Keeping children’s toys for hypothetical grandchildren

[ServeTheServants]

My mum kept a lot of mine and my sibling’s childhood toys and books (Playmobil, Polly Pockets etc.). I love the nostalgia of looking back at the books in particular as it evokes lovely memories of reading with my mum.

Do you intend to keep any of your children’s toys / books for any future grandchildren you may have?

Fireman sam will date, his uniform already looks dated, so another 20 years he'll be long forgotten. So I'd ditch him.

We'll keep the lego / duplo and possibly some of the nicer anamals. DM still has my duplo for when we visit with the kids, and DS has inherited my perfectly kept, never played with beany baby collection (no, they did not become valuable as I was told in the 90's). He's had far more fun messing around with them then I ever did.

My mum kept a load of my childhood picture books. I hadn't seen them since I was a child and it was amazing when she brought them out for my children. Just looking at the pictures again made me all nostalgic! I, on the other hand, tend to get rid of things DC no longer use. No space to store anything in my house!

I've got the lego, dolls house, brio and farm from when my brother and I were small. I wish I'd kept the sylvian families .
I'll keep the brio, lego, farm, the sylvainian families this time, probably the duplo, only few a books and anything wooden.

Yes! My parents kept all of my old playmobile and Sylvianian families.

My kids love them! I will be keeping and passing on what I can too

The really expensive things. Lego, Brio train set and some favourite books. I dont see board games necessarily just for children, so still have those.

Lego, Duplo and Brio certainly. DSs play with my Lego now. I also kept all my childhood books and they’re now being read again. Some are dated but the classics haven’t (Asterix, Moomins, Greene Knowe, Narnia etc).

Probably some of the classics like Lego and brio. No need to keep the full collections though as we gained a lot through umpteen birthdays and Christmases between the DSs.

@Bikingbear

No way to keeping clothes. Even in a 5 year period things seem to date. I can't believe people have kept clothes for that length of time. No guarantee of GC, nor the right sex!

My DDs have been wearing some cute clothes from when I was a baby. Some that my mum kept are silly I must say, others are one of a kind! I actually have a little cotton jcket that was my mum's!

I will keep some nice things, it's great when we go to grandparent's and they have toys to play with there. Also I think all self catering houses should have boxes of old toys (once Covid is over!) as it's great to go somewhere with toddlers and have toys to play with!

@Bikingbear

Be careful with books some books seem to date somehow in content as much as anything. I remember getting passed on 20 year old kids books that seemed very dated in the illustrations as much as anything.

But I think that’s half the joy! My MIL gave us some books, there’s one with pictures of every day items and some things like a phone, kids today wouldn’t even recognise what it was! It was like a history lesson. I loved looking at the old books.

No, I have not kept anything. Passed everything along or to charity shops as soon as they weren't needed. Don't want a loft full of aging toys on the off chance some grandchildren come along when others could get the use from them straight away.

I have stuff my parents kept that I don't no what to do with... Like old Noddy books. Or soft toys that have been bashed around (not favourites, stuff that was won at the fair for example). But I can't dump it because they have an attachment to it.

We've not really kept anything so far. I'm sorting out a box of Toddler books to keep. Duplo went to my DN ages ago. Happyland.. it wasn't worth bringing when we did one of the international moves. Clothes... We have the first England rugby shirt, and the first sleepsuits. That's it.
Lego we will keep, but since we are adult fans, it'll get used.

Honestly, I'd rather other children play with it all than sit in a box for 25-35 years. And then be unwanted.

Honestly, I'd rather other children play with it all than sit in a box for 25-35 years. And then be unwanted.

Yes, me too.

I did. Wish I hadn’t. Could have bought it all cheaply second hand when needed.

@Sparklingbrook

Honestly, I'd rather other children play with it all than sit in a box for 25-35 years. And then be unwanted.

Yes, me too.

I think that most people here have/plan to only keep the investment toys, like lego, Playmobil etc. And some books for sentimental reasons.

I sold a ton of stuff at car boot sales as my kids developed (some of which I regret, to be fair). And as they got older they sold some of it themselves for pocket money.
But the quality stuff was really expensive, and still is to a degree. So no, I don't feel guilty that no-one has played with it for a couple of decades. I'm retired now and would struggle to replace it so the grandchild/ren have nice stuff to play with at my house.

I have a couple of my favourite dolls from my own childhood. When my own kids move on from toys I usually sell them, give them away or bin if broken as I don't have a lot of space and don't like holding onto a lot of stuff. The special things get kept if my kids want it, but that's for them, not me wanting them for future grandchildren.

I've found my people!

I'm mainly keeping the timeless wooden toys eg John Lewis dolls house and furniture, will also keep a lovely doll we bought DD with all the outfits. Wooden kitchen accessories. Don't really intend on keeping any of the plastic toys

Books wise we have the full collection of Peter rabbit and Winnie the Pooh so will keep that and Julia Donaldson

Happyland, playmobil and sylvanian families will all be sold/donated when the time comes

Makes me wonder how many people have a loft full of stuff ready for those potential grandchildren that never actually materialise.

I am a very unsentimental person. I don't understand keeping hold of your wedding dress or anything like that. I quite like things to be used if possible rather than sitting unloved.

@Sparklingbrook

I can understand where you are coming from - I'm definitely an over sentimental person! 🤣 but to avoid clinging on too many things I tend to have them repurposed - after DD we struggled to have any more children so I had the nice baby clothes I kept made into a lovely quilt for her bed so she'd get years more use out of them. Old school uniforms made into bears.
Wedding dress into a christening dress (much smaller to store that in a keepsake box than a full size wedding dress! 🤣)

I kept a Fisher Price School, some Barbies and a lot of My Little Ponies. Plus a lot of small farm and wild animals, lots of soft toys and some coloured wooden bricks. And of course a lot of books.
All have been appreciated by visiting Gdcs.