Your kids and YOUR Lego

[BlueCaret]

So I'm curious what everyone does when they have all their Lego all sorted and organized perfectly and have all sorts of classic sets on display and then your kid wants to play with them! Do you let them? Do you have special Lego for them to play with and yours are off limits?

I have a nephew that visits often and I am just at the very beggining stages of getting into Lego again, but since my nephew has always been able to play with my childhood Lego that I still have I'm afraid he will want to play with any new sets or Lego towns I build and potentially mix up a nicely organized system or break apart a set I don't want broken apart.

So, how do you handle the kids wanting to play with your Lego peices and MOCs?

[def]

I buy separate Lego for my daughter, and occasionally let her play with some mini-figs. I keep my sets out of reach from her.

[Kristel]

Short answer: LEGO is meant to be played with!

Long answer:

My daughter's favourite Friends and City sets and some of our Star Wars sets are stored as individual sets into their own storage boxes when not currently built. The rest (about 40,000 pieces) is sorted into a system that works for me for doing modular MOCs. I share with her (i.e. I borrow her Friends pieces) and cringe when she picks out the e.g. dark orange box to build a car park for her die cast cars (ouch!), but I want her to enjoy all the LEGO as much as I do. She knows where to find most of her favourite individual pieces if she needs them. I always have a box that's called the "sorting box" for pieces that need to be put away. I find sorting pieces quite relaxing, so I don't mind her just putting what she is finished with in there. Safer than getting her to put it back anyway, because I might never find it back.

She knows not to play with my WIPs and is good about that, but once they are photographed and uploaded to flickr she is free to play with them. She loves roleplaying with the minifigs in the modular buildings. I figure I can always rebuild whatever she destroys. To date, she has only dropped and shattered one modular building. That one hurt a bit because was a 32-stud wide building with a full interior, and it happened only two days after I had uploaded it to flickr. I didn't really get to enjoy that one for long. But, I have all the pieces and it can be rebuild someday.

[PsyKater]

We were talking about this just yesterday and I thought the same as Kristel does. But I will see what I will do when I have kids...

[Shroffy123]

This is an interesting topic, as my wife and I were just talking about this. I have no idea what I'm going to do once we have kids. Right now, whenever my nephews or niece come by, and I am not home, I make sure and ask my wife to make sure they don't get into my Lego room. I'm pretty selfish about it. Whenever we have a large get together over, I'll put out my older Lego piece for the kids to play with.

[Peppermint_M]

Well, I am not a mother but I do have a lot of younger sibs, friends with young kids, family friends with young kids and my sibs many friends.

It all works like this:-

MOCs and sets: There are in a bit of a jumble right now but my younger brother is allowed to look at and pick up MOCs as my work is helping him develop his skills in MOCing. Sets can be borrowed for play but cannot be broken. Visitors to the shared loft space can only interact with built sets and MOCs in the presence of myself or my brother.

Parts: Most of my parts are unsorted. A lack of space means I can't correctly sort everything to my liking. Minifig parts are sorted. All my LEGO is not allowed to be used without me being there.

But, I do have a box of mixed clones. These have parts and sets and figures all mixed in one tub. This is free for anyone to use as long as they tidy up again afterwards. There is plenty to play with and nothing important can be lost of broken. I throw out the poor quality parts and I regularly check for broken pieces so it's all safe.

This arrangement keeps everyone happy.

[charlieboy]

I have two children and a huge Lego collection but we manage just fine. My sets are kept in our livng room in glass display cabinets that I change regularly depending what theme i'm into at the time, my kids know those cabinets are off limits! My son is nine and has quite a collection of his own, most of that he keeps in his bedroom on display. When he wants to swap themes he knows he has to put away what is in his room to make room for new stuff. We have a large walk in cupboard where we store the sets not on display so all he needs to do is ask and i'll get out whatever he wants.

My daughter is almost four and has just found the Friends theme. She loves that and absolutely loves it when I get the minifig box out so she can create her own figures.

I think the biggest thing that has changed for me is my sorted pieces. As I said we have a huge collection and all the lose parts were sorted by colour into lots and lots of large stacking boxes that took me so long to sort out. This was great for finding individual pieces but no fun at all when it came to building, my son especially hated only having one colour to build with at a time as I didnt want to mix the colours! This all changed last week when I decided to mix everything up again! My son had great fun emptying each box into one great big pile and building has become so much more fun for us both!

