OUR LITTLE COLLECTOR

I had this idea this morning to go through the kids rooms and "dejunk", well Samantha's room was easy but Mason . . . . he doesn't like to let go of ANYTHING. He is one that carries at least one bucket around everywhere with as much in it as he can fit. And he is so proud of all of his "treasures". Just yesterday Grandma B was over and he had a little tootsie roll bucket with a battery, an almond, some glow sticks (that didn't work) and I'm sure some other small things that didn't work. He loves showing everyone just what he has.

When Mason cleans his room, he shoves everything under his bed, in his drawers, or in cupboards. This was a really hard thing for him to watch Ben bringing everything out from their hiding places and going through it. We had a bucket for "junk" (throw away) and give away. Mason was so hysterical that he couldn't even talk. It was so sad for me to watch. He loves all of his things and didn't want to say goodbye to them. I had to have Ben replace all of his "throw away" things from his bucket with some toys that he could keep. Then Ben needed to sit down with him and explain that all the toys that are broken are going to toy heaven, and when we go through and get rid of some of our broken or older toys then we have room for some new toys. Mason was just so worried about saying goodbye to his things. It was a really hard thing to do and watch, but we actually found alot of things that we were missing. Ben found his earphones that had been missing since for a couple months. We filled up his laundry basket with clothes from throughout his room. We also found Ben's heart monitor watch, some DVD's, a work book of Ben's and about 9 sippy cups. I had wondered where they were all going, but didn't think that all of them were in Mason's room.

I can remember when I was little I hung onto everything, and I mean everything. But I think it is important to teach my kids that there is a big difference between toys that work, and just junk. Even though Mason was totally out of control crying and wanting his things (he kept asking me if Daddy would give him his things back, and what Daddy was going to do with his things), it ended with a good movie being turned on to get his mind off of his lost toys, his bucket filled with toys that worked and a smile for Mommy. It is such a good thing that kids are so forgiving!