Am I the only one who is frustrated by this?
My kids got some great toys for Christmas, particularly my two younger kids. My 13 month old got this really cute shape sorter elephant that I really like:
My 3 1/2 year old daughter got this adorable Fisher Price Little People camping set:
Aren’t those two adorable toys? Here’s the problem, though. It hasn’t been two weeks since Christmas and we’re already missing about a third of the parts. The elephant sorter has six shapes, and we’re now down to four. The camping set is missing the fishing rod, the campfire, and one chair. I saw the car last night, but now I can’t find that either. I’m so frustrated! How can our kids get great new toys, and in less than two weeks lose enough parts to make the toys almost useless?
And this is what’s really ticked me off: it’s totally my husband’s fault! He’s got such a hang up with getting things out of site so that our living room looks neat that he throws things in different storage seats and toy boxes, so the missing parts will be very hard to find. I even put out some plastic zip lock bags with labels to put the parts in so they were all together but he ignored them. And what’s even more aggravating is he doesn’t care that these parts are missing! He says, “Oh, we’ll find them eventually.” Eventually! That’s not good enough. These are brand new toys! I went off on him last night because I was so mad. And I’m not even a neat freak in any sense of the word.
Am I the only one dealing with this? Argh!
That always really bothered me when I was a kid, and now, I insist that the toys are all together when they’re put away. Like, I actually count the pieces before they’re put in the toy bin.
In 19 months, we’ve misplaced one thing – the Apple from an alphabet puzzle.
Comment by Tara @ Feels like home — January 3, 2009 @ 1:38 pm
You know, Tara, I think I need to start doing the same thing. I need to make a rule that the toys have to be put together before they’re put away. Another part of our problem is that our kids have way too many toys. We really need to go through, edit their toys, and give away those they no longer play with to a charity.
Comment by Kim — January 3, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
Oh, it must be January, because I’m with ya! I get this little organization bug right after Christmas. I have the best of intentions of keeping all parts/pieces together. I’m definitely a believer in a place for everything and everything in its place! Now, just getting the other half to work with me is part of the battle. They’re all alike – they wanted it picked up quick and little do they realize, it takes us twice as long to find/sort it all about.
By the way,I’m addicted to rubbermaid containers – yep, I need a 12 step program, for sure. But it sure helps keep it all organized.
Comment by Kim H. — January 3, 2009 @ 6:26 pm
I get hear you! Mostly it’s my MIL though – when she visits she “helps” pick up but never puts anything in the right place!
Right now my frustration is that my 5 yr old won’t PLAY with his new toys. He did for a couple of days and now they’re just sitting in his room. Arghh!
Comment by catnip — January 3, 2009 @ 7:35 pm
I hear you, too. Except, my husband doesn’t put away….it’s my 15 year old who helps pick up. He has ADHD and along with it cares nothing for organization no matter what the reason! SSOOOOOO, tonite we went thru and put everything in separate bins. I, too use zip locks—they are great–for little things. I tossed the broken stuff and the things missing lots of pieces (i am sure i will find them eventually, honestly it makes me nuts to hear the almost 3 year old yelling because he can’t find the ______ (fill in the blank) to his ______(fill in the blank). NOW the new house rule (we had it when the older kids were little and it helped a lot–at least I had a leg to stand on when something “turned up missing”) is “ONE TOY AT A TIME. Anything not put away before moving on will cost something to get back” (for the little guy, it won’t be money but some kind of chore). I do make exceptions for items that naturally ‘play together’ like blocks and cars (they are in separate bins, but go well together so they can come out together).
We shall see… I wonder if your husband (and mine as well) would take the “we’ll find it eventually” approach if he was missing something belonging to ‘his stuff’….a golf club? a tool? favorite pen? batteries? etc….(hmmmm i see a teachable daddy moment in the works…
Kim
Comment by kim — January 3, 2009 @ 8:41 pm
Kim, I would love to try the one toy at a time thing, but I think my kids would go into toy withdrawal! If you saw our living room floor sometimes. Yikes!
Now, the teachable daddy moment with the “we’ll find it eventually” line… He most certainly would be ticked if he couldn’t find some of his fly fishing tools. Excellent point.
Comment by Kim — January 3, 2009 @ 10:27 pm
Oh, we are missing parts already as well even though I thought I had the “put it all back in one place” system in place as well. They have way too many toys…my only saving grace is that the youngest likes to mix and match different sets of toys and seems quite happy with that at the moment.
Comment by Sarah — January 6, 2009 @ 1:45 pm