Play Food
Monday, July 26, 2010 
I could see this being useful for budding documentary film producers putting on a home re-make of Supersize Me, but otherwise I wouldn't be welcoming my children to pretend to be McDonald's employees or McDonald's consumers.
At home, we have some play food. It is a mix of some Melissa and Doug stuff (oh, wait...that disappeared when it was recalled), non-branded plastic whole food items (e.g. vegetables, breads, meats, etc.), and some branded packaged foods (e.g. can of soup, cake mix, box of cereal) that are not all that fabulous but that rounded out the play cupboards (made for me by my dad when I was a kid) for about $10 at Canadian Tire. We also love going "grocery shopping" at the play market at the Children's Museum in Gatineau. The kids love picking up a shopping bag and picking out eggplants, croissants, and a whole variety of fun foods on their shopping trip.
But if I was going to start-over, or if I decide to add to the collection at some point, I think the ideal would be a mix of:
- Felt food
- Wooden food
- Real dry organic packaged whole foods: We saw some great mini-packages of brown rice, red lentils, and other foods at the local organic grocery store in Berlin that were designed as kids toys.
How about you? When your children play food do you want them playing McDonald's or Farmer's Market? How does their food related play reflect or influence their real life relationship to food?
Photo credit: crazytales562 on flickr
Reader Comments (36)
We're a big fan of felt food I've gotten off etsy and you can even sometimes find it in regular stores now, too. To be honest my kids usually prefer to play with the dishes and pots and pans over the food items (they pretend the "imaginary" food is there). I prefer the felt and natural wooden food over plastic stuff because it's just prettier when cluttered about my house and makes me happier come clean up time.
Steph
Uh-oh... My son received two Melissa & Doug food sets for his birthday two weeks ago and has been playing with them non-stop. Is there a way to know if those are safe or not (since the recall was a little while ago)? *sigh*
We never had the play food but did use the pots and pans and tea sets with the girls lots. Or the kids romped through the garden and "shopped" for real food.
Sonja:
In theory recalled toys should be removed from the shelves when they are recalled. However, the issue at the time was that they were recalled in Canada, but not in the United States, because Canada has different standards than the US. I believe Melissa and Doug insisted that there was just one batch that went to Canada that had higher levels than usual, but there didn't seem to be any way to verify that. I would read through the stuff on the Zrecs website that I link to in my post on the recall (linked from this post). They have much better information on this than I do.
Andrea:
That is great! Obviously a real garden is ideal if you have some veggies to spare that you don't need to feed the family (or if they eat while they are playing!).
I've visited and lived in parts of the world where all there is for play food are plastic items and MacD's sets, so I find it hard to be too judgemental because kids are still using their imagination when they serve up a sweet corn pie and a filet-o-fish. I cringe mainly from my imagined lead content.
I wish that my kids needed more play food items because I'd love to sew some cute felt pancakes and the like.
My boys (3 and 5) were playing grocery store last night. I saw my youngest buy grapes from his brother and wondered what they were playing with. They were using parts of their Thomas Train set and lego as the food.
My kids prefer bowls of nature items over the playfood we have (a small set of PLAN cutting fruit and veggies - they're held together with velcro and the wooden knife makes a nice cutting sound when it cuts through the velcro bond)
They've collected butternuts, walnuts, pine cones, chestnuts, acorns, beach rocks and peach pits. Those become EVERYTHING imaginable.
They also like using homemade playdough to make food.
They use modelling wax to make tiny food for their little people scenes.
They like taking the used tea containers (pretty boxes or tins) and using them in their play kitchen.
Their all time favorite thing is making soups and potions outside though. A bowl - water, grasses, seeds, flowers, berries, sand, ants, etc!
My 4 kids range in age from 17 down to 2. I'm in a privileged position, we live in a farming community in Nova Scotia (as in the cows coming home to be milked equals our rush hour traffic jam every morning and evening) and they don't go to the grocery store ever. They go with us to the farmer's market, and to roadside farm stalls for most of our groceries. We do shop with them at our little health food store and the local fair trade coffee and chocolate coop. My partner does the chain store without them along. We've made a conscious decision to shield them from the chains and to introduce them to food producers and local businesses.
I definitely remember playing with the Barbie McDonald's set when I was little! Yikes!
We have felt food both commercially produced and homemade. We just got some cute food stuff for my daughter's 3 year birthday as a gift from a friend and an adorable chef outfit. Not sure who likes the gifts more Etta or me?
http://livesimplylovestrongly.blogspot.com/2010/07/breakfast-basket.html
http://granolaandsrpouts.blogspot.com/2010/07/brother-pe-700ii.html
I knit food. When I started our stash of homemade food, I only knit raw veggies and fruits, but I'm venturing out. I recently knit a fried egg and I'm going to do sandwiches and pizza, etc. I was first against knitting pizza because of the junk food aspect, but we eat pizza made with fresh veggies from our local CSA on a weekly basis and it seemed dumb that I was holding our play food to a "higher" standard than our real food.
