bridgeenjoyerAt what point is liking childrens toys sad?
Almost 1/2 century old and I still have stuffed animals my mom gave me as a kid in the hospital and a few others for my birthday.
Of she didn’t get rid of my old millennium falcon and other starwars toys i would still have them.
You like what you like and you keep what means something to you. Fuck what anyone else thinks!
Chezus9247I’d really love to see your stuffed animals. <3
Not nearly as sad as avoiding something you enjoy just because somebody else might find out.
MissJinxMisery likes company.
My SIL “jokes” that I “must be autistic” because I didn’t want to have kids and like to play legos with my niece.
“You’re a very childish adult”, “you don’t want to grow up” well fuck her, you know what she likes? doomscrolling tiktok and complain about her kids. I’m VERY happy being who I am and going to keep ignoring her stupid ass
The most well adjusted people I know stay in love with something/things from their childhood. Also, revisiting childhood experiences is a popular therapy exercise for recovering from mental trauma.
Lego and old console gaming are two very common things to be interested in as an adult :) If you have a genuine connection to something, don’t force yourself to sever it.
Don’t listen to them and do your own thing.
My household is full of Legos, plushies, little cute collectibles, consoles, board games… And there’s no children. People should enjoy whatever they want to enjoy, no matter the age or gender or whatever.
We only judge people who don’t understand how serious we take playing “Make believe”.
I want to add that I am in this category as well. I play for kittycat gashapon at Red Robin. I bought Lidl advent calendars for me and the hubby. We look forward to getting stickers from the elementary teacher who moonlights as a trivia host at the pub each week. And I’m half a century old. IDGAF what other people think. I never hid these sorts of things from my coworkers, and they accepted it’s just who I am. They also know me as an empathetic, level-headed, practical voice of reason if the situation calls for it. Two things can be true!
Never but judging people for petty bullshit is beyond sad, pathetic even. If “kid” stuff makes you happy then hell yeah!
wirelesswireNever. You’re an adult and can do as you please. Also, Lego is very much an adult thing as much as it is for kids. They make plenty of sets now that adults would probably enjoy much more than kids, like the Botanical and Icons.
I work in IT and I think most of us still enjoy Lego and retro consoles and games.
Granted I do work with a ton of nerds.
We fought over a cool Lego car set for our white elephant gift at the Christmas party hah.
Zorsith
Xtallll
dohpaz42Nothing in what you describe are “children’s toys”. LEGO, Atari, RC cars, etc can be enjoyed by all ages.
Don’t let your personal insecurities convince you otherwise.
I’m a 48-yo man who enjoys retro gaming, and I would love to get into LEGO if I had the space for it. And if anybody tried to tell me otherwise, I’d laugh at them.
I’ve lived too damn long worried about what other people think about me to care anymore. I’m going to live MY life now, and you should live YOURS. Fuck the haters.
~Now get off my lawn!~
spittingimageI play with Lego and anyone who doesn’t like it can gargle my nuts.
Suck mah balls kenny!
CerafredoDepends. Are you doing it because you are escaping from your adult life? Yeah then it is sad. If not, and you are doing it because you like the toy itself and keep it around as just a happy object, then there’s no problem.
I mean I do use it as a form of escapism, but my life is tip top otherwise, so id say its not a big deal.
Its just hard to find others to enjoy the same things! Id love to have a goldeneye night or a lan party or something but it seems like no one does that anymore.
I know what you mean.
I have a lego set (about 100 pieces left of the original) and I keep it and maybe make a random object out of it because it reminds me of my time with my parents teaching me how to.
I don’t it in the mindset that “oh I hate my adult life I wish were a child again”. Being in adult has its upsides and I accept the issues that come along with them.
It’s not the what but the why that matters in anything you do.
So enjoy yourself :) Let other people manage their own lives their own way. Have fun!
I was thinking how there's healthy and then unhealthy escapism. A break versus avoidance.
That aside, in support of you, I can't see how building with Legos for part of the evening is any 'worse' - less mature, sophisticated, or what have you - than watching some sitcom or YouTube slop. Certainly not sad in either sense of the word. You are actively feeding your creativity and maybe processing out life stuff (play therapy is a thing, even for adults). How cool is that?
