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Post by stampbooker on Jun 12, 2015 20:24:54 GMT
How old are little girls when they generally stop playing with things like toy kitchens and food, baby dolls and strollers, etc.? Not American girls or Barbie, but more like "playing house"?
Would you say they stop playing with these types of toys earlier now than in the past?
What do you think?
Julie
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Dani-Mani
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Post by Dani-Mani on Jun 12, 2015 20:29:02 GMT
I think this varies way too much by region, family ideals, etc. I know first graders who don't, and fifth graders who do. There is really no set answer for this.
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MaryMary
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Post by MaryMary on Jun 12, 2015 20:29:48 GMT
My seven year old still plays house, my ten year old doesn't. So, somewhere between those ages. Ha.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2015 20:31:45 GMT
When they get more knowledge and use of the real kitchen? And when they get to be around real babies and younger kids? Just a guess.
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Post by moveablefeast on Jun 12, 2015 20:33:25 GMT
My 7yo was done with her play kitchen about three years ago. Babies are still a favorite. Dollhouse is still very in. But toy food that didn't cost $70 from the AG store is sooooo three years ago.  (NB: at the moment she cuts it out of the magazine and plays with that - I don't pay for that stuff.) |
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breetheflea
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Post by breetheflea on Jun 12, 2015 20:36:44 GMT
My 10 year old still plays with her dolls (school) and dollhouse. My 8 year old not so much... Yesterday my 10 year old was at her best friends house (he's a boy) and came home and said "Noah didn't mind playing house with me, he just pretended to be the dad and went to work all day". Poor boy  |
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Post by stampbooker on Jun 12, 2015 20:39:52 GMT
My daughter turned 5 in February and I was just wondering how much longer I could get out of this play phase! I don't want her to grow out of it!!
Julie
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2015 20:43:56 GMT
My 7 year old son and his friend were just playing with his play food earlier today. They set up a restaurant, took orders, "cooked" it and served it to DH and me. He doesn't play with that as much as he used to, but it still comes out once a week or so. He still also loves his kid-sized Dyson. I only wish the darn thing actually vacuumed.
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Post by jeremysgirl on Jun 12, 2015 20:44:30 GMT
Our 5 year old still loves playing tea set and with baby dolls. The 9 year old has pretty much outgrown it.
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Post by bc2ca on Jun 12, 2015 20:50:38 GMT
The most popular play area in the kids' Kindergarten class for both boys and girls was the play kitchen/house area, so I'd say at least up to age 5/6 and a couple years older for some.
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Post by lorieann13 on Jun 12, 2015 20:51:30 GMT
My daughter was done with her play kitchen in 3rd grade (8/9 yrs old). Same with her puppet theater.
She is 12 and still loves her AG Dolls!
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Post by scrapsotime on Jun 12, 2015 20:53:22 GMT
The six year old I babysit still plays with play food, but it's starting to migrate to play doh on the kitchen table. she has her own cookie cutters and rolling pin and makes cookies out of it.
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Grom Pea
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Post by Grom Pea on Jun 12, 2015 21:27:34 GMT
I think it depends on the toy food, my niece is 10 and doesn't seem to play with the play kitchen and that food but loves shopkins which are like mini anthromorphized food and other items like shoes or cleaning supplies. I think it's more fun for her to collect and organize them rather than pretend she's making and eating food but she did say she uses Tinkerbell to go shopping with the little cart and check out items.
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Post by PEArfect on Jun 12, 2015 21:38:27 GMT
I think it really depends on the family. My 16yo dd would be mortified if her friends knew that she played with dolls (Monster High Dolls), but her sisters relentlessly beg her to. She gives in about once a week.  Super sweet! My 13yo dd will play with my 7yo dd, but they normally make videos with their dolls when she plays. The kitchen and baby dolls have been gone for awhile. My youngest dd pretty much missed out on that phase because she always wanted to play what her big sisters were playing. I guess in a sense they do play 'house' with their Monster High dolls. They have set up different places for their dolls. A grocery store, pet store, bakery, school, gym, and on and on. I know eventually my youngest dd will have to rely more on friends to play with then her sisters. Sad, but that's just part of growing up. |
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caro
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Post by caro on Jun 12, 2015 21:38:30 GMT
My 6 almost 7 year old DGD still plays with her kitchen and baby stuff. But she has loved babies since she was a baby herself.
