Cleaning up toys is a hassle
@shaggin (72234)
United States
February 6, 2011 4:29pm CST
Why is that my son can play with something and move onto something else but the second I try to put it away suddenly he wants to play with that toy and throws a screaming fit if I try to pick it up. It really doesnt bother me maybe because I'm so used to it but lol this goes on all the time. I remember doing it when I was a kid so it must just be stages that kids go through. Its so much easier when he isnt looking or isnt in the room to quick pick the toys up that he stopped playing with then to let him see me do it in front of him.
1 person likes this
7 responses
@GreenMoo (11833)
•
7 Feb 11
I guess this is one of the pleasures of parenting :-) My kids are just the same, and I'm never allowed to throw any toy away even if it's broken. I tend to just step over the mess and scoop it all up later when the kids are away. And I bury broken toys in the bottom of the bin where they won't accidentally be noticed and recovered!
1 person likes this
@shaggin (72234)
• United States
7 Feb 11
Yes parenting is definitly a pleasure. I love being a parent. Kids are so much fun. Luckily my kids are awesome about throwing things away when they get broken. They never give me a hard time about it. Once in awhile they will cry if its something they really liked that broke but they understand that once its broken its garbage so they let me throw it away.
@shaggin (72234)
• United States
10 Feb 11
Aww lol your youngest sounds like my oldest. She is always wanting to create things. She would keep every scrap of everything if I let her. Sometimes I let her keep some things and then when she doesnt make anything with it within a few days then I just throw it out. She usually forgets about it or if she asks I tell her I didnt think she was going to use it anymore so I threw it away. Shes really good about it luckily.
@sid556 (30959)
• United States
7 Feb 11
Hi Shaggin,
When my kids were little, they did that too. I gave up on it and did not even try to pick up after them until the end of the day when they were in bed. I mean, I cleaned up their messes after eating and did the dishes and all. If I was doing housework while they were playing then it was something they could not undo like laundry, dishes, changing sheets etc. I found that once they were in bed that I could run thru and pick up all the toys and be done with it in a matter of minutes.
1 person likes this
@shaggin (72234)
• United States
7 Feb 11
Usually I keep up pretty well with there messes so it takes me only a few minutes to pick up. I couldnt wait until the end of the night when they are in bed to clean. They have so many toys and make messes so fast that if I let it go more then say a half an hour it would be so bad that we wouldnt be able to walk on the floor.
@nainesh1 (1656)
• India
7 Feb 11
That's a common practice with my son, he has a full bag of toys and when he wants to play with them he just takes out all the toys together spreading them in all over the room. My wife gets so annoyed about it but can't do anything as my son is only 4 years old.
1 person likes this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
9 Feb 11
You know, I really don't think that this was a stage that either of my children have gone through. I think that the reason that my children haven't gone through this is because of the fact that Kathryn was constantly playing with Nana when she was little and it was known that she had to put one set of toys away before picking out another when playing with Nana. With Paul, I think the reason that he was able to avoid this stage was because of the fact that he always had his cousin to play with.
1 person likes this
@my4tunes (64)
• New Zealand
6 Feb 11
Its a matter of teaching him limits - you should tell him that he's allowed two toys to play with at a time and if he wants to play with something else he HAS to put away one of his toys. Children need limits or they keep on testing you to find out where those limits are - hence the tantrums. Once they know how far they're allowed to go, they are great! Unfortunately many modern parents don't know much about these skills of teaching their children about limits and boundaries, whereas in our days (yes, i'm a baby boomer!) our parents had very strict controls over us and we knew exactly how far we could go. It doesn't need to be as strict these days but it is good for children to know there are boundaries that they must stay within...most of the boundaries are to do with their safety but other boundaries are to do with them learning to live as a sociable person as opposed to being an unsociable person. Therefore it is our duty as a parent to raise our children to be well-adjusted, happy and sociable people...
@bounce58 (17385)
• Canada
10 Feb 11
Don't you have an older daughter?
I think you should make (or train) your older daughter to clean up the toys. If your son is like my son, he'd take after his older sibling. And when he sees the other clean up the toys, he might think that it's a good idea.
I don't know if it'll work, but it did on my kids.
