Why were children in the past content playing with the available toys around them?
In the past society wasn’t as marerialistic. Being a kid was about having fun, running around with friends and playing some kind of team game. The more “things” we give our kids and the less time they have to just run around and have fun the more they become attached to those things, easiliy bored, and quickly distracted. In the past kids had a handfull of toys. A boy had a baseball and bat and glove, maybe a couple toy cars. A girl had some dolls and a jump rope. Kids played with chalk, maybe they had a bike when they got a little older.
As others have said, it most likely is due to the fact that that is all they had. They didn’t have TV, radio, or magazines to expose them to different or new toys. I’m sure when they Sears catalog came out, children began to long for something different than what they had (a China doll rather than their rag one, for example). I did a quick google and it seems most references on-line are related to sex preferences for toys, which doesn’t seem to be the direction you are going. I think if you make a hypothesis of your own and then provide facts to back it up, that should work. Google, google, and google some more! Good luck!
Children in the past weren’t influenced by TV commercials and the media. A young child who isn’t exposed to a lot of TV is usually content with what he has. All parents could tell stories about giving their kid a nice present and watching the kid toss it aside and play with the box. When children see something new they generally want to explore it for awhile, but then they’ll put it aside. The media has convinced children (and their parents) that to be “in” they need expensive and elaborate toys and clothes. Check into some websites about the effects of advertising on children.
Because parents have children and no time to raise them. They think that their purpose in life is procreation and then leave them and the raising to care givers, thus feel guilty of not spending enough time with them and shower them with toys that the boob tube spills out on them. So kids want more and more of materialistic stuff but don’t get enough time to feel love and attention. Parents should be parents and teach the kids the word “No” and some values. But they’re too busy with wanting “everything right now ” themselves and so it goes on and on.