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Post by alittleintrepid on Jun 12, 2015 21:43:19 GMT
I think it sometimes depends on the company they are keeping. My 9 year old neighbour will play restaurant with my 5year old DD ostensibly to keep my DD happy. 9'year old neighbour wouldn't do this with her same-age friends but I've seen her playing long after my DD moves on to something else!
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paigepea
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Post by paigepea on Jun 12, 2015 22:04:55 GMT
We got rid of the plastic kitchen, etc when younger dd turned 6. At that time, my 9 yr old dd and her friends still played with it but my 6 yr old wasn't interested.
Perhaps if we had a larger house with more space we would have hung on to it and the interest in that type of play would have ebbed and flowed, but with my 6 yr old busy with friends and school, we didn't see a point on cluttering our house. She continues to play house and family, it's just imaginary versus yang plastic toys.
P.
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scrapaddie
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Post by scrapaddie on Jun 12, 2015 22:15:58 GMT
I think it sometimes depends on the company they are keeping. My 9 year old neighbour will play restaurant with my 5year old DD ostensibly to keep my DD happy. 9'year old neighbour wouldn't do this with her same-age friends but I've seen her playing long after my DD moves on to something else! I would agree with this one. Not the same timeframe but my daughter finished sixth grade in a public school and seventh grade she started a private school. The kids in the private school were much younger than many of the kids in public school. The kids in public school were wearing make up. The kids in the private school werent even thinking about it yet. Some of the kids in public school We're taking pregnancy tests. Kids in private school were still just talking about boys and crushes. For your little one, all it takes is one of her friends to say oh that's for babies! |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2015 22:25:18 GMT
My 4 year old boy still plays with his toy kitchen |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2015 22:38:02 GMT
We got rid of the plastic kitchen, etc when younger dd turned 6. At that time, my 9 yr old dd and her friends still played with it but my 6 yr old wasn't interested. Perhaps if we had a larger house with more space we would have hung on to it and the interest in that type of play would have ebbed and flowed, but with my 6 yr old busy with friends and school, we didn't see a point on cluttering our house. She continues to play house and family, it's just imaginary versus yang plastic toys. P. I think ^^^this^^^ is the biggest factor. Families with more space to let toys languish for a while until interest is renewed get rid of toys before the kids have completely lost all interest. |
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Post by melanell on Jun 12, 2015 22:42:28 GMT
My 5 yr old DS still plays with his kitchen regularly. And I've noticed that my tween son & nieces will play too if the younger kids are playing with it. the other morning before school, both my 5 yr old and my 10 yr old niece kept bringing me trays of food to eat from their "restaurant". My younger son never showed much interest in baby dolls. But my older son played with them probably until 1st grade, maybe? |
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Post by alittleintrepid on Jun 12, 2015 22:57:35 GMT
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Post by Linda on Jun 12, 2015 23:19:08 GMT
Simon played with baby dolls and the toy kitchen until about 7 or so. He was my kid who was most into it.
Cathleen was probably about 7 or 8 when she stopped playing with them but she never had much interest in it at any age
Annabelle put most of the baby dolls away last summer (shortly before turning 8) but still has a couple out as well as the kitchen and plays sporadically with them. I suspect this will be the last year.
I remember playing with my baby dolls until about 12 - we moved in mid-7th grade and I think that's when they were packed up. And I had at least one same-age friend who was still playing with dolls also. I don't remember having a play kitchen - but they were bulky and we moved so often with the military that we may not have had one. I do remember when we lived with my grandparents (when I was 10-12), that Granny got out my mum's old toy kitchen and doll highchair for us to play with (from the late 30's/early 40s - mum was born in 1936) and I played with those.
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Post by bigbundt on Jun 13, 2015 0:06:26 GMT
It depends on the kid too. My almost 5 year old girl plays with toy kitchen and food at school with her friends but not so much at home. Never has since she got it a few years ago. She will play with her baby dolls sometimes but it isn't like an all day thing. She much prefers Shopkins, little figurines, cars, and playsets. Basically anything that has a thousand pieces she can throw all over the floor. I LOVED play kitchen and food and baby dolls well into elementary, possibly middle school, but I knew even then that I was a little old for it. Didn't stop me from playing with them though! It kind of makes me sad because when she was still a baby I bought and collected a bunch of really nice house play things, like stoneware bakers and nice plates for when she was a little older. When I was growing up I hated anything that looked like a "toy". I didn't want brightly colored plastic items, I wanted mini versions of the real thing! Of course my kid loves anything crazy colored. |
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Post by hop2 on Jun 13, 2015 0:52:00 GMT
Baby Dolls - DD never really played with. She 'mothered' her stuffed animals.
