How protective are you of Lego creations?

[Anonymous]

My son is 5 and will be in Kg in the fall.
He has a number of Lego city creations on a train table in his room and a giant box of random bricks to build with. One fell and broke during a play date - no one's fault.

My husband thinks that all play dates in son's bedroom should be supervised closely or that play dates shouldn't be allowed to play with Legos.

I'm much more relaxed about the Legos, but then, I'm not the one who helped build the item that broke.

Of note, my son is also super laid back about his creations. He wasn't upset about the broken item. I think he'd prefer to build and break and re- build into something else, but DH feels like it's wasteful to build an expensive set and then just destroy it.

Just wondering how other families handle Legos.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

My kids build them, play with them for a few days and when they start to fall apart, go into the bin with all the other Legos. I would take your son's lead on this. If your husband wants them to be kept forever as a shrine, then he should get his own Legos and let your kid play.

[Anonymous]

Your husband is over micro managing where it is not warranted.

[Anonymous]

Hasn't your husband seen the Lego movie?

[Anonymous]

My 8 yo has a lot of sets. Too many. He builds them and plays with them. When they are broken beyond repair they get dumped into a mega bin that he uses to make new creations. He has a few favorite sets that he doesn't play with on play dates for fear of being broken but we leave this up to him. When he was 5 we didn't buy the huge expensive sets because he couldn't independently completely them yet. Everything was broken pretty quickly back then. We always had the attitude that they were his to use creatively, whether that meant building or playing or creating something new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your husband is over micro managing where it is not warranted.

This. Although I get it a little since as a kid I put together some pretty intense Lego creations. Sounds like DH really enjoys putting together these things and enjoys that activity with DS. What I would do is if DH and DS create something that is special or took a lot of time, they can "display" it somewhere so that it doesn't get broken or falls apart. Kind of like a model or something vs a toy.

But he also needs to lighten up about some of this. Your kid is 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hasn't your husband seen the Lego movie?

This! Seriously, does he look and sound like Will Ferrell?

[Anonymous]

Legos are for playing with, building, breaking apart and rebuilding...EXCEPT for the really expensive collectable sets you purchase specifically to be collectable. Like the Death Star. Or the Christmas village and Haunted Mansion we take out and put up each year. Or those $200 town sets they release one of esch year.

Only those.

[Anonymous]

Take a photo of the lego creation (for your DH).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Legos are for playing with, building, breaking apart and rebuilding...EXCEPT for the really expensive collectable sets you purchase specifically to be collectable. Like the Death Star. Or the Christmas village and Haunted Mansion we take out and put up each year. Or those $200 town sets they release one of esch year.

Only those.

Nope, in our house they are for playing, too. We have specifically been coaching DD (5) for quite some time about "what happens if so and so breaks a lego?" Correct answer is always, "We'll fix it later, it's no big deal." We find that guests, including young kids, are way more uptight

[Anonymous]

Your husband needs to buy and build his own lego sets which will be permanently bonded with super glue and displayed in the basement with caution tape and "hands off" signs posted on every wall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Legos are for playing with, building, breaking apart and rebuilding...EXCEPT for the really expensive collectable sets you purchase specifically to be collectable. Like the Death Star. Or the Christmas village and Haunted Mansion we take out and put up each year. Or those $200 town sets they release one of esch year.

Only those.

Nope, in our house they are for playing, too. We have specifically been coaching DD (5) for quite some time about "what happens if so and so breaks a lego?" Correct answer is always, "We'll fix it later, it's no big deal." We find that guests, including young kids, are way more uptight

Death star is retired and going for $700 on ebay. It was I think $400.00 new.

It is not a toy. It is a collectable.

I am guessing you are not buying those kinds of sets.

[Anonymous]

Your husband is an idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids build them, play with them for a few days and when they start to fall apart, go into the bin with all the other Legos. I would take your son's lead on this. If your husband wants them to be kept forever as a shrine, then he should get his own Legos and let your kid play.

Same here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Legos are for playing with, building, breaking apart and rebuilding...EXCEPT for the really expensive collectable sets you purchase specifically to be collectable. Like the Death Star. Or the Christmas village and Haunted Mansion we take out and put up each year. Or those $200 town sets they release one of esch year.

Only those.

Nope, in our house they are for playing, too. We have specifically been coaching DD (5) for quite some time about "what happens if so and so breaks a lego?" Correct answer is always, "We'll fix it later, it's no big deal." We find that guests, including young kids, are way more uptight

Death star is retired and going for $700 on ebay. It was I think $400.00 new.

It is not a toy. It is a collectable.

I am guessing you are not buying those kinds of sets.

And I also bet that OPs really "expensive" sets are kids sets in the $50-70 range, not the sets that are in the $150-200+ range and are specifically sold as collectibles.

The play sets are made for playing, including breaking, rebuilding or souping up by combining sets.

OPs husband needs to learn the difference.