Browsing through the toy isles at any store, you might notice a common theme—-buttons, lights, music, and motion. What do these things all translate into? Well, batteries, of course. In my opinion, battery-operated toys have gotten out of control. Half of these toys have the beloved disclaimer, “batteries not included.” The toys that do include batteries have cheap ones that barely last long enough for you to test the toys at the store.
Think of battery-operated toys as toys with upkeep costs. They require money every so often to keep them running. I personally have stopped buying these types of toys for my son—-at least for now. He’s still young enough that he can’t ask for a Game Boy or remote-controlled car. Besides, he gets plenty of battery-operated toys as gifts. After his birthday last fall, and Christmas shortly after, we have an over-abundance of toys with buttons and lights that eat batteries.
To reduce the expense of constantly replacing batteries, I have come up with a toy-rotating system. This works for children of all ages, especially young ones. I choose just a few toys for my son to play with, and I store the rest away in a closet. These toys are then periodically rotated. I generally take a battery-operated toy out of commission once the batteries go dead. Then, when I take it back out a month or two later, I replace the batteries. I use this rotation method for a lot of my son’s toys, even those that are not battery operated. The great thing about pulling out a toy that has been stored away for a while is that it suddenly becomes new and intriguing again. You will save money not only on batteries, but also on buying new toys. Instead, the old toys will stay exciting when they are kept hidden for a little while.