Spring Cleaning The Toys

Oy. I suppose this should be under a Trouble Spot Tuesday, but well, I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with this yet.

Spring always brings out my inner clean freak. It makes me want to move furniture, wipe baseboards and well, clean out every nook and cranny. And yeah, maybe throw out ½ of the house. All of a sudden, all the accumulated crap just suffocates me.

I have no problem with clothes. I personally do not have a lot of clothes, nor does Hubster. And I’m good about moving those along. The girls – well, we’ve recently come into a HUGE amount of hand me downs. Which is great! I’m not complaining. Mouse is “just” about out of 3T, but some still fits for now. And Baboo is “just” about out of 18 m, but some still fits now. So we have way more clothes than we really need and are on the cusp of a season change as well. The nice thing is that Baboo will inherit a lot of Mouse’s stuff in time, and while I don’t keep EVERYTHING, I do keep most of it. It’s a lot to store and kind of a pain. But it bothers me more to have to buy it all again. So, I can deal with clothes, generally.

The hard, hard part for me is toys. Sigh. My kids really don’t play with a lot of toys. Yes, we do have a lot of toys – not as many as some people, but a lot. Before we moved, we had a tiny little house and all the toys were in our living area. Overall it worked, but it bugged me that we always had toys all over the living room.

So, when we bought this house, we designated a whole room for the toys. It’s big, it’s bright, it’s fun … and they rarely play there. We have a space down here as well, that I set up for the days when I teach Pilates, and they do play with some of the stuff there, but not very often.

They have a play kitchen, but don’t often play with it. They have blocks, but don’t often play with it. They have a bin of baby dolls and accessories, but almost never play with those. They have puzzles, but again… rarely play with them. We have Little People stuff – a house, bus etc… and again, they rarely play with it.

So what do they play with? Baboo plays with a beautiful Victorian doll house my Mum made. But she’s not very gentle with it. Mouse plays dress up with her dress up clothes and a lot with her regular clothes. They jump on the couch, sometimes ride bikes, run around, color, play outside.

I feel like I barely know my kids toy preferences. What’s a bit frustrating is that if I see Baboo is interested in something, we may get it for her (occasionally) or she gets something for a gift. Mouse will INSIST on having the exact same thing… which has happened a few times… and then she never touches it again. It’s like she just wants it to have it to say she has one, and to protect it, but won’t use it. That kind of thing makes me crazy.

Mouse will play with something if “I” sit and play with her. She will not often go and play by herself. Baboo will go and play with just about anything, especially on her own, but doesn’t seem to have a big preference.

Right now, they’re playing on the couch – “rescue” something-or-other… with pillows a blanket and some weird octopus thing from McDonald’s (that will eventually end up in the trash – in about a week or so).

Mouse loves electronic games – computer (and she’s good!), L-MAX, playing outside, acting out animals etc. She wants to do what I’m doing, be where I am and be entertained by any other adult around. She likes to be silly and jump on the bed and make noises and hide under covers and “rescue” things. She’s obessed with princess dress up clothes, and will play with them, but again, I think she just prefers “collecting” them, versus actually pretending to be a princess. She loves to draw and paint and do crafts, but can’t just make them to make them. She MUST GIVE them to someone. I’m generally the recipient. I’ve got a huge collection. (sigh).

Baboo goes along with just about anything Mouse is doing. She loves to run around but will sit and look at books or will play with blocks or little people and things like that. If left alone, she will go and cook up something in the play kitchen, but often gets distracted by big sister. She also loves to do just about anything I’m doing. She also loves anything electronic – computers, L-MAX, anything with buttons. And what’s scary is that she’s good at them.

But… my dilemma is that Baboo plays more than Mouse does with toys in general, so I’m hesitant to get rid of much until she’s a bit older and grows out of them. But, it kind of burns my butt that it’s just sitting there. I’m passing on the baby toys, and a bunch of other junky stuff.

I’m trying to decide what to do. And I’m so, so hesitant to buy anything new. Gift giving occasions are torture for me. I’m so rarely sure of what they’ll like and just getting gifts to have them makes me crazy, especially when I’m pretty sure they’re not going to use them.

I feel like I don’t really “know” my kids. I feel a bit like they are outside the norm. I also feel very “needed” for their entertainment at times, which can be wearing and I wonder if I’m helping them or hindering them. I also shelter them from some of the toys right now – Barbie, Petshop stuff (to a degree), anything Bratz (growl – NEVER). Am I sheltering them too much?

In some ways, I’m glad they’re learning and experiencing “real life” stuff, but on the other hand, I want them to be creative and imaginative and be able to do things on their own for longer than 5 minutes. In some ways I don’t feel like I relate to them very well. As a kid, I spent HOURS playing by myself, maybe not at this very young age, but just a bit older than this, I would create whole lives for my dolls, play house with friends or my brother, build with Legos for hours, create adventures camping etc, I played with baby dolls a lot. That’s what I remember playing as a kid, and so I’m not sure how to related to what my girls are looking for in play. I have to stop myself from buying things just because I think they are “classic” toys, or under the pretense that they SHOULD be interested in this kind of toy or MIGHT become interested in that kind of toy.

Anyway… I guess I should re-title this – “Musings on my Kids Play Habits”. And of course, if I try to get rid of anything, even under stealth, it will suddenly become “THE THING WE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT!”. Sigh. I guess I’ll keep picking through things, censoring myself from buying things and try to be more observant of what my kids really want and need.