DawnM Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 My boys used to have a play room. It is our bonus room. Over the years the toys have dwindled and dwindled to the point where only LEGOS are left.....zillions and zillions of legos. We now call this room "the lego room!" So, oldest wants a new lego set. We told him not until he builds back the two large sets he broke into pieces to scatter all over the room in various bins. They are spending most of the day up there today trying to build the large Harry Potter Castle/Hogwarts thing and find all the little pieces that go with it. I think this is perfectly fair, esp. since he wants something similar to BUY again! I even spent over an hour up there with them finding things and I found the instructional book! That is all...just my vent for the day. Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impish Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Yup. Big meanie head you. *snort* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Wow! I figure after a set is built once, the parts are fair game for Lego cannibalization and I don't care if they build the set again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Just curious about the purpose of building the set again? I would think that once a set is built, the only thing to do with it is display it. Otherwise, all the pieces can be used to build things from imagination, without instructions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcjlkplus3 Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Yeah, its really mean of you to make your children play legos all day :D. My children would love it if I did that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joker Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Wow! I figure after a set is built once, the parts are fair game for Lego cannibalization and I don't care if they build the set again. :iagree: The sets get built and played with and them become part of all the other Legos. Sometimes the set gets rebuilt but usually something better gets built. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquirrellyMama Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 I don't think you are mean at all. We have lots of misc legos that can built into anything. The more expensive sets must stay together. Kelly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Wow! I figure after a set is built once, the parts are fair game for Lego cannibalization and I don't care if they build the set again. :iagree: Yes, the legos should be picked up and put into bins but I can't imagine having my kids keep their built creations intact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 Let me clarify.......he wants to replace this set with another one just like it only a newer model to the tune of $100 or so. This is because he WHINES about wanting his Harry Potter sets built again and misses them. I am NOT replacing this set with another or letting him spend that kind of money on one when we HAVE one buried up there. There are some sets we do display and leave in tact....typically they include all Star Wars sets and all Harry Potter sets. Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paintedlady Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Not mean at all! We don't have a bonus/play room but ds has a large closet that acts as a mini "Lego room" and I tell him the same thing all the time. He's got entire Lego town that needs to be built. Of course he just got some birthday money that he used to buy himself Hagrig's house. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 They want Hagrid's house too! Hmmmmm.....that would be a good insentive for sure. I want them to build the Hogwart's castle back and then also the Hogwart's Train set..... Dawn Not mean at all! We don't have a bonus/play room but ds has a large closet that acts as a mini "Lego room" and I tell him the same thing all the time. He's got entire Lego town that needs to be built. Of course he just got some birthday money that he used to buy himself Hagrig's house. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Gee..and here I try to convince my DD that she DOESN'T have to leave everything she's built together forever, and that she should take the sets and constructions apart and use them to make new items. I can understand leaving the large castles together and the like, but honestly, I think we have little lego dinosaurs she built a year or more ago out of the basic brick boxes that are collecting dust, while she complains about not having enough legos to build anything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BMW Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 We go through this from time to time... I tried very hard to help son re-build the starship destroyer... there were pieces that we had to have that we could not find... We have bought so many sets and they have a least two very large bins full of legos. I refuse to buy more. They fuss sometimes over their losses. The reason to buy a set is because you really like that theme, right? But, there are pieces that do certain things and if those are lost, you really cannot have that particular part of the set do that "thing" again... So, you spent the money and you cannot do "that" anymore. Drives me nuts. So, when they oooh and aaaah over sets, too bad. They have large bins to go get "creative" with. But, only half of my boys enjoy being creative. The others expect the instructions and the pieces to not get lost and want their "set". Grrrr. But, bins of legos are amazing for rainy days or too hot to go out days... