Why I’ve taken my child’s toys away from him
….and you should too
I am so sick to the back teeth of tripping over toys. They are everywhere, I found the ear from Mr potato head behind the loo the other day. The kids have far too much. Emily is ok, she is eleven and super tidy and her toys stay in her room, she has a space for everything. Fred on the otherhand really does have too many toys for a three year old. He never really plays with them. He loves his Gup-S and he did play with that for maybe 1 week solid.
Tony and I have tried helping him engage with toys but it’s a struggle. Come to think of it, he has never really had a favourite. He does become quite obsessive over his torch or his fan, you know those little things you pop into the stockings, it’s those little things he loves.
How I fixed this
So I’ve decided the kids are spoilt, they have far too much and they don’t need it all- well not all at once. So I’ve spent around 2 hours in Fred’s room with him, sorting toys making sure we have all the bits together and putting them into piles, cars together, train sets and so on. I was absolutely gobsmacked at the amount of plastic toys we are holding onto too.
I asked Fred to choose 10 toys for his bedroom. He chose a car racing set, his wooden vacuum, his octonaut GUP-A, GUP-S and some others. He climbed the ladder with daddy and put the rest of his toys up the garret in boxes. I explained to Fred why we had done this and he has been counting down from 14 sleeps until he can pack away and choose another 10.
The Benefits
- We now have less clutter, and I am not falling over toys anymore.
- We have so much more space to play.
- I feel that Fred is much more engaged with his toys, he is playing with them and for longer than usual 2/3 minutes.
- Fred used to be so easily distracted until now. He is getting so much more enjoyment out of his toys.
Have you tried Toy Rotation? I’d love to know if it’s going as well as ours. Please feel free to comment ♡
13 Comments
Stacey Rodgers
Oh waw, I think I’ll give this a go. Great content.
Chanelle
Please do and let me know how you get on. I am excited to have shared this.
C x
Stephie
Love this and it’s so true!! I haven’t tried it yet but I do think it’s a genius idea xx
Becca
Such a good idea. I am going to keep this in mind for when I get to the toy stage.
Chanelle
Absolutely. It made so much sense to me once I seen how Fred reacted – he wasn’t at all apprehensive. Good luck to you when you give it a go.
C x
Chanelle
Isn’t it, Definately give it a go. I stumbled across two toys Danny hasn’t played with in about 10 days (I left them in a pram) he was so excited to play with them today so it absolutely works for all ages.
C x
Eddie
Wow what a great idea. We do this sort of clear out before Christmas and birthdays to make room for new ones. It’s a good idea as I’m sure it will get them playing and interacting with the fewer toys they do have.
Chanelle
Yes, we always look forward to that Christmas Clearout but I feel It got less and less each year and the kids were gaining more and more. This has definately made a huge difference. C x
Green Socks
We have a playroom and the same problem. Every few weeks we put everything away and get out something different which has a similar effect. Lockdown has the boys spending much more time in there so some rarely used toys are getting love again.
Chanelle
Fantastic! That’s exactly what you want. Then at the end you’ll find out what toys they don’t play with and can be passed on. Xx
Kalin
That sounds like such a great plan! This is a good alternative to just getting rid of lots of toys by allowing the kiddos to enjoy them all, little by little. Great idea!
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