To be totally overwhelmed by Lego?

[sonshineandshowers]

DS5 got given some lovely Lego sets for his birthday. Today we started putting together a Campervan, it took about an hour but it was fun and he was very good at it, even his little brother 3 wasn't too unhelpful. I'd explained they needed to be careful with it whilst playing with it, but naturally within 10 mins pieces started falling off and I was getting requests to fix it. Only it's quite tricky to fix without dismantling the whole thing and starting over, especially given by this point pieces are behind sofa cushions, stuffed in the back of a lorry by DS3 etc.

I tried for a while but in the end I gave up as we are going on holiday tomorrow and I should really be washing, packing etc not playing with Lego! I put it back in the box, DS5 was a bit upset and I feel bad that after all that effort there's nothing to show for it.

But it's annoying, are we meant to try and keep all the sets together? If so, how are people doing that? Or do we just put all the tiny pieces from a multitude of sets in a massive box, make it a free for all and never build them again?

Are they supposed to just be kept as display pieces once built? My kids arent particularly rough in their play and were mainly just driving it around, putting the figures in and out, so seems wierd if you're just meant to stick it on a shelf out of reach.

Do I need to buy a box, a shelf, loads of little storage bags?!

How are we doing this? Appreciate I may be overthinking.

We usually have a bit of time where it remains largely as the thing it is meant to be but over time they end up chucked in the big box.

It is easier as they get bigger as it's more like animals in a display but at the age they want to push a car round I think you accept it will break. Encourage them to add their own flourishes to it before it breaks so it becomes less about it being wrong or right, that way you can cobble it vaguely back together and they ate happy!

I think lego has got to carried away with specialist sets. We'll I suppose they make more money that way.
But especially at 5 the best sets of lego are the big boxes with random bricks that they can just build anything they want with. Much better for the imagination.

We have so much lego, some of its mine and DH's some of its the kids.

I agree regarding the sets, my child is the same age and he prefers the classic lego that he can just build freestyle and then take apart. I too find the sets infuriating and won't be buying anymore until he's older!

When we open the Lego boxes, we pour each baggie into its own bowl, that was they don’t fall all over the place and my son can leave it for awhile and go back to it. He has been building Lego since he was 4 and now he is 5 is well able to do it by himself, just needs occasional help.
We keep all the pieces in their original boxes if possible, or else put them in plastic zippie bags. He will either rebuild or just build a ‘spaceship’ or something he makes up. He loves Lego.

We have an absolute ton of Lego! A lot is in plastic boxes, special figures are in zip lock bags and only the very expensive ( Christmas present)big sets are kept on a table and on a shelf in dc bedroom . Generally it is scattered all over my house and occasionally hoovered up.

I tend not to buy the sets for this reason. What works well in our house is non-lego knock off brand, separated by type. We have a set of base plates that go together to make an island, a box of just blocks, a box full of plant bits, a box of animals and minifigurs and a box of dinosaurs.

This all gets played with in a free form way, and is far less stressful.

Google base plates! Huge sheet of Lego. Find somewhere to put it and put all the models on there. We gave some in ds' room and one on the kitchen side

This guy!

Even as a child, I hated Lego. Also Airfix and Meccano.

Great movies though. Very well-written and very funny.

...actually, it's not difficult to guess what sort of kid I was...

My son used to need help building each set, where I would find the pieces for him and he would put it together, it’s good practice to follow detailed instructions. Now he loves getting a set and building it himself (he’s 8), displaying it and showing people, and then when they get a bit broken and parts lost, rebuilding other things out of them. He’s built some amazing spaceships and monsters! I say maybe try and keep the made-pieces separate whilst they last but have some boxes or few drawers where all the lost / spare /broken pieces go, so they can be used to rebuild them.

I have a mix of keeping the bigger more expensive sets together with zip seal bags. And the smaller stuff unlikely to be made again goes into an under bed drawer and is used for making own inventions. There is also an app you can download where you take a pic of all the random bits you have and it will tell you what to build with it.

5 is young for proper Lego. 3 is too young and will have caused more chaos.

how did they manage Duplo-type kits?

This also perplexes me. Lego sets can be so beautiful all built up, but when you have multiple it’s not practical to keep them built up, but nor does it work to keep them all in their boxes.
I have a huge box with all the Lego sets mixed together and have kept the instructions in case she wants to build any individual sets again. Although I can’t imagine how long it would take to search through it for the right pieces! My daughter (9) prefers just to create her own models now.
The only exception is a couple of her Harry Potter sets- the castle and Hogsmeade- that are so lovely they have stayed built up on her chest of drawers on display.

Exactly this. In terms of storage we have a big Mat with a drawstring that turns it into a bag to keep it all together. Game changer!

I bought a bunch of mixed second hand Lego that they can play creatively with. The Lego creative sets are great for this lots of different colours and shapes. They enjoy making houses, monsters and cars and I don't have to (and couldn't possibly!) track every piece. If you get a couple of base plates they can build onto those which reduces a little of the dropping and scattering.

