to hoover up the lego that's left lying?

[takingiteasy]

I've threatened it enough times...

DS(6) has his lego downstairs as it would get lost in the abyss that is his bedroom. He has 2 special storage boxes and space in a unit for it. I dread every time he hauls it out. He'll play with it, fine, tidies it up in his own way (ie half arsed) and there are always bits left lying around. I've threatened loads to hoover it up but I never do, henry would make light work of the stuff but it's just so bloody expensive and without a doubt the bits I did make vanish would be the vital element to a £40 set.

Or should I just stop making idle threats?!

I have found that Lego can only be hoovered up by accident. The bloomin' bricks just won't shift when you're trying to hoover them up......

YANBU i must hoover a fivers worth of lego a week, ive given up picking up the bits, now i just go for it

Hoover it!
If he can't tidy it up then tell him it goes in the bin! If he see's you do it once, he might think twice about next time!

Never ever threaten to do something unless you mean it! They will take the piss next time!

I'm honestly not as mean as I make myself sound

I am usually a proper meanie, I think it's my tight side thats preventing me doing it!

Its not tight, its a lesson of life

Pick it up and hide it. When he starts tidying up properly then, and only then, will he start getting some of his missing pieces back.

Oh I think I am meaner. I have hoovered Lego many times. That lesson has now been learnt.

I also have a bin sack of playmobil that my 2 think went in the bin hidden in the loft. Just leaving it a while for them to realise I do mean what I say! I think I may give it back on the summer holidays

I wouldn't hoover it for fear of it getting stuck tight in the pipe of the machine. I would scoop it up one last time and give it to a charity shop/put it on ebay. I carried out the threat after I trod on a piece of Lego. I'd warned of the consequences, I'd been ignored, so I carried the threat out.

Eh? Appalling English! Sorry.

no don't hoover it up, it cost a fortune ( unless it the loose kind that you have to use your imagination)

If you really don't want to Hoover it just pretend.. Pick it up and put it away out of reach/sight until you can sneak it back into the box. I do this all the time, although I tend to Hoover a couple of blocks to make it believable

Lego's too expensive to hoover up, but Hama beads however are a completely different story.

Some of it's loose, some is part of the bigger sets but they are all stored together.

Yeah I agree Hama beads are fair game!

I feel your pain but we have girls and in our house it's flaming Polly Pocket!

This is what I feel about mess: yes it's a total PITA, most children are not naturally tidy, need nagging/threats to tidy up, I would love my house to look halfway tidy some of the time etc.

BUT this is what I tell myself: in not too many years away from now and the dc have left home and dh and I are left in our lovely tidy Polly Pocket free house.... Sounds like bliss? Probably not, I'll prob want them back mess and all. As much as I hate the mess now, in a way I sort of like it because they're little and love their toys. Also I think if the worst thing a child does is not put their toys away you're doing pretty well.

Six is quite young to do a perfect job of tidying up. Most children learn to be tidy eventually but in the meantime I think it's mean to Hoover up toys that YOU probably bought in the first place! If it's too much Lego it you can't cope with the mess that it entails, then don't buy so much of it in the first place.

Dancergirl that thought has crossed my mind many times when I've been wading through lego. There will be one day there will be no lego lying about and I'll be sad at that.

It's not the worst he does, just the most persitant :)

Make different threats.....such as if you don't pick up the lego I'm confiscating it for a week, or something else you might actually do. I think empty threats are one of the biggest mistakes of parenthood personally.