Like everybody else in metro NSW, I received the bumper toy-sale catalogues in the post a couple of weeks back. Big W. Target. Myer. All the major chains simultaneously vying for a pre-Christmas panic attack that would have me lining up at midnight and swiping my credit card before you could say "
um, but aren't there 6 MONTHS til the big fat man squeezes down the chimney?"
Instead of throwing the catalogues immediately into the recycler (where most of my junk mail ends up) I decided to have a quick looksy through them, and I have to admit that for a few minutes they had me convinced. Life-size cuddly characters from In the Nightgarden; Thomas the Tank Engine boxed sets; springless trampolines... I began to hyperventilate.
I got over it quickly.
I remembered my first toy-sale experience when Fern was a baby (last year). And the nasty taste it left in my mouth. And just now, I remembered an email I sent to my mothers group afterward, describing my experience. Here's an excerpt, for a bit 'o' fun:
So. I'm a mummy now, and there was really only a limited amount of time I could avoid the toy isle at the chain-stores. With Big W, Myer and KMart all having big sales that started at some ridiculous time like midnight last night, I decided it was time to face my fears. After all, there's only so long Fern will be fascinated with sucking her own fingers, or stretching my earringed earlobes down to my shoulders.
I hit KMart at midday, after spending 3 hours circling the carpark fruitlessly seeking a space to rest my car. Fern -- hoisted over my shoulder like a sack-o-potatoes (said car space too narrow to release stroller from back of car) and I approached KMart with a sense of trepidation. The scene that greeted us was not unlike the mosh-pit at the Big Day Out... a thrashing throng of weary women with glazed looks in their eyes grabbing anything that moved (or squeaked or spun or made a noise). I thanked God I am tall and could still reach oxygen!
I prepared myself to be dazzled... after all, these other women were passionately wrestling each other over the last tickle-me-elmos and pint-sized laptops... but I found myself strangely unimpressed.
They call it a sale?? Honestly, the way its all advertised I expected to buy all my christmas pressies til 2022 for $20 bucks! Instead, I found meagre savings off a slim range of plastic-fantastic toys proclaiming 'hours of entertainment' and essentially all doing the same thing. I was unconvinced.
I came to the realisation I do not need a house full of plastic -- surely a rubber ball, a ball of playdough and my pots n pans would do the same job as these expensive products we are made to believe our kids cant live without?
My lovely next door neighbour - a sensible mother of 3 - told me over the weekend that she went to the toy sale at Big W. Got there at midnight and lined up TIL 3-BLOODY-AM!! And she's not alone. Almost every mum I know went to at least one of the sales. Or at last circled the catalogues and made preparatory lists for Christmas. It would seem I am the only mum left in all of NSW that will visit the toy department in Myer on Christmas Eve. But if it means no queues, no layby counter and free giftwrapping -- I figure its worth losing the few bucks I would have saved in buying it all in July.
What say you? Did you brave the toy sales? Is it a parenting rite-of-passage I am denying myself of? Is it all really WORTH THE PAIN??
