Imagine...
I have a love/hate relationship with Playmobile toys. I think they are the coolest, most well thought out and well made toys around. They fit in our family like a dream, and appeal to the wide age span of my children.
But...
my children rarely play with the Playmobile toys they way they were designed. For instance, my husband and I got a super, super deal through a friend on the Airport. We had already decided to get the little boys the airplane, so we were so thrilled to get the airport. After opening the box, the airport was assembled, looked at, and immediately turned into something else. A fort, or castle, if memory serves. Currently, it is a modern seaside home, all glass and chrome, overlooking the seashore and nearby farmland, which uses the animals (even unicorns) from various sets we have. There is the animals from the Nativity set, the horses from the princess set, the war horses from the knights. I found other animals from other toys, as well, in this farm, as well as out of scale Matchbox cars and John Deere tractors.
The airplane is completely disassembled, and is being uses as an outbuilding at the farm ~ I think that is where the hired hands sleep. The Pirate ship, minus the masts, is docked at the beach at this estate, and the trees from the Princess kit are a far off enchanted forest, where a motley crew of pirates and knights and shepherds live.
The problem? This drives me nuts. I want the perfect airport to be set up and left together, with the airplane ready for take off and the pilots on board, with the passengers boarding. I want the airport to have the people in the tower, sitting at their computers, while the baggage handlers load the luggage. Said tower people and baggage handlers are currently sleeping in the "out building" getting ready for a grueling day of farming and keeping the pirates in the enchanted forest at bay.
Through the years, I have relaxed mightily about the toys, and keeping them together and making sure all the pieces were together at days' end. I think that stopped around baby # six. But there still is a sniggling guilt I get, knowing that before long, enough pieces are going to be lost, and the airport will never be what it said it was on the box.
But my admiration for the new and exciting stories that are coming out of this creative use of Playmobile has it's merits, and once let my "inner child" enough leash to see it, the guilt turns to excitement and all is well.
But...
my children rarely play with the Playmobile toys they way they were designed. For instance, my husband and I got a super, super deal through a friend on the Airport. We had already decided to get the little boys the airplane, so we were so thrilled to get the airport. After opening the box, the airport was assembled, looked at, and immediately turned into something else. A fort, or castle, if memory serves. Currently, it is a modern seaside home, all glass and chrome, overlooking the seashore and nearby farmland, which uses the animals (even unicorns) from various sets we have. There is the animals from the Nativity set, the horses from the princess set, the war horses from the knights. I found other animals from other toys, as well, in this farm, as well as out of scale Matchbox cars and John Deere tractors.
The airplane is completely disassembled, and is being uses as an outbuilding at the farm ~ I think that is where the hired hands sleep. The Pirate ship, minus the masts, is docked at the beach at this estate, and the trees from the Princess kit are a far off enchanted forest, where a motley crew of pirates and knights and shepherds live.
The problem? This drives me nuts. I want the perfect airport to be set up and left together, with the airplane ready for take off and the pilots on board, with the passengers boarding. I want the airport to have the people in the tower, sitting at their computers, while the baggage handlers load the luggage. Said tower people and baggage handlers are currently sleeping in the "out building" getting ready for a grueling day of farming and keeping the pirates in the enchanted forest at bay.
Through the years, I have relaxed mightily about the toys, and keeping them together and making sure all the pieces were together at days' end. I think that stopped around baby # six. But there still is a sniggling guilt I get, knowing that before long, enough pieces are going to be lost, and the airport will never be what it said it was on the box.
But my admiration for the new and exciting stories that are coming out of this creative use of Playmobile has it's merits, and once let my "inner child" enough leash to see it, the guilt turns to excitement and all is well.
posted by Renee at Wednesday, January 23, 2008
7 Comments:
I am so much like that! I too have had to learn to let it go! Except ours aren't Playmobile but Little People. Cows end up in dog houses and Noah's Ark animals are all over the place, at the zoo, the circus, in the airplane! But it is amazing how their imaginations take off. :) On a different note, I hope your workshop is going well.
This is funny because I am the same way. Our Nativity set has "expanded" to include a wolf, two fires, and some extra treasure chests. Sometimes pirates and knights come along to visit Baby Jesus. I do draw the line at the cannons, however.
This makes me smile - think of it as their own mosaic of creativity! :)
Have they been to an airport yet - maybe it's what's familiar to them that they are re-creating? Just a wonder.
Lovely snapshot of your day, thank you!
I feel your pain.
I'm not like that...but my mother is like that with her Dickens Village at Christmas time...the skaters HAVE to go in certain place...certain townspeople are together...I have tried to 'mix it up' but when I come back over..everything is back to where it's SUPPOSED to be..I think it's cute.
Maybe this Christmas the airport can become a creche? ;o)
Funny stuff. I think as a child I was more into orderly play. Now, I see my daughter is more of the creative minded type, as it seems are your kids.
It's kind of neat to watch build-a-bears playing with my daughter's Barbies, and my daughter being the mommy to the bears. And then her cell phone rings and she is speaking with her husband, aping conversations my wife has apparently had with me!
Post a Comment
<< Home