Why I Took My Kids’ Toys Away

As some of you definitely know, I've been on a mission this year to improve my family's life and free ourselves of overabundance. Throughout the previous nine months I have likely given away around 75 percent of my young ladies' toys, keeping just the things that I felt supported their creative ability and that they really played with. I thought I was benefiting lovely. 

Indeed, even in this way, there were cautioning signs that my children still had an excessive amount of stuff. In June, we took a field excursion to Reptile World in Orlando. A while later we chose it would be amusing to take the young ladies to supper at a dinosaur-themed eatery called T-Rex in Downtown Disney. While we were holding up to be situated my most seasoned little girl Maggie detected the Build-a-Dino Workshop in the blessing shop and in spite of the fact that we quickly said "no chance to get," from that minute on she could consider nothing else.

All through our delectable supper, encompassed by emotional (fake) meteor showers and animatronic dinosaurs, she focused on the one thing she couldn't have as opposed to the cool sights we were really encountering.

On the three hour commute home, Husband and I–seriously worried by our little girl's failure to appreciate the moment–made a point to discuss all the flawless stuff we had seen, what our most loved reptiles were, and how interesting Trouble had been holding the snake. When we made it home the Build-a-Dino had been overlooked. At any rate by her. Yet, we were concerned. 

The Breaking Point 

In the weeks that took after, Chuck and I gabbed about how we were going to handle this absence of happiness we were taking note. At that point one morning close to the end of July, in the wake of advising my children to clean their space for the umpteenth time, I made the to some degree impulsive–albeit pre-warned–decision to take away ALL their stuff. 

Only 2 days prior I had spent a large portion of the day cleaning their room and re-sorting out their toys and storage room, which is something I do reasonably routinely. I wasn't requesting that they wipe some goliath wild chaos, just to get a couple of things off the floor and put them away in the obviously marked wicker container. Each time I returned to keep an eye on them, they had not just NOT got, they had made a significantly greater wreckage. 

I at long last surrendered and took it all away. I wasn't irate, just encouraged up. I smoothly started pressing up a toy or two, as well as each and every thing. All their spruce up garments, infant dolls, Polly Pockets, and squishy toys, all their Barbies, building squares, and toy trains, directly down to the furniture from their dollhouse and play nourishment from their kitchen. I even took the lovely Pottery Barn Kids sofa-bed from their bed. The young ladies watched me in paralyzed quiet for a couple of minutes and afterward, when the stun wore off, they made a difference. What's more, much the same as that, their room was clear. 

Outlook change 

I had no clue what an emotional distinction this one semi-imprudent choice would make in every one of our lives. I initially began seeing a genuine change around 4 weeks after the fact when we took a family excursion to Key West. 

Rather than our last excursion and interestingly, neither one of the girls requesting that we purchase a solitary thing the whole weekend. Not a toy, not a mushy souvenier, not a light-up accessory from a passing road merchant. Nothing. We passed many shops and they adored looking in the window, however they were content just to be. What was most stunning to me was that we didn't converse with them about it early. Not once did we need to let them know not to ask, or clarify that being as one was what mattered.

Had I not experienced it with my own eyes, I would've never trusted that a dependence on stuff could be broken that rapidly. In all actuality when I took all their stuff away, I was alarmed at what might happen. I stressed that I was scarring them forever, denying them of some key formative need, taking without end their capacity to self-engross.

In all actuality, the inverse has happened. Rather than being exhausted, they appear to have no lack of things to do. Their ability to focus is any longer and they can carefully concentrate on their main job. They shading or read for a considerable length of time at once and cheerfully spend the whole evening playing stow away and look for or imagine. 

They are much more substance, ready to value the favors that they do have, and ready to genuinely appreciate the minute they are in without continually moving on to the following thing. They are more innovative and patient, all the more eager to share, significantly more compassionate towards the predicament of others, and, with little to battle about, they scarcely battle by any means.

When I do bring down a toy for them to play with (no, I didn't discard everything, for example, their Lego squares or spruce up garments or their kitchen nourishment and dishes, that one thing will enliven them for the whole day. (The rest has pretty much been overlooked and will soon advance from the storage room to the Goodwill heap.) 

What I cherish significantly more is that they can perceive abundance all alone. Beside a most loved squishy toy and the sofa-bed on their bed, (which they both earned back), neither of them really need their toys back on a changeless premise. They like not being overpowered by stuff and not spending so much time cleaning their room. Actually, later that extremely same day, as we headed to aerobatic class, Maggie said it's alright that we don't have any more toys Mommy. We can simply read and utilize our creative abilities. Also, now we won't need to tidy up each day. She comprehended before I did that more stuff doesn't make us more satisfied.