Why we stop playing: The science behind moving from playing with toys to collecting
 

Very interesting.

This actually addresses something I've wondered about myself; why I have a hard time "playing" with my son and his toys the way he does. He's often wanted me to play with him, and I give it my best shot, but I find it hard to do, and I've wondered why. Turns out it's because my brain no longer works that way, and one day, neither will his.

That's a little sad.

http://www.blastr.com/2016-11-18/why...ollecting-them

Re: Why we stop playing: The science behind moving from playing with toys to collecti
 

Maybe my brain is a bit broken (actually, it is, I take pills for it), but I still make little stories and whatnot with figures and other inanimate objects. And bits of food. Normally it all just stays in my head, though. Being a responsible adult in socially acceptable ways has it's downsides.

Hell, I could spend an entire weekend alone in my basement popping open bins and having some pretty epic war, or olympics, or picnic, or whatever my mind comes up with on the fly. I don't because of the cleanup and other adult responsibilities.

My difficulty in playing with the toys with my son is probably a level of complexity (since he's 3) and because I don't want to step on his creativity.

I let him take the lead, and things sort of fall flat in my head because I'm going at the level of Robot Chicken, and he's at the level of a Ninja Turtle teaching Lightning McQueen how to cut salad because Leonardo has a sword.

Nothing wrong with that, its funny and original and surprisingly nurturing. I can't use high adult concepts and swearing and all that during this sort of play. As his level matures, more things will become complex. I walk a fine line. I don't want to push him, and I don't want to stifle him.

Sadly, he'll eventually leave me and this stuff behind.

Re: Why we stop playing: The science behind moving from playing with toys to collecti
 

This!
So often I get it into my head to do some really cool display, but then I start to think about the pain-in-the-ass of cleaning it all up, and even disrupting the already limited space in my collection room, and then I just don't

My son is 6. The obstacle I often run into with him is that; say he wants me to play with Optimus Prime, he doesn't want me to play with it by doing what I want, he wants me to do what HE wants to do with it, and it all becomes a little like moving someone else's piece around a game board. So it's like he's stifling MY creativity and it just gets boring.

It makes me a little sad because I feel like I've lost something. Something that was very important to me. Being an only child I was on my own most of the time to entertain myself. So my toys were also my companions, which could explain why I have such an attachment to some of them.
It's also a little sad watching my son play, knowing that one day he'll lose it too.