I don't want kids either
And every time my nieces come over to be babysat, I'm reminded why I don't. Too much noise
At least for stuff like cons it's a constant level overall and it does become quiet in it's own way due to that
And if need be, there are quieter spots
Meanwhile with a five year old and almost two year old the level varies wildly so it can't be mentally thrown onto a shelf

*nods* yeah, I suppose it never hurts to know what you're doing. Though I've also noticed the ones who would use such a class the most are usually the ones who won't voluntarily take them.

i'd always said i wanted two kids. and i had two kids. they're all growed up for the most part - 22 and 18-1/2 now! O_o

legit, if i were to adopt or have my own kid, i'd definitely want a class on how to take care of a kid. i'm really not that good at doing that.

I'm good at the basic physical needs, but I'd need a course for anything above math skills and dad jokes.

<x} Well, they didn't teach me about math or dad jokes, hehe.
But I did learn a bit about the child psyche, :]
and a lot of other interesting things.

Like for instance, if you provide a wide variety of toys for a toddler, they will experiment and according to their unique personalities, chose the toys they favor more, over the toys you want them to play with, and develop into a more clearly defined individual easier and earlier. :] It also gives them the chance to understand gender roles and their associations with boy's, girl's and unisex toys. The children exposed to all types of toys found they have a firmer grasp on their identities later on in life, as opposed to other children who were only given one type of toy to play with.

I kind of drew a parallel between my cousin and I when we were toddlers and the toys our parents provided for us. o.o

My mom, mainly, provided me with a variety of toys in a toy chest. Dolls, stuffed animals, a pink play stove with food, tea cups and baby dolls were a few girl's toys. Cars, Dinosaurs, Soldiers, Trains, and Trucks were some of the boy's toys. Then there were balls, building blocks, play-doh, sound toys, and puppets for the unisex toys.
:D Since I was their first child, a daughter, my dad thought I would go for the girl's toys. My mom didn't know what I'd pick.

I didn't go with the girl's toys...I went for a select few from ALL categories.
I liked the play stove with the plastic food, and the utensils, I liked the dinosaurs A LOT, and I was drawn to the play-doh, sound toys and puppets like a magnet! >:D My parents were delightedly blown away! :D Because they gave me a variety of toys to explore, I learned to play with a lot of them, and to associate myself with a more artistic and sound-oriented playstyle.
All kids have certain playstyles. :] They have things they love to play with and don't love to play with, and finding the correct playstyle helps them develop a healthy sense of identity and interests.

But what about my cousin? :/ (Well, second cousin really.
She was raised by a single mother, my actual cousin, in her late teens. She had my second cousin at 17.) She adored her and as a young first time parent had so much energy but very little knowledge about what to do. <:/ as a result, she wanted a baby doll, not a child, and so she spoiled my second cousin rotten with tons upon tons of girl's toys. 8[ I mean, TONs. All sorts of dolls, play houses, make up tables, ponies, princesses, dresses, crowns, wands, wings, shopping carts, you name it!

My second cousin, as a toddler with so many toys, found interest in some dolls more than others, and only the biggest play houses and some of the crowns. But she also found interest in her mother's old toys she shared with my boy cousin when they were growing up together. Her daughter went for some of the little Mc Donald's wind up toys, but mostly the horses and the dolls. She wasn't used to the boyish toys and creepy monster toys she found. She stuck with the girl toys, and eventually grew to expect a lot from her mother, which now, she couldn't give her. <:/ I won't go into the long of it, but as my second cousin grew and grew, she had a bratty and spoiled childhood, lost sight of who she was later on in life, had a falling out with her mother and set out on her own, and found herself later on after high school, being interested in mainly cute stuffed animals, horror video games, and surprisingly, more medical and chemistry subjects.
Though she didn't have the greatest sense of identity, and struggled with finding her unique interests, she is doing better as an adult, and learning more about herself, while also visiting her younger half sister. :] They love each other very much despite their mother not being a part of their lives anymore, which is good to see.

But the difference now between me and my second cousin, is actually both unique and small. :D We enjoy many of the same things and have a similar sense of humor. Factors growing up play a huge difference in the lives of kids, along with the choice of our toys growing up of course too. O.O I don't think I began to realize this UNTIL I took that Child Development class, and took a look back at myself and MY childhood. Then I thought, "Wow. I've been observing my surroundings and listening to sounds since before I could walk or talk! I knew what a stove did and what fire was, before I could even reach one! My parents somehow fed my growing brain so I was able to speak and articulate before age 2!" 8O It was mind blowing.

Too bad the stuff I learned was in a textbook, <B/ And not taught to me by a passionate, mindful, and competent teacher. >8/ My MOM would honestly have taught that class better! Well, she is a teacher, so of course she would, but she has never taught college level! >8[ Or any class other than Special Ed! She's gone to college for many a psych and child dev class! More so than any art class ever! <x'D

Sorry this was such a long facts lesson! Wow, I guess I had a lot to say here. 8[

TLDR: My cousin and I are rather similar in personality, though she is 5 years younger, despite having vastly different parents and childhoods. However, she has struggled more with mental health, and with a sense of identity and relations with others, than I have. Toys in our youth both helped and hindered us with our sense of self, and personal interests. Crazy interesting stuff yo!

we would visit my grandparents (mom's parents) frequently, and i would sleep over lots in the summer when i was a kid. my grandmom had lots of things for me to play with, a lot of it was crayons, coloring books, and stacks of that greenbar computer paper. she also had various trucks and cars in the cabinets, because i have younger brothers, and my first cousins are also boys, so when they would come to visit, my cousins could play with those toys as well. my mom also told me i got frustrated by barbies and the like.

my daughters had all sorts of toys, when my older one was little, she did like barbies, but she also liked stuffed toys and animals. i don't remember what type of variety we had for them, but i'm sure they were all types. in the end, they both tended towards stuffed animals XD

I wasn't allowed barbies as a kid
Dunno why, seeing as I was allowed Bratz

iirc, i really hated dolls and preferred... eh, traditional boy's toys.

