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As my kid is growing, I make attempts to clean out his stash of toys, but get stuck and end up keeping everything as it is.
Well, have you ever experienced life in a basket? Or have you ever come across a basket full of life
I have one such basket. It represents life with the piles of toys – the childhood of my child.
While my kid is growing up, every year I made attempts to clean out his stash of toys but get stuck somewhere in the middle of it and end up keeping everything as it is.
But this time our house help made a serious attempt to sort out the pile. She cautioned against “allowing objects to own us,” or turning your home into a museum. With that in mind, I sat near the red basket to make rooms for new one and discard the old ones.
It was harder than I thought. Sure these were just objects; but they were objects with stories. The toys heaped inside this red basket held not only the kid’s memories, but my own.
It has accumulated all my child’s toy cars, animals, crayons & play dough some are broken and some are still intact and is safekeeping all of them till today. He outgrew them so fast.
It reminded me of my own toy box.
As I started digging through it, I lifted some of his old toy cars ranging from red to yellow & shades of black to blue. I still remember how he used to line them up all in a row and start a race. I noticed some old crayons, some are broken and some are intact. I think they still colour the same.
I also discovered some dried-out play dough lying idle & crouched at the bottom of the basket. Appreciate his tiny hands and his every effort in making those tiny grapes, other fruits, the star fish and the set of table & chairs. Truly a mother’s pride!
Ah! There it is his favorite toy animals – Tiger, Lion, Rhino, hippo and many others. We bought them on his 4th birthday. I remembered watching my son, carefully digging soil and scooping it out to build their homes in our yard and even making a cute river for them to drink water from.
Same way like the red basket. I still adore those pictures & could not just resist myself from sharing with you now. The warped head of the racket on the top of the pile reminded me our homely version of noisy squash play.
I even sorted out the old colourful building blocks. Each pale block noted the passing of time & its effect on his development. I really don’t want to part with some of his things – his meticulously crafted tiger and the spider web and some of his drawings.
l was confident about which toys were my kid’s favorites. But upon consulting him before discarding an item, I was often surprised to hear, “Ohhh, I loved that toy! Can I keep it?”
Cleaning out the basket was a good move for all of us. I’ve been known to stash away a few of my kids’ toys that held special memories for me, as well as keepsake quality toys and some of his work for his children to someday enjoy.
We gave away few of the outgrown toys to our house help to share with other kids. In essence, I think, donating your family’s outgrown toys is not just ‘giving an old toy,’ it’s changing a kid’s life.
Thankfully I have a life changing red basket to bury my head deep into and sometimes to pull things out from the string of life itself.
Image Source: Still from the movie Taare Zameen Par
I am an educator, Soft-Skill Trainer & a mother. read more...
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