SupplyToy

By six or seven the problem on a long trip stops being entertainment and becomes having nothing to do. Here is what actually holds up in a car, a waiting room and an airport queue.

Children's tables and chairs are furniture rather than toys, which sends them down a set of standards written product by product, and the three numbers to measure before you order are seat height, table height and cabinet height.

One box of outgrown toys can go two ways, and the two ways run on completely different rules. Selling has a hard federal line you cannot cross, while donating has a tax rule that only pays off if you classify before you pack.

At ten to twelve the real developmental work is planning, waiting and aiming at a goal the child chose himself. A toy is only the prop, and the money conversation is the part that lasts.

The first job at a grandparent's house is not choosing toys, it is removing three things that should never be in the room, and then keeping the toy count small enough to fit in one basket.

A toy trumpet and a real trumpet look related and are governed by completely different standards, and that difference decides whether your child can learn to do anything with it beyond pressing a button.

A toy that never arrives, a toy that turns up broken, and a toy you simply do not want are three different problems with three different rulebooks, and knowing which one you are in decides whether you end up with a refund or an argument.

The coding and robotics aisle sells a story about programming jobs and clever children, but the useful purchase is decided by three dull questions, and the age number on the box is a safety grade rather than a difficulty setting.