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This feels more dystopian than contemporary (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 days ago by to c/news@hexbear.net
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https://www.wafb.com/2026/09/10/little-tikes-iconic-childrens-toys-go-colorless-contemporary-feel/

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[–] 59 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (10 children)

There are actually two types of beige mom:

The sad beige mom: cares about matching everything to their precious aesthetic choices, no fun, no colour, still a ton of ugly plastic crap.

The bloomer beige mom: most of their family's stuff including children's toys are made with natural materials like wood and natural fibers which happen to be kind of beige. If we had kids, my wife and I would be in this category because I'm a woodworker.

I think this trend started because people see the rattan furniture and cotton clothes and wooden Montessori toys and go "weow it's so aesthetic" without understanding why things are like that. (My siblings in DIYing, you are supposed to put a finish on your wood!)

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  • [–] 2 points 10 hours ago

    As a kid I painted faces onto wooden spoons and played with them. Wooden toys can easily be made colourful, and if you get the kids to paint them themselves then it's a beneficial activity for the kids too.

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  • [–] 40 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Acceptable but also painting something with a little kid is so much fun and then all the toys look like scatter plots of colour

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  • [–] 38 points 2 days ago* (1 child)

    YESSS! Use stain! Finish your wood!!!

    Fucking put shellac or paint on it idc just don't leave raw wood exposed, what are you a caveman!?

    Why do you think we have tons of old finished wood objects still around even thousands of years later and almost no unfinished wood objects?

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  • [–] 25 points 2 days ago

    Why do you think we have tons of old finished wood objects still around even thousands of years later and almost no unfinished wood objects?

    Can't expect consistent revenue from someone who buys something that lasts a long time.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    Wow, Montessori is a very specific call out. What do you think of it?

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  • [–] 13 points 1 day ago

    I know you didn't ask me, but I have a little experience, so I'll answer:

    A well-run Montessori classroom is great for most kids. A poorly-run Montessori classroom is a nightmare. So much of a child's experience is a direct result of how good their guide (teacher) is at their job, because there are so many more moving pieces in a Montessori classroom compared to a traditional classroom. But in my direct experience, teenagers who have had a decent Montessori education have noticeably better executive function, interpersonal skills, and resilience than teenagers who went to a traditional school.

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  • [–] 19 points 1 day ago* (1 child)

    I don't have kids and didn't personally attend a Montessori school, but had several friends who had really good experiences with Montessori education.

    I think that Dr Montessori had a particularly great understanding of how to educate and empower babies in the zero to about 3 year range. Tactile, natural materials like wood are genuinely really good for kids to interact with.

    A lot of people assume it's way too early to start teaching kids things before they're a year old, but before my mom's mental health issues got really bad, she was very very laser focused on educating me. My parents started me on Hooked on Phonics (yes I'm old) very very early and I could read picture books aloud like The Snowy Day, Madeline and Frog and Toad books by around the 18 month mark, which is typically a developmental milestone for kids around 5 or so.

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