No Toys, But Lots of Bikes!

I love when my six-year-old tells me dramatically, “We have no toys!” My husband and I are quick to point out that we, in fact, have quite a few toys compared to many families in the world. But in her little world, she’s about right. Compared to the homes of my daughter’s friends, we have no toys.

We have a kitchen set and play food, a Barbie house and Barbies (plus a few Justin Bieber dolls), a costume and accessories collection, and a small box of Polly Pockets. There are a few other small, odd things, but that’s about it. All of my kid's toys could fit in one small closet.

But man, do we have a lot of bikes.

My kids have always been the type to be more intrigued by the wrapping than the gift. So when other parents joked, “Next year we’ll just wrap up an empty box,” we would do just that – get the kids enormous empty boxes. Some of my kids’ favourite toys are plastic storage containers, the laundry baskets, their sheets, straws, etc. They find found objects far more interesting than toys, so we’ve rolled with it.

With the exception of bikes. At last count, we had three trikes, two 14” bikes with training wheels, two 16” bikes, three scooters with three wheels, and a regular scooter. I paid $45 for one trike – (it was the first bike we bought for our daughter, before I knew how cheap used bikes could be), and said daughter recently used birthday money to buy the two wheeled scooter on sale for $16. The rest of the lot rang in at $40 for all of them!

When I find a bike for $5, either through our local police sale, garage sales, or at our recycle depot, I snag it if it’s in decent condition. We have a great street for riding, and when friends visit no one has to load up their wheels – we have enough for everyone. No matter what stage of riding one of my kids is in, we’ve got a bike for them.

Our driveway might look to a passing observer like an embarrassment of riches, but I love our collection of bikes, and will take these easy-to-corral playthings over a house full of underfoot-things any day!