About toys …

[dontwantgold]

Once more I’m in the position where my children barely have anything they can play with because there are just things missing. Mrs potato head is missing an ear and an arm and lips, the sylvanian family campervan hasn’t got any of the things it came with, the tool box is missing half its parts.

I have tried the advice about tidying after ourselves and superficially at least the house is tidy. Tried toy rotation but doesn’t help.

I don’t know what to do! Am I just really shit or is this normal at this stage and age (3 and 1)?

I would say slyvanians are suitable for older children.

They seem quite young to have toys with so many small bits, maybe stick to ones with larger, hard to lose (or possibly swallow) for a while.

Wooden blocks or duplo or plastic cars maybe

What on earth did we do before online forums...

I think it’s pretty normal to loose things at this age. I would try toys with less small pieces. The ones described don’t seem suitable for the ages.

Thanks … I think most of those were presents but I do agree. DS did love the tool box though which was frustrating!

Seriously, you came on to post that?

Normal to lose things, but you do need to make an effort when tidying away in the evening to put all of a set together and look under sofas etc for missing bits.

At that age, I have found it requires alot of tidying and putting back by parents. At least once a week I have to 'reset' everything, esp for my 3 year old (my eldest is 7 so can find stuff when he needs it at least). Every night I put all the toys back in a least their 'assigned' boxes or areas. Its boring and mundane and the last thing I feel like doing every week but it does stop things going missing and toys getting lost.

I also limit toys with small parts for my 3 year old so stop things going missing. Sylvanian I'm not planning on starting until at least 4 or 5 years. Barbies around the same time. Dolls house probably this christmas but the larger style ones maybe. Limit small parts etc.

If they are gifts, I tend to put away until slightly older (hard when they see it straight away but they forget quickly at that age).

Toys are the bane of my life. Its a constant tidy, reset, find missing parts, rotatation, weed out things not longer used cycle. Drives me insane esp as we have all birthday and Christmas between Sept and Jan!

Thanks @WickieRoy , I really honestly do … I sometimes think they eat them!

Thanks @SJM1988 , that’s are some really good suggestions there especially relating to gifts - I need to keep DH away as I’m holding him responsible for mrs potato head: I DID try to hide her 😂

Maybe rethink your storage? I have a 3yo and he rarely loses stuff. We have several kallax Ed which have little pictures on of what goes in them - it’s quite generic like brio, duplo, ‘toys’ but we always put the toolset back in one of them and the kitchen stuff always goes inside it (small takeaway tubs to stack, I help with lids. He has those dinosaurs you take apart so loads of small
it’s - rule is those get done at the table because the 8mo and dog might eat them!! Play fought and craft have their own box etc. one set of stuff gets put away before the others come out. He has a song which I assume has come from nursery who have also clearly trained him well
i think it takes a lot of persistence and insisting it’s done over and over

Also - does it really matter if half the tools are missing? They can still play with what’s there?

Oh dear... they are toddlers! Just give them age appropriate toys.

Agree with PP- certainly a 1yo should have chunkier toys rather than toys with small parts.

I would keep toys with small parts jyst for the 3yo to play with when 1yo is e.g napping.

We found that with things like Sylvanians, storage is key. . Those compartmentalised craft storage plastic boxes are good to keep the tiny bits in, rather than the bits being tipped out of the caravan etc. Children often don’t want to play with the tiny bits anyway.

@dontwantgold DH's sometimes make it worse don't they! Luckily mine has long gotten over the fact that unless he is willing to find the bits all the time and put it away, he does not get a say lol.
It definitely got worse when my second came along. The same amount of space but now having to cope with two age ranges and genders for toys. Some days I just feel like throwing it all out!

A bit pointless really because we do have online forums and they are used to chat and get advice which is exactly what op is doing. 🤷

The bits can’t be far OP. Where are the children playing with them? At that age I would:

1. remove the toys that they can’t play with independently until they are older (Sylvanian Families have far too many small choking hazards)
2. put things like Mrs Potato head in to storage boxes that are easy for them to open and close and stick a picture on the box. Cardboard boxes always get mangled and things fallout.
3. keep indoor toys indoors and outdoor toys outdoors
4. don’t let them wreck the joint. They don’t need all toys out at the same time. Supervise and help them pack away.

Thanks @SJM1988 i do too, regularly.

I don’t think most of the toys are age inappropriate. The 1 year old toys aren’t really a problem but DS(3) does have things like the tool box, paw patrol toys which seem to come to life and move around etc.

Wait til you have sets of Lego 😬

Lego doesn't have to be in sets. Pile it all together and build your own creations.

We went the other way, so instead of nothing with bits, I chose stuff with enough bits that it doesn't matter. Eg. If mr potato's eye is under the sofa for a week, he out of action. But if 3 random duplo bricks are under there, its still playable and I just reunited the pieces next time I move the sofa. Same with train track, stickle bricks or any 1 or 2 out of the box of dinosaurs or animal figure's.

The only things we have were on piece is crucial is jigsaws. These live in their own plastic tub on the top self, and are done together then put away straight after.

It doesn’t have to be kept in sets but when your child wants to build one of the sets and the bricks are in amongst all the rest it is a flipping nightmare

3 and 1 I wouldn't give them any toys with lots of bits.
I don't buy plastic but you might find plastic versions, I would suggest open ended toys that don't need all the bits and will work well with the other toys.
My 2 year old has lots of wooden blocks, little dolls, a bus, bead maze, wooden rainbows as well as things like log slices, pine cones etc at the end of the day I scoop the dolls into a basket, blocks into another and the bigger stuff go on display in the kallax. It's simple, organised to an extent and contained.

Does everything have a place to belong, to be tidied away?

Is it part of your routine to tidy up their toys together? Do they know where everything lives?

I have a 3yo and a 1yo too, we sometimes lose a couple of pieces of Duplo or stickle brixks or wooden blocks or a couple of peg people but when they are discovered under the sofa cushions/in the drawer/under the table/in the bathroom ('oh hello Mr peg person how did you get there?!') it is returned to the place it belongs and that's that.

Special toys with multiple removable parts need to be kept put away and 'brought out' for occasional (semi) supervised play. You can't expect such tiny children to keep things carefully together - bits and pieces will go walk-about if they just have free reign with them.

Swap out the tiny part toys for robust things where it doesn't matter if one bit is lost.

Big box of duplo, a wooden train track set. Toy kitchen or shop. Crayons & paper. Playdo. Domino and snap games. Cars & diggers. Sandpits & pikler frame type climbing toys for the garden.

But also just role play with things aroumd the home, helping you with laundry or cooking, - treasure baskets of old keys and trinkets, let them go over the floor with dustpan and brush.

These are more suitable for children this age.