Toy clutter: a blessing in disguise

You know you are a parent of a young child when walking around the house has become a hazard. Before I had a baby I would go over to people’s houses that had kids and I would wonder how they could stand all the clutter of toys constantly around.

Now that I am one of those parents with constant toy clutter I can see how they stand it. Putting a child of any age on the floor with no toys around is just asking for trouble. There is no end to interesting things in the house, and with no distractions around a child will use those interesting things as toys instead. Toys all over the floor provide a wonderful distraction, why roll over and look at a hanging cord, a shoe, a chair leg, or whatever else takes their fancy when there is a bright shiny toy right next to them.

I have even started adding toy clutter in certain places, such as the change table, just to prevent the blinds becoming the main focus; why grab onto the blind when there is a fluffy sheep in the way.

Toy clutter is a means to making the house safer; it is impossible to make a house completely baby-proof no matter how hard you try, but it is possible to make the tempting aspects of your home you don’t want your baby to play with less tempting.

So while toys on the floor are certainly a danger to an adults feet (because who hasn’t accidentally stepped on a small toy on the ground), they are definitely a way to keep a child safer.

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