Have you ever noticed how kids love the toys at other people’s houses, more than their own, no matter how many they have? We have enough toys in our house to open a toy store, and my kids always seem to be bored and uninterested in them. But, when we go to someone else’s house, all the toys are suddenly so interesting and they’ll play quietly for hours.
I used to think, if we just got the toys their friends have, they’ll play just as quietly at home. But what I’ve learned is that it isn’t the toys that are interesting, it is the novelty. Even the best toys‘ novelty wears off in a matter of days. So which toys should you get? The short answer is, it doesn’t matter. What matters is how many you have available at any one time. I call it the Tip Of The Iceberg system. Only let your kids see some of the toys. When they get bored, replace some of the “old” toys with “new” ones.
If you really want to get your kids excited about a toy they haven’t seen in a while, put it in a wrapped box. Tell them Santa dropped it when he was hurrying back to the North Pole. Run out of actual toys? Find some objects around the house – crayons, tupperware, stuffed animals – and wrap them up.? Your kids will think it’s their birthday again, well, at least for a few hours until they are bored again.