I put an alchemy request up on etsy for crocheted food. I found an incredible woman who did 50 pieces of food of my choosing for $50. There are some cupcakes and other "treats" but generally everything is normal stuff we eat at home - vegetables, fruits, meats, sushi, and other goodies. I love the playfood - being crocheted means it was good from early on (I think we got it at 3 months or so) and it still is in heavy use now at 2.
wow - I would not buy that for my kids. I am happy that they don't even know what McDonalds is and i want to keep it that way {we have food allergies so it is easy to keep them away for now}
I am big into letting them play with the real thing. i remember when i was younger wanting to have an easy bake oven & my mom wouldnt let me. What she did do was far better - she let me use the actual stove to bake real food with her - i learned so much and it was a great way to learn and have fun at the same time
Somewhere around here we have some of the wooden fruits and veggies that are held together with velcro and have the wooden knife. It'll be time to pull them out aging soon as my youngest is just about old enough for the ones that aren't choking hazards. Everything still goes in her mouth so I'm picky.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think we got rid of the plastic ones when we moved.
I keep the boxes of the real thing (tape them shut) and my daughter does her shopping and cooking with those... although apparently her tastes are more upscale - I found her stuffed octopus inside her toy oven the last time she was pretending to cook :)
We had the McDonalds food when I was growing up. Surprised if this is the first you're seeing it!
I am buying a kitchen set for my son for Christmas (hopefully off Craigs List) and am excited to find food sets to go with it. I expect to buy mostly wooden food...debating about Melissa and Doug (they have a sushi set!). I'm not interested in buying anything like that McDonalds set, though I'm not adverse to the occasional cookie or pizza making its way into the food sets. While I want the toys to be predominately health food, we don't ALWAYS eat health food and i don't see why his toys should ONLY be that way.
Another one here who has, and loves, the PLAN wooden sets with the velcro attachments and cutting knife (we have fruit & veg, and a loaf of bread that "slices" into four pieces). We also have a box of plastic food toys given by my MIL - it's got grapes, apples, bananas, fried eggs, carrots, zucchinis, corn, peas, pizza slices and cupcakes. I probably wouldn't have bought it myself but the kids play with it sometimes and ultimately, I can't see it as being all that dreadful.
The kids really like, though, to play with actual food. When they are playing shops or restaurants (both popular games), they come raid the pantry for sealed packaged goods - they know they're allowed to take anything unopened as long as they return it - and their game is filled with boxes of lasagne sheets, bags of lentils, Tupperware containers full of rice, beans, flour and raisins, sacs of sugar, and so on. They also can take fruit from the fruit bowl and vegetables from the pantry - only refrigerated items are off-limits.
Would I buy my kids this McDonald's set? No, I would not. Would I object strongly enough to not let them keep it if it were given to them? Actually, probably, yeah, in this case I would. I made no demur at the plastic food toys from my MIL but they were mostly toys of whole foods of various kinds.
I had the same question -- I just bought a M&D food set for my kid's play kitchen last week. Dammit. I buy wood toys intentionally, but I guess I have to research them carefully nonetheless. Ugh.
I saw the Barbie McDonald's set in a discount warehouse type store back before Christmas. That was something. That, or the one pictured, are on my never ever buy list, and if they were given as a gift I'm not sure what I would do. Probably try and make them disappear.
Our play food is a mix of generic plastic stuff, homemade felt food, and wooden food. my older daughter has largely lost interest in it; I'm thinking of getting one of the IKEA wooden kitchens for my toddler for Christmas, maybe that'll get the pretend food back out and played with again! What I need to do is get in on a playfood swap, I think, where everyone makes X amount of the same thing (I make awesome donuts) and then you swap the stuff you made for one of each thing the other people made and you get a nice assortment.
As a kid, I used to make soup out of my Fisher-Price people. I'm sure they were made of plastic and all kinds of bad things, but my point is that kids don't necessarily even need food items to play kitchen - just imagination.
My own kids have a mix of items in their kitchen, some healthy, some less so. I did throw out the hot dog and french fries that came in one set that they received. And I loved the idea above about giving them real food to use and play with - that's something I'm deinitely going to incorporate.
When I was a kid, I had a lot of empty containers that had been cleaned out... spice tins and jars, empty baby food jars, boxes of instant pudding and single-serve cereal boxes that had been carefully opened and taped back together. It was all recycled stuff that would have gone in the garbage otherwise. I had a kitchen and a stove made out of pressboard that had been left in an alley and rescued by my parents. It wasn't in great shape, but I still had a lot of fun with them.
Desiree - I also remember that Barbie McDonalds set! Yikes....but I agree, there's no reason to start them this young on the marketing. My kids had the wooden fruit/vegetable playsets. They were great and allowed them to use their imagination.
We never had fake food when I was growing up, and I always thought it was weird at other kid's houses. Since we lived on a farm and picked real food, then displayed it at the farm market and worked there from an early age, we never thought of that as play, but as work.
I wouldn't buy it for my son, but I honestly don't think it's that terrible. I guess my thought on McDonald's is that it's a "sometimes" food. It's not great for you and shouldn't be a regular part of your menu rotation, but to have an occasional Happy Meal isn't going to make your kids fat or vitamin deficient. Like everything else, you have to use common sense and eat it in moderation (of course I also think it's reasonable for parents to decide to make their families McDonald's-free!) Anyway, I think there are much better options (thanks for sharing them Annie!), but if I got these as a gift I'd let my son play with them along with his other toys.
