My children have thousands of toys. Each Christmas, birthday or generic holiday in between grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends load them up with the latest toy fad. One year our son ended up with two dancing Boohbah toys. Who in the world needs two of these creatures? Each year right after Thanksgiving we sit down as a family and decide what we must keep, what we can throw out and what is still okay enough for donation. I will admit I have one child who would toss it all except her dry erase board. The other is so wrapped up in his toys he wants to keep even the tiniest of broken pieces. One thing that we can come to a final agreement on is that there is someone who wants toys that won’t have any this year and we have an abundance. The other thing we agree on is that the holiday and coming year will bring many new toys for them to enjoy.
The kid’s toys that we always choose to save are the ones that the gift giver has personalized. The kids love the toys that have been printed with their names or have been personalized to the sport they enjoy. The other toys that seem to find their way back into the toy box each year are the ones that are part of a special collection. Barbie was never important to my daughter. We always donated them. However my son still gets out every hot wheel car in his collection to play with at least once in awhile. Those toys have personal meaning. I can’t bear to give them away. The toys that are adorned with the children’s names end up finding their way to a high shelve to live out their lives.
I bet if you dig into your childhood memories you can think of that one toy that was so special to you. A toy so personal that you were devastated when you came home to find mom had “misplaced” it. I do that with broken toys. I misplace them into the trash can. Is there on toy from your childhood that you wish your parents would have had the foresight to keep? I feel like when my children are given a personalized kids toy that I am responsible to save it. I now wish I had the things from my childhood to share with my children. Personalized kid’s toys are glue that can help you relate to one another.
My kids don’t think I was ever a child. I really have very few things to prove that once I was full of imagination and love for toys. What better way to share memories with your children than with toys that are personal to your childhood? I will forever keep a box filled with these items for my grandchildren. I will keep those special collections and dry erase boards filled with pretend lesson plans to prove that their parents used to be cool, fun and filled with imagination.