Help support the Mego Museum
Help support the Mego Museum

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Parents, what do you do with your kids unplayed with toys?

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • 4NDR01D
    Alpha Centauri....OR DIE!
    • Jan 22, 2008
    • 3266

    Parents, what do you do with your kids unplayed with toys?

    So, something I've been meaning to ask for a bit now, and that I don't recall there being a thread on. I ask because I figure we are mostly like minded on here regarding our childhood toys. Frankly, I wish my mom kept EVERYTHING, even though I know that that would have been next to impossible. Small apartment early on, and then a fair bit of moving around, coupled with zero idea that any of it would one day be valuable. Also, I had no idea that I'd ever be nostalgic for the toys I didn't even play with anymore.

    I've used the term "spoiled" on here before, perhaps I used it out of context, as I recall using that term didn't sit well with people. I don't mean spoiled as in "bad behaviour". I'll rephrase it by saying my daughter is very, very, lucky. She has an absolute sh*t ton of toys. With no exaggeration she has at LEAST 100 stuffies of different sizes. My wife could tell you exactly where and who each one is from. We have a plastic "boat bed" piled about 3 feet high with stuffies. it's honestly a ridiculous sight. I've suggested either going through it and keeping all the character stuffies, and getting rid of the rest, or trying to get my daughter to pick her top 20 favourites or so, but my wife isn't having it, she wants to keep them all.

    she also has about 30 Baby Alive, which she's sort of grown out of. American girl is her new thing, she has about 8 and several different playsets for those. She has about a dozen Disney Animators dolls which I have put on display in her Disney room (yes she has a Disney room, which is totally separate from her play room. The Disney room has about 1000 individual small pieces on display). And while this is the bulk of it, there's still tons more (and of course more to come as she's only 4)

    while I know what the easy answer to the question is (keep the best get rid of the rest), even that means I'd be keeping a ton of stuff and space is kinda precious is our house (even though it's a huge house).


    so what do you guys do with their toys? do you keep the boxes? I have a dry crawl space FILLED with her AG boxes and some boxes from her more expensive Baby alive stuff.

    Do you try to keep all the little accessories? for example I try playing hard *** and tell her if she leaves little toy pieces on the floor that I'll sweep them up and put them in the garbage, but to little avail. mostly I pick out the tiny toy pieces but not always, sometimes when I'm frustrated and cleaning I just sweep them up. What do you do? pick them out or sweep/vacuum them up?

    Using large totes as an example, how many totes of your kids toys would you keep?

    I think we on here tend to think that today's toys don't hold value like our own toys, I can say this is wrong. I've seen baby alive stuff that's only a few years old go for large sums, and the American girl stuff as well. And while I'm not keeping them to sell (I'm keeping them in case she gets as nostalgic for her toys as I have, but it might help put her through University or send her on a trip or whatever someday), it's not like it doesn't cross my mind if I'm being honest.

    just curious how you feel about your kid's toys.
  • palitoy
    live. laugh. lisa needs braces
    • Jun 16, 2001
    • 59176

    #2
    Ha! My daughters bed is 80% stuffies with the tiniest sliver for her.

    Honestly, we've just purged both of their toys many times. Saving only the stuff they truly adored.

    Now that mine are older, we actually have them purge a little. My daughter actually culled the herd of stuffies, we were so proud.
    Places to find PlaidStallions online: https://linktr.ee/Plaidstallions

    Buy Toy-Ventures Magazine here:
    http://www.plaidstallions.com/reboot/shop

    Comment

    • Earth 2 Chris
      Verbose Member
      • Mar 7, 2004
      • 32481

      #3
      We've purged many times, putting a lot of it in yard sales, and giving the kids back the money to buy more stuff to clutter up their rooms. What doesn't sell goes to Goodwill.

      Around Christmas we often purge the gently (or honestly never) played with toys and donate them to a local charity.

      The stuff they really played with, but outgrew, got stored away. My son is now 15, so most of his stuff is boxed up, minus the action figures he puts on display.

      My nine-year old daughter had gotten so Lego-obsessed (not a bad thing, mind you) that she went through and packed away quite a bit of her stuff last week.


