Toy Rooms are all Well and Good Until….

Posted on Aug 22, 2009 04:12:33 PM

Do you have a toy room in your house or do you have bedrooms with toys?  We’ve done this several ways.  We’ve moved furniture between the three bedrooms more times than I care to count. 

The boys had separate rooms in the beginning, then one day I came home and Wayne had moved them to the same room.  Bad idea, we moved them back to separate rooms.  Then, after they were another year or 2 older, we put them back in the same and created the “toy room”.  Then, the room that we formerly called our office became their bedroom because it was bigger and that left a small toy room and a small storage room.

And, with the start of school and the fact that the 4 year old tends to talk and talk and talk to avoid going to sleep, the 6 year old then cries and whines because he can’t go to sleep for the talking.  And, some nights?  Some nights they both just down right played. 

And, so the idea was born, back to separate rooms.  I am a genius like that.  We emptied the toy room into the family room and and all but furniture out their bedroom.  Who needed a toy room when they had so many toys in their bedroom?  Grrrrr!

We commenced to moving the heavy stuff and I put them to separating the piles of toys.  Once my part was done, I sat down and helped them separate and I quietly tossed about half of the stuff in the trash.  SHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So, now when they get in trouble, we can send them to their room and they can do whatever as long as they aren’t bugging one another, right?  Before when we sent them to their room, the other kid followed and nothing was solved.  My philosophy is this, our kids like to be with us, so if “sending them to their room” is the punishment, I don’t care if they play once they get in there…I just want them to know that what they did was unacceptable.

So, how has the first 2 ours gone since we finished our little project?  Well, they have played in their rooms, they have played in each others room and currently as they were in trouble because someone hit someone and someone hit someone else…….the child being punished is sitting in front of my bedroom door (it’s closed, no one is giving him attention) and the other one?  The other one is standing in front of my new Frigidaire washing machine because I am washing comforters, mattress covers and sheets and I’m using the super duper sanitizing cycle.  How cool is that?

So much for “go to your room”.  It worked on Happy Days, why is it not working here?

So, do you have a toy room?  Separate bedrooms or one for multiple children?  How do you work it all out?