Younger siblings and LEGO?

[DarkYamiDragon]

If you have younger siblings, and they mess with your LEGO collection, how do you deal with it?

I've got a younger sister at home who has some problems (ADHD, etc.) and one of her favorite hobbies is to come running into the room and knock down whatever I'm building. My little brother, who is in perfect mental health, likes to do the same thing - little kids just find LEGO bricks scattering across the room so fun, don't they?

By the way, they're 8 and 7....isn't that a little too old to be knocking things down?

[Navy Trooper Fenson]

I´ve got a sister and she prefer chawing on this and this in pearl pieces.

So I mustn´t go to the trash bin.^^

[legotrainfan]

My sister is 23 and my brother 18, and they both believe I'm crazy to have LEGO as a hobby. Anyway, they don't touch my stuff; they are too old to scatter my bricks everywhere. I thought I had a bit of an impact on my brother but that was half a year ago. I ordered some bricks on bricklink and he wanted me to buy some more bricks, which I did because he paid for them. We built a big castle with the bricks we had bought. But since he started having his friends around, he stopped building with LEGO completely, and I had to remove all LEGO bricks and sets from his room. Seems it's to embarrasing for him to have his friends around and them seeing LEGO in his room.

[General Zen]

I have a 13 year old sister at home who pretty much leaves me alone if I leave her alone. We have a healthy compromise. Unfortunately when she gets mad, she sometimes threatens to smash my latest creation.

[commanderbly42]

My brother used to do stuff like that when he was 8 but he's grown out of it. He can actually be interested in LEGO from time to time and even asked for (and got) the new MTT for Christmas.

[Ralph_S]

I actually am the younger sibling. My sister, who is about three years older than I am, generally used to get along very well, even when we both were children. I don't remember many conflicts surrounding our respective LEGO collections, although I once did accidentally pull the tail off her favorite stuffed animal (by swinging it around the room). She grew out of LEGO and actually donated her collection to me when she was around 11 years old!

Cheers,

Ralph

[JimBee]

well, i dont have any siblings or cousins (cousins that ive met), but my friend has a brother whos a year or two older than us, and he just gets mad a lot and smashes my friends LEGO. He also enjoys smashing video game discs, video game controllers, and Rock Band drums, microphones, and guitars. Hes not mentally challenged at all, just a crazy kid with temper issues.

How does my friend deal with his bro? he doesnt... he has to live with it.

Edited June 23, 2008 by JimButcher

[DiverDan]

Fortunately, my younger brother never destroyed my sets. I got him interested in LEGO at an early age, so rather than destroy my sets, he actually helped me build them.

[Quarryman]

I am also the youngest, and I only have two sisters. One of them was never really interested in LEGO, the other had quite a few Technic sets. (Which she still has, in pretty much mint condition, something which I find quite impressive. I wonder if she will let her children play with them when they get old enough) So when we grew up the primary reason we had for conflict about LEGO was me borrowing pieces from my sister's collection...

One funny thing I've noticed though, last Christmas one of my nieces got lots of Duplo, but was it she that built with it on Christmas Day? No, it was her parents, very cute

[Skull-Mark_Ladybug]

...

Edited May 17, 2025 by Skull-Mark_Ladybug

[Darth_Legois]

I have 2 nephews [both of them are 2 and a half years old] and i have 2 more nephews or neices on the way .

They both LOVE my lego, one of them often sits on my lap and looks at brickshelf with me and he will be lucky his dad is a AFOL who still has his childhood lego from the '70s, '80s, '90s + other SW stuff!

[Jessica]

Well my youngest sister hates lego, doesn't want anything to do with it and thinks I'm weird for liking a boy's toy in her words. I just have to say is good luck trying to protect your collection from them. They'll eventually get tired of it and do something else. (hopefully). Also I have a mental illness and I understand it's hard for those who care about me to understand me fully. It's hard to have a mental illness, just hope that she'll grow out of it and be the better for it.

Edited June 24, 2008 by Jessica

[Stash2Sixx]

I am the oldest of four. All four of us actually played with LEGO. My dad hated video games so he never complained about buying LEGO. Other than the occasional battle of "this is my piece," we never really had any problems. Now that we have all grown up, I inherited all of my brothers' LEGO years ago, and my sister gave me her sets also. I'm the only one who still uses them, yet my sister is dating a guy who builds with LEGO. Interesting how that worked out.....

My advice to you is to buy your sister some Duplo. Build stuff with her and then let her knock it down. Teach her that these are hers, and those are yours. It's what kids do!

Remember, destruction is easy. Creation wouldn't be so rewarding if it didn't require hard work!

[Tom_castlefan]

When I was younger my brother smashed my lego, but now he is old enough to know better, and even plays with it with me. He doesn't like building it so much, but does buy it, and we often pool our money to afford some of the larger sets. He is 11.

Tom

[megasad]

When I moved out of my parent's home back in 2001, I couldn't take my LEGO with me but thought it would be a waste to just put it in storage, so I gave it all to my two youngest siblings to play with (sister of 6 and brother of 1).

As far as I can gather, they never really liked to play with it but managed to lose/break a lot of pieces, so when I was over for Christmas in 2006 I asked if they wanted it and they said no and so now I have what's left of it back in my own collection.

Since then, my little brother has actually got interested in LEGO, but is more of the Bionicle persuasion, with a little SpongeBob and Star Wars thrown in.

Weirdly, I think me giving them all my LEGO just meant they took it for granted and so they couldn't be bothered to play with it. Now that he's amassing his own collection, my brother seems to like playing with LEGO much more, likes to help me build more complex models when I occasionally visit.

[Brainbox]

I have a 13 year old sister at home who pretty much leaves me alone if I leave her alone. We have a healthy compromise. Unfortunately when she gets mad, she sometimes threatens to smash my latest creation.

I bet you're impossibly nice to her.

My sister doesn't bother me where Lego is concerned. She's learnt not to go in my room, I daren't go in her room (no, really, it's a death-trap). That said though, small pieces do keep turning up every time we convince her to tidy her pig sty room.

[MoonCheese]

I solved the problem by having been the only child.

[Karto]

This topic did remind me quite a story about my younger brother... When I was about 12 (end 80s), I decided to re-build all my sets according to the instructions. It took me almost two weeks during summer holidays. The first night after the work was done, I got awaken by some noice and the light which was on in my room. My 5 year old brother had destroyed almost all the sets... I was a 'little' angry at the moment. I dropped my brother back into his bed and attached him with two pairs of (toy) handcuffs, one for the legs and one for the arms. He didn't dare to say a thing, probably because of my killer face at the time My father had the same face the following morning when seeing my brother like that... Atleast, he hasn't touched my Lego ever again without my permission, so you know what to do guys

Edited June 28, 2008 by Karto

[The Cobra]

I solved the problem by having been the only child.

That's ok unless mom is babysitting a younger kid who whithin a couple of days smashes ALL these pieces

(and I had some 10 of them, thanks to an older cousin)

[filefolders]

I'm a middle child. My little sister occasionally wants to play with my minifigures and cars. My older sister however can barely touch something and it will break. Unfortunately, neither likes LEGO much.

[Dwarvenlord]

I have a younger sister, but she appreciates my hobby (however she REALLY doesn't like it). She's only 3 years younger, so it's cool...