The Toys That Never Really Leave Your House
Life can be funny how you can be going through something completely normal in your house and suddenly end up holding something that takes you back years without warning. That happened the other day when I was cleaning out the upstairs closet. I came across old toys of Charlie’s we still had tucked away.
Not everything disappears when kids grow up. Some things just get moved, stored, set aside… but they’re still there waiting in case you ever open the right box at the right time. And when I saw them, it all came back quicker than I expected.
I thought about Charlie, especially the way he used to be when he was little and everything was still new to him. The way he would take a toy and immediately turn it into something bigger than what it was meant to be. A truck wasn’t just a truck. A wrestling set wasn’t just a toy. Everything had a story attached to it.
That’s what kids do without even realizing it. And I think that’s what makes those old toys so hard to let go of later. Because they aren’t really just objects sitting in a box. They’re pieces of time. Memories your son made not only with you but your friends and family as well.
I can still picture moments that don’t feel like they were that long ago. Sitting on the floor while toys were spread out everywhere like they had taken over the whole room. The kind of mess you don’t even stress about because you know it means something is happening in that moment.
There was always noise in those days. Always movement. Always something being built, knocked down, rebuilt again in a slightly different way. And then there were the store trips that went along with it. Straight to the toy aisle more times than not.
Walking through aisles and seeing things that immediately became “must-haves” in the moment. Not because they were needed, but because they felt like they belonged in the world that was being created at home. I still remember moments like that so clearly, even now.
And it’s strange how those toys don’t lose their meaning just because time passes. They just wait quietly until you come across them again and suddenly everything feels closer than it did yesterday. Standing there holding those old pieces, I wasn’t really thinking about organizing or cleaning or putting things away.
I was just remembering. Not in a heavy way. Just in that quiet way where you realize how quickly life moves from one stage into another without really announcing it. As I organized the closet and thought about putting the toys in the trash or giving them away I couldn’t back into the closet they went because Charlie wasn’t ready to part with them.
Yes, as you know Charlie is older now, of course. Life doesn’t look like toys spread across the floor anymore. It looks like conversations, updates, plans, and moments that don’t always sit still the same way they used to. But at times he is still the little boy who likes to get his wrestlers out.
But seeing those old toys again reminded me that none of that really disappears. It just changes shape. And sometimes it shows up again in our hands when we least expect it. For me that is okay because I’m not ready for Charlie to grow up.
Do you still have toys from when your children were little?
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