      Chris
      sigpic

      Comment

      • Duncan
        Museum focus-groupie
        • Jun 27, 2009
        • 1531

        #4
        We're pretty much the same as others, though we're behind the curve by a lot. We keep the favorites and try to purge the rest. Stuff that's new in the box, I check e-bay and if it's not collectible we donate it to the local children services toy drive - deducting retail value on our taxes. Stuff that's played with we try to sell locally, or maybe donate to Goodwill (deducting Goodwill's retail value). Some stuff (the boy had an extensive Thomas the Tank Engine collection) we've put away for (hopefully) our eventual grandkids to play with far in the future. Other stuff just hangs around, and we periodically look at it and wonder what to do. I wish I had a portal to another dimension where I could stack boxes of stuff.

        Comment

        • HardyGirl
          Mego Museum's Poster Girl
          • Apr 3, 2007
          • 13933

          #5
          When I was a kid, every year, my mom and I would go through my toys and donate to the Salvation Army. She wanted me to know that all kids weren't as lucky as I was and it's good to give to those who are less fortunate. She also drilled into me that if I was selfish and didn't want to share my toys w/ less fortunate kids, I'd be getting nothing for Christmas.
          "Do you believe, you believe in magic?
          'Cos I believe, I believe that I do,
          Yes, I can see I believe that it's magic
          If your mission is magic your love will shine true."

          Comment

          • Hedji
            Citizen of Gotham
            • Nov 17, 2012
            • 7246

            #6
            Please, someone go on eBay and buy my Zhu Zhu Pet playset lot.

            Comment

            • Neutron X
              Persistent Member
              • Dec 22, 2007
              • 1803

              #7
              We try to save the favorites/played with the most, and donate the rest. We try and go through stuff at least once a year and thin the herd.

              Comment

              • 4NDR01D
                Alpha Centauri....OR DIE!
                • Jan 22, 2008
                • 3266

                #8
                I had zero problem getting rid of all the baby and toddler toys. I couldn't get rid of that stuff fast enough.

                Comment

                • Nostalgiabuff
                  Muddling through
                  • Oct 4, 2008
                  • 11285

                  #9
                  I get rid of it. with the exception of my sons toys, LOL. I boxed up all his Star Wars, Indiana Jones, superheroes etc and they are in his closet. some day he might want them or we might purge and get rid of it all. actually, I did put most of my youngest daughters monster high stuff in tubs for her to have later in life.....or again if we need to purge we will

                  Comment

                  • Allie Fox
                    Veteran Member
                    • Jun 1, 2009
                    • 297

                    #10
                    I have two tubs of beanie babies and a tub of Spice Girl and Barbie dolls from my daughters days of youth. She is not very nostalgic and probably doesn't really care that I have those things in the attic.

                    My son is 12 and like his old man, extremely nostalgic. He saves just about everything and is meticulous about keeping his stuff neat and clean.
                    Recently my wife went on a rampage and donated a heap of his stuff to Goodwill. We were a bit more than upset.
                    Last edited by Allie Fox; Jan 23, '17, 6:56 PM.
                    If I had only spent a tenth of the time studying Physics that I spent learning Star Wars and Baseball trivia, I would have won the Nobel Prize.

                    Comment

                    • hedrap
                      Permanent Member
                      • Feb 10, 2009
                      • 4825

                      #11
                      I know the older stuff they loved to play with, so we keep that. Most others end up on eBay, which buys newer things they want.

                      Comment

                      • ScottA
                        Original Member
                        • Jun 25, 2001
                        • 12264

                        #12
                        Since all my kids are now in their 20's most anything they loved from their childhood they didn't destroy is boxed up (my daughter's Barbies, my son's Rescue Heroes) for when they are on their own and can pass them down to their children. Heck, I even have MY Hot Wheels and Tonka Trucks in storage for my future grand kids.

                        Most everything else went into yard sales or was donated. They just have what they really like/collect out in their rooms now (Andrew has his Transformers, Ashley has her Eeyore collection, Adam has his Amiibos).
                        sigpic WANTED: Boxed, Carded and Kresge Carded WGSH

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        😀
                        🥰
                        🤢
                        😎
                        😡
                        👍
                        👎