Anyone who has a small child will know that anytime a birthday rolls around, you’ll get an influx of cheap plastic toys.

The vast majority of these become trash soon after they are purchased.

In fact, it’s shocking how quickly heavily-packaged items go from “brand new” to trash in our society, particularly in the kids' space.

And yet, in my garage, there’s a rusty pencil sharpener that must have been installed in the 1950s. I dusted it off the other day, and I doubt you’ll be surprised to learn that it still works perfectly, nearly a century later.

What of the things we buy from [insert name of the online store everyone buys everything from].com will stand the test of time?

And what should we give our kids instead?

Experiences! Swimming classes, piano lessons, a crazy dance class they’d never have gone to, that robotics course that might spark something real.