battery industry is carried by parents who buy toys for their children. You don’t realized how fast you go through the batteries until everything you own requires them.

I wanted to buy my son just a set of wooden block for him to build whatever his imagination would allow him to just like I did when I was little (and my father before me and his father did before him). This simple no batteries required toy was more expensive than any of the other toys in my baskets. When did we stop liking the good old fashion wooden toys that were built to last? Why have we replaced them with cheap plastic and a battery compartment? I hope that every child at least has one good old fashion toy just to remember that you don’t need a song and bells and light to go off on a toy just for you to have endless hours of fun.