What in the world happened to LEGOs?

Duke had his 6th birthday this month and one of his presents was this LEGO Creator Fire Rescue Set. The box contained a huge pile of very specific pieces
 to build three fire rescue vehicles (fire truck, jeep and helicopter) and detailed step-by-step instructions. Duke loves it and it is a great building project for Daddy/Mommy/son time.

But I have to ask, what has happened to the LEGOs I knew and loved when I was a child? Remember when you would go over to your friend's house and they would pull out this huge box of multi-colored multi-sized legos? You would dump them on the floor, pick out the dog hair, poptart crumbs, and barbie doll shoes, and start to build Something. 

No instructions. No fancy windows, elaborate turning wheels, tiny gears or chicken drumsticks included. But what came with those LEGOs of old was one of my favorite things; imagination.  You could build a house, a spaceship, a bug, or a ship. There were no limits as long as you had enough blocks.

You will be hard-pressed to find a simple LEGO box set in Target or Walmart these days.  Instead, you will find complicated sets to build three different houses or construction vehicles, Star Wars vehicles and SpongeBob houses. I had to really search to find this plain LEGO Ultimate Building Set from Amazon. I realize you can ignore the instructions and be creative, but these kits come with tiny specific pieces your kids probably won't use and these kits are expensive!  I like the simple blocks best.

This reminds me of a commercial I saw the other day. It began with this adorable baby sitting in the middle of the kitchen while Mommy was cooking.  The baby was banging a set of Mommy's pans with a wooden spoon. "Babies love to play in the kitchen", the voiceover says as it pans over the adorable scene. Anyone who has been around a baby knows how much fun they have banging on pots and pans. And this baby was obviously having a wonderful time AND staying out of Mommy's hair. 

I was touched, until the next scene shows this elaborate tiny plastic kitchen that talks and "teaches" your baby to count, learn colors, and speak Spanish.  Baby is now "happily" playing with this fancy toy while Mommy cooks.  And you thought the sound of a spoon on a pan was annoying...

I am sure this is an acceptable toy, but Baby was perfectly content with her pots and pans.  The commercial actually mentioned this in the beginning, so why am I being encouraged to spend over $30 on this toy?   There is not much imagination involved with this kitchen as everything has a specific purpose.  And don't get me started on toys that try to teach babies colors, numbers, and a second language...  Put an "educational" label on a toy and you are sure to sell more of them. 

Back to the LEGOs.  My son loves his Fire Rescue set and it teaches him to follow instructions.  However, it seems like many toys these days are more about teaching our children to grow up to be little drones rather than creative imaginative adults.  I have to ask myself what type of future world are we creating? 

Sure, it is very important to be able to work hard, follow instructions and finish a project.  We all have to be good little drones at various times in our lives.  But many of the things that make this country great are the creative minds that built it.  These new LEGO sets don't encourage creativity (unless you ignore the instructions of course!).  Lose one piece and your kids might be tempted to tell you to toss it because now they can't build the firetruck anymore because the instructions must be followed. 

I don't want to bash the new LEGO sets or baby kitchens.  But I do think it is important to let your baby bang on pots and pans and eat a few crumbs off the floor while you are in the kitchen.  And your little boys and girls need to have some simple toys that spark their imagination and don't require them to follow huge booklets full of instructions.   Look around your house and yard and you might be shocked to find that you already have plenty of toys.  Pillows for a fort, an old quilt for a picnic blanket, sticks and pinecones to build a fairy house, cards, old magazines to cut and paste, or marbles and paper towel rolls for building marble slides.  Looking around with a child's eye is a great way to rediscover your creative side.

We need future adults who can think on their own and can imagine a future of possibility.  We need future adults who looked at a box of LEGOs and got excited planning what they were going to create, not what page they were in the instruction manual.

Duke has two of those fancy LEGO sets (the other purchased ironically by me last year).  Once he has built  both sets I plan on mixing all of the pieces together and tossing the instructions so we can build some wild and crazy things.  I can't wait to see what we can create together.