Toy ByToy

Today I put the Playmobile's in storage. They may never come back out. I can't get this lump out of my throat. It is clear now that it's the beginning of the end of the reign of toys. The shelves still abound with Legos, board games, Star Wars action figures, American Girl dolls, Magna Tiles, remote control robots and more. I fear, however, the Playmobiles have gone the way of the Little Tykes slide, Weebles, Barbies and Baby Dolls. The Hot Wheels bin too, is thick with dust and no one has pulled a costume from its peg in months. There are no more toy dinosaurs, The corner where we kept the play kitchen with its shiny pots and pans and brightly painted wooden "food" is filled with house plants. And you know what? I don't like it! I don't.

Why my younger two children divesting themselves of their toys so much sooner than my older two? Why is their innocence so much harder to preserve? My oldest, Betty's young childhood was of a different species altogether than Sven's (my youngest). The pandemic isolation fueled screen usage to addictive proportions. The kids plugged in to play with their friends the only way they could. Meanwhile, the toys sit untouched, overstaying their time. As much as I despise the clutter, I swear some cord inside of me tears every time I store a special, but outgrown toy, or give one away on a free website.

This is going to be a meager Christmas for so many. So, I've asked the kids to look closely at their hoard and choose those things with which they are ready to part. I'm hoping they will make good presents for kids who need them. Still, it's hard to let them go. When my older two outgrew a toy it stayed  in the playroom for the younger two. I didn't notice the hand off because the toys weren't going anywhere. Now the toys are leaving the house. It's hard to see my two littlest babes releasing their childhood one plaything at a time.

There will come a day, not so far from today, when there will be no LEGO's to step on, no Nerf bullets littering the floors of every room in the house, no Stickbots hanging from the windows, toilet or TV. Doll hair will not need combing and there will be no tearful searches for missing stuffies.

It's funny, because when you have children, they so quickly become the best part, of every part, of your life that you can't imagine beyond them. But soon you're through the baby toys, then the toddler toys, then the tween toys and there it is. Childhood is over. Teenhood whooshes in full of mood and fury, heretofore unknown depths of sadness and peaks of joy. Beyond that horizon they will walk without you. That is exactly what we knew we were getting into when we made these marvelous beings in the first place. That is exactly as it should be. However, if I can't hand off a bin of La La Loopsies, without tears, handing my children off to the world is going to take a kind of strength, I think I've yet to acquire.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Today it's just the Playmobiles. I just need to take it toy by toy.