Why Do Toys Have to Make Noise?

Last week, my son Nathaniel was going through a bunch of old toys in our upstairs playroom. During his explorations, he came across an old train set. After digging around for a couple of hours he managed to piece together the train tracks, found several train cars, and set them up in the back room. My three children then spent the next several hours making the train ride around the track. At first, I was excited that they had found the train set, happy in their joy at finding a “new” toy. It didn’t take me long to remember why the train set had been banished to the upstairs.

The train set is fairly basic and the cars are cute, but it is a toy that is impossible to have around because it makes so much noise. It isn’t the clanging of the train going over the tracks that is unbearable, it is the fact that the train engine keeps up a running dialog of the journey. The engine tells you when you have reached the station, or the crossing. It sings songs throughout the journey. It even tells you when, “I am off the tracks” in an annoying high pitched voice that only a small child could find endearing.

As a parent, I have to have a lot of patience (some days more than others), but the “noisy” train set is enough to put my nerves on edge. It also makes me wonder why so many toys have to make noise. My children don’t care about what the train has to say, they simply want to play with the train. The same can be said for the pirate swords that make swishing and clanging sounds and countless other toys that make useless, repetitive noises, simply for the sake of making noise. My kids want the toys, not the noises they make. In fact, I would dare say, some of these toys would be more popular if they were silent because even the kids tire of all the sound after a while.

At 8, 6, and 2, my children make enough noise by themselves, they don’t need help from all the toys. So now I ask, why do toys have to make so much noise? Your guess is as good as mine.