Rules About Toys with Your Children (Guest Post)

As my little girl is getting older by the weeks and is starting to come into her own personality and her own behavior about how she reacts if we say no to something that she cant have. It gets me worried that she will start to learn that she will always be allowed to get her own way whenever she wants.
I have a very special guest today named Jenny who is a freelance writer who likes to write about family/parenting topics. When she emailed me to do a guest post on my blog and I saw the article that she wanted to post on here, I jumped at the chance to let her write about this topic as it has been on my mind lately. I hope this post will be able to relate to a few of you mama's out there!
I will let Jenny take it from here!
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How Strict Are You About Toys?

A lot of people will judge your parenting skills based on the behavior of your child in a public place. Be honest – how many of you have been eating dinner in a restaurant and looked at a mother with scorn or disapproval when their child gets fussy or starts crying? But I have found a totally different indicator of parenting, judging by the toys made available to the children and how well kept the toys and books are. I am always amazed at how some moms make little or no effort to teach their kids how to take care of their toys.

Starting with how I was raised, toys were a privilege and we got the majority of our toys and games as Christmas gifts and birthday presents. We were expected to thank the person who gave us the toys and we were responsible for taking care of it. A very common punishment for us as young children when we misbehaved was to have one or more toys taken away for a period of time.

Picking up toys was not a problem, as any time we were told to pick up our toys and we didn’t, the toys were scooped up and taken away. That rarely happened, and I remember picking up toys on behalf of my brothers and sisters so they would not get in trouble or lose their toys. I remember one time my mother went ballistic over toys not being picked up from the living room as she had company coming over and she threw away every toy that was left on the floor. We were horrified! But we never gave her any trouble picking up our toys ever again.

I generally try to have my children pick up toys after a reasonable playing time and don’t allow them to be left out. My rule is that toys must be put away before we leave the house and before we go to bed, and I enforce that with room checks and penalties. I found an interesting article on a gentle parenting blog with tips for how to get your toddler to pick up toys. I wish I had read this article when my children were younger. I give any kudos to parents who have the imagination and patience to put these ideas into practice.

Although I buy new toys for my children more often than my parents did, the main reason for getting new toys and games is Christmas. I love to shop for the kids’ Christmas presents, starting in October and hiding them until Christmas Eve. I shop very carefully for the right toys and use a variety of methods to save money and get the best deals. Of course, finding a Black Friday add for Toys R Us is a BIG DEAL! Hands down, that is the best way to save money on the big ticket items and electronics.

One thing that I like to do every summer is take the kids to Toys R Us on the pretense of looking for beach and pool toys. I will buy some swim rings, inflatables, water guns, sand buckets and other gear at Toys R Us because they have the best selection and good prices on seasonal toys. But while we are there, we walk through the entire store and I pay attention to what games catch the attention of my kids and what they will like for Christmas presents. Then I can watch for any Toys R Us coupon codes or sale prices and be ready to go snap it up!