As a non-parent, that top picture totally stresses me out. As a non-parent, the other picture also stresses me out.
Isn't there a middle-ground?
Another non-parent here.
The first picture makes me freak out a bit. Holy jesus that is a ton of crap just exploding everywhere. And I spy you play-doh, you shouldn't be where little heathens can crush you into the carpet.
The second one, and all of the link, look completely acceptable. There are toys that are available to play with, they are just contained when they aren't being used. They look completely fun to me. You have a train set, building blocks, cars, balls, you could easily put legos in one of those. They are mostly toys that encourage imagination and building and less of the type of toys that you press the red button and it makes noise.
Maybe my opinions will change when I actually have children, but I was raised to go outside and explore and play outside, and playing inside involved a play kitchen, building blocks, and an awesome teepee that my dad made for me. I was encouraged to explore and use my imagination not press a button to make the cow moo.
I'm a parent of 2 and I agree with you 100%. I don't like battery operated toys, and we only have a couple (toy laptops). Kids do not need that many toys. Mine have too many and I've slowly been culling them, I see nothing wrong with the bloggers toy supply.
When I see photos like the top one in the other post I think that DD doesn't have enough toys. Then I remember that she's not a real 'toy' kid. She loves art so she has an art table with all sorts of supplies for her to have fun with. That is in our family room. In the living room we have a wood toy box/bench that holds some other toys for her. TBH, this was used much more when she was younger. Now she only goes through it if she has friends over.
Other than that there are no toys downstairs. In her room she has mostly books, stuffed animals, and a few dolls. She does not have a ton of doll accessories. She will get a play kitchen for her birthday and that will go in the basement, where her art easel is. Those are toys to entertain her down there when DW is on the treadmil or I'm working at my desk.
Maybe my kid isn't a toy kid because we just don't offer her that much. She's happy with books, puzzles, and now more than anything she wants to help with whatever we are doing (cooking, cleaning, etc).
Post by emoflamingo on Feb 19, 2013 13:13:56 GMT -5
I'm probably a killjoy but that second picture looks fine?
I grew up in a tiny house (6 people in under 800 square feet, though my dad drove over-the-road, so really.. 5 people at any one time) so things have places. I have bins for things and some of it is hidden because of the way the basket fits in the cube (like the massive amount of baby toys Baby W has), but the books and coloring books are out on a shelf.
His room, though, I don't care. He can leave his train set set up if he wants, but legos get put away after every use (baby and cat hazard) and he has toy boxes to put things in.
My son will be 2 next month and he doesn't have many toys. He's just not interested. I have a small house and I can't waste precious space on something he doesn't play with. He loves puzzles, books, blocks and trains. That's what he plays with every.single.day. Over and over and over. Sometimes we take the couch cushions off and build a fort. Sometimes we pile a bunch of pillows up and jump on them. He loves taking food out of the pantry and stacking it or pulling his chair up to the counter to help me cook. Just because he doesn't have a ton of toys everywhere doesn't mean he doesn't have a happy childhood. Plus, he goes to daycare and they have a crapton of toys there. My son would rather do what we're doing than play by himself any day.
My kid is young (18 mos), but both our set up and toy volume is similar to the blogger's. I like it that way. I purge anytime I notice she doesn't play with something. It doesn't really have much to do with dd, I just really hate clutter and it makes me anxious. Dd does have a play kitchen. She looooves it. She also "helps" me cook. I definitely don't think one excludes the other.
My biggest beef with the post is how obnoxious it is, but what's new with mom bloggers.
Post by emoflamingo on Feb 19, 2013 13:16:50 GMT -5
Also, we no joke have probably 1000 Hot Wheels. We have a few car cases so cars go IN the slot. Monkey is a lot like me, he does like order (putting the cars in the slots) when he is done playing. But I'm not like forcing him to do it a lot. I think a lot of the blog pictures are staged, so I doubt her play room always looks like that.
I cannot view the blog post, for reference. It keeps erroring and closing.
