Toy: Walkie Talkies

When you were younger, you likely had to find a physical phone that was hardwired in your house in order to call your friends or call home to your parents. You did not have a little device in your pocket or on your wrist that you could simply pull out and call home with at any time. In most homes today, you often can’t even find a physical phone and more people are ditching hard wired phones every day.

However, one of the things that you did have when you were younger (or could have had) were a pair of walkie-talkies. As a child, a walkie-talkie is one of those toys that is simply magical (even more so back in the day). You hold a device in your hand and can instantly get in touch with the person on the other end. They can be quite far away and you can still get hold of them - it’s pretty cool.

Of course, with the advent of the cell phone and it’s ubiquitous use across the world, a walkie-talkie isn’t quite as cool as it used to be. Once a child has a cell phone, a walkie-talkie simply isn’t quite as fun as it once was - a cell phone lets you instantly contact most anyone with a few added seconds to get hold of them. It’s a pretty remarkable piece of technology if you stop to ponder it a bit.

Still, walkie-talkies are a great toy for children that you’re not ready to give a cell phone to yet. These devices allow them to talk with siblings and neighbors really easily by the simple click of a button. Unlike a cell phone, you don’t have to wait for someone to pick up either. Simply push the button and you’re talking to them - of course you don’t know for sure they’re listening either so there’s that downside.

Walkie-talkies are a fun toy inside of the house if you have multiple rooms. One child can be in their room, the other child in the living room or kitchen, and they can be on an adventure or playing an investigative game. Before we had walkie-talkies, the kids would try to use the Amazon Echos to communicate with each other in different parts of the house - it works alright but not nearly as well as walkie-talkies.

We like to use our walkie-talkies when our kids are heading across the street to a neighbor's house as well. We’ll give the child one of the walkie-talkies, and we’ll keep one as well. This allows a quick way to communicate with them if needed without having to walk across the street to find them (I know, we should get out and get the exercise). It also allows your child to ask you something if needed as well.

Walkie-talkies are great to take with you on road trips as well. Obviously if you’re in two different cars, then you can quickly communicate, but we’re usually in a single car. More interesting for the kids is to have adventures when traveling. You can get into the playground and hide away, or hide in the trees and be talking with the other person. This can be done at home as well, but for whatever reason they seem to enjoy it more when traveling.

If you have younger children that aren’t ready for a cell phone yet, you should get some walkie-talkies. They are a lot of fun, and an easy way to play with your child without being in the same room as them. Buy walkie-talkies now.