Strollers maybe at 10 or 11 she stopped?
The kitchen however was played with for years. In fact i have seen her friends 'play' with that as teens. LOL They thought the 'cutable' velcro fruit was 'cool'
ETA: DS played with the kitchen and the foods for years as well. Probably got the most use out of that than any other toy we had ever.
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Post by Linda on Jun 13, 2015 2:29:45 GMT
We got rid of the plastic kitchen, etc when younger dd turned 6. At that time, my 9 yr old dd and her friends still played with it but my 6 yr old wasn't interested. Perhaps if we had a larger house with more space we would have hung on to it and the interest in that type of play would have ebbed and flowed, but with my 6 yr old busy with friends and school, we didn't see a point on cluttering our house. She continues to play house and family, it's just imaginary versus yang plastic toys. P. I think ^^^this^^^ is the biggest factor. Families with more space to let toys languish for a while until interest is renewed get rid of toys before the kids have completely lost all interest. I think this has played a role for us but the bigger factor here was the wide age gap between children meant that the toys have pretty much stayed in circulation from when the oldest started playing with them until the youngest started outgrowing them...so when one reached an age where the toys were starting to be outgrown there was someone else behind them who needed to be shown how to play with them and then would want the older one to play with it with them. I was sad to pack up the vintage Fisher Price Little People playsets this past year - Annabelle kept out the castle and the firehouse for now - because they've been in continuous use for over 20 years (and were vintage then - from the 60s and 70s mostly) |
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Post by AussieMeg on Jun 13, 2015 2:47:05 GMT
My DD never played with dolls and things like that. The one exception was picnic sets, and she grew out of that at about 4 or 5. She was always more into craft things.
I remember when DD was in Year 1 at school, so all the kids were 6 and 7, and they had a "Bratz Club". You could only be a member if you had a Bratz doll. One of DD's friend's mum (who is a good friend of mine) felt bad that my DD didn't have a Bratz so she bought her one for her birthday that year. I don't think DD ever played with it, and she wasn't in the slightest bit interested in the Bratz Club.
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Post by bc2ca on Jun 13, 2015 2:55:26 GMT
That is an awesome guide |
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Post by scrapmaven on Jun 13, 2015 3:27:59 GMT
Play is a kid's job. It's so sad when they outgrow it and I promoted being a kid as long as they wanted to. The big grown up world hits you soon enough. For us complete play sort of stopped at 7th grade. At that point it was trading cards and technology. It used to be so much fun to watch their excitement when they opened a new toy. Now it's boring cell phones and clothes.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jun 13, 2015 4:11:04 GMT
DD had a small Sesame Street play stove/oven that she liked, but it was too small for her Melissa and Doug wooden play food things which she really does still like playing with. The big wooden kitchen at her preschool was probably the most popular play area in her class too with both the boys and the girls, as others have mentioned.
So for her birthday this year (5) we bought her a bigger Hello Kitty kitchen/café setup that is sized for kids her age and she LOVES it! The thing makes sounds when you turn the water faucet handles, put the coffee pot in its spot or put something on the burners. It even has a little Open/Closed sign on the side she can flip, and an ice maker that dispenses plastic ice cubes into a glass on the door of the fridge. But what she has liked the most is the pretend Hello Kitty smartphone that is docked on the one side! It's hilarious listening to her one sided phone conversations with Elsa or Anna from Frozen or Sofia and Amber from Sofia the First! It's a riot.
We put her little table and chairs in the room with it, and when her friends come over I'm sure they will have fun playing with it together for a while yet since most of her friends are onlies like she is or the only girl in their families. She just started playing "tea party" within the past six months or so even though she's had tea sets and stuff for a few years now. She loves playing "birthday party" too, every week she throws a birthday party for one of her stuffed buddies. She's never been into baby dolls much at all even though she has a few of them.
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(NB: at the moment she cuts it out of the magazine and plays with that - I don't pay for that stuff.)
Super sweet! My 13yo dd will play with my 7yo dd, but they normally make videos with their dolls when she plays.