Pretty much off-topic, but I am LOLing at this line in the blog post:
Why?
Bwa ha ha ha ha.
lolololol.
yes, I would like to order up a baby who sleeps, please! Oh what? All i have to do is remove all toys from the sleeping area?
If this worked, everyone would be doing it, and everyone's kid would sleep all night. It is totally random luck, and even if you are willing to aggressively sleep train, which most people aren't for pret good reasons, some kids just.wont.do.it.
But sure. If I clean out the toys, that will fix it.
Post by SusanBAnthony on Feb 19, 2013 14:00:52 GMT -5
Oh, and for the record, DS never had toys in his room (beyond a few decorative keepsake items, high up on a shelf) until he was about 2.5, same with dd, and they are both in the not STTN until age 2 category.
Post by emoflamingo on Feb 19, 2013 14:01:35 GMT -5
I'm not faulting her for the staging at all. Hell, I have posted zero pictures of the new house yet because there has been crap everywhere and that stuff is not appealing.
I still prefer the wood toys over the loud obnoxious stuff. Of course, my kid prefers legos and Hot Wheels over it all for the most part, so that's cool.
I'm considerably older than y'all. I had very few battery operated things, my parents said batteries were ridiculously expensive and ran down too fast. Same thing for my friends. I had a dollhouse, Legos, Lincoln logs, dolls, a play kitchen my dad built, and tons of books. And a library card. My brother had GIJoe, trains, lots of books, and a library card. Our play was confined to our rooms most of the time, very few homes we lived in had a playroom for us. It was the same at most of my friends houses. Living rooms were for adult behavior, part of spending time in the LR was training for adulthood and/or training for being in other people's houses, we were expected to understand the difference between spaces for play and spaces for adults. We had bikes for outside, rode them all the time when there was no snow. In the snow we had snowball fights and built forts. There were neighborhood pools and parks to play in. We ate dinner as a family around the table every night. We participated in after school activities, played sports as we got older. My mom is a neat freak, so our house always looked good, and it rubbed off on me. Clutter makes me nervous, and I've been accused of having a sterile environment. I don't think I do, and I KNOW my house has way more clutter than I had in the home I grew up in.
I love that blogger's storage solutions. And I think that her house most likely really does look like she presents it on her blog. If she is spending time cleaning up for pictures, that means it is getting done. Right?
I think a lot of what you posted is based on age, and I agree with, but I think it's different with infants/toddlers. When DD gets older, a good portion of her toys and inside play will be in her room and in the finished portion of the basement, but she's too young right now to play in her room/basement or outdoors unsupervised for long periods of time. I can't tell her to turn off her toys and go ride her bike outside just yet, so we'll be playing in the living room while I get stuff done and I can easily keep an eye on her. LOL.
Isn't it common knowledge that the less distraction in your sleeping space the better? We don't have a TV in our room for that reason, and my kids are only allowed a couple stuffed animals in their room for the same reason. It's not a stretch to assume making a room only meant for sleeping will encourage sleeping. eta- sorry I meant before they are able. My kiddos didn't really sttn before 2 either, that's less with environment and more with physical or whatever.
yes, I would like to order up a baby who sleeps, please! Oh what? All i have to do is remove all toys from the sleeping area?
If this worked, everyone would be doing it, and everyone's kid would sleep all night. It is totally random luck, and even if you are willing to aggressively sleep train, which most people aren't for pret good reasons, some kids just.wont.do.it.
But sure. If I clean out the toys, that will fix it.
yes, I would like to order up a baby who sleeps, please! Oh what? All i have to do is remove all toys from the sleeping area?
If this worked, everyone would be doing it, and everyone's kid would sleep all night. It is totally random luck, and even if you are willing to aggressively sleep train, which most people aren't for pret good reasons, some kids just.wont.do.it.
But sure. If I clean out the toys, that will fix it.
I actually disagree with this. Haha. I think I have a good sleeper because we trained her to be one. We've had some bad nights, but for the most part she's a champ because of the things we did from day 1. *shrug* Some of it might be luck, but not all of it.
