Red Green Repeat Adventures of a Spec Driven Junkie

Maximizing Value from Your Child's Toy

As a parent, you want to give toys to your kids to play.

At the same time, even with infinite resources, giving all of their desired toys is a waste. Why?

Because they will only play with the toy for a short while and then move on to the next shiny new toy.

The worst part: after they played with a toy long ago - when they see that exact same toy again, they will want to play with it.

Either you have infinite number of toys (and to store them) or you keep buying toys as your children desire them.

Neither are sustainable.

Strategy

My wife figured out a great strategy to have our kids play with their toys without giving them every toy they desire.

My wife would let them play with the toy and after they get bored of the toy, she would hide them for awhile. After a certain period, she would reveal the toy again - the kids would see the old toy as a brand new toy and play with it again.

This is a great strategy to keep our kids engaged with their toys without buying all of them.

Why?

I started thinking: why does this work??

The best explanation I have is:

When the child sees the toy the first time, they have a certain level of capabilities and can interact with the toy at one level. When the child sees the toy again after a break, their capabilities increase through growth, and they can interact with the toy at another level.

Conclusion

Save yourself from buying (or storing) all the toys your kids want. Buy some toys, let them play with it, hide the toys after they finish playing, and reveal them again so they can re-engage with them on a new level.