[net.kids] toys in the bedroom?

dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) (12/18/85)

Well, a week after we moved Ariela (20 months) from her
crib to a mattress, we moved the mattress, her dresser
and all her wall hangings and whatnot to her new room.
She helped with the move and loves her new room. This leaves
the crib in the "baby's room" for the one due on March 1.

Now we have a gate (the type that has a door in it that swings
open) at the door to her room. Her bed (mattress) is on the floor
and she has a lovely new bedspread which she adores. When we put
her to bed, she often doesn't go to sleep right away, but gets
up and roams around the room looking for things to do. (Often
she stands at the gate and calls or chatters for a while.)

Question: should we allow her to keep all sorts of toys in the
bedroom? My wife (lsuc!simone) thinks not, in that there would
be too many distractions. I tend to think that if she's going to
be up anyway, she'll start more and more getting into whatever's
around. We've pretty much put everything out of her reach (we discovered
the hard way that she could reach all the blankets on the top shelf of
her dresser!). She does have a couple of "friends" (rubber duck and
fluffy dog) that she usually takes to bed with her.
I just hope she doesn't decide to attack the drapes...

Comments? What do others do about toys in the bedroom?

Dave Sherman
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Toronto
-- 
{  ihnp4!utzoo  pesnta  utcs  hcr  decvax!utcsri  }  !lsuc!dave

charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips) (12/20/85)

My two-year old still sleeps in the crib.  When he goes to bed, he 
normally has in the crib with him a See & Say, half a dozen or more
stuffed animals, two or three books, perhaps a ball....

It doesn't keep him from going to sleep, and it gives him something to
play with when he wakes up in the morning if he wakes up before we do.
(Not unusual on Saturday mornings. . . .)

	regards,
		Charli

slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) (12/20/85)

>Comments? What do others do about toys in the bedroom?
>Dave Sherman

So where else would you keep them?  Seriously.  You don't want them
cluttering up the rest of the house.  And having her make sure they
are all in her room before she goes to bed is a start on responsibility.
(I should talk!  My daughter has the world's messiest room.  But at
least the mess is where SHE sees it, not where WE do.:-)

It is her room.  All her possessions should be there.  I can't see
that having or not having toys in the room will alter whether she
is up or not--just whether she is gainfully employed at the time.
Besides, in the dark it makes little difference.
-- 

                                     Sue Brezden
                                     ihnp4!drutx!slb

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      To search for perfection is all very well,
      But to look for heaven is to live here in hell.   
                                       --Sting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman) (12/30/85)

In article <92@drutx.UUCP> slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) writes:
>>Comments? What do others do about toys in the bedroom?
>>Dave Sherman
>
>So where else would you keep them?  Seriously.  You don't want them
>cluttering up the rest of the house.  And having her make sure they
>are all in her room before she goes to bed is a start on responsibility.

Are you kidding? We have two large Huggies boxes in the family
room, and Ariela keeps all her toys in there.  When she's at home
(evenings and weekends), that's where we are and that's where we
play with her or she plays by herself. I wouldn't want her playing
off in some other part of the house at 20 months (though she does
wander off... but if she's quiet for too long we KNOW she's into
trouble somewhere!)

>It is her room.  All her possessions should be there.  I can't see
>that having or not having toys in the room will alter whether she
>is up or not--just whether she is gainfully employed at the time.
>Besides, in the dark it makes little difference.

It's not that dark - she keeps the door open (if we close it she
just gets up and opens it) and light comes up from downstairs.
However, we've left half her toys in her room and it doesn't seem
to keep her up. In fact, she runs around the room putting things
away in her dresser drawers before going to sleep (with rubber duckie
and fluffy dog, of course).

Cute story of the week: the other day, we were both wiped out and
didn't feel like getting up at 7:30 when Ariela started calling. I
knew she wasn't wet since I'd changed her at 4:30, so I just opened
the gate at her bedroom door and staggered back to bed. She came and
played in our room, and I guess we both went back to sleep for half
an hour or so. During that time she took every single diaper down
from the stack on the change table (which we keep in our room) -
about 25 diapers, and into each one she put a Baby Fresh wipe (then
she scattered them on the floor). She obviously knew what to do -
whenever we change her we wipe her with a Baby Fresh and wrap it up
in the diaper!
Oh well, I guess you had to be there. She's really a cute kid.

Dave Sherman
Toronto
-- 
{  ihnp4!utzoo  pesnta  utcs  hcr  decvax!utcsri  }  !lsuc!dave

rggoebel@water.UUCP (Randy Goebel LPAIG) (01/08/86)

> Question: should we allow her to keep all sorts of toys in the
> bedroom? My wife (lsuc!simone) thinks not, in that there would
> be too many distractions. ...
> Comments? What do others do about toys in the bedroom?
-----------------
We have two children, 33 months and 51 months, girl and boy, who share a
room.  They each have a futon on the floor, a favourite quilt for warmth
and comfort, and a zoo of plush animals, dolls and various other toys that
migrate back and forth from their major storage area in the rec. room.
They usually spend some time arranging and rearranging such things,
but they are usually happy when they go to sleep, and sleep better
because of it.  They relax with their toys, in the same way that Mommy does
with her walkman and books, and Daddy does with his MacIntosh (although I don't
take it to bed yet!).

Children require time to unwind from the tension of the day just like the
rest of us, so giving them a room decorated by them, to their taste (not
Mommy or Daddy's) seems a sensible thing.  I don't believe that there should
be ANYTHING in a child's room that you would not allow him to investigate.

Randy Goebel
U. of Waterloo