Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Junk modelling at school

80 replies

Whatisgoingonheredear · 12/09/2024 10:44

I hate it.
I know it is good for their imagination, creativeness, design skills, learning through play.
DD has been back at school for one week and her entire bedroom is full of junk modeling. She likes to play with the junk bur doesn't actually model any of it. Empty boxes become houses, space ships, treasure chests, rockets. It's lovely But her bedroom floor is covered in recycling.
She gets very upset if I mention we can't keep any of it and every day she comes out with "just one more". There are always tears when I say we have fo get rid of an old one and it makes me feel dreadful because she's obviously built that box up to being the best thing ever all day at school. And of course it isn't that old because she's been back 6 days.
What do I do with all of the recycling?!?!
If we were closer to Christmas I'd say santa won't be bringing anything because he will see you have all these boxes keeping you busy, and get rid of them...but we are so far away.

Lighthearted but also...not.

OP posts:
Seashor · 12/09/2024 14:40

What a shame. I grew up on Blue Peter and Magpie, it was a wonderful world of sticky back plastic and matchbox drawers.
For Christmas fill a box of tape, glue, string, brown paper, paper clips, scissors, pipe cleaners etc for her, she’ll be in her element.

Original poster
Whatisgoingonheredear · 12/09/2024 14:08

Also, the only reason I mention the santa line is because come Christmas we have nowhere for anything new for her. Do you not encourage your children to make space before Christmas for one or two new things

OP posts:
Original poster
Whatisgoingonheredear · 12/09/2024 14:06

To be clear, I'm not actually threatening santa. I've said this is a light hearted thread!

These aren't a few small items. In 6 days, we have got 2 shoe boxes, 3 very large boxes across 1m x 70cm that the school have had a big delivery in, and something else I can't even describe but it's also about 70cm x 70cm these are very hard to put away hence they've just ended up on the floor.

Please note the words LIGHT HEARTED but please also understand that some people really struggle to leave in a house with so many empty cardboard boxes littering the floor. I'm autistic and the mess is genuinely very triggering. So it stays in her room. I'm still allowed to hate it and wish one large item didn't come home every single day.

OP posts:
Original poster
Whatisgoingonheredear · 12/09/2024 14:00

Why can’t she keep them? Put a shelf up and shove them on there

They are huge boxes that the school have had large deliveries in, they don't fit on shelves. They take up most of her room and stop me finding her actual things she needs.

OP posts:
Hatfullofwillow · 12/09/2024 12:25

Let them be children, it goes so incredibly quickly.

A kid in my primary class, considered to be pretty dumb by almost everyone, was obsessed with making things. Unremarkable at secondary school but progressed to making bigger things. Now he's an award winning motor racing mechanic, with the big teams fighting over him. He's also as happy as any adult I've known.

Drfosters · 12/09/2024 12:24

I used to love junk modelling. I build loads of things. Remember you might have a future engineer, architect or designer. This is where it starts. I would suggest you take photos of everything and create a portfolio and say that they keep the very best ones. Perhaps even frame the photos and put them on the wall if they want to see them. You can see how their skills are developing

BeMintBee · 12/09/2024 12:12

Ahh I can see why it annoys in the moment but I promise is ten or fifteen years time you’ll look back and wished you’d just rolled with it.

My niece is in her 30’s and still jokes about how sad she was that her dad threw away the dolls house she made out of boxes. He bought her a fancy one for Christmas but she said it wasn’t the same and she’d just felt crushed that he thought her creation was rubbish and not as good as a shop one. She laughs about it now but obviously the memory has stuck with her for years!

Itsnumber3 · 12/09/2024 12:05

Could you suggest that she take them back into school to remodel?

CurlewKate · 12/09/2024 12:04

What harm is it doing?

GelatoPistacchio · 12/09/2024 12:00

Taking a photo and creating a scrapbook of models is a good idea and keeps the creativity going. Thanks for the idea @AnchorWHAT

I'm not at this stage yet, but as I have a small house, tips for toy/art storage are going to come in handy!

boulevardofbrokendreamss · 12/09/2024 11:59

The Santa line is harsh!

MrsQuietLife · 12/09/2024 11:51

You need to chill out! 😝

DancingPhantomsOnTheTerrace · 12/09/2024 11:49

I used to casually suggest that maybe grandma would like it 😂

Allthingspeaches · 12/09/2024 11:45

What my eldest's teacher does which is brilliant is take a short video of DS6 holding his model and talking through his design and thought process, what he likes, what he would change and what would he improve. We have that video to keep and so he has the memory for when we get rid of the model (although at the moment they reside in DH's office on a prized shelf).

K0OLA1D · 12/09/2024 11:36

Lincoln24 · 12/09/2024 11:35

My rule is that I don't mind if the bedroom is a bomb site, but it doesn't go anywhere else in the house.

I do get that mess is annoying but given how much it upsets her I wouldn't pick this hill to die on.

This too. My smuggles things down and I make him take it all back up again!

MagpiePi · 12/09/2024 11:36

Be thankful she is happy to be creative with what you see as rubbish rather than wanting expensive toys and creative kits that are usually full of plastic and are next to useless.

Lincoln24 · 12/09/2024 11:35

My rule is that I don't mind if the bedroom is a bomb site, but it doesn't go anywhere else in the house.

I do get that mess is annoying but given how much it upsets her I wouldn't pick this hill to die on.

Flashcardsagain · 12/09/2024 11:34

Argh I'd forgotten about junk modelling as I'd managed to phase it out with my 10 yo but my youngest has just started school so I guess I need to start creating that mountain of cereal boxes and investing in sellotape shares.

FlowersOfSulphur · 12/09/2024 11:31

Hide a few of the older ones in the attic/on top of your wardrobe/in the under-stairs cupboard for a few weeks and see if she asks about them. If she doesn't mention them, put them in the recycling bin. Repeat.

K0OLA1D · 12/09/2024 11:29

My ds is in year 6 and he doesn't need school. He does it in his spare time too. His room is a bomb. With bits of boxes plastic etc. We tidy, 2 days later it's the same. I just have one big clear out once a year and then just make him pick it all up off the floor so I can hoover once a week. It won't be forever.

CrispieCake · 12/09/2024 11:28

It can't be that heavy so just buy a big net bag and hang it all from the end of the curtain pole, if she has one? It all has to go in the bag at the end of the day.

BarbaraHoward · 12/09/2024 11:27

I could live with the mess, what I hate is sending in clean recycling, and then getting junk covered in glue and such back. So it's no longer recyclable.

SnapdragonToadflax · 12/09/2024 11:23

Can you keep them somewhere specific? Ours go in the conservatory once DS is a bit bored with them (usually a week or so), then they gradually get recycled out the back door as they fall apart.

I don't mind a bit of mess though, and six days is nothing. There's a plastic bottle fish in our living room which has been there since last term because he still plays with it.

Callaphone · 12/09/2024 11:19

This used to annoy my mother back in the day too. Apparently mine were just "objects" without much thought behind, which made it worse.

I would recommend a big box on her floor. Really big. Use a plastic one, or even a pop up linen basket, or she could decorate a cardboard box. Junk models live in there. When it's a teetering pile maybe losing the ones at the bottom won't be quite so painful.

Namenamchange · 12/09/2024 11:05

Why can’t she keep them? Put a shelf up and shove them on there