Buy It or Skip It : Toys I Regret Buying (And What I’d Buy Instead)
After raising three girls, I’ve learned that some of my biggest toy-buying regrets came from assuming more features meant more learning. In this final post of my ✅Buy It or ❌Skip It series, I’m sharing the Target toys I wish I’d skipped, from oversized toys to flashy, battery-operated favorites, and the simpler alternatives I’d recommend instead. If you’re trying to build a toy collection that encourages creativity, imagination, and independent play, these are the swaps I’d make every time.
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✅ Buy It or ❌ Skip It: Helping You Buy Better, Not More
Walking through the toy aisle (or scrolling Amazon after the kids go to bed) can feel like an impossible task. Every toy promises to build creativity, encourage learning, or become your child’s new favorite. But if you’ve ever spent good money on a toy that was abandoned by lunchtime, you know the reality doesn’t always match the marketing.
That’s exactly why I started my ✅ Buy It or ❌ Skip It series.
As a former teacher, homeschool mom, and someone who’s intentionally simplified our home over the years, I’ve learned that more toys don’t necessarily create better play. In fact, I’ve found the opposite is often true. A thoughtfully chosen collection of toys that truly earn their place in your home almost always leads to more creativity, deeper play, less clutter, and fewer regrets.
In this series, I’m sharing the toys that have stood the test of time in our house, along with the ones I personally wouldn’t buy again. Every recommendation is based on real-life experience, not what’s trending online or what’s sitting at the top of a bestseller list. I look for toys that encourage open-ended play, grow alongside children, support learning and imagination, and continue getting pulled off the shelf months or even years later.
You’ll also see me recommend skipping toys that are overpriced, overly complicated, take up unnecessary space, or lose their appeal almost as quickly as they’re unboxed. Because sometimes the best purchase is the one you never make.
My goal isn’t to convince you to buy more toys. It’s to help you buy better toys. The kind that save you money in the long run, reduce toy overwhelm, support meaningful play, and make your home feel a little calmer in the process.
Each post in this series focuses on a different category of toys to help you make confident, informed decisions before you click “Add to Cart.” I hope these honest recommendations help you build a toy collection your kids truly love, and one you won’t regret bringing into your home.
✅ Buy It or ❌ Skip It #6: Target Toys I Regret Buying (And What I’d Buy Instead)
One of the biggest perks of having three kids is that I’ve gotten a lot of second (and third) chances. I’ve also made plenty of toy-buying mistakes. Like most first-time parents, I assumed the toys with the most features had to be the best ones. If it lit up, talked, sang songs, or promised to teach letters, colors, and numbers, it seemed like a smart purchase.
Looking back, many of those toys are the ones I regret buying most. They weren’t necessarily bad toys—they just weren’t the toys my girls returned to again and again. Over time, I realized the quieter, simpler toys consistently encouraged more creativity, more independence, and much longer play. If I were starting over today, these are a few purchases I’d make differently.
1. Brighter and Louder Doesn’t Mean Better
❌ Skip: Baby Einstein Ocean Explorers 4-in-1 Go Opus Go Crawl & Chase Activity Toy
One of the biggest myths in the toy aisle is that more lights, more music, and more features automatically equal more learning.
In reality, I’ve found that those features often distract from the very skills the toy is supposed to encourage.
One purchase I wouldn’t make again is the Baby Einstein Ocean Explorers 4-in-1 Go Opus Go Crawl & Chase Activity Toy. It’s colorful, noisy, constantly moving, and designed to capture a baby’s attention. While it’s marketed as educational, the toy ends up doing most of the work. It performs at your baby rather than encouraging your baby to actively explore, experiment, and learn alongside you.
✅ Buy: Infantino Go Gaga! Super Soft First Building Blocks
If I could do it over, I’d choose a simple set of soft building blocks like the Infantino Go Gaga! Super Soft First Building Blocks or the B. toys Baby Blocks instead.
Building blocks create opportunities for interaction. You can stack them together, knock them over, name colors, count blocks, talk about shapes, and encourage reaching, grasping, and problem-solving. The learning comes from your interaction with your child—not from a toy that’s programmed to perform.
2. Bigger Doesn’t Mean Better
❌ Skip: Fisher-Price Little People Big Yellow Bus
It’s easy to assume bigger toys create bigger imaginations. I’ve actually found the opposite. Large toys often dominate a play space, leaving very little room for children to build, pretend, or combine them with other toys.
