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View Full Version : Play kitchen gets no love



kaitlyns.mom
07-16-2011, 06:07 PM
We bought a Play Wonder play kitchen for DD when she was 2. It takes up some real estate in our kitchen and she never plays with it. Maybe when a friend comes over she will turn the water handle once like she is filling up a cup, then nothing. The play food DOES get played with, however.

Does your play kitchen get used?

MMMommy
07-16-2011, 07:32 PM
I think we are in the minority. My DDs were never into play kitchens. We had them, and they just gathered dust. I was more excited about them than they were. I loved playing kitchen when I was little, but I guess it never rubbed off on my girls. Same with dollhouses too.

RunnerDuck
07-16-2011, 07:39 PM
My kids LOVE theirs but have poo-pooed so many sure-win toys that all I can say is all kids are different.

toby
07-17-2011, 08:46 AM
Do you have any place to store it away for a few months? She may see it with new light if it disappears and then reappears down the road... Also, I have found that moving things can make a difference in how much they are played with (although you may not have much flexibility with a kitchen). Or...maybe your DD just doesn't want to be domestic during her formative years :)

Roleysmom
07-17-2011, 10:34 AM
No, it really hasn't gotten a lot of play over two girls. Well, DD2 (only 22 months) is so young that it's too early to tell, but she really doesn't give it the time of day. Like your DD, she likes the food, but doesn't open the doors or prentend to use the sink. DD1 was never that into it either and we were very excited to give it to her as her big birthday present when she was two or three (I forget which one.)

I remember playing with mine. My dad had it rigged up so the faucet actually worked. Maybe that's why I played with it so much. I don't know.

Most of the big ticket items - doll house, wood pirate ship, kitchen - didn't go over so well here.

MommyAllison
07-17-2011, 12:07 PM
Ours has been used nearly to death - the oven door has been opened and closed so many times than the screws are stripped (we've had it for 3.5 years). If it didn't get so much use though, and you have another play food storage option, I'd sell/donate/give it away. Or store it for a year to see if your DS is interested in it?

Seitvonzu
07-17-2011, 12:23 PM
ours *DOES* get play...but i have noticed that the type of play has "evolved" a bit since we've had it-- and it waxes & wanes. i worried for a little while because we had the grands invest in a very nice kitchen (elves and angels -- both the sink/stove & fridge) because i wanted something i could stand looking at (it's in my kitchen where we are ALL THE TIME), that was worth moving out of the state (since that's what we are looking at long term), and that i can imagine my own grandchildren playing with :):):)

at first lucy would mostly just open/close things. and her friends that would come over would mostly DUMP things (thankfully, for my daily sanity, my child wasn't as into this). we've had the kitchen since lu was almost 2, then in the summer (when she was more like 2.5) we put out the market stand i'd been hoarding (play wonder like your kitchen) and a shopping cart. that increased the kitchen play ALOT....especially on playdate days (when it was already pretty popular) . the kids loved to dump the market veggies/fruits (we have TONS) into the shopping cart and cart it into the kitchen for their cooking.

we recently got some little chairs and set up a table we had near the kitchen set. lu's favorite thing to do now is "make a feast for word girl and captain huggy face!" b/c in her words "captain huggy face is ALWAYS hungry!" she likes to put on an apron and chef hat to make these "feasts" and we set the table and do lots of talking about if we have enough of each sort of food for each guest ("one for word girl! one for lucy! one for Captain huggy face!" how many is that? "Three!" or whatever) we also have a couple playdoh food sets that we use on the little table by the kitchen, so that play can cross over into kitchen play.

the one thing that doesn't get used as much is the fridge....it is necessary however as STORAGE for part of our vast toy food collection. *I* have a weakness for toy food, so for us to even use a fraction of what we have, i must rotate.... ALOT. probably 2/3rds of what we have is stored in the basement (maybe 3/4?? we have LOTS). i had a "bakers rack" sort of setup for a while with more food/kitchen accessories (the never used pottery barn kids microwave for example...and the well loved , but involves water , coffee pot), but i moved that to put the small table/chairs (and use the shelves now for our "art station" holding supplies in a different part of the kitchen).

oh....and the food i'm refering to in the above paragraph-- that's the "kitchen food" and doesn't include the "market" food --- we have TONS of fruit/veggie (handknit by me, came with the market stand, wooden, plastic, fabric, and then a HUGE haul of stuff i got at michaels for a penny a fruit/veg (they were clearing out fake food i guess and didn't get rid of the inventory fast enough ...it was lucky!!!).

clearly "playing kitchen" was one of my favorite things growing up :) i'm not sure if lucy likes it as much as i do, but i remember liking it well into elementary school....with increasing interest in more realism, so i'm not worried. our neice that was 7 last year LOVED lu's kitchen stuff when visiting us. once she got home, she actually asked for a play kitchen from my inlaws for christmas (but her parents wouldn't let her have one)

in the mean time-- any one want to come play? i'll destash and share :)


also-- what's everyone's favorite thing in their toy kitchen? of stuff that is currently out of it's packaging (yes we have plenty that isn't) i REALLY like the cake decorating set my mom got at toys r us. it's plastic and we have "better" things, but it's REALLY fun! just the sorta thing i would have LOVED as a child :) lucy got it her second christmas and knew intuitively what to do with all those little pieces!

the favorite with the kids has to be the mixer-- but more the little "flour" and "butter" balls than the mixer itself (which was one of the "better" things we have gotten-- wooden and nearly 50 dollars...it was a gift :)

SnuggleBuggles
07-17-2011, 12:30 PM
I'm glad I hung onto our kitchen b/c ds1 didn't play a ton with it but ds2 does!

Beth

bubbaray
07-17-2011, 12:47 PM
Our play kitchen (Little Tykes plastic Victorian Kitchen) initially got a LOT of use with DD#1. Then not so much. Then DD#2 came along, and she got into it a lot earlier (I guess DD#1 showed her what to do).

The ILs got them a fabric kitchen set (Hasbro Rose Cottage), it is three "mini houses", plus all the innerds. That got a LOT of use for a long time.

Last fall, I traded our (unused) wooden train table and train set plus the LT Kitchen with a coworker for her piano. We still have the Rose Cottage set downstairs. I'm actually thinking of bringing it back into the family room where the girls do most of their playing. The weather here has been so completely crappy that they are spending way more time indoors than any kid should in the summer!

FWIW, the thing my kids like the most in their play kitchen is the Green Toys tea set and cook set.