What Happened to Your Childhood Toys?
My son, Andrew, has grown up with Toy Story. Therefore, so have Paul and I.
He is Andy to his friends and almost everybody else, although never to us. When Andy left home in Toy Story, my Andrew was moving out at around the same time. It was a very weird coincidence and I cried so hard.
Those films aren’t only stories about Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the other toys for me. They are connected to different parts of Andrew growing up and our own lives as a family.
Toy Story 5 left us with damp eyes
Paul and I watched Toy Story 5 over the weekend and we both loved it. By the end, we had damp eyes and had started talking about the toys we owned as children.
We both kept some of our childhood toys for years. When we moved into an apartment and no longer had the space, they were among the things we had to sort through.
Some of the toys were donated. Others were so old and knackered that they had to be thrown away.
The toys we loved beyond recognition
Paul had a doggy that was literally falling apart and didn’t really look like a dog anymore. I had a Tiny Tears doll and a poodle pajama case that played Brahms’ Lullaby.
They had been played with and loved for years. By the time we had to let them go, some were in no condition to begin another life with somebody else.
Throwing away a much-loved toy can still feel awful, even when you know it has reached the end of its useful life. You aren’t only looking at an old object. You are looking at something that carries memories from your childhood.
Letting another child love them
Not every toy had reached that point. Some could still be donated and enjoyed by somebody else.
I see it this way: if we have loved our toys and played with them as much as we can, why not pass them to somebody who is ready to give them more playtime and love?
Donating a toy doesn’t erase the years you spent with it. It allows its story to continue with another child instead of leaving it sitting inside a box because you feel guilty about letting it go.
Of course, there may be one or two toys that carry so much meaning that you want to keep them. There is nothing wrong with that either.
Taylor Swift made me cry too
If you haven’t watched Taylor Swift’s video for I Knew It, I Knew You, I highly recommend it, especially if you love Toy Story.
It is beautifully done and brings together the friendship and love behind the characters’ stories. Naturally, it made me cry again because I’m such a sook.
Between the film and the music video, there were quite a lot of feelings happening in our apartment that weekend.
What happened to your childhood toys?
Perhaps your toys are still sitting in a box because you can’t bring yourself to donate them. You may have passed them to your children, given them to somebody new or kept one special toy that still means too much to lose.
Some may have been loved until they were falling apart, like Paul’s doggy and my poodle.
Do you still have any toys from your childhood, or have you donated your pre-loved toys so somebody else can love them too?