<x] I always wanted the boy's toys for like kid's meals toys in drive-thrus, because I didn't like any of the pink, flowery girl's toys. I had a better chance of getting a spider or a robot if I chose boys' toys, so I did. <x'}
I still like puppets and play sand and bubbles so...*shrug* :/ I might be an alien.

i preferred anything miniature though i tended towards dollhouse stuff when i was able though i think that had a lot to do with moving around a lot as much as the scale did. it was tiny things that were able to be plonked down in just the right way and stayed there until i decided otherwise

miniature things <33333

still crying 30 years later bc my dad didn't let me play with cars as a kid

Cars! I got to help work on the real thing as a kid. And had all kinds of little metal ones. It was DOLLS I wanted.

How about a dad joke?

What do you call the huge grey vehicle chasing your boat?

that was so bad I must make more people read it

My nieces really like play-doh

i love dolls and plushies to this day

I really should get an updated unicorn army pic
I might have enough plushies to fully cover my bed now

aaahhh jealous! I only have one unicorn

I don't even have a unicorn. But I have some My Little Pony, the 1980s ponies.

I have several unicorns. Only two are plush. One's from BaB (one of their blind bag toys). He's wearing some cute little baby boy underpants, because I grew up calling underpants boonies. And I wanted to make Boo Horse into a boonicorn.

Buahaha. You're welcome.


Plushies are dolls. Video game characters are dolls. Sims are dolls. The avatars here are dolls. This crochet spiral with wiggle eyes stuck on it is a doll!

...

That is to say. I love dolls to this day also. 9_9

Crochet spiral with wiggle eyes? Did you make it yourself? Do you have pictures?

I've got some glass ones, a head wall mount, a large pad for lying down on that I want to add pockets to for hanging storage, a bean bag chair, one of those windup music playing ones (well, two, but one's a plushie), a full helmet, multiple onesies, several shirts and pjs besides, some porcelain ones, the plushie army, a sleeping bag, wind chimes (those ones are carousel), key chains, bags, pins, books...
I have over 20 years of collecting so I have a fair few
The bigger ones make for nice pillows, too. One of my nieces when staying the night uses one as such. I used to, but now my pillow is a giant tamago sushi

I have so many that only the plushies are my army

None of those are unicorns? One of my unicorns is a miniature Glory.



I can make them, but this guy I bought on impulse. I don't have a picture of him, but this is what he looks like. Mine's blue.

Nah, none of them are unicorns. At least I don't think so. But need to check again to be 100% sure.

And that's a funny wriggly worm.

Damn Kit, that's a very large collection xDDD

Yes
The 20-odd years plus the unicorn love explosion means a lot of stuff
I also have food items that are unicorn themed
Oh yeah, and rainbow slime aka unicorn poop
UnicornPoop is the name of our internet too looooool
It was originally some random generic number-letter combo but it's changeable and I was the first one to change it and so there it is
The password for our internet is potato themed, and both are so memorable that we've changed mifi device twice and both times mom kept the name and password because they're so memorable
Oh yeah I have a couple posters too lol

what a wonderful environment to live in *______*

I hope unicornpoop internet is fast and not at all poopy

It's mediocre
Best we can get tho

So its UnicornPoop-ish xD

Yes
Took three days to download FFX-2
Should've been only two and a half but I forgot to plug in my Switch so it died on me, costing me half a day oops

o_o;?
….nnnnnnnnot sure what's going on, ahhhhhh
I'll come back later. <x]
*slowly backs away*

Omg Kit that’s super slow Dx
I’m sorry

Derpy clings to your leg. "No! Pwease stay wif me!"

Yeaaaaaah
And like I said, it's the best we can get around here

Been there. Really sucks when theres not better coverage

We live next to a cow farm so it's not surprising

We also live close enough to a concert venue that we can and will lose all internet ability for several hours on concert nights
Traffic sucks those nights, and as it's attached to a theme park and noise ordinance laws means the concert is dumping as employees are leaving...
I'm in glow, which is the latest retail shift, last to start last to end. I'm always stuck in that traffic to where it's better to wait an hour or two for it to clear out
Eugh

I used to collect unicorns when I was young, but I think it was my mom's idea. I still have a couple china ones, a little hand made one from Etsy, and a painting that a dear friend made for me which is a copy of a picture from a calender. I didn't know about not ganking art back then. But now my friend is dead, and that's MY painting. I didn't spend any money on it though. Now days unicorns just show up because I have this fantasy pony collecting habit sometimes.

Yes. It's a fun wriggly too. I tend to carry mine around as a doll (I carry dolls as part of how I deal with PTSD).


*much sympathy for Kit*

Aaahhh that kind of thing you mentioned with the calendar is messy. Some see it as bad, no matter what, some see it as a useful practice tool as long as it's properly credited, etc, and others still are only okay with it under certain circumstances

Oh man no wonder the internet sucks there D;