Pretty much off-topic, but I am LOLing at this line in the blog post:
Greta has always been a dynamite sleeper and I think it is due to the fact that we reserve our bedrooms for relaxation and sleep.
OMG If only I had read this blog post three years ago, I would have never had to suffer through those two f*@!$ing years of DD waking up all the f*@!$ing time in the middle of the night! She must be a visionary parent. Having had one pretty good sleeper and one truly awful sleeper - I get so tired of parents who believe that because whatever they tried worked for their particular child, the rest of us just must not be trying hard enough - or that it would have never in the course of all that misery occurred to us to make the bedroom relaxing.
I don't think age has anything to do with it. A toddler or younger doesn't require toys with flashing lights or battery operated sounds.
True kids don't require that, but I certainly can't leave my 18 mo old to play in her room for 2 hours by herself or tell her to go outside and ride her bike quite yet.
Isn't it common knowledge that the less distraction in your sleeping space the better? We don't have a TV in our room for that reason, and my kids are only allowed a couple stuffed animals in their room for the same reason. It's not a stretch to assume making a room only meant for sleeping will encourage sleeping. eta- sorry I meant before they are able. My kiddos didn't really sttn before 2 either, that's less with environment and more with physical or whatever.
I don't disagree with any of this. But it's quite a jump from "hey, let's encourage healthy sleep habits in every way we can" (through many, many various methods) to "we did X so the result of that is that she's a good sleeper." That's a ridiculous huge crazy jump from A to B.
I actually disagree with this. Haha. I think I have a good sleeper because we trained her to be one. We've had some bad nights, but for the most part she's a champ because of the things we did from day 1. *shrug* Some of it might be luck, but not all of it.
So.... You are saying for the most part she is a good sleeper. How do you know that it was because of you, if she was a good sleeper from day 1?
Unless your kid started out as a horrible sleeper, then you did something down the road and that changed, you probably just have a good sleeper naturally, and you think that whatever you did made that happen. As parents of bad sleepers will tell you, it wasn't you, you just got lucky.
I don't think age has anything to do with it. A toddler or younger doesn't require toys with flashing lights or battery operated sounds.
True kids don't require that, but I certainly can't leave my 18 mo old to play in her room for 2 hours by herself or tell her to go outside and ride her bike quite yet.
Why would battery operated light flashing toys make it so you could?
True kids don't require that, but I certainly can't leave my 18 mo old to play in her room for 2 hours by herself or tell her to go outside and ride her bike quite yet.
Why would battery operated light flashing toys make it so you could?
*sigh* Are you friggin kigging me? We must be talking about something different because my referrence to age was to lshoes post about playing outside on her bike with friends. I can't let my toddler do that yet, can I? No so she'll play with her toys battery operated and not in the living room supervised until she's old enough to go outside and play alone. My statement had nothing to do with battery toys.
I actually disagree with this. Haha. I think I have a good sleeper because we trained her to be one. We've had some bad nights, but for the most part she's a champ because of the things we did from day 1. *shrug* Some of it might be luck, but not all of it.
So.... You are saying for the most part she is a good sleeper. How do you know that it was because of you, if she was a good sleeper from day 1?
Unless your kid started out as a horrible sleeper, then you did something down the road and that changed, you probably just have a good sleeper naturally, and you think that whatever you did made that happen. As parents of bad sleepers will tell you, it wasn't you, you just got lucky.
She didn't start out as a good sleeper from day 1, I said the things we did from day 1 helped make her a good sleeper. She wouldn't sleep for more than 2 hours a night until she was 7 weeks old, and I think the things we did helped her to sleep longer and longer until she was STTN which was pretty early compared to a lot of babies. So yeah, I do think what I did made her a good sleeper. Hate if you want.
