I read in a smug parenting book once that toy boxes are bad and you should have toys set up on shelves so children can look at their choices and pick the items they would like to play with. Supposedly children will then calmly choose their preferred toy instead of emptying the toy box in search of something they want to play with.
All that this has done in our house is mean the kids empty the toy SHELVES instead of the toy BOX and leave ME in a constant state of distress.
I am so sorry.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest used to take all the books off the bookshelf and make them into sidewalks through the house, which she would then walk on. This made me crazy.
I did use toy shelves, but more because then there wasn't a hinged box lid that could fall on the children and hurt them. It helps if you put the toys into bins or baskets on the shelves, which doesn't leave them visible, but that can actually be a good thing when you need to tidy quickly and don't have time to sort.