We have a wooden play kitchen, with a mix of wooden and felt play food. We made some of the felt food ourselves, actually. I have also added in the occasional small empty jar from our kitchen. Like honey and hummus and that sort of thing.
I far prefer for my kids to play with 'real' food. This is the food I want them to eat, and I want them to learn to recognize it. I will freely admit that my kids would far prefer a branded plastic play kitchen and branded plastic play food. I'm holding firm on this one, though. If they still feel the same way in 30 years they can buy branded plastic for their own children. Or themselves. Either way.
That McDonald's toy just made me cringe. Yikes!
My toddler plays with a little play kitchen, pots and pans, giant wooden spoons, and Tupperware. He can play with things that we use everyday for cooking and eating. Fast food is something he doesn't eat, so it wouldn't even cross my mind to get him something like that. If I wanted him to have a cashier type toy, I would buy a simple cash register set!
-Aimee
Hum... I wouldn't want my daughter to play with that set either!!
She's never even been in a McDonald (ok, she's also only 2 ;-) ). The other day we parked next to a McDonald and my mom pointed it to her and said "This, you need to remember this. This is where kids like to go." Gosh, I don't think I've ever been so quick to turn around and give a sharp "No. We don't go there." For once, she was too shocked to reply LOL
For DD's birthday this summer, I crocheted her a bunch of play food, to add to her wooden collection of "cut-able" foods. I got this book called "Tasty Crochet", and made a bunch of the patterns in there - and still have plenty more to do to add to the collection, or simply redo some to add to the amount of each food. Possibilities are limitless :) Plus - it's hand-made. :) (ok... it's acrylic yarn... lol)
I can see my MIL buying the play mc'ds set for the kids. That generation saw fast food as a fun, exciting outing, not as lowclass sclump trashfood the way anybody with a pot to piss in does now. (WE DON'T GO THERE. EVER. FOR WE ARE NOT TRASHPEOPLE.)
We have some cheap plastic food that my mom got for the kids. To be honest, I'm surprised it's gotten as much mileage as it has. Fake grapes, chicken legs, tomato, etc etc.
But their favorite activity is to get a bunch of dried Cheerios and/or pea gravel and or (contraband) soy sauce and stir them around in their little toy pans. Whatever you get for the kids, they will improvise.
For all I know, those dried cheerios are creme brulee.
We have fruits and veggies made from org cotton- my daughter loves dishes too, so we're working toward investing in some wooden measuring cups (her fave thing is measuring cups)
I love your blog. All of your posts are rad!
I'm ashamed to admit I almost bought that toy when I saw something similar in a Winners. I wanted it for the cash register, not the food. The food would have been donated or recycled. Despite my best efforts (and hours spent making felt food), my boys are not into playing kitchen or store.
My younger son became interested in cash registers because he new daycare has one. I ended up finding one at Indigo Kids. It comes with Canadian money, which is obviously a huge asset. However, since the register was designed for the play US money, the Loonies & Toonies won't fit through the coin slot!
I had the same reaction when I saw that set this past Christmas! I was like WHAT IN THE WORLD??!! My son has a food set for his kitchen. It is plastic and unbranded. I almost took the french fries out of the set - but realistically - I knew he would encounter them at some point (albeit not McDonald fries). I even avoided identifying the fake chocolate bar! LOL!
Now, (he's almost two) we pretend to drink the tiny bottle of vegetable oil and pretend to puke. Too funny!
You know...they also sell a play McDonald's. Like a whole set that is life size - like your child might have a play kitchen. http://www.fitstyler.com.au/blog/2009/11/18/mcdonalds-play-food-set-toy-child-obesity-responsible/
Yikes...I'm glad I read this. I'm a fairly new subscriber and didn't see the post about the D&M recall. About four years ago we dumped all of our plastic toys for, what we thought were, safer wood toys from quality companies...D&M were on our list. We have many of their puzzles, and the Cookie Set that was recalled in Canada. We've had so many recalled items tossed out from our toy collection over the years. I'm frustrated, disappointed and a little fed up with the manufacturers and our government that fails to protect the consumer.
We will, once again, be cleaning out our toy bins. My daughter won't be happy but I'll let her bake cookies with mommy...the best way to truly play with food.
I agree w/ your list. We have very few toys and don't currently have any play food, but - if we ever decide to buy some - I hope to intentionally choose pretend foods that are healthful & non-processed (milk, yams, pears, bread, bananas, rice, chicken, etc.).
Hello my friend!
For me i prefer to give real food for my daughter!
Nice info on your blog, thanks!
Best Regards,
Your friend Erdjon.
Daddy made me a Hoosier-style cabinet when I was six. Then, he made me a table and chairs. Only the chairs did not survive.
I'm like a thousand years old on this one, but there are some super awesome crochet patterns for foods as well. My daughter hasn't noticed that her plastic foods have gone missing and been replaced slowly by handmade ones. :) Also, eggs are super easy to crochet and make for awesome stress balls. :P