MIch elle Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 When I was little and we used to visit family/friends, I was always surprised to find a home with NO toys. For some strange reason, I thought it was normal that if you had children (even adult children) that there would be toys in the home. It wasn't that I was disappointed (though I probably was) but just that it wasn't "normal." :closedeyes: So now that my sons are 18 & 21 yo, I still have toys (best ones -legos, kapla blocks, stuff animals, etc) in my home and always hope that it will be so. :thumbup: What about you? 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 My parents still have a LOT of toys from when I was little. My kids love playing with them when we visit. I remember MY grandma having old toys as well, when I was young. I'm having toys! (Just maybe not so doggone many...) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Marmalade Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 As our children passed through each "toy stage" we chose out a few to put in a box to always have around for when littles happen to come visiting. DS is 11 now, and very much at that point where he thinks he's ready to put most of the toys behind him, but not quite. We'll go through what remains, pass some along to the nephews to have, donate/sell some, and then pack some away for future visitors. We have more on hand for the five and under crowd, because we figure the over five crowd will be pleased to get the video games out, and we will always have those on hand. But we do have some for the older kids as well. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 My parents home was 800sqft and there was no storage space for toys in general. My brother and I share a bedroom. I do have three 18 gallon plastic totes worth of soft toys from my childhood with me. Our current home is 865sqft and we would most likely keep a tote of Lego, a tote of trains and tracks and a tote of playmobil. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okra Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Yep, Save the best, give the mediocre ones away. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 I can't imagine no toys, but I am not sad to get rid of some of the more annoying ones. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 I had toys in my house even when I was single because I had kids in my life. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted March 27, 2015 Author Share Posted March 27, 2015 I had toys in my house even when I was single because I had kids in my life. Nice! Sadly we don't have children in our lives now (teenagers - yes). We have no family around and we are not friends with people who have little children. AND unfortunately I have a dog that restricts having children in the home now. But one day .... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrairieSong Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Our youngest is 15. We still have Legos, Duplos, Zoobs, K'Nex, wooden blocks, vintage Fisher Price Little People, and other favorites. I even have a few things from my own childhood! They are put away for my future grandchildren. 15yo still enjoys Legos sometimes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieJ Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Grandkids show up,sooner than you think! Mine are happily playing with thei parents Legos, tinker toys, speak and music, puzzles, even some coloring books. Oh my yes, there has always been toys in my house. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKim Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 My girls are 20 and 16 and they both love Transformers, of all things. So we have a bunch of those. Also stuffed animals. I think they have babies when we aren't looking. Oh, and I have coloring books and crayons for myself and DH. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted March 27, 2015 Author Share Posted March 27, 2015 Our youngest is 15. We still have Legos, Duplos, Zoobs, K'Nex, wooden blocks, vintage Fisher Price Little People, and other favorites. I even have a few things from my own childhood! They are put away for my future grandchildren. 15yo still enjoys Legos sometimes. My eldest son was VERY into Legos for many years. Last summer he pulled them out (20yo) and was playing with them for a short time. Have you seen BrickWorld? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2scouts Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 My youngest is 8 and my oldest will probably start having children in the next couple of years. Just as my youngest starts to outgrow toys, the grandchildren will probably start arriving. I'll probably always have toys in my house. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 I had toys in my house even when I was single because I had kids in my life. This! And children's books too. Dh was surprised to find my name in adult handwriting in many of our classics when Dd was little. ;) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 Love good toys! I have a whole new set, now that I've gone back to teaching at a preschool. :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Um_2_4 Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 I had toys when we were childless as all my friends had littles and I babysat often. And of course I had tons of Picture books I used in my classroom that were mine (bought with my $ not school's). I plan to always have some (ok lots) :laugh: . I recently decided it was time to put away the board books, but I kept a few out and put each child's favorite in their baby box. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 When I left home, I took the family lego collection with me! I would still build lego houses even as a young adult. And "Santa" brought legos with tags that read my name first, then my kids' names. I, I mean we, got a really cool set to build houses when I think the girls were 6 and 3--way too young to build it. That's okay--it was really for me to build. So, yeah, legos are here forever (and I will keep a few other things too). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Some of the toys here are mine and dh's. :lol: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I will always keep toys in the house. It is so nice when little kids come over that they have something to do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJoy Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Me too! My 92-year-old great-grandmother has a basket of toys for her 18 great-great-grandchildren to enjoy so there is a family precedent :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeachyDoodle Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Absolutely! My kids have their own playroom at my parents' house (it's in my old bedroom), some of our old toys, and some new ones my mom picks up at consignment sales. MIL keeps a very few things around as well. FIL has nothing. In fact, when he moved, he gave dd9 some wooden ducks because "she's always liked them." Um, no she didn't. She played with them because there was nothing else for her to do at your house. When she was like, 3. :glare: Another pledge I've made to myself: I will always try to remember what it is like to have small children and be prepared when they come to visit. This means putting away anything valuable/breakable, at least in the common areas, while they are here. It's so stressful to visit someone's home that's full of porcelain figurines (all at toddler eye-level, of course) and have them insist, "Oh, he can't hurt anything!" while chasing a busy 18-month-old around like a bull in a china shop. