1. Ask other parents. During your child's next play date, casually ask his/her friend's parents (out of earshot of course) about the toy. Odds are they’ll be as clueless as you are, but you may also hear something like ‘That toy? Isn’t that what took out that little boy’s eye down the street?” or, “Oh, I bought that for my nephew, and he played with it for a day and then forgot about it.
2. Go online. At big retail sites like Amazon.com, you can find customer comments pertaining to virtually every item for sale. Bearing in mind that a five-star rave about this particular toy may just as easily have been written by the marketing VP of the manufacturer (or the company’s PR agency), you can usually get a pretty good idea what other parents think.
3. Watch some television. If you can spare a half-hour of your time on Saturday morning, you’ll likely catch that television commercial that has junior all worked up.
4. Visit a toy store. Sometimes, the only way to tell if a toy is worth buying is to go to a store where a working mode; is out on display and have your kid play with it, such as Toy R Us. Even if he’s a little disappointed, he’ll likely stuck to his guns and insist that you buy it for him – but since you’re in the middle of acres and acres of toys, this is a good opportunity to steer him to something better.
5. Buy the toy anyway. Kids have to learn from experience, just like adults. If he still insists, despite all the warning signs, buy your son the toy and let him live with it. The next time, he’ll choose his toys more carefully, and you won’t have to through this process again.
