My son is an only child and is the second grandson on his dad's side of the family and the only grandchild on my side. So you can imagine how spoilt he gets. A little over a year ago I'd had enough and I just couldn't take it anymore. There were Toys everywhere and they had to go. Many of them he had grown out of, or he just wasn't interested in playing with them. Some I gave to friends, while the rest went to the charity shop.
After I had done this I noticed that my son started to actually play with his toys more, rather than just tip the boxes out and then leave them all over the floor. At just under three years of age, my son had more toys than he knew what to do with. In the evenings it used to take me 15-20 to tidy up all of his toys and I'd had enough.
It has taken me a while to realise that children don't actually need that many toys. In fact the less they have the more they need to value it. Now that my son is a bit older I know what he will play with and what he won't. Although given a choice of playing indoors or going outside he will always choose the latter.
So, how many toys do child actually need? Most 'experts' say around 10 toys and a few books. These will include construction toys, game and Puzzles. FYI, my son will happily sit with me and play board games all day, something that makes me so very happy.
If parents feel that their children's toys are taking over the house then don't be afraid to get rid of them. If a child hasn't touched it within the last three months then the chances are they won't notice that it's gone. I got rid of a balance bike a few months back, it had mainly sat in the living room for over a year and it hasn't been asked about once. So there you go.
When it comes to birthdays and Christmas there are other things that you can get your children that don't include toys. I'll be discussing that in a separate post, probably nearer to Christmas time.
As a rule of thumb, I suggest that if you are going to buy toys for your child for whatever reason, then get rid of the stuff they don't play with first. If your child does play with all their toys then leave them be. As long as it all gets used then that is the main thing.