Then I purchased a number of small zipped clear bags for sets. Sets come out separately, are built, played with, and then when they're ready they're dismantled and go back into the zipped bag with their instructions. This system works well to keep the sets nice and alleviate my Lego-neuroticism without killing the fun for the kids.

If you have a big box of mixed Lego they won't need to raid the sets to build creatively.

Blomin heck @NeverDropYourMooncup what was wrong with your folks & their glue obsession???

Combination of several factors (sorry, it's going to get a bit deep and dark)

1. Was a hoarder - so not having something to look at was a failure.
2. Fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of construction toys and a complete dearth of imagination or creativity - again, to look at, to have, to be able to say to others 'I've got Lego/a Train Set', not to interact with, build or create.
3. Very rigid views upon gender related play. I should not have had those things given to me in the first place and taking them apart and building stuff would emphasise the perceived maleness of the activity. Would describe me as 'a Boy, just useless at sport'. Taking the main appeal out of the toys would make me not want to play with them and maybe that would mean I'd become vaguely interested in dolls or sitting around and looking pretty whilst doing some cross-stitch of a puppy.
4. Probably intertwined with all of the above, the belief that I was some sort of imbecilic vortex of destruction and I would only ruin anything that wasn't controlled as part of my failure to be a Proper Little Girl.
5. Going back to the hoarder mentality, the need to blame external forces (ie, the kid) for the absolute midden of the place 'I have to do stuff like that because she messes up everything and it's her fault I haven't vacuumed the stairs or the bedrooms since I moved in over Easter 1963, despite the fact she didn't exist then and wouldn't for many, many years'. And active playing would require taking up of space that could be better filled by more furniture, defunct appliances or even require the cleaning of a rare scrap of uncovered carpet.

Anyhow, she was batshit, I wasn't that bad a kid and most parents aren't anywhere near as bad as that - they just need to know that the taking apart of stuff is the actual point of Lego and it doesn't need to be controlled beyond not leaving it on the floor and then walking barefoot at night, as you'll regret that soon enough.

Oh @NeverDropYourMooncup that all sounds incredibly hard to deal with growing up & not something a child should have to think about. I hope your Mum has been able to access professional help for her condition 💗💗

imo lego builds are not really for playing with, so im not surprised the car was falling apart if it was being whizzed around on the floor.

I have a lego fanatic, and he has his big fancy builds on a shelf, the others all end up broken down in a giant box of lego for self designed builds.

My SiL is obsessed with each one going back in its own box and it always makes me eye roll tbh 😂

My 10 year old builds them and plays with them, and displays them on a shelf in his room. He doesn't take them apart one they're built. That's his choice. He has the Home Alone house, which he LOVES and a few smaller sets.

This is why I dislike the sets and prefer the freeplay lego. I tried to keep the sets in zip lock sandwich bags but now I have the lego pieces just organised by colour in those clear plastic 8 drawer units and then we have one box with all the special pieces so we have some idea of where to look for things when looking at the instruction booklets. Ive justvdrilled into them that when they want tk take their models apart they put them back in yhe roght drawers which they do pretty well surprisingly. My kids actually prefer to just take things apart and build their own cities etc. This whole collect toys and keep then immaculate so they can be worth money later makes me sad as does parents who wont let kids mix their playsets of toys up because it makes play untidy etc. Toy's are meant to be loved and played with so in my mind mix it up, let them use their imaginations but have some level of organisation so you know roughly where to find the bits when they want them again.

Up until Easter of this year, we had a box of doom with all the broken down sets, my old random Lego, and DHs old random Lego, with some of the favourite sets kept separately. DS1, who is 12 and autistic, had largely stopped playing with it, so I said I was going to put it all in the loft. He cried, and said he only didn't play with it because he could never find the bits he wanted in the big box.

Now we have a new set up, with a set of 30 drawers (like primary school class trays), all carefully separated by part type/size (not colour), and he plays with it every single day. It cost quite a bit for the drawers, and took me the whole two weeks of the Easter holidays to sort the pieces, but it's so worth it! He builds the most amazing things now!

Ours is all in a (massive box) all instructions and boxes binned. We build the arts once and then the kids make what they like, and one child in particular has made some amazing creations over the years. Impressive things with cogs and sliding parts, definitely encourage their imagination rather than leaving things built imho.

IMHO sorting into boxes by colour is not conducive to creative play. That is putting aesthetics ahead of practicality. Child will be building something and need a piece say 2 studs by 4, and won't care what colour.

If the adult is going to sort, then do it by size or type of piece, e.g. a box/bag for plain bricks, a box for 'flat' bricks, a box for tree-bits, a box for tiny bits, a box for flower bits, a box for bases, a box for vehicle wheels, a box for mini-figures, etc. Take-away type plastic boxes or Tupperware are good.

You can just chuck it all in one big box, but then the child gets frustrated as they can't find the bits they want, so actually play with it less.

Trying to keep each kit separate also stifles creativity.

Keep the instructions put away safely. When they are teens and have lost interest, you or they can re-build each kit exactly as per instructions and sell each on e-bay. Lego is expensive and holds its value.