Is it normal for a 5 year old boy to play so roughly with his toys?

[thedollshouse]

Ds (5.5) is driving me insane at the moment with his rough playing of his toys.

Playing for ds seems to consist of chucking his toys around the room. I am fed up with him crying because he can't find things (usually because they have gone under the sofa) or watching him be so rough that toys get broken. I thought this afternoon I can't bear to watch another Ben10 action figure be thrown around the room so I brought his castle and pirate ship downstairs laid them out all nicely on the floor for him to play with when he got home from school. Already there are pirates in the fireplace, I have been hit on the head by a flying knight and the castle appears to have been damaged by an earthquake! Its even worse if he has friends round.

When I was a girl I used to make my toys have adventures and give them different voices. I know ds has an imagination because he makes up really lovely stories in literacy, he just can't seem to do the same with his toys. When I say to him that it might be more fun if he had adventures with his toys he says that he is having adventures but they all involve fighting.

Are all boys like this?

My ds is like this too. He was 5 in September and everything is hurled, kicked, target practice etc and all of it at the top of his voice. TBH am finding 5 very trying so you have my sympathy

sounds like normal boy play to me could you set rules though no throwing toys or they all get put away and get big tub if he throws then pack them all all in tub he can have them back if plays nicely

but it does sounds pretty normal though my ds 4 nearly 5 has moments of throwing but i wont let him throw them about i try to get him to respect his stuff i allow certain amount of roughness as is normal but anything that can be dangerous is stopped

Oh my god - my three year old boy is already like this! It goes on until they're five? Possibly beyond? Oh sweet lordy....!

You have all my sympathies, thedollshouse. I used to joke that my son should get a job as a toy tester; if he can't break a toy then even a nuclear missile couldn't damage it! That joke's wearing a little thin now. What makes it worse is that so many (well-meaning) people buy him toys that are too old for him (Lego sets for 8 yr-olds, for example) that have lots and lots of teeny-tiny pieces.... aarrrgggghh!!! I want to be able to do stuff in my kitchen without first having to put all my kitchen utensils back in their cupboards and pick knights on horseback out of the sink - is that really too much to ask?

Still, at least now I know that my son is officially normal, and not a crazed loon with anger management issues. Roll on teenage years then....?? (Or maybe not - I've heard they're a right barrel of laughs too!)