Cracks_InTheWallsThis was more or less my response when looking at the question. If it’s an unhealthy, hyperfocus escape, then it’s kinda sad. But just a fun thing that you enjoy spending time doing with the other life stuff in check? Not sad, go nuts.
Waaay back in the day when I lived in a little fishing village, we had a community falling domino guy. He lived with his mom, and my family had reason to stop by his house to pick some stuff up once. The whole scene struck child me as kinda sad. But taking a step back: the guy had something he really enjoyed, he brought it to the broader community for them to enjoy pretty often, and he had a place of note in the local community through that. Took away quite a bit of my initial impression.
Much better than the trading card store owner who was a pedophile, at least. THAT was sad/unnerving, looking back. Very glad they moved the Pokemon League to the community centre…
kittenzrulz123I will never stop liking plushies :3
There’s nothing sad about enjoying the things you enjoy, thinking there are rules to follow in order to be an adult is the most childish thing you could do as an adult.
You have hobbies and you don’t need anyone to tell you that you are or aren’t allowed to have them, don’t let people who are too afraid to enjoy what they want to enjoy gatekeep you.
Do cool shit.
“People that mind don’t matter and people who matter don’t mind”. Do what makes you happy, life is short and we get one shot at it.
Personally I love nostalgic stuff. 80s/90s stuff rocks.
Adults are children with responsibilities (and sometimes with money).
AceFuzzLordI, personally, don’t have a high regards for kids toys ( besides things like tubs of random lego pieces because creativity is king ) besides stuffed animals, so my opinion is biased against them.
I’d probably end up saying around highschool for plastic action figures and all that. If you collect just to have, though, I cannot say anything against that because it’d be hypocritical considering I collect stuffed animal friends.
Liking toys and buying them is fine. Obsessively collecting them and making them your identity or buying 300k worth of some dead guys lego is fucked.
HuntressHimboNot always a winner for takes, but this quote by C.S Lewis I’ve always found helpful
When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. - C.S. Lewis
I do not really judge people for enjoying their childhood toys, but back when my son was a lot younger, he really enjoyed watching youtube movies of adults playing with Thomas the Tank Engine toys. Now that was creepy. Also, the fact that people are actively monetizing this felt a bit dystopian.
Rhoeri
Ek-Hou-Van-BraaiOnce you’re older than 99 you’re not allowed to play with Lego’s anymore
KraidenI have a better idea. Instead of worrying about the people who find it sad, spend your energy finding the like minded people who know it’s badass.
Lucy :3I think kid stuff is fine to like. Legos even say on the box you’re allowed to play with that until you turn 100. I think playing with toddler toys is probably a bit sad though, just cause that’s indicative of a psychological problem to me. But I’m not gonna tell someone what toys they can and can’t play with.
GalactoseBetween the ages of about 13 and 17, teenagers are very sensitive to peer pressure and are also trying hard to be more mature, so they police each other’s and their own interests against being ‘childish’.
Once they’re old enough that they don’t worry about looking like kids, if their peer group is chill and non judgemental (for example, in quite a lot of colleges and universities), they relax and enjoy some toys again.
It’s common to reject the previous stage in maturity temporarily. So middle schoolers don’t want to be mislabelled as primary school children and high schoolers don’t want to be mislabelled as middle schoolers, just as college attendees don’t want to be mislabelled as school children at all etc. With enough distance, “NO!” becomes “lol, no” and people relax.
I can’t stress the importance of having a chill and non judgemental peer group for this process to work enough, though.
In a house with children, playing with the kids is always being a great parent, but can also be neglecting sharing the burden of work, and there’s a lot of work, so play activities can also be seen as negative. Maybe that’s why some of the parents aren’t into fun.
I feel like toxic school induced social dynamics play a role here too
Absolutely.
rodneylivesAs someone who doesn’t generally play with children’s toys, i still say the answer is never.
As Randall Munroe said way back in XKCD #150, we’re the grownups now, and we get to decide what that means.
horseMy fiancee and I build Legos together, play games together and there is nothing wrong with that. Rules like this are purely fictional and societal pressure. Just do what you like, you’re a grown up! Even if someone tells you you shouldn’t, you don’t even have to do something with that :)
It’s perfectly acceptable to play with Lego’s all the way up to age 99. Then you have to stop.
Nailbar/sarcasm
TrackinDaKraken