When I was little, I would be fascinated by the toys that weren't mine.
Like the ones at the dentist, or Nana's.
In retrospect, they weren't the greatest toys. Nope, in fact, they were usually much older than I was or were some strange collection that adults had held on to in the hopes of keeping elementary school-aged kids occupied while the adults chatted or a sibling was taking their turn under the white hot lights of the dental hygenist.
But precisely because they weren't my usual toys, they held an alluring but elusive appeal.
By far my favorite was a stuffed rabbit I named Shy Rabbit, for reasons that are lost to the mists of time.
Now Shy Rabbit is another little girl's favorite toy. My own collection of toys I keep in the house consists of some stuffed animals that I can't part with and my huge sack of My Little Ponies. When I babysit these two sisters, I set up the ponies in the spare bedroom and let them go to town. But the littlest girl inevitably seeks out Shy Rabbit, wherever he may be.
Even if he's in the forbidden zone upstairs. Once, their parents came over to hang out and the girls were playing in the other room. They asked what was upstairs and I told them our bedroom but it was off limits.
Never tell a kid something is off limits. It will only guarantee they go there.
The adults had stepped outside for a minute and when I opened the door to go inside, I heard a veritable stampede and suddenly both girls were there with their best innocent faces on. But Shy Rabbit clutched in the youngest's hand gave them away.
"Did you girls go upstairs?"
She shakes her head and makes denials while her older sister tries to change the subject.
"Are you sure?"
Vigorous head-nodding is the response.
"How did you get Shy Rabbit? Did he hop downstairs on his own?"
I could see the gears turning in her head as she swiftly contemplated the chances of succeeding at a denial at this stage and was rewarded when she discarded it and in a tiny voice admitted she had gone upstairs.
"But it's so cool up there! Can we play up there?" and Bam! she was off on a tangent, but she couldn't fool me, precocious child! She knew what she was doing, every minute of it.
I can understand the appeal, however.
I wanted so badly, as a kid, the play room the dentist office had.
First of all, the place had a kick ass aquarium in the adult portion of the waiting room. But if you were under 4' feet tall, you could climb up a ladder into a special cubby-like room that was filled with crazy neat old toys. Weird fiber-plastic faded colored blocks that were maybe the forefathers to Legos/Duplos. Random stuffed animals & kids meal toys from fast food restaurants.
Better yet, inside this cubby room in the middle of the wall, was yet another ladder leading to another room above that one, even smaller. They were their own secret worlds that just screamed "No adults allowed!" Plus they had a treasure chest full of goodies and after your visit, if you were good, you got to choose a treasure from the chest.
That dentist really knew how to cater to kids. Even though I dreaded the icky flouride rinses or whatever the hell they were, going to the dentist was exciting because while my sister took her turn under the white hot lights of the hygenist, I got to play in the indoor play house.
And it's strange collection of haphazard but wonderfully strange toys.
8 comments:
My grandparents had an odd collection like that. Always wanted to take half of them home.
Those highly-coveted stuffed toys, even those fire trucks found at a pediatric dentist’s office, they’re all for the purpose of keeping the children calm. When children recognize things they are familiar with, things that they find amusing, they are likely to be relieved of the anxiousness.
I know exactly what you are talking about. My daughter and I wonder, all the time, how it is her two girls never have anything to play with, but when they come here they are beyond satisfied with the old toys from their when their Mom and Uncles were little. (Yet, at home they have all the latest and greatest stuff, that can't hold their interest for 5 minutes)
Sometimes I think kids have too much stuff and not enough imagination. Personally, I love to see their imagination at play!
My uncle had a den that used to fascinate me that way. He'd traveled all over the world and had all kinds of knickknacks from different continents. Taking a kid through a room like that for a couple minutes and then telling him he couldn't touch anything... It's hard burden children have to carry. haha
I think I'd still enjoy that dentist now.. We never had anything like that here, just the cold, stark dental office where all you could hear was the screaming drill in the next room and all you could smell was that nasty antiseptic smell. I still shudder to think of it..
I try to create such a room around me at all time. It's the only thing that keeps me sane sometimes. I wish that I could travel through time in my one room Tardis.
Alex--Exactly! I did steal Shy Rabbit from Nana.
Harry--Well, it worked on me, certainly!
Ms. A--Apparently familiarity breeds contempt, even in children.
TS--Agreed. I still have a bit of that problem today (Don't ever say "I don't want to hear another peep out of you" unless you want to hear a deafening "PEEP!"
Tempo--You've busted me. I'm with you-I'd like a play room like that now too.
Calvin--I do something like that at work. Those stark cube walls just cry out for quirky decoration.
You know, for a split second I thought you were going to say you had given Shy Rabbit away. I was screaming in my head, "No no no"! lolol
That place at the denist's was the very best.
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