Mrs. Opinion

Photo used under Creative Commons from dolmansaxlil

Sometimes I feel that my parents think they have to buy my kids’ affection. I know that they are excited to be grandparents, but they’ve had some time to get used to it now. We happen to live very close to most of our family, but at times, I really wish we didn’t.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad that my parents love my children and want to show them that, but I don’t think the way to do that is through toys. Who knows? Maybe it is guilt. You see, my parents don’t spend too much time with my kids. But, they never miss an opportunity to pop in and hand over a toy. Then, 5 minutes later, they leave.

We have a toy overgrowth in this house. My parents have even commented about the way my kids just throw their toys around without caring if they will break. I always respond with the same answer, “That’s because they have too many.”

I have put my foot down several times. I’ve explained to them that the children have too many toys and, therefore, aren’t treating a single toy with respect. I’ve also tried other tactics like, “We are trying to teach the kids that gifts are for special occasions like holidays and birthdays.” I’ve even directly said things like, “Please stop bring more toys over.”

Of course, talking to my parents like this is very new to me. I’m often very meek with them as I always did as I was told growing up. Standing up to them isn’t working out very well for me. I’m just met with answers like, “This isn’t a gift, it is just because I knew they’d like it.” I’ve even gone so far as to intercept presents that come in. I take them from my parents as soon as they walk in the door and hide them before the kids see. That doesn’t work either as my parents then feel the need to mention to my kids that I’ve hid the toys.

Now, I know what you are thinking. I should give them away to charity. I actually do that twice a year, but there are still too many. I can’t give too many away either because, for some unexplained reason, my parents seem to remember every toy they got for the kids. They’ll ask about certain toys on occasion and, the few times I gave them away, I ended up with a lecture on how they spent their hard earned money on those toys. So, when the charity trucks come by, I sort though to make sure that only the toys I buy them are in the pile.

I’ll hide toys too. There is a section of my garage that is filled with toys that I never gave to the kids. But, 2 weeks ago, my dad came over and my oldest started telling him about the pile in the garage. Again, I was given the speech on how inconsiderate it was of me to not make use of the toy.

So, I’m left here wondering how bad the toy situation will get. Right now, luckily, the toys are limited to my kids’ rooms, but I haven’t seen the rooms cleaned in a very long time. Of course, the part that bothers me most is that my kids are not learning how to respect what they have. We try to teach them that most kids don’t have a whole room full of toys. We try to explain that most kids actually sit and play with one toy at a time. And, we try to show them that presents are special. But, it goes in one ear and out the other. After all, when they get new toys on a weekly basis, how are they supposed to understand what the meaning of a gift is?