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 In our case it would be mean because I suck legos with the vacuum if they are in my path. I don't believe there is any complete set of anything. Sorry, it if they're that important to you, you'll pick them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom4him Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Just curious about the purpose of building the set again? I would think that once a set is built, the only thing to do with it is display it. Otherwise, all the pieces can be used to build things from imagination, without instructions. :iagree:This is how it works at our house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Wow! I figure after a set is built once, the parts are fair game for Lego cannibalization and I don't care if they build the set again. This is us. Otherwise nothing of their imagination can be built. We have big bins, which the boys have broken down into smaller bins with certain pieces they use over and over. They spend hours building imaginary stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CarolineUK Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Thank you so much! I have spent years feeling irritated beyond belief because my boys never keep their beautiful Lego models perfect and pristine. Like Dawn I have also refused to buy more models based on the fact that "they just end up in a mess with pieces all over the place". So, it's OK for this to happen? Desirable even? What a relief. I feel liberated. :D (We do have a couple of big boxes of general pieces of Lego for more spontaneous creations.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remudamom Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 You are not mean. I threw all our Legos away. Actually, the kids were finished and did not care, but I wanted them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Wow! I figure after a set is built once, the parts are fair game for Lego cannibalization and I don't care if they build the set again. :iagree: That's how it works at my house too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy loves Bud Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Wow! I figure after a set is built once, the parts are fair game for Lego cannibalization and I don't care if they build the set again. Same here. Luke has asked that he not be given any more sets, because he's got so many now he could build pretty much anything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 I really should take some pictures.....there are bins and bins and bins of legos.....if they build ALL the sets back up, they will still have PLENTY for imagination! Ddawn This is us. Otherwise nothing of their imagination can be built. We have big bins, which the boys have broken down into smaller bins with certain pieces they use over and over. They spend hours building imaginary stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in Florida Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Wow! I figure after a set is built once, the parts are fair game for Lego cannibalization and I don't care if they build the set again. Me, too. In our house, Legos are intended for creative play, and building things other than what is descibed in the instruction booklet is actively encouraged. I wouldn't be happy if they were strewn all over the floor, but I'd be perfectly content to have them collected and dumped in a storage box, rather than "rebuilt." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 The wanting a set that costs that much would be easy for me to handle. "Start saving" is my standard response to anything that expensive. My kids have often decided that it really wasn't such a huge need after all. If they still decide it's a need, then they are doing the work of baking cookies for sale at the end of our driveway, doing odd jobs for people like cat sitting, doing special chores set aside in our house specifically for earning money etc. Once they've gone to that amount of effort I don't care so much if I think it is frivolous or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 (edited) We don't leave our big sets assembled. HOWEVER, if I had a child whining about MISSING a set that had been disassembled, I wouldn't hesitate to make them rebuild it before I purchased any more sets. That's perfectly reasonable. Edited March 11, 2011 by Mrs Mungo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen+4dc Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 We don't leave our big sets assembled. HOWEVER, if I had a child whining about MISSING a set that had been disassembled, I wouldn't hesitate to make the rebuild it before I purchased any more sets. That's perfectly reasonable. :iagree::iagree: Perfectly reasonable, Dawn. If they like the set that much then don't take it apart. DC should understand that after sitting built on the shelf for awhile they invariably end up taken apart and cannibalized into some new creation. That's what legos are for, right?:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 They are spending most of the day up there today trying to build the large Harry Potter Castle/Hogwarts thing and find all the little pieces that go with it. My son has a zillion legos. He builds each thing one time, and then it gets ripped apart and dumped into the various lego bins scattered around the house. I would never require him to build all the original lego items. Legos are meant for creating new things!! When I was a kid, legos didn't come in sets. They came in buckets and you built your own bliss. Much better concept, imo. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 In our case it would be mean because I suck legos with the vacuum if they are in my path. I don't believe there is any complete set of anything. Sorry, it if they're that important to you, you'll pick them up. :iagree: If legos happen to be in my way when I am sweeping or vacuuming, away they go! Of course, that is the case with anything (almost) that gets in the way of the vacuum or broom. Out it goes in the rubbish pile! Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 The wanting a set that costs that much would be easy for me to handle. "Start saving" is my standard response to anything that expensive. Again, :iagree: Want to waste $100 on something you already have but don't take care of? DANDY! Earn the money! :D Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 We don't leave our big sets assembled. HOWEVER, if I had a child whining about MISSING a set that had been disassembled, I wouldn't hesitate to make them rebuild it before I purchased any more sets. That's perfectly reasonable. :iagree: I don't think that's mean; I think that's logical. (My DS, age 6, does like to build the specific items and keep them intact, or rebuild them if they get broken. Then they become playsets -- the pirates and soldiers battle, or the good knights take on the bad ones, or whatever. Tbh, that makes the most sense to me as well, since we've paid for the more expensive specialty sets. It's a different style of fun than the generic Legos, I think. He has plenty of generic Legos for inventing his own creations too, and it seems to be a mix at this point of which he prefers.) Also, if pieces go missing, many of them are available pretty cheaply from the Lego site (I've been looking into that, but IDK about shipping costs yet); some of the specialty pieces are pricier though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfunnybunch Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Let me clarify.......he wants to replace this set with another one just like it only a newer model to the tune of $100 or so. This is because he WHINES about wanting his Harry Potter sets built again and misses them. I am NOT replacing this set with another or letting him spend that kind of money on one when we HAVE one buried up there. Oh. Well that changes my answer, lol. ('Cause I was going to say you're meee-eean. ;) Not really.) If he's whining about wanting a new set when he already has one, then you are being perfectly reasonable. Not the least bit mean. I don't know if *I'd* require him to rebuild it. I'm with jean. If he wants to buy something expensive that he already owns, he can earn the money to buy it. Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex-mex Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 (edited) Why not just invest in a plastic bin/drawer cart that helps organize the legos? http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-3-Drawer-Wide-Cart-White/8282897 I know of moms who do this system. Cannibalize the sets. Each drawer is by color and one drawer is for instruction books. One drawer holds the people or special items. The room may have a wall of 5-6 of these carts. Table in the middle for building. Helps keep the room clutter free. ETA: I most likely would make my kid earn the $$ (i.e. bake sale, wash cars, etc) to earn the $100 for the set, IMO. I would not make him put the entire collection together. Kinda defeats the purpose of creative play with cannibalized lego parts? Edited March 12, 2011 by tex-mex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Wow! I figure after a set is built once, the parts are fair game for Lego cannibalization and I don't care if they build the set again. yep...me too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBS Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Oh, man, BTDT. I have no idea if you're being mean or not. I bought sorting bin shelving units, THREE of them, which means a total of 36 containers to sort into. I'd let the kids sort them, and consider it their "family" chore. Colors, sizes, sets....they chose how to sort them. Just OFF THE FLOOR! My husband told that dumb joke about how he stepped on a lego with bare foot and had to have it surgically removed, so many times, it was way overkill. Well, when the boys would beg, plead and repeatedly list on their birthday and Christmas lists, those womping huge sets, costing over $150, I'd kinda freak. It used to irk me, when I'd buy a set, and it would only be good for the assembly time....I worked up some formula in my mind, relating the dollars/number of pieces/time of entertainment. I really, really tried to keep the sets together, I'd cut the pictures off the boxes, tape them onto plastic boxes, put instructions in, etc., etc., but, in the end, they all ended up in mixed piles. All over the house. I admire anyone who could get a kid to keep a set together, and, in the end, I did kinda count it if it got put together, modified, redesigned, all that. LBS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RanchGirl Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Dawn, not mean at all! My boys also keep their expensive sets organized and labeled. They still will take a set out and change it up, and they have plenty of other loose pieces for building creatively as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsabelC Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 That's very cool having a lego room :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtney.byrum Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 My son also likes to keep his sets together. He has a bin for each type 'ie star wars, power miner, etc' and in the bins he has gallon ziplocs to hold the book and pieces for each set. He likes to build his own creations but typically wants to keep each theme seperate. Every few months we go through together and find all the pieces for each set and then he goes and rebuilds them all. He has a HUGE bin that is just random legos and he also builds with those all the time. But he loves to build and play with his sets so I'm guessing those will stay 'organized' for some time still. He's 6.5 and they've been this way since he was about 4 when he started getting regular legos. I'd say you're not mean :) I would help him find the pieces since he's only 6 but I wouldn't go buy him a newer version of something he already has. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 Already have them. They are EMPTY because they don't organize or get it together, which is part of the this exercise's point. Dawn Why not just invest in a plastic bin/drawer cart that helps organize the legos? http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-3-Drawer-Wide-Cart-White/8282897 I know of moms who do this system. Cannibalize the sets. Each drawer is by color and one drawer is for instruction books. One drawer holds the people or special items. The room may have a wall of 5-6 of these carts. Table in the middle for building. Helps keep the room clutter free. ETA: I most likely would make my kid earn the $$ (i.e. bake sale, wash cars, etc) to earn the $100 for the set, IMO. I would not make him put the entire collection together. Kinda defeats the purpose of creative play with cannibalized lego parts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.