Transcripts

Marianne Szymanski:
On average parents spend about $350 per child, per year on toys.

Marianne Szymanski, President of Toytips.com says much of that money is spent in December. And she says just because a child wants a toy isn't necessarily a good enough reason to buy it.

I think that many times you should watch the child and what they're playing with now- what their abilities are- what their skills are and what their interests are. If they're really interested in sports and you buy sports toys they're going to play with it. Kids ask for everything so you kind of have to look at your child and be your own child's toy expert and decide what your child will really want and play with. Rather than just buy a bunch of toys that he asks for or she asks for that she may not play with and just want.

Buying classic toys is usually a pretty safe bet.

The reason they keep selling and people keep buying them is because they're fun. Sometimes toys come back, when we started seeing reintroductions of Strawberry Shortcake, Ninja Turtles, Care bears over the last couple of years. And the reason for that is the group of parents who used to play with them themselves are now having children. So, it's fun to introduce toys that you've played with as a child. But, some of the classics like Candyland and Scrabble and Monopoly, Play dough, Slinky, all those things that have been around sell because they're fun.

Tomorrow what toys Marianne thinks are really great- I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.