Old toys meltdown

[AncientEmo]

Uh oh!!

LO had a musical hoover that broke, it started making kinda creepy skipping noises that scared him so he stopped playing with it. I kept it in the garage for a while but he never asked for it so I got rid of it... Well today he's asked for it and we've had a HUGE meltdown.

This hoover isn't something he came with, it's pretty much a piece of tat that I got as part of a Facebook bundle.

I remember being really upset about getting rid of anything as a kid so I kinda get it, but I can't just keep everything!

I did wondering aloud, we had a hug, and I tried to be playful/funny saying if we kept everything we'd have no space to move around or put food etc but it didn't really help.

What do you do with old toys? I am honestly surprised he even remembered, it's been months. I think I'll never throw anything away again 😂

Never thrown any toys away, I have box of broken bits and bobs, and quite a few A4 boxes of drawings! I would not dare throw away tat!

I do throw other things away, though, like sticks and some of the rocks collected ... and it never goes down very well but I explain my reasons and if we were short of room I would give or throw away more.

You could maybe make a cardboard one together now?! (Which you will fairly soon want to throw away but you will never be able to!)

Next time if it is just the sound that has gone you can disconnect the sound and keep the tat toy by the way!

That is currently what I’m doing. I have kept the old toys in the garage until I can part with them or until I’m sure that LO won’t miss them (I hope). It’s amazing the things that LO’s remember

Do you think it may be better if he's involved? Often, we'll sort out toys for "the babies", to be passed on, or toys "for the poor children" to go to charity shops. It means that they know the toys are being passed on.

That's brilliant @percypetulant ! Oh I never think of these things. He can pass it on to his younger cousins. I may actually pass everything on as my brother gave him a rapping dancing duck toy and I need to get revenge...

I hope you have more success than us, so far not even baby toys have been willingly parted with. As for children with less than DC, I should apparently buy those children new toys!

Could you make some space for new toys? Santa likes to see kindness (but he brings toys anyway), but he needs some space for them!

It's hard giving things away when you've lost so much, I feel for them. I worry that being too gung ho could make them adult hoarders, but not sorting any will make me feel like a hoarder!

I wonder if knowing new things are coming, that they deserve nice new things, not the broken things, could help? It's just trial and error, isn't it? Ignore me, I'm stuck under a pile of Lego I'm never allowed to give away!

It's hard giving things away when you've lost so much, I feel for them. I worry that being too gung ho could make them adult hoarders, but not sorting any will make me feel like a hoarder!

DM attributes her tendency to hoard have an awful lot of things in a small flat to her childhood, when she was forced to hand things down to younger siblings whether she wanted to or not.

She always made a point of asking me about everything that might be sent to a charity shop, and as a result I still have a few childhood toys stuffed under my bed there that I have fond memories of (sorry
for the extra clutter mum!) but a much healthier relationship with "stuff".