athena1277 Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Dd(8yo) has had Legos for several years, but ds was never allowed to play with them because he was too young. He turns 4 next week and we have recently started allowing him to play Legos with dd. He has absolutely loved playing with them, so we have bought him a bucket of his own for his upcoming birthday. Now I can't decide if we should keep each kid's sets separate, or combine them and make it "community property" that either can play with. It doesn't really seem fair to take something that was dd's only and make it half ds's. How would you handle it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckymama Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 As almost all legos in the house have been received as gifts or purchased by the child with gift money, we've kept them separate since the beginning. Ds and dd11 do build gigantic room-filling set-ups together yet always know whose is whose at breakdown time :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 They're expensive and you get more out of them if everyone has access to more... so usually I would say yes. They're community property in pretty much every family I know. But I would talk to your dd first and feel out the situation. Kids use Legos differently. For my kids, sure, they like to build the kits, but then they like to build their own things even more. However, some kids are keen that all the little bits for their kit don't get separated. If your dd is like that, then I might encourage her to have a special shelf for them or something so they don't get mixed in with the rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Lego blocks are community property in our house. BUT, they live in ds's room, and most of them belong to him. My middle dd has a few sets, they are all Harry Potter sets. They could probably sort them out if they really, really wanted to. eta: We do have special segmented boxes for little special pieces. But, they don't usually get used except during elaborate builds. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiseOwlKnits Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 We don't have toys that are only for one child so I vote to make them community property. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Our Legos were kept together -- and luckily mostly were mine. Because now that it is time to "hand down" I'm getting them. (most were gifts I got, etc, growing up. and I continued to add on as I got older.) If you have two kids who are really into Legos, separating out whose is whose when time to hand down to the next generation might be a problem if they are kept together too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 My eldest ds has a huge bin of Legos in his room that he shares with the youngest. The youngest has a smaller bin in his room that were bought for him. The often will come together to do a large build, and somehow they know whose Legos belong in which room at the end of it all. They each have their own bin because they take quiet time separately for part of each afternoon to give the oldest a break from everyone (he's an introvert and needs to refuel); during this time they enjoy building their own things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntieM Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Hard to believe that our kids have almost all outgrown Legos (well, does anyone ever *really* totally outgrow them? I think not...). Kid who received/purchased a kit or model got to put it together and play with it assembled as long as s/he wanted, not required to share. After the novelty wore off, the pieces would go into a community bin, which also contained lots of pieces I purchased for all. I also started a three ring binder for assembly directions and pictures, so a model could be rebuilt even if all the pieces went into the community bin. But my kids always told me they got much more pleasure from just creating on their own. The only one that has remained assembled long term is an Imperial Battle Cruiser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virg Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Legos are community property here too. Sets are their own to build and play with but the first time it comes apart it goes in the community box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 We have four boys. Individual sets belong to individual people, until they don't pick them up. Then they become community property. Generally what happens is pieces get lost, sets get reorganized, and certain pieces get left out (ships created, guys tend to be saved). Those are added to a large plastic container for everyone to use. Directions are put in a drawer in case someone wants to attempt making the set again some day. The boys tend to keep the guys and some of the cooler pieces. Most of the general pieces end up in community property eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Wouldn't it be hard to keep Legos separate if they're playing them together? I vote for community property. 99% of our toys are shared here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legomom Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 One of my sons loves Legos and the other son likes them. Their Lego sets belong to each of them individually but they still combine sets to make new builds. The son who "likes" Legos sometimes sells his sets on Ebay if he can make a profit. In order to do this, he pays the one who "loves" Legos to assemble the set -- he can recognize virtually every piece from every set and he has A LOT of Legos. So we have Legos all mixed up, but an onsite expert who can separate them if necessary :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalknot Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Kid who received/purchased a kit or model got to put it together and play with it assembled as long as s/he wanted, not required to share. After the novelty wore off, the pieces would go into a community bin, which also contained lots of pieces I purchased for all. My kids are five years apart in age, but this is what we do also. My eldest didn't really have a problem sharing his older pieces and kits with the younger, once she became interested in Legos ... but he was always a bit more protective of his newer sets, particularly the ones he purchased on his own. I respected that, my youngest respected it, and my oldest generally is fine to make newer stuff community property after a month or so of having them all to himself :) If my kids weren't agreeable on their own, I don't know what I'd do. Probably make a rule that anything gifted or bought by me was community, but sets or pieces bought with the kids' own money could be not-shared if kept separate (their responsibility). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pippen Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 I let my boys keep them seperate until they decided to combine most of them, each keeping what they wanted as their own in their rooms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaichiki Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Ds and dd11 do build gigantic room-filling set-ups together yet always know whose is whose at breakdown time :) ditto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasharowan Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 We have a large community property box and each of the younger 3 have their own personal Lego bucket. It is up to them to keep them figured out. I refuse to be Lego police. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cat Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 My 2 ds have tons of legos in plastic bins and they go thru them and share and make things.... once they've made something and want to keep it together, they put it in a safe place.... if they take it apart it becomes community property again. My ds's put their money together to buy sets.... they also will barter with each other if someone has something they would like to play with at the moment.. i let them work it out for the most part...... when they get grumpy i put a halt to lego playing until they can show they can get along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfunnybunch Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Each of my boys has a small box for projects in progress and special Legos. The rest are dumped into a shared bin. Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Running the race Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 We have one large Lego box that my boys share. My daughter has her one. Each boy still has boxes and bags with their "special pieces". It always amazes me that they can look a small visor and know exactly who it belongs to! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolamum Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 We have one of those giant turtle/clam sand boxes. Only, instead of sand we have legos in it. When it's not being played with we push it under the kids bed. We have a few basic lego rules: 1. If you fight Mom will most likely tell you to pick up. 2. If you leave a lego on the flood God help you when Mom steps on it. 3. If Mom is vacuuming and screams LEGO you'd better run like your rump is on fire or she's gonna suck it up! 4. If you build it you are responsible for it. leave it in the middle of the floor and yeah someone's gonna trip on it. 5. If I find piles of legos on the built in desks upstairs I will chuck them into the big box, no questions asked. Don't scream or whine at me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnitaMcC Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 (edited) Family toys are video game machines and computer, large play equipment like foosball, pool table, basketball hoop, etc. Anything that is gifted to the family or bought for the family is community property (but is owned by Dh and I). For the most part anything given or bought for an individual child... it belongs to only that child. And with legos and cars, the kids usually know what is theirs. I do not allow arguing or fighting over them. Same goes for Magic Cards, etc. And if they leave anything out... it can end up being mine or in the trash if they don't hurry up and get it out of my way when I am cleaning. But at the same time we do encourange sharing when it is appropriate. We do not force sharing, but at the same time if a child is often not sharing any of their things... well it is only fair if they also be on receiving end of the not sharing. Which means that if they practically never share their things... then no one else is expected to share their things with that child. This is only if the not sharing child has been unreasonable in attitude about sharing. I also take into consideration of what items are wanted to be shared and ages of the recipient of that sharing... I do not require any of the kids to share items that are highly valued to them in some way and also if the item is very expensive (I am not going to require Dd to share her video camera with the younger boys). I also do not expect Ds#1 to share his science equipment as these can be dangerous is not used properly. Make sense?? LOL Edited June 23, 2011 by AnitaMcC 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.