Your children vs your PM collection.

[Bolingbroke]

I've been married for three years now, and my wife's biological clock is ticking faster by the minute 

What worries me about having children is: will it be the end of my precious collection? 

You parents in here, how do you deal with this? Do you keep yours locked away? Do you let your children play with your PM sets ... only to regret it later?

 

[Gis]

Our kids have clearly defined playmobl collections. Which makes three seperate collections in our house. They can borrow stuff from us if they really need it for something but other then that it stays with in our collection. So far so good. My little buggers are 7 and 4 :-)

[Martin Milner]

Like you Bolingbroke, I have no children yet but am hoping to start a family in the next few years.

My collection will be behind locked doors, except the sets I don't care about and are easily replaceable. Any kids will have their own sets bought for them.

[Coyote]

My little ones are still small- the boy will be 1 in November, and the girl will be 3 in October.  I keep my collection in the basement, which is still off limits unless the girl is with me.  She has her own collection of 123, but she is starting to get introduced to "real" playmobil-  My wife and I do a lot of pre-teaching on how to play with "daddy's toys", and I generally leave out the really small bits- and I bring up one set at a time- the wedding chapel, the fairy tale castle.  By having very clear rules, she understands how special they are, and treats them with great care.  The nice thing is that my wife understands, so I'm hoping in the years to come my collection will be respected.  Like Gis, I am planning to get the kids their own playmobil, though I will continue to share mine.

[playmo1989]

I've been married for three years now, and my wife's biological clock is ticking faster by the minute 

What worries me about having children is: will it be the end of my precious collection? 

You parents in here, how do you deal with this? Do you keep yours locked away? Do you let your children play with your PM sets ... only to regret it later?
  

depends what do you collect and in what form you have them for dysplay ,at a table -  floor  you buy msib ? in my case i won't have a problem with that all my playmobil are at large display cabinets and the msib for dispay as well ,now yes if you have them around the house it would be a kind of temptation for them. i always loved my playmo as a kid and taken care of them i remember a kid was coming to our house once in a while and he destroyed everything and my friend was wondering what was the problem   well ........... i don't want to scare you but kids are happiness go for it  

[Andy R]

I let my kids play with mine, but they are mindful that the sets ARE mine, and must respect that.
They also have their own sets.

[Heronimus]

What I worry the most is not them messing up my collection, but the young ones unintentionally swallowing the small parts. I dont have kid yet, but whenever small kids come over and visit my place, they often show interest of playing with my klickies. They are not my kids, and thank god their parents knew my meaning and distract them with other safer toys....like my trampolene 

[Rasputin]

Hi

I just bribe them with legos 




Well for real what we have done in the past with our kids is as follows. Mind you we have a seperate building 480 sqft that is detached from the house. It was my "office" that had a shelving system all around it. Every shelf went from ground to celling . Then the floors were covered with train tracks, houses, building, cars, job sites you name it was going on. From the time our oldest was 5-ish he and his following brothers (each 2 years-ish apart, 3 of them) they have had access to it all at basically all times.

The super rare stuff was out but higher up. They had a stool and mini ladder to really get anything.

 Now the catch was that they always had to clean up EVERYTHING. That meant in its place and all proper. The Playmobil and legos do not go out side in the dirt. Concrete is ok but in limited amounts. If they did not they did not get welcomed back until they did clean up. Then they could take more out .

The way I figured it was that if i showed them the respect, they would show the toys respect that I demanded. It worked very well but I do have a German wife to thank for her  magical powers.

I never worried about them swallowing parts & things as they really were not near me or the toys, all they did was follow the udder around. 

At times things were all over the place but it was well worth listening to them play and interact with the toys and each other. I wish now I had a video going at all times.   

Rasputin "The Mad Monk"

[bonniebeth]

This is a great topic! I've often worried about the same thing, because I am planning to start having children soon.

I was thinking, though, when I was a child, I din't have trouble understanding when my mom showed me her porcelain dolls and such from when she was a little girl that are rather delicate that they were "mama's toys" and that they were delicate and I had to be really careful. So I guess sometimes kids understand more than you think.

As for when other kids come over, kudos to anyone who actually lets them play with their playmobil. It is TOTALLY off limits to kids who visit my house. They usually don't even know I have it because I know they won't be able to resist playing with it! But I guess with your own children it is different.

[Wesley Myers]

I agree with the way Rasputin does it - I have a medium sized family, so far.  5 children and one more on the way in December.  The kids are all good around "my" Playmobil and know if something is not to be played with.  Yes, they are young.  In fact, the 19month old is very good around Playmobil and loves to play with her siblings.  None of them have ever tried to swallow anything - let alone stick it in their mouths. 

I am trying to show them what goes with what sets, but it is a constant sorting endevour.  It is kind of fun, though, even if frustrating and tedious at times.  LOL

I have worried about inhibiting their creative natures by limiting what they can play with too much.  So - I am letting them play how they want.  It's been a learning experience for me - LOL.  Playmobil is a great toy for children and with what else can a Princess get in her car and drive to the pirate ship to sail to the dinosaur island and then take a helicopter back to the castle and then hop on a bike and go riding a bicycle to go camping and then to visit a friends house and play there and then back home to sleep all in a short period of time?

All the accessories and how they interchange are what make the toy the most exciting, adventurous, expandable and the most fun.

By the way, like Rasputin, the kids are not allowed to take the Playmobil into the grass and if we have the train set up then just the people and not the small accessories.

They understand and consistency is the key.