本文探讨了美国玩具价格上涨的现象，并分析了其对父母的影响。文章指出，受特朗普关税影响，玩具价格在4月到5月间上涨了2.2%。作者作为一位家长，对这一现象持复杂态度。一方面，她不希望支付更多费用，也不希望孩子们失去拥有新玩具的快乐；另一方面，她也承认，过多的廉价玩具导致家庭杂乱，与她希望传递给孩子的价值观不符。文章还回顾了过去30年玩具价格的下降趋势，以及由此带来的家庭收纳问题。

🧸 玩具价格上涨：受特朗普关税影响，美国玩具价格在4月到5月间上涨了2.2%，因为约75%的美国玩具产自中国。

🏠 父母的烦恼：廉价玩具泛滥，导致许多家庭被玩具堆满，父母们不堪重负。文章作者也表示，她希望家里能有更少的玩具。

📉 玩具价格的长期趋势：过去30年里，玩具价格经历了显著的下降，导致玩具变得更容易获得，但也带来了家庭收纳和价值观方面的问题。

🤔 作者的矛盾心理：作者既不希望为玩具支付更多费用，也不希望孩子们失去拥有新玩具的快乐。但同时也意识到，过多的廉价玩具与她希望传递给孩子的价值观不符。

Bad news, kids: Toy prices rose 2.2% between April and May, according to federal statistics.Donald Trump's tariffs are the culprit because lots of toys are made in China.Is this actually good news for parents, though? Our homes are cluttered with toys.

Toys have been so cheap for so long that, for some parents, it can feel like their homes are exploding with dolls, action figures, games, and bins of miscellaneous plastic pieces.

But toy prices are finally rising. They logged a 2.2% increase from April to May. And a lot of that rise is tied to Donald Trump's tariffs.

Toys were particularly vulnerable to the tariffs because about 75% of the toys sold in the US are made in China.

As a parent, I have mixed feelings about these rising prices.

Here's what The Washington Post reports:

Although the full impact of President Donald Trump's new import taxes has yet to show up in economic data, analysts say the toy industry — which relies on a steady flow of relatively low-priced imports — offers clues into how higher costs could soon ripple through the economy.

The price of toys, games and playground equipment rose a record 2.2 percent between April and May, far outpacing the 0.1 percent inflation rate for all items that month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists expect those increases to pick up in the coming months, as more manufacturers and retailers are forced to pass on higher costs.

Around the time Trump announced the tariffs, and a reporter asked a question about their potential effects on prices, Trump said: "Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally."

This seemed somewhat callous — he should try telling that to a little kid on Christmas morning. But frankly, something about this stirred something deep inside me. Yes, in fact, I would prefer if my daughter had fewer dolls because her toy box is overflowing with dolls, and it stresses me out. Personally, I wouldn't mind if there were significantly fewer toys in my home.

Toys are an interesting category in terms of inflation, and something I'm slightly obsessed with (not just because I often look at my living room and wish the toy mess of my two kids and feel despair).

I think back on my childhood in the '80s and '90s, and toys seemed (in my child mind) so much more expensive than they do now.

I wasn't wrong — toys have seen significant price deflation over the last 30 years. Basically, a toy that cost your parents $20 in 1993 would only cost you around $5 today.

A little over a year ago, I wrote about how toy price deflation has had a negative effect on the tidiness of millennial parents' homes.

So many parents of young children I know are constantly complaining of feeling overwhelmed by what seems to be the endless clutter of cheap plastic toys. Meanwhile, significant costs like day care and preschool have experienced inflation far above what the overall economy has seen.

So, am I happy that toy prices are now starting to go up? Absolutely not — I don't want to have to pay more! And I don't want my kids or any kids to be unable to afford to experience the joy of opening a new toy (even if it's the 30th doll) on their birthday or a holiday.

But on the other hand, I am not the only parent who has noticed that toys seem cheaper and more plentiful than when we were kids.

And I'm not the only parent who worries that the idea that toys are cheap, easily obtained with a click of the Amazon button, and disposable is not in line with the values we want to impart on our kids.