One morning, last October, I ordered a Venti instead of a Grande and decided to spend the entire afternoon sorting through my son’s 10 cubby boxes, closet, and train table drawers. My plan was to rid our home of any toy that hadn’t been touched in at least 10 months. As I picked up each toy (with intentions of throwing the majority in the “donate” pile), I had vivid flashbacks of moments my son played with them or thought of who had given the item as a gift. I held them up and wondered “what if he asks me where this toy is in a month and I have to break his heart by telling him that it’s gone and he ends up needing therapy in his teens?” In the end, I rationalized keeping nearly everything. I tossed the random toys with no known origin. But for the life of me, couldn’t finish the toy purge my house needed.
Then, Christmas came.
My son is going to be 4 soon. The toys and games he received this year reflect this in every way. There’s nothing babyish about them. Gone were the toys filled with primary colors and large pieces so his chubby hands could grab them. I saw no signs of Fisher Price anywhere. Every present he opened was met with wide-eyes and squeals. “Yes! I wanted this so much and asked Santa for it” [big heavy mom sighs as the magnitude of him growing up hit].
It took seeing all of these new “big-kid” toys to realize that I was the one hanging on to the old toys. Yes, there were toys that he loved and favored, but for the most part, he couldn’t care less if something went missing. In my head, however, I was convinced my son’s toys were having a meeting (Toy Story style) wondering who was going to go and who was going to stay. I dug deep, grabbed boxes, entered his room, and had an epiphany. I’ll GIVE this stuff to friends and family members with younger kids. That way we would see the toys when we visited and they wouldn’t feel as abandoned. It was a win-win for me.
The old toys went out and the new toys came in. I was shocked by how much more grown up his room looked with these big boy toys. I went one step further and labeled his cubbies with pictures so he would have an easier time cleaning up at night. New fun was to be had and new memories made.
Then we went to my friend’s house for a playdate. The kids took off into the bedroom to play. My son walks out holding on to a Fisher Price record player and asks, “Didn’t I used to have this same one? Where did it go? That was my favorite.”
So here I am adding “Fisher Price Classic Music Box Record Player” to my Amazon cart.
This was such a sweet insight onto the life of being a mama ?
I really enjoyed reading this & it brought back so many memories of when I found myself sorting through my little ones stuff! Good read! Loved it all!