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRAAB Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I will always have toys in my home. I have more toys now than I did a couple years ago for my granddaughter. A home needs toys. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted March 28, 2015 Author Share Posted March 28, 2015 Another pledge I've made to myself: I will always try to remember what it is like to have small children and be prepared when they come to visit. This means putting away anything valuable/breakable, at least in the common areas, while they are here. It's so stressful to visit someone's home that's full of porcelain figurines (all at toddler eye-level, of course) and have them insist, "Oh, he can't hurt anything!" while chasing a busy 18-month-old around like a bull in a china shop. :iagree: But then again I don't typically have valuable/breakable items at that level. I don't like to dust! Yes, and children's books - LOTS of picture books! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenade Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I had toys before my kids were born, and I'll have toys forever afterwards. Just more of them! :-) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edelweiss Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I don't think that I'll always have toys in the house, and I'd be surprised if someone expected me to once my kids are past the toy stage. :confused1: In the near future, I expect my kids to be completely done with toys. I'll pack up their favorites for them to take to their own houses one day, and I'll throw away or donate the rest. If someone were to come over with children at that point, I wouldn't have any toys for them to play with because I definitely wouldn't be pulling out any of the toys that I had packed away. If I'm alive to see any grandchildren, I might keep a few toys here if they live in the same area as we do, but I think it is quite possible that they won't, so that would be unnecessary. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I love toys. I love kid's books. I told dh that I thought we should have more kids because there are some new toys and books I'd like to get. He didn't think that was a good enough reason! :glare: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slartibartfast Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Some of the toys here are mine and dh's. :lol: In hindsight I should have clarified, Dh and I own some action figures. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrixieB Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 I can't imagine not having toys in the home. I still have some of MY childhood toys in our home (Barbies, Sunshine Family, Honey Hill Bunch dolls, Breyer horses). My parents still have some of my sibs' & my toys that my kids used to play with when they visited (lots of Fisher Price, Adventure People, etc.). My teens will never part with Playmobil, Legos, Calico Critters... We will always have toys in our home. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 A grandma at our church a few moves ago was on a budget was thrilled to be the recipient of some of our old toys for when her grandkids visited, easy way for me to get rid of excess, win win. She had a few but not enough to rotate when they moved closer and visited often enough to get tired if the few toys she had. We had a few toys for visiting children before we had kids, we had kids later than most of our friends. Some of them may have been ours and not just for visiting children... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Nope, I will be fine with buying a couple of new things for any grandchildren. I'd rather pass things along now, and keep very little. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momacacia Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 I can't wait to get rid of the kiddie karp! I will keep a few toys packed away, as my mom did, and keep the most wonderful children's books, as my mom did (and I'm so grateful), but I'm already decluttering a lot of stuff and I don't expect other people to have toys for us. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 Keep: Lego, Playmobil, Thomas the Tank Engine stuff, board games, puzzles. Get rid of: everything else. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaceyinLA Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 I have an entire playroom in my house for my grandkids, and any other kids who happen to tag along with friends. I suppose I will always keep at least SOME toys. Right now it's a full-on playroom with train table/trains, kitchen, dishes, dolls, puzzles, books, etc., but my grandkids are young. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Strawberry Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 I had toys in my house even when I was single because I had kids in my life. I have always had toys because I like toys. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Strawberry Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 My grandfather kept a fully furnished nursery in his house, complete with toys. It was so nice. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelenNotOfTroy Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 I imagine that if I pack away toys after DS is done with them, I won't be able to find them when needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEmama Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 Nope. I don't keep extra stuff around "just in case". I'm well past the age of having friends with littles, and I have no nieces or nephews around. My mom kept some of my old toys, but I didn't want them by the time DS came (plus we live on the opposite coast) so she ended up donating them. Would have been SO much better not to wait those 30 years to get rid of the clutter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 My inlaws save several boxes of toys. I absolutely plan on saving the Legos, best books, a box of infant toys, and dolls/MLP's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 I have always had toys because I like toys. That too! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luanne Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 My daughter still has some of her toys... she's 26. I would have some toys even if I had never had any children because I like to play with toys sometimes too. I think everyone needs to be a child once in a while. 2 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.