Edited January 10, 2013 by charlieboy

[Kai NRG]

I don't have kids myself, but I do have lots of siblings who enjoy LEGOs. I keep my own LEGO on my desk, and the younger two (everyone else has their own stash, or share with someone else) know better than to mess with that (though every once in a while my three year old sister will climb up the back and push a stained glass/cheese slope window in, or start sticking all kinds of pieces on to my WIPs... but I'm always there, and I let her climb up, so I guess it's my fault). In general I'm with Pep, if I'm not there the four youngest aren't allowed in my room. It's not that hard to keep track of as I'm in a sort of finished attic, so anyone who want's to get up there has to climb up all kinds of noisy stairs. I did catch the one-yr-old playing with my minifigs once when she was supposed to be napping...

I'm pretty organized when it comes to sorting, though it's rare that there aren't piles of pieces laying around for something I'm working on. But I give my sisters a few minifigs, and as long aren't fighting over the same ones, they're pretty happy. I've also got a large tub of pieces I never found the time or room to sort (and I've already taken out the more useful ones), so occasionally they'll pull something out of there. But like I said, give a little kid a minifigure or two, and they'll have fun even without too many other pieces.

[lightningtiger]

I have city and super heroes, my son has HP, POTC and of course what must kids are in too......Star Wars.

It's more like me keeping my hands of his Lego collection !

[Jargo]

I don't have any children, all the Lego is MINE!!!!!!!

Actually over the years I've had young cousins and nephews and so on come over and want to play but they've always preferred my action figure collection. I have plenty of spares I let them destroy with aggressive play.

It's only recently since my younger brother got a new lady friend with Children that I've considered opening my vault to Lego to one.

Izzy is an eleven year old girl with a very creative streak who is mature beyond her years. I'd let her have free reign over my bricks. She's quite a tomboy and prefers action themes and space to any girly nonsense. I'd like to encourage her creativity and hope her interest in Lego lead her to pursue a career in the arts or something practical like civil engineering.

[Drock]

I love the fact that my kids are old enough to play now (they are 2 and 4), so I have an excuse to play too. We play almost every night. My LEGO and theirs are in the same LEGO room. Some of mine are within their reach, but they know not to touch mine without asking me. They can play with theirs whenever they want.

Yeah, sometimes my sets will break while we're playing, but it's LEGO, so they can be rebuilt.

[kibosh]

LEGO is a toy, and meant to be played with. That being said, it is very hard to sit back and watch my kids (10 and 6) play with my display pieces. If they just move the minifigures around, and create scenes with models as they are, I'm OK with it. For instance, my daughter introduced the pizza tiles into the Death Star so everyone could have lunch. I loved it, so they stayed. I am not happy when they start rearranging pieces, or if they lose stuff. :-/

But I can't get mad at them. They are kids, playing with toys. And using their imaginations, which I always encourage.

And they both have plenty of their own LEGO!

[BlueCaret]

Thanks for all the great replies everyone! Glad I'm not alone in wanting to be a bit selfish with them :)

I think I'll go with one idea I had then. My two big tubs that I've had since I was a kid will be left alone for my nephew to play with at any time and I'll slowly pull out good pieces from and then my sorting and organizing will be left for the new stuff.

My childhood lego are all mixed up with a bunch of old "stretched out" Lego that don't snap together very well anymore and even some *cough* off brand bricks that are sure to be tossed as soon as I can identify them all. I even have a few pieces that I decided I didn't have enough black bricks so I took a sharpie to them! Yup I regret that one.

[TheLegoDr]

My 3 year old daughter plays with whatever she can get her hands on (whether I say she can or not). She's just ornery and inquisitive, so I let it slide. The only time I get upset is when I am working on a MOC and she keeps taking the pieces I need to build her own little thing. But I've learned to just not build anything when she is around. I just let her play with whatever and then I'll tear it apart and rebuild with what I need after she goes to bed. She has really been into Duplo lately and Friends, but she enjoys the CMFs I get her also. She was super excited to have the Dr minifigure from 2012's hospital set.

I agree LEGO should be played with and the younger the better. It really does help with fine motor skills. My 3 year old has way better eye-hand coordination than a lot of her peers she spends time with, all of whom are older than she is. Plus it helps her creativity and imagination.

And no worries, I've painted my share of bricks when I was younger. Essentially I ruined a good chunk of my white bricks and castle minifigure torsos because I thought it was a good idea at the time.

[daisy]

This can be a tough one for me. My girls and I got into lego at the same time and they have the some nice sets, so if I want them to share I have to share.

