Nintendo DS, Jonas Brothers and now that Michael Jackson’s dead, going out in public.

Skateboards.

High School Musical (cringe), Miley Cyrus (CRINGE), Jonas Brothers ( CRINGE),

really, the answer depends. in some neighborhoods, 13 yr olds are into Xbox. in other neighborhoods, 13 yr olds are shopping at “Babies R Us”.

Neo Pets

Looking like older kids, growing their hair out, playing instruments/forming bands.

organic chemistry.

its a SHAME its not dinosaurs.

Ugh, I hate these little Hot Topic kiddies wearing Misfits shirts just because the design “looks cool” and they know NOTHING about the music.

According to this, little girls want to be big girls. Tiny Tots

Idiotic music (see Miley Cyrus, jonas Brothers), Idiotic Movies (see High School Musical) and pretty much anything that can turn your brain into stew. Oh.. an apparently they are also into angsty abusive co-dependent pedophilic relationships (see Twilight).

When I was 13, WoW wasn’t around, but I was playing other games very similar to it.
When I was a kid, my favorite thing was my lego collection.

Boys = trains, Legos, Hot Wheels, bugs, cartoons, fishing, scooters
Girls = Bratz, Barbie, arts & crafts, bad Disney pop music, clothes, make up
Both = video games (just different games), movies (just different movies), candy

Based on my 8 year old boy and two female friends of his age 9 and 11.

Removed by Me… should probably read details…

Bakugan. My boys are 4 and 6, and my daughter is 10. All three of them love these stupid, overpriced pieces of plastic. I guess there’s a game you can play with them involving the cards they come with, but my kids just like to collect them.

My boys are very much into dinosaurs! Bugs too, especially the 6 year old. They like Star Wars and super heroes, rolling in the dirt, and wrestling around like puppies. The two of them go through a big box of crayons every few weeks.

My daughter likes “Littlest Pet Shop” toys. She’s not so much into HSM as “Wicked,” and her favorite singer is Avril Levigne. She likes to play Monopoly, Uno, and Yahtzee. She collects Pokemon cards almost as annoying as Bakugan and adores anything to do with horses. Science kits make her very, very happy.

All three of them like the Wii, and my daughter loves her Nintendo DS. The boys have these hand-held educational game systems called Leapsters.

And believe it or not…they all love books. :)

Edited to add: I can’t believe I almost left this out, but my kids are big Lego freaks! Like, fanatical Legomaniacs. I’d love the Legos too if I didn’t step on the damn things with bare feet so often.

Gay stuff, such as Miley Cryus,Pokemon,stupid games, Bakugan,

well, I’m not 6, but I understand the fascination with bugs. maybe I’ve entered my second childhood.

I love the bug fascination. :) The dinosaur fascination is great too, just because there’s nothing cuter than a 4 year old saying “Pachycephalasaurus.”

The two boys that I tutored this summer, they were fascinated with toads. Loved catching ‘em. That and going on “nature adventures”, finding salamanders, turtles and catching fireflies.

@steelerspilot Kind of a side topic… http://www.fluther.com/disc/57314/how-do-i-stop-my-students-from-doing-this/

You know, I hope by the time my son is old enough to get into whatever the latest fad is that these Japanese Anime bad T.V shows designed to sell a crappy toy that must be collected in huge numbers are over. Seriously, the day I have to admit a Pokemon or Bakugan product into my home I will have failed as a parent.

@Rachienz I see what you did there. Nice.

@gussnarp So, if at your son’s birthday party he opens a Bakugan present from a friend, you’d be a failure as a parent to allow him to keep it? If he plays with them at a friend’s house and the friend gives him one to keep, you’d make him give it back? I don’t really have a problem those toys because my kids don’t watch the stupid TV shows associated with them and they play with a lot of other things as well. What irks me is how overpriced they are, which is why we have the kids save up their own money if that want that sort of thing.

I’m just curious how controlling what toys your child is interested in has any bearing on your success or failure as a parent. It’s not really that hard until the child goes to school. After that, good luck. :)

@MissAusten That was supposed to be funny. Of course I won’t have failed as a parent.

@gussnarp You know, as I was typing I thought to myself, “It’s probably a joke.” But then, I wasn’t sure. When my kids outgrow the Bakugan I’ll mail them to you. ;)

MissAusten – I do end up with lots of toys and books I don’t like or want my child to have in the house, I just wait until he’s fairly bored with them and then they quietly disappear. What I fear is him watching those shows and becoming obsessed with owning the toys. Well, I can only hope. At least in my childhood there weren’t quite the marketing tie-ins with every TV show weren’t quite so obsession driven. This whole “you can play the game just like Ash/Yukio/whoever plays Bakugan” thing is really a disturbing way of marketing to children.

All I know for sure is

1) I’m glad I have a boy and not a girl, and
2) If I DID have a girl, she wouldn’t be getting any Horz Bratz dolls if I had anything to say about it. I always thought the whole feminist crap about not letting girls play with Barbie dolls was outright retarded. I believe if parented properly a girl should be able to play with a doll which represents a false ideal and not try to emulate it (I watched a lot of Bugs Bunny, but I never put turkey cuffs on a bomb and served it up as wild turkey surprise), but Horz Bratz dolls somehow cross a line for me. To paraphrase Stewie Griffin, these dolls seem to represent “a first class ticket to a semen covered death in the basement”.

@dalepetrie HAHA, so true. i played with barbies when i was younger but i much preferred the GI Joe toys my brothers had and crashing cars into one another. i was a tomboy.

one time my brother but a remote control car on my head and turned it on and made it go. i had to get a haircut :(

@gussnarp I do the same thing! It’s clear which toys are best, because the kids never get tired of them. Legos, dinosaur sets, outside toys like balls and jump ropes, sidewalk chalk, blocks, train tracks…basically anything they can use imaginatively or be active with. My daughter loves the jump rope because she thinks of games that involve tying her younger brothers to trees, like “wild horses” or “prison escape” or “rodeo.”

@dalepetrie ITA about those Horz Bratz. I’m so glad my daughter never showed interest in them, sparing me the hassle of nipping it in the bud.

lots of things…. Wait i don’t even have kids!!!