The Fisher-Price Little People Big Yellow Bus is one example. It’s certainly fun, but it takes up a surprising amount of space. Once it’s parked in the middle of the playroom, there’s not much room left for creating roads, building towns, or incorporating other toys into the experience.
✅ Buy: Ms. Rachel Bus and Figure Push & Pull Toy
If I were shopping today, I’d choose the Ms. Rachel Bus and Figure Push & Pull Toy instead. It accomplishes the same basic goal while taking up a fraction of the space. Because it’s smaller, it’s easier for little hands to carry, easier to store, and much easier to incorporate into imaginative play with other toys already in your home.
The same idea applies to oversized stacking rings.
While they may look impressive, they’re often too large for babies to comfortably grasp and manipulate. One of the main purposes of stacking toys is to strengthen fine motor skills, and if the rings are oversized, they can actually make that practice more difficult.
Instead, I’d recommend the Fisher-Price Baby’s First Blocks & Rock-a-Stack Set. The pieces are appropriately sized for little hands, making them much more inviting for babies who are still learning to grasp, stack, sort, and explore.
❌ Skip: Fisher-Price Giant Rock-A-Stack
The same idea applies to oversized stacking rings.
While they may look impressive, they’re often too large for babies to comfortably grasp and manipulate. One of the main purposes of stacking toys is to strengthen fine motor skills, and if the rings are oversized, they can actually make that practice more difficult.
✅ Buy: Fisher-Price Baby’s First Blocks & Rock-a-Stack Set
Instead, I’d recommend the Fisher-Price Baby’s First Blocks & Rock-a-Stack Set. The pieces are appropriately sized for little hands, making them much more inviting for babies who are still learning to grasp, stack, sort, and explore.
3. Don’t Let the Toy Become the Main Attraction
❌ Skip: VTech Stroll and Discover Activity Walker
One toy I regret buying most is the VTech Stroll and Discover Activity Walker. At the time, I thought all of the lights, music, and buttons made it a better choice. Now I see it completely differently.
The purpose of a walker is to encourage movement, confidence, and those exciting first steps.
But when the front of the walker is covered in flashing lights, songs, and activities, it’s easy for those features to become the main attraction instead of walking itself. Many babies end up standing still, pressing buttons over and over again, rather than using the walker for its intended purpose.
✅ Buy: PULA Baby Push Walker Wagon
If I could choose again, I’d buy the PULA Baby Push Walker Wagon.
It’s beautifully simple. It supports the actual skill I’m trying to encourage—walking—while leaving plenty of room for babies to load it with toys, transport treasures around the house, and continue using it long after they’re confidently walking.
It’s another perfect example of a toy growing alongside the child instead of being outgrown after one developmental stage.
4. Think Beyond One Child
One thing I never considered as a first-time mom was reusability. Personalized toys seem incredibly special in the moment, but they become much harder to pass down, reuse, or share between siblings. Now that I have three daughters, I naturally gravitate toward toys that every child can enjoy. They’re easier to hand down, easier to rotate between siblings, and often have a much longer lifespan in our home. Whenever possible, I skip personalization and choose timeless toys that can continue creating memories for every child who plays with them.
The Bottom Line: WHEN IN DOUBT, GO SIMPLE
If I could give one piece of advice to a new parent standing in the Target toy aisle, it would be this:
- Don’t assume the toy with the most buttons is the best toy.
- Don’t assume the biggest toy creates the biggest imagination.
- Don’t assume a toy that teaches through lights and sounds teaches better than a simple conversation with your child.
After raising three girls, I’ve learned that the toys I regret aren’t the simple ones. They’re the ones that tried to do too much.
Because one lesson has remained true through every stage of childhood:
The simpler the toy, the more work the child does.
And those are almost always the toys that get played with the longest. ✌🏼
Hey There,
I’m Katelyn!
Hi, I’m Katelyn! Join me for creative, intentional family fun and practical home management tips! Parenting is hard, but I’ve got the tools to help you create a calmer, more intentional home!
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About Katelyn Collier , MAT
Katelyn Collier is a former elementary school teacher turned homeschooling mom of three and the founder of A Pop of You. She’s passionate about helping families step away from the pressure of today’s fast-paced culture and create homes filled with presence, joy, and balance. Through her resources and podcast, she shares simple, practical tools to reclaim childhood and make family life feel lighter and more intentional.
Masters DEgree in elementary education
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