I like having a specific home for each of the toys in our house. I am a little OCD about this. Some toys and games sit in a certain spot on a certain closet shelf. But most of the smaller toys and especially toys in sets are sorted in buckets. Please don't put the toys into one bucket when they clearly belong in another. I will have to go behind you and fix it, so I'd appreciate it if you did it right the first time. Can you tell I have a little problem? At least the boys always know where to find things.
I realize that someday I will have to let my children clean their rooms with zero help from mom. They do a pretty good job of putting things in the right places, but I still find myself cleaning up behind them probably more than necessary. I am not sure what I will do when they are teenagers and I have to allow a certain amount of freedom. I hate the idea of keeping their bedroom doors closed all the time so I don't have to see their messes. It makes the hallway so dark. What will I choose: sunlight or mess? I'll have to cross that bridge when I get there. For now, I choose sunlight and the peace that comes from clean rooms. Now, if I could just get my desk and craft/linen/junk closet organized in the same way!
I recently noticed that due to some additions to the dress-up bucket (including those from Halloween and Ryan's belated birthday presents from Grandma Donna), we were having a hard time making everything fit. I recognized that we needed a better system for storing some of the larger items. I found an empty toy bucket in the attic that would work perfectly. It wasn't until I gathered the like toys, and again when I explained the change to the boys that it hit me. I have become the mother I swore I wouldn't be. You know, the mother who encourages violence by allowing her children to have toy guns and the like. What's sad is that I heard myself telling the boys, "This is a new bucket to keep all of the fighting toys in." Yikes! Did I really say that??
I have never even bought the boys water guns; they were all (we have maybe 6+/-) given to us. For quite some time, the water guns have been ostracized from the rest of the toys. Their home has been in a spot in the garage next to the other beach and pool toys. Who am I kidding? The boys know where they are kept and just go into the garage when they want to retrieve a gun. I constantly reminded them that we only shoot water with water guns (never pretend bullets or "fire"). I sill remind them that we never shoot them at people (pretend hunting had to be allowed, as that is what they know from Brett).
Our collection now includes: two pool noodle light sabers, two ball guns, two marshmallow guns, two light saber flashlights, two Indiana Jones swords (with sound), two homemade whips, one Indiana Jones whip (with sound), and two Indiana Jones shooting daggers (came with the swords).
As they have gotten older, the boys have become more aware of superheroes and other characters, and they have also become more interested in playing these characters. Ryan, who doesn't spend much time with most of the toys in our house, will almost always reach for one of the "fighting" toys before anything else. He was thrilled to get the Indiana Jones sword and the "real" Indiana Jones whip from Grandma Donna. I'm surprised that the batteries still work. We heard the theme song for about three days straight after he got it.
I know that this is typical boy behavior. When Logan comes over from next door, he usually goes straight for one of the swords and runs back outside so they can play pirates. And most of the other boys we know of similar ages are the same way. But for a mother who just wants to have sweet boys more than anything else, this is a little hard for me to accept.
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