They clearly have more restraint & less guilt than I do...Lol. Especially when I had 1 child, I felt I had to expose her to all the standards of childhood...rocking horse, wagon, dollhouse, kitchen, trains, etc. Plus games & an enormous amount of art supplies. Now that I have 3 (built in playmates) I don't feel quite as compelled though I don't like being "unfair" or unequal to my kids. They have a version of virtually everything. I enjoy buying it & giving it to them. My kids go to Montessori School (my DD1 is in her 5th year (2nd grade)) but our home has a bit of everything. Our current playroom (which caters to my 3-8yr olds) is much more paired down & smaller than the one we had in our prior home. They also have a couch, a ton of dress up in there plus a Nilo table in the LR (filled with Brio trains & playmobil) & each have a dollhouse, musical instruments, books & stuffed animals in their rooms. And in their eating nook there are 2 8' high shelves with games & art supplies. I don't think our house looks all that crazy kid oriented. Yes in the playroom, nook & their rooms it does but that's less than 1/3rd of the rooms in our house. Outside has virtually everything (tucked away when not in use) except a playscape because we have a huge playground 100' away.
Here is was when I had 1-5yrs olds..
But I do let them take over at times....here is half our LR a few weeks back...lol
Post by rondonalddo on Feb 19, 2013 15:02:23 GMT -5
Someone has probably said this in this thread before me, but as long as the kid is well-cared for and well-loved (and it appears this blogger's kid is), I just can't begin to care about her not having enough or the right kind of toys.
She didn't start out as a good sleeper from day 1, I said the things we did from day 1 helped make her a good sleeper. She wouldn't sleep for more than 2 hours a night until she was 7 weeks old, and I think the things we did helped her to sleep longer and longer until she was STTN which was pretty early compared to a lot of babies. So yeah, I do think what I did made her a good sleeper. Hate if you want.
Edited for clarity.
This is really normal though. This isn't an infant who's a "bad sleeper." Especially if she was breastfed. I don't think anyone hates you, they're just questioning whether these parents with these awesome early STTN kids knew some kind of magic trick or had some kind of skill that the rest of us were unaware of or didn't know. Chances are, the answer is, no. Because really, there's not that much stuff out there that you can try. You know, there's sleep grooming and versions of CIO, but it's all basically the same stuff. So you weren't privy to something the rest of us with crappy sleepers didn't know about. Or if you were, you should publish that shit, because there's a lot of money in it. Everyone wants a baby that STTN from 7 weeks on. Very few people will get that.
I didn't make up anything new, at least I don't think. I took advice from a few other moms I knew with good sleepers and one book, and it worked for us. Very little CIO. Most of it was purely routine, that's what 90% of the veteran moms I knew preached, and it worked, so I believe it, and anyone who has asked me what we did I tell them that, and it's worked for them too. Maybe those moms who taught me that should be writing the books, not me. LOL.
Sorry to have derailed the conversation here, but sleep is one of my parenting hot buttons. I had one coworker complaining to me a month ago that her baby was such a terrible sleeper because "she's still waking up overnight and she's THREE MONTHS OLD." And I was all, "um, yeah, and?" People have such amazingly unrealistic expectations of when a child should sleep to our adult standards, that when a baby is still measured in weeks and is only sleeping for 2 hour stretches that this is seen as some kind of problem. It's not. It's just how babies are wired. Sure there's tons of anecdotal babies who start STTN right when they hit 10 pounds, or right when they get to 2 months, or whatever, but that's the exception, not the norm. A wonderful fabulous exception to be celebrated, but an exception nonetheless.
To think that there's ONE magical thing you can do (like set up a room a certain way, hence my original LOL) to turn them into good sleepers is just silly.
And yeah, I'm a big fan of the No Cry Sleep Solution, routines, and basically being a slave to their sleep schedules and needs early on, and my 2nd baby didn't STTN until he was over 14 months old. And not even consistently then. I got UNlucky, just as others got lucky.
Post by Bob Loblaw on Feb 19, 2013 15:46:46 GMT -5
I don't have kids so I have no idea how practical her storage solutions are, but I love them.
With that being said, isn't anyone else amused by the fact that just last week, her daughter destroyed the carpet, baseboards, and duvet by "playing" with a can of hot pink paint??