The Problem Starts With These Stupid Cities

Look at the environments we have created for families to live in.

Apartment buildings stacked upon apartment buildings. Concrete everywhere. Traffic, noise, cramped rooms, and hardly any living ground around the home.

I hate these city living arrangements. Every aspect of them.

And look at what happens to the children.

They are practically afterthoughts. Buildings, roads, parking spaces, shops, offices, and commercial activities take priority. Children are expected to fit their lives into whatever space remains.

Where are they supposed to run, climb, dig, explore, get wet, investigate things, and play freely?

A little playground squeezed between apartment towers? A balcony? A trip to some park when the parents finally have time to take them?

What a ridiculous arrangement.

Children are curious and active. They want to touch things, move things around, climb, investigate, and discover what is happening around them. Instead, they spend much of their time inside restricted living spaces.

Imagine three young children in a cramped apartment. They wake up full of energy, but there is hardly anywhere to go. They begin running through the rooms, climbing on furniture, pulling things out of cupboards, making noise, and disturbing one another.

The parents are trying to cook, work, care for the baby, clean the house, or simply get a little peace.

Everybody is getting frustrated. The children are bored and restless. The parents are exhausted.

And what does society offer them?

Another fucking toy.

Everybody Is Desperate to Make Money Off Everything

Here comes the toy industry with another little distraction to sell.

A stuffed animal. A plastic character. A miniature gadget. Some squishy thing. A keychain. A key ring. Another brightly coloured object promising to keep the child occupied.

The parents buy it, hoping for some relief.

The child gets excited, plays with it for five minutes, loses interest, and goes straight back to being bored.

Now there is another object lying around the house, and the original problem remains.

How much of this manufacturing is genuinely concerned with children’s delight?

People are desperate to make money off every single aspect of life.

A child’s boredom becomes a business opportunity. Birthdays become opportunities to distribute plastic trinkets. School activities need little prizes. Celebrations apparently require party favours. Even visiting somewhere becomes an excuse to purchase another stupid souvenir.

And somebody keeps manufacturing more.

Look at the plush toys. They get dragged around, soaked, and left damp. Mold can develop in their fabric and stuffing. The furry, silky materials collect dirt and become another cleaning problem.

Even some children’s water bottles have become ridiculous, with complicated straws, seals, and little compartments that can trap residue and germs when they are not properly cleaned.

Then there are the little plastic figures, keychains, novelty gifts, and endless paraphernalia that break, disappear behind furniture, or end up in drawers.

Somebody manufactured every single one of these things.

Materials were processed. Machinery was operated. People worked to assemble, package, transport, and sell them.

All that activity for something that might interest a child for five minutes.

The interest disappears. The materials remain, and some of those plastics and synthetic fibres can persist in the environment for decades or longer.

What a stupid use of our manufacturing capabilities.

China, Stop Manufacturing Mountains of This Cheap Shit

And yes, I am calling out China.

According to World Bank trade data, China exported approximately $39.9 billion worth of merchandise in one broad toy category in 2024, weighing more than four million tonnes.

Four million tonnes of toys in one category!

Think about the materials, factories, machinery, packaging, shipping containers, trucks, and warehouses involved in producing and distributing all that merchandise.

China has also built enormous high-rise cities, with countless families living in apartment buildings, while its factories supply toys and other cheap merchandise across the world.

Children are growing up in artificial, cramped environments, while enormous industrial capacity is devoted to manufacturing more artificial distractions.

Little plastic animals instead of environments where children can observe real animals. Plastic gardening kits instead of ground where they can actually plant something. Manufactured trees, flowers, and cartoon creatures instead of children enjoying the living world around them.

And all those fucking keychains, plush animals, little plastic characters, and novelty objects.

China has enormous engineering capabilities, skilled people, machinery, and manufacturing capacity. Imagine directing more of those resources toward creating beautiful living environments for families instead of mountains of cheap merchandise.

Stop manufacturing this shit just because somebody can make money from it.

Get Outside. There Is Already So Much to Do.

Give children stones, sticks, twigs, soil, water, leaves, trees, flowers, fruit, insects, animals, and other children to play with.

Watch what happens.

One child starts collecting stones. Another finds a stick and starts digging. Someone discovers ants moving across the ground. Someone else begins arranging leaves and flowers.

Put some water into the environment and watch the children begin pouring it, moving it, digging little channels, washing stones, watching things float, and discovering how different materials behave.

They can spend ages doing these things.

And tomorrow, something else catches their attention.

The rain has fallen. Fruit is ripening. A new flower has opened. Birds are building nests. Seeds are sprouting. Insects are moving around.

The environment changes, and the children find new things to investigate.

Nobody has to manufacture a new toy every time a child wants something interesting to do.

A stick doesn’t need to be branded. Stones don’t need batteries. Twigs don’t need plastic packaging. When the children are finished, these natural materials can remain in the environment.

A systematic review of 53 studies found that nearby spaces for play, green and natural surroundings, protection from traffic, and opportunities for social interaction support children’s outdoor play.

Yet we continue separating children from these environments and manufacturing products to compensate.

Give Families Wonderful Living Environments

And we can create environments that are even more delightful and engaging for children.

Imagine family homes opening directly onto spacious living grounds, with fruit trees, gardens, shallow water-play areas, gentle slopes, climbing spaces, stones, sand, flowers, animals, and beautiful planted surroundings.

Young children can play close to their parents while older children climb, investigate, build, and participate in family activities.

They can plant seeds, collect fruit, watch animals being cared for, help in the garden, and discover things happening around them.

Their play becomes part of ordinary living.

We have enormous creative, engineering, and agricultural capabilities. Use them to shape beautiful landscapes that families can enjoy every day.

This is the direction I want for Trott Bailey Family Civilization.

Spacious family grounds. Gardens and orchards. Active outdoor living. Beautiful, engaging environments where children are considered from the beginning and families have direct access to the things they need to enjoy their lives.

And think about the relief for parents.

Less frustration from trying to occupy restless children in cramped rooms. Fewer mountains of toys to collect, clean, organize, and throw away. Children have somewhere wonderful to play, and parents have space to get on with their lives.

I don’t want better toys to make apartment living tolerable. I don’t want another playground squeezed between towers, another commercial entertainment centre, or another manufactured solution to a problem that should not have been created in the first place.

I want families out of these cities.

Stop manufacturing the rubbish. Give families somewhere wonderful to live.