Today, DS pulled a soda cup (with lid & straw) out of the trashcan. I probably would have usually pulled it away and put it back in the trash, but he was having so much fun with it. Putting the straw in and out. Taking the lid on and off. That one piece of trash delivered a full half hour of entertainment, followed by another half hour later in the day (so a full hour!). I was able to do the dishes, start the laundry, change the sheets on our beds, check work email. He was just so enthralled with his “toy”. Cost – $1 – .99 (for the soda that was in the cup) = .01. Return = 1 hour of play. ROI – 100 hours/dollar. Awesome!
DD has spent the last 2 days sitting at the kitchen table playing with some plastic dinosaurs I picked up a couple weeks ago for preschool activities. I guess she has seen one too many ‘Land Before Time” videos, because she has named them “Ducky, Spike, Little Foot, etc”. She has literally sat for hours playing with these dinosaurs – it is quite cute to listen to her conversations. But also confusing, since one of them is “Mommy” and whenever she says it, I think she’s talking to me. Cost for dinosaurs = $3. Return = 10 hours of play (so far). ROI = 3.3 hours/dollar. Also not bad!
Compare this to some fancier toys we’ve gotten in the past. The $5 outfit for the baby doll that has been played with once – ROI = .02 hours/dollar. Ouch! Luckily there aren’t many toys like this. I can tell you this much though, in the future, I won’t be so quick to pull DS out of the trash!
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