Friday, July 9, 2010

Too Many Broken Toys

When I was a little girl each and every year for Christmas my grandparents would get me a beautiful porcelain doll, complete with a big frilly dress, a display stand and a certificate of authenticity. And each and year, after they left from visiting us I would proceed to take that pretty dolly and play with her, carry her around with me, rip her clothes off, chop off her hair and usually end up smashing her fragile porcelain body to bits.

I played with my toys and I played hard when I was growing up, usually right up until something I did caused whatever toy I was currently enamoured with to break apart or bust at the seems. It's just the kind of little girl I was. I wasn't exactly what you would call a sweet child who played nicely. That's not to say that I didn't play though, because I did. I just thought that my Barbie Dolls were more fun as zombies, complete with missing limbs and shaved heads.

My husband on the other hand was a polar opposite child. He played with his toys all nice like and (scoffs) actually put them away, with all of their pieces intact, when he was done with them. In fact we was so anal about his childhood possessions that most of them were so pristine his mother kept them all and my children have them to play with today.

Needless to say, my kids don't take after their dad in that regard.

I'm pretty sure that there are more broken toys than non-broken ones in my house. The Monopoly pieces are mixed in with the Hot Wheels, and a few of the beloved stuffed animals around here have had their appendages sewn back on a time or two. Our playroom floor is covered with random crap more often than it's bare and I can't even begin to count how many times I've stepped on a Lego or two and screamed (and maybe busted out a few choice words) in pain.

My boys take after me. But I don't want to admit it, because admitting it would be admitting that I was a pretty awful child. And there is no way that I'm owning up to that one!

So instead, as I'm scooping up broken toys by the arm full and mentally calculating just how much money went down the drain on them, I blame it on other things. Toys today just aren't made as good as they were when I was little. Metal trucks are now made out of plastic. Things are being recalled left and right. And because we live in a video game era the general quality of anything actually tangible stinks. Oh and I have two boys, and really, everyone knows that boys are rougher on toys than girls are.

One thing is for sure though, I'm really tired of all of the broken toys. (Especially after stepping on one of those blasted Lego's first thing this morning!)

4 comments:

  1. I feel ya. I tried to organise my step daughters' toys... in vain, it turns out.

    I've resigned myself to the fact that no matter how many times I seperate out the Barbies from the My Little Ponies, and the Littlest Petshop from the Sylvanian Families they usually end up in one of two piles; Broken, and To-Be-Broken.

    Elspeth x

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  2. We have sort of a mixed bag here. We taught Amelia early on, if you break it, it's in the trash. It didn't take her long to figure out how to treat her toys if she wanted them to hang around. Merrick, on the other hand gets a little too...enthusiastic sometimes with his toys. He gets upset when he sees them go into the trash (if they can't be fixed) but somehow, hasn't quite learned his lesson!

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  3. Fun post - I'm right there with you.

    I just suck up barbie shoes and polly pockets because I am too lazy to keep picking them up.

    But, I was like your husband. I took real care of my toys and I only got them at Christmas and on my birthday so that might be why.
    I still have my old toys and I even let my kids play with some, haha!

    Love your blog - so glad I ran into it!

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  4. This was a neat read for me because it reminded me that there are all types of people in the world lol. Our toys are so orgnaized it might make you puke! My husband designed and built what we call the "bin shelf" (2 of em' actually) and they even have labels....yes...labels. My kids are very gentle with their things and have never broken a toy unless it came for the dollar store. But, I do think my kids are kinda strange and unusual in this respect.

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