[net.consumers] 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

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