It's Not a Dare
Here's a piece of newly found wisdom: The manufacturer's recommend age for fun stuff like Lego's, Lincoln Logs, and Transformers (and I'm sure the same will go for girly toys) is not a dare for you to prove to the toy company that your child is smart enough to play with older kid toys.
No, it's a stern warning that if you are naive enough to buy it for your younger one, then you must be patient enough to put the toy together over and over and over and over again. On account of the younger one reveling in habitually taking it apart and not being sophisticated enough to read the thirty page instructions that accompany the toy.
I've just discovered this today as I look at the 600+ pieces of Lego's on my living room floor (which used to consist of four separate sets) while my four year old waves phone book sized manuals in my face, asking me to build up the models again which were originally recommended for eleven year olds.
When I told him he needs to follow the manuals himself, he just laughed at me and said, "Yeah right. That's what you're for. Mommy's are for reading and I'm for playing."
Okay toy companies...lesson learned.
Comments
Transformers have been the biggest annoyance to me this year! Those things are so bloody hard to TRANSFORM!!!! I cop out and play the "girl" card and tell my son - go ask your Dad, girls just don't know how to play with transformers!!!
On an aside: While at Disneyland I checked out Downtown Disney and they have a lego store there. It was good enough for me to show Ethan (nearly 2) the gigantic lego things they have displayed there. There is a giraffe that must be 2-3 stories high. Other than that, I concur, legos and feet do not mix.
I learned that lesson the hard way too! BTW, also....if you have the small legos (like I was stupid and bought my 6 year old Indiana Jones Legos with teeny tiny gems and small tracks that snap together to make the tractor/shredder go) KEEP THEM AWAY and OUT OF YOUR CARPET!!! Unless you want to crawl on your hands and knees with a magnifying glass searching for them all before you step on them for the millionth time, or suck them up in your newly serviced vacuum.....no warning given in any of the manuals I read, until we got this one the other day....all it had was a picture of carpet (at least I think it was carpet) and a red slash mark through it.....pictures of do's and don'ts for the kids AND their crazy parents who continue to buy them!!!!
My recommendation, pick them up when he goes to sleep and then pack them away until he gets a little older...or glue them together ONCE they are all put together the way they belong. ;) BUYER BEWARE....if you have not fallen for this yet! As for Heather and I, well, we'll never learn! :P