Until recently superhero toys were a banned item in our house. But that ban was lifted, a topic which deserves a post of it’s own.
Today I’m distracted by all the other items that might make the toy blacklist.
I had a splitting headache. It was a ridiculously hectic weekend and everything finally caught up with me in the please-let-me-curl-up-and-sleep way. The firefighter was quietly engrossed in an activity at the kitchen table and when I eventually checked in on him I briefly questioned my sanity at letting him dig for plastic dinosaur bones (encased in grey dust) at the kitchen table. It looked like someone smashed dry wall to smithereens all over our eat-in kitchen.
But when I realized that he’d been happy (and quiet) for nearly 40 minutes I figured it was worth the mess. It did get me thinking about what we do / don’t let cross the threshold of our home.
I’ve heard of moms who won’t allow play dough or Lego to come through their doors. Some despise the mess while others have wee ones that don’t yet know not to swallow the brightly coloured pieces. Lego was introduced into our house when both boys were past the ‘it looks dangerous I should chew on it’ stage but in the next year we’re going to re-enter that phase with the baby duck and I’ll admit to breaking out in the odd cold sweat when I come across the 234th random piece of Lego strewn about the house.
We don’t have carpet on the main floor so I don’t object to play dough. This summer I finally but the kibosh on moon sand and it’s now an outdoor toy. That stuff spreads like wildfire and is impossible to clean up.
The firefighter loves perler beads and so far (knock on plastic) the monkey has only dumped a large quantity of them on the floor once. I’m not saying I’d be okay with the baby duck eating them but they don’t make me sweat like Lego does.
After a Christmas craft gone-wrong when the firefighter was 18 months old I’ve since banned glitter and/or glitter glue in the house. That stuff just will not die! I found glitter for a good two months after our sparkly endeavour. Now if they come home with sparkly arts and crafts from school and camp I become the arts and crafts gestapo and hide it in the van until it can be safely disposed of. Call me scrooge but I’m not festive enough to keep finding sparkles in the most unlikely of places for months on end.
There are hundreds (if not thousands) of itty bitty Playmobil pieces in the basement. Another few 1000 stickers in the arts and crafts cupboard. Finger paint, regular kid paint, water colour paint, and even a few ‘does not wash off like Crayola’ bingo dabbers tucked away in the arts & crafts cupboard. I don’t mind non-permanent messes, especially if the boys are having fun.
Is there any painful, messy, just plain irritating toy you won’t let into your home?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I kind of love the mess – nothing is really banned here (except maybe no bubbles in the house). When our youngest was a baby and the Captain was into Lego, we used to keep it in bins (grouped by type, so all the Star Wars together, all the Ninjago together, that sort of thing) and if he wanted to play Lego, he had to get it out, use it on the table, and then put it away again before dinner. Now he has his own table – an old desk of ours – in our living room where he can get it out to play, but he still needs to keep the bin of Lego on the table, all Lego on the table, and tidy up at the end of the day.
It’s pretty much the only tidy up/restrictive toy rule that the kids actually follow, but at least it’s a good one
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I hadn’t thought about bubbles. I’m okay with bubbles in the bathroom but nowhere else.
The firefighter is a spreader when he plays. He likes to create elaborate set-ups with Lego and Playmobil and is reluctant to take them down at the end of the day. One corner of the basement has been designated the ‘safe’ zone where he can leave things constructed over the course of several days (weeks). When Colin starts moving we’re going to have to change the rules: I think their bedroom will become the ‘choke’ zone and the playroom will have to be safe for everyone who wants to play there.
I must have had two strange kids….cause neither of them ever swallowed or tried to eat anything other than food … or if they did I have NO memory of it! Our only real rule was that common areas had to be picked up…their rooms – it was up to them. And I have one neat freak and one slob – so there was really only one super messy room in our apartment at any given time! Worked for me!
The firefighter is a neat freak and the monkey is a hurricane: their shared room vacillates between neat as a pin and disaster zone. I’ve been trying to get the firefighter (who frequently complains that his brother ‘never’ helps clean up) that he needs to leave behind half the mess. His brother needs to tidy up as well but won’t necessarily do it at his speed (or without supervision).
The only thing that comes to mind right now is playground sand. Not really a crafty thing or a toy thing, but holy cow am I ever sick of the incredible mess that comes home with the Little Man every day. In his shoes, his socks, his pant cuffs, his pockets, even his hair. I need some sort of life-size vacuum machine thingie that he can walk through every day before entering the house. Sigh.
We have LEGO, lots and lots of it, but it’s always been a toy (in fact, the only toy) that stays in the Little Man’s room. He has multiple bins for it and it’s usually all over the floor and bookcases too, but as long as it stays in his room I’m okay with that. The Baby Man isn’t allowed in there unless he’s in his exersaucer. When he’s too big for that, the room will be off-limits until he’s old enough that I don’t have to worry about the small pieces.
I think over the course of the next 4-5 months we’ll have to move all the itty bitty Playmobil and Lego up to the boys room and designate it a duck-free zone. I’m not looking forward to policing the monkey who’s like a little squirrel when it comes to scurrying various ‘nuts’ around the house and leaving them in secret places
Only the chokeables. I would have counted those beads in that category once upon a time, but let’s face it, they have no corners. They’ll pass right through. Might make diaper changes more interesting. Lego? Not so much. But I can’t WAIT until Boo is old enough for Lego.
DH once declared stickers to be craftolia-non-grata, but that didn’t stick. So to speak. Although I could have done without losing Mabels shoe labels to the back of my desk chair.
Other than that, we’re wood throughout. I’m resigned to having the livingroom furniture reupholstered once they are in their teens (or, well, maybe we’ll wait to get past the party stage). Not much on the banned list.
I need to give the boys a toilet paper tube so they can understand what ‘chok-eable’ means. Last week I found a pile of Lego scattered around baby duck’s play mat!