We’ve Got A Generation Of Peter Pans. Guess Who’s Cashing In.

Grown adults are acting like the children they never bothered to have. And the toy industry is making a killing off it.

After years of liberals telling young people that marriage is a trap, children are a burden, and giving up a little freedom for somebody else is practically a death sentence, people are taking their advice.

Well, congratulations. We’ve got adults who don’t want the responsibilities of raising children but are apparently more than happy to keep buying the toys made for them.

A new report from market research firm Circana found that households without children now account for more than half of U.S. toy sales. Grown-ups are buying LEGO sets, collectibles, trading cards, and whatever else reminds them of being eight years old.

We also have grown adults dressing up as animals and calling themselves furries. Apparently, some people don’t even want to act like humans, let alone adults. And now we’re surprised that childhood has become such a lucrative business?

~Today’s adults increasingly behave like the children they never have~ feels like a rude thing to say about people. And yet:

“Toy sales among adult-only households have now outpaced households with children for toy sales, growing 16% through June, equivalent to 55% of total toy… https://t.co/LU2sOrSrlH

— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) September 22, 2026

I’m not saying everyone who buys a LEGO set needs to grow up. I don’t care if you collect Pokémon cards or have a room full of Star Wars memorabilia. And not having children doesn’t automatically mean someone is avoiding responsibility. Plenty of people want families but can’t. But I do think we’ve created a culture where being an adult sounds so miserable that people would rather spend their money trying to feel like children than actually have them.

Think about the way the Left talks to young people: Don’t get married too early. Don’t have kids until you’ve traveled and done everything you want to do. Don’t let anyone interfere with your freedom. Find yourself. Protect your peace.

At what point are you supposed to stop finding yourself and actually build a life? And why have we decided that building a life around somebody other than yourself is such a terrible thing?

I have two children, and they’ve been traveling since they were three months old. I didn’t change how I enjoy my life, but now I enjoy it a million times more because they’re along for the ride.

And here’s what really gets me. The same people telling adults to embrace their inner child seem hell-bent on making actual children grow up overnight. Little kids are being introduced to adult conversations about sexuality and changing their gender before they’ve even figured out who they are. They’re being told the planet is dying and that it’s somehow their responsibility to save it. Can we let them learn to tie their shoes first? Apparently, childhood is something to be protected only after you’ve already lived it.

Yes, having kids means you play with toys together. My daughter and I set up scenes in her dollhouse, rearrange furniture, and play dinosaurs. I genuinely enjoy it. Sometimes I’m more invested in where the furniture goes than she is.

But I’m not playing with her toys because I want to be a little girl again. I’m playing with them because I’m her mother. I want her to have a wonderful childhood. I also want her to grow up believing there’s something worth looking forward to afterward.

Instead, we’ve created an entire market around selling childhood back to people who have already lived it. Toys “R” Us is planning to open 120 new standalone stores across the country. Adult collectors are a growing part of the toy market, and companies have every reason to pursue customers with considerably more spending money than children.

Entrepreneur and virtual reality pioneer Palmer Luckey made an observation about LEGO that stuck with me during his recent Punch interview with Ben Domenech, “Why It’s Good For Your Kids To Play Video Games.”

“The company is building collectible knickknacks for adults,” Luckey said.

He criticized LEGO’s increasing reliance on specialized pieces that make sets less configurable than they used to be. Older bricks gave children more freedom to build whatever they imagined. Some newer sets are designed around creating a particular object that an adult can assemble and display.

I thought about my daughter dumping out her toys and deciding what we’d build that afternoon. She would never try to build something based on the picture on the box. She’s actually the opposite and has her own vivid imagination. And that’s part of what makes playing so wonderful for children. They get to create something entirely their own.

If adults have become such valuable customers that companies are changing toys to suit them, I think it’s fair to ask what happens to the kids. But I’m even more concerned about what happens when we convince those kids that adult responsibilities are chapters in life to avoid.

Why do we talk about marriage and children almost exclusively in terms of what they take away?

I hear plenty about how expensive children are. I know. I buy the diapers.

I hear that marriage requires compromise and that parenthood means you can’t just do whatever you want, whenever you want.

All true.

But where’s the enthusiasm for what those things can give you?

Being a mother has demanded more of me than anything else. My time isn’t entirely mine anymore. I make decisions every day based on what my children need. I wouldn’t trade that life for the freedom I had before it.

Before I say what I’m about to say next, I want to make something very clear: I had the best childhood thanks to my wonderful parents. But my favorite chapter of my life has been marriage and kids, and honestly, I wish I’d started sooner.

I don’t want my daughter growing up believing that the best years of her life are the ones before anyone depends on her.

I want her to know that loving someone enough to sacrifice for them can make life better than she ever imagined. That building a family isn’t the end of her happiness. It only makes you happier. That being needed by someone you love can be a privilege.

We’ve spent so much time warning young people about the cost of responsibility that I wonder whether we’ve forgotten to tell them what it’s worth.

At some point, I think we ought to ask whether we’re building the lives we wanted or just buying back the childhoods we miss.

I want my daughter to enjoy every minute of being little. One day, she won’t need me to sit on the floor and play dinosaurs with her.

I hope by then I’ve given her plenty of reasons to be excited about growing up and buying toys for her own kids someday. Because as wonderful as Christmas morning was when I was little, nothing compares to experiencing it as a mom and watching the magic through my children’s eyes.

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