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Too Many Toys!
When Toy Overload Leads to Playroom Panic
By Shannon McKelden
available will provide a sense of stability and predictability, even as others are rotated and reintroduced.
Polaski went through her children's rooms and removed toys that seemed to be there, but not really cared for. "Not one of my three children noticed the absence of said toys," she says. If a month went by without her kids asking for any of the missing toys, she would ask if they cared if the toy was donated to a local shelter or play center. "A couple of times they chose to keep one or two toys, but normally the toys were given up without any distraction," she says.
Donations can be made to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Fuller and her boys pack up toys to donate at least twice a year. "This also helps us discuss regularly how lucky we are as a family to be able to give toys to boys [and] girls who do not have as much as we do," she says.
Nakhleh prefers using Freecycle.org, a network through which items can be donated to people who really want them.
Or how about setting up a way not to get so many toys in the first place? That's what Lisa Phillips' family did. "My brother has two kids – aged 2 and 4 – whose birthdays happen to be in December," says Phillips of San Francisco. "Instead of giving them multiple gifts, we buy them something relatively small and then write a check for their college account."
According to Phillips, the girls never even miss the toys. "I bought them the time-old gag gift of a can of nuts which holds the surprise pop-up 'snake' and it wowed them over," she says. "And it was only $2.99! Kids don't know how much toys are – they only know if they like them or not."
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Too Many Toys! by Anonymous on 03/03/2010 12:48PM
children become non appreciative and erugant