Another Christmas! And the older my kids get, the more involved their toys seem to be. Between my wife and I, her parents, my parents, grandparents, well meaning aunts and uncles and everyone in between, I now have an entire room stacked up with presents. My house is not big enough to hold all of this stuff, and I don’t have enough time to make the kids pick up all of the 4 billion pieces of toys that end up scattered around the house.
I have this vision of a 1930s toy-topia where little girls had 1 doll, and it was special. Between my two daughters I think we have approximately 20 Barbies, and they’re not even old enough to appreciate Barbie. What does a kid do with 20 Barbies? All it seems to do is dilute the appeal of all the other toys.
If I just got rid of 80% of the toys in my house, would my kids be happier? I already have a strict no-junk rule that keeps out the happy meal toys, but can I extend this? Can I make a 2 Barbie per child rule?
Sure you can make the rule. It sounds like the kids are pretty young anyway. I used to put many of the toys away to avoid toy overload. There was too much for my daughter to even enjoy them. You might want them to go through the older toys to see what they want to give away, or you might want to institute the rule that for one thing they get they have to get rid of one thing rather than just suggest it, or you might want to box up 75% of their existing toys and then swap them out in February or March when these new ones have lost their shine.
Yea, I’ve got four kids, and two sets of overshopping grandparents. They get a mountain of new toys every Christmas. (My oldest son’s birthday is 5 days before Christmas, to further escalate matters.) Right after Thanksgiving, I do a clean sweep of all toys. Broken? Missing parts? Trash. Haven’t played with it lately? Donate. I try to reduce their toys by about 50%. Then, when the new stuff comes in, inevitably there’s toys in there that just won’t cut the mustard and wind up broken or fail to catch anyone’s attention in the first few weeks. Right to Goodwill. Other stuff, maybe about 1/3 of the gifts, I whisk away to a closet shelf after it’s unwrapped but before it’s been opened, to bring out on a rainy day.
I only have one girl, so her Barbie head count isn’t ridiculous yet (maybe 5?) but my three boy’s Hot Wheel / Matchbox cars? Oy vey. We must have two hundred of them at least. And they don’t really tend to get broken or lost, they just keep accumulating. We received two more of those 25-car gift packages over the holidays so far. sigh
I’m an aunt, so I have just started buying books. At least books can be put away better and are a little more intellectual than yet another stupid toy that talks for you and does everything for you. Still, you should have seen how disappointed my niece was with the book I got her - she actually sulked. She got 900 other presents, so I didn’t feel too badly.
How old are your kids? Are they old enough to get them involved in the idea of charity/cleanup? I mean if you tell them about little kids who don’t get toys, you might be able to encourage them to give up some of the gently used toys they have, and it’s a good way to start them on such a thought.
What do kids do with 20 Barbies? They fight over the one the other one has already. I got my daughters a collection of 7 Disney Princesses, they fought over which one they would have, would leave it after a minute or two and the other one would pick it up and they’d fight over it. There are SEVEN of them girls, find one the other’s not playing with!
One time Oprah interviewed Chris Rock and his wife. I can’t remember her name, but she’s a jewel.
She said that for every new present their kids get, they’re told to go thru their room and pick out that many toys to give to charity. That way, they get to enjoy the “newness” of a toy but also pass along one that will bring another kid joy.
Also, she said that one time while at her favorite bakery she noticed they were collecting all the “old” pastries and throwing them away. She asked if she could have them to take to a local food bank. And she still does it, herself, at various places in the city, with her kids, so they’ll understand the importance of giving.