Did your parents ever Throw out your toys or things as a consequence?

[Anonymous]

I give toy vacations occasionally, but I can't imagine spitefully throwing away a beloved toy that's still in rotation. I equivocate here as I know we won't be able to save everything till they grow up and have kids (and want it? hate it? not care about it?), so I wonder if I'll be throwing away anything beloved by accident.

[Anonymous]

No. I would never do this, I think it is really cruel. That story about the cowboy boots is going to stay with me. How sad for that little boy.

[Anonymous]

YES. I preface this w/ the fact that my mom is a damn insane person, but she would often come into our rooms, and if messy, thow everythign we owned in the trash. Also, I came home on numerous occassions to find everything I owned littered all over the front lawn. Bitch be crazy.

[Anonymous]

My dad didn't just throw up kids' stuff, he also threw out things he knew my mother valued - just because he was angry and just because he could. Once, he even dumped my dog. I thought the dog had run away but a few months after he did it, he told me what he'd done (he was drunk and raging). He drove way out in the sticks and dumped her. I was crushed but the lesson I took out of it was that I couldn't become too attached to anything or show that anything mattered to me. It took me a very long time to work through the issues this lead to. I would never get rid of something my kids valued.

[Anonymous]

I can honestly still hear my little brother pleading, "no, mom no!" as she threw out his prized comic books that he took so long to collect when she found his room messy. And he's pretty much now a pot head who is into suspension/piercing stuff - so, yeah, thanks mom. Way to go.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Harsh. This is coming from a parent who spanks (on VERY rare occasions when timeouts and revoking privileges aren't working.) We do take toys away temporarily if the kids fight over them. We donate toys they have outgrown and forgotten. But I wouldn't toss the kid's blankie in the dumpster or purposely give away a beloved item as punishment.

[Anonymous]

My parents still have all of our toys in their attic bagged up by child/age, in fact I just brought my favorite old mickey mouse doll home with me over Xmas (after I stitched him up in a few places and gave him a spin in the washing machine). I'm 35. This is sad

[Anonymous]

My dad gave my car away to a needy member of our church. I was 18 and had gotten it as a HS graduation gift. I was at the top of my class and was a straight arrow kid. We were really poor ourselves and I needed the car to get to eork to help pay for school.

It hurt me profoundly that he valued a f-ed up adult more than his child. I walked to work each day, so it was okay, but I still have emotional pain when I think about.

[Anonymous]

My mother threatened, even to the point of storming into my room with the trash bag and filling it up. But I don't think she ever followed through.

I would put things away if they were mis-used. I might even tell my child that if she can't take care of XYZ then we will give it to a child who will. I would NOT do it in anger.

[Anonymous]

Some sad stories here but many are really irrelevant to the question posed.

[Anonymous]

My parents did. It was part of the generally (physically, verbally, emotionally) abusive way they raised me. I won't do it to my child, but not doing so means really limiting what comes into the house in the first place to avoid the frustration of too much stuff not well cared for.

[Anonymous]

my MIL broke my husbands favorite toy and to this day it bothers him that she did this. It is not something that we would ever do to our children.

[Anonymous]

My mom would throw my brothers' things out of their window. It was so embarrassing. My mom is a little unhinged.

[Anonymous]

Dad gathered up all our transformers because we left them lying around. He did not throw them away, but kept them for a few days, and upon return explained how we were to treat them well. If we couldn't treat them well, he would do it again.

Throwing away the toys is cruel. But making a point about caring for your belongings is parenting. So, I feel that what he did was a fair and logical consequence.

[Anonymous]

I have a two year old that enjoys chucking toys at family/friends heads. We're working on this. But yes, sometimes the "chucked toy" has to go away, so he "gets" it. It comes back eventually...