Great question. We, for example, don’t buy any toys ourselves except legos. But they come in through different channels: gifts, included with something else, birthday parties (am sure you are aware that now at any birthday party all kids get small gift). Most toys last for the few days: it’s a plastic contraption which is not that appealing to repeatedly play with. So after few years of this there is no choice but to throw it away by the bag-full.

For my younger daughter, we started requesting restaurant gift cards to be donated. We gave them to the local Ronald McDonald house because she had a friend who was away from home, undergoing treatment at a special hospital in Minnesota. Her friend's parents had stayed in the Ronald McDonald house local to that hospital.

I'll admit that the circumstances were quite special but it seemed like a relief from the burden of all those toys we would have had instead.

It doesn't really help. I have purchased very few toys for my kids myself, but they have way more than enough, we even have couple of huge garbage bags full of toys hidden away in the attic, and we gave some away, otherwise our house started to look like we are hoarding them.

We have many relatives and friends, everyone wants to gift something at every occasion (x2 kids), and several times friends gave us whole bags of toys their kids outgrew. Over time they pile up more than you may think.

And in the end - it doesn't matter how many toys they got - a measuring tape or an empty box will keep them occupied longer than any toy you can imagine :D

Most toys are not bought by parents.

I am a parent and I can confirm. Most of my 4 year old son's toys were purchased for him by grandparents, friends, etc. We've bought almost none of them. We have bought him a lot of books and good second-hand clothes.

Well, parents still have final say. My parents won't give my kid anything I don't approve.

So, if their best friend wants to give them a toy, you just tell them no? I'm sure that won't make them resent you at all...

That works fine for adults, but it's sketchier with kids. Maybe a better system would be to make them trade toys and choose which ones they keep?

No, I'll tell their best friends' parents to tell their kid to only trade toys with my kids but not give them out. I recall my parents and a good childhood friend's parents having a similar conversation when I was 10 or so

Yes, we've told family/friends that instead of buying something that will be garbage in a few weeks they should spend the money on an experience with the kids (books are an exception). Most people have understood (except grandparents, they seem the most resistant to the idea).