I do have my own lego that is sorted for me to use. They can use pieces if they ask. The main reason I keep it set aside is that I don't want to lose essential pieces, and theirs simply doesn't stay sorted. I let them play with my sets when they are built, but I try to emphasize not breaking them apart or the critical pieces to be careful with ( do not lose my purple tools!). But it is a toy and I want them to enjoy it, so I try to temper my anxiety. Random lego, like garage sale purchases and our PAB cup we got in Chicago last year are divided, usually unevenly, more in my stash than theirs.

I make sure they have lots of lego so their isn't usually a need to raid mine unless that want to play with a specific set. I "borrow" a lot of theirs though so sometimes I have to look for a piece they need for their sets in my stash.

Mine are quite young yet, 5 and 3. I imagine when they are a bit older we will just share it all.

[happymark]

As a dad of 2 elementary school boys, I always share my collections with them.

I always encourage them to MOC or/and Play.

the only problem is SORTING part. to be honest, nobody likes to do sorting job. so most of time I am the only one to do the sorting - which consume a lot of my own time!

so this will be my new year resolution

let them share the sorting work.

here is the aftermath of playing..

Edited January 10, 2013 by happymark

[Dazmundo]

My 3yr old daughter has her own box of Lego that she can play with whenever she likes. My sets i have on display are out of her reach but she is allowed to play with them when i am there to lift them down for her then once she has finished i can do any repairs and put them back. She isn't really into building MOCs yet but she is quite good at following Lego instructions to build sets.

D

[Leo604]

Most of my favourite and biggest sets (Weathertop, ARC-170, MOC's, etc.) are safely upstairs in my room where I make sure to keep my room closed. My brother and I each have our own small collections and we have most of the random pieces downstairs in the basement for play.

Long way from having kids but occasionally my baby cousins come over and we just have them in the basement away from my room, as well as making sure they don't accidentally put Lego pieces in their mouths.

[Repeter]

When someone's kids come over, I hope they want to play with my Legos. I would think they were weird kids if they didn't. That said, I have a couple sets I wouldn't let get roughed up, but there is plenty of others to play with: For example, my Monster Fighter vehicles and a big collection of loose bricks is open to anyone.

[bpbill]

I am a collector, I colect things. However I am not an investor.

My various collections are for the enjoyment of myself and others and that goes the same with Lego. My kids can play with it as much as they like. However I do get first dibs on the bits I need at the time and they have to have the rest :p

[Vindicare]

No kids here. But at Thanksgiving I had a couple of cousins over. I watched like a hawk as they fingered and tinkered with 10225 R2-D2 and 10228 Haunted House. I would probably prefer my collection to not be played with. Mainly because I keep mine together by set.

I've thought about and almost have sorted like most do, but just can't bring myself to mix up the pieces. I don't know why, guess I'm a strange one.

[Slobey]

I have two daughters (8 & 6) who have thier own collection of Friends and stuff we've bought them over the years as well as a decent size tub of my brother in laws old Lego. I have all my collection sorted and my bulit sets in a cabinet in our tv room.

The girls know they can play with my sets (MMV, Daigon Alley, Kingdoms Joust etc.) whenever they want they just need to ask first, as someone said previously I can always repair any damage they do. Any damage is outweighed by watching them spend hours roleplaying with my sets or recreating scenes from the Hobbit (I just finished reading it to them).

photo by slobey79, on Flickr

My son is only 2 yrs old but I've put some insurance in place by buying 2 copies of each LotR and Hobbit sets (one for me and one stored away for him)

As far as MOCing goes I've made a rule that I will not under any circumstances raid thier collection if I need a piece. As far as I'm concerned if I need a piece they have I will bricklink it...........

Edited January 11, 2013 by Slobey

[cortman]

I don't have children yet (just married) but when I do, I'll give them full access to my collection of used/new LOOSE Lego. It's all sorted by color and I doubt it'll stay that way long when they're playing with it, but I'd rather it get used than just stay nice and sorted and unused.

My sets that I've bought new are still separate though, and I think I'd like to keep them that way. The sets I view more as a collection than building material. Especially my LOTR sets. I'll buy sets for my children too, and with those they can do whatever they want.

[Repeter]

@Slobey and happymark: Those pics are very cool. It's a good thing there are dads like you around.

[robuko]

My son (2 1/12) is vastly more important than my lego. If he breaks it, I fix it. He has his sets, I have my sets. He breaks mine (especially the vehicles), I raid his for MOC parts. It all works out fine. He is not so interested in minifigs and he doesn't bite parts, so I am lucky.