Parental Tip

If your child is 5, 6, or 7, you’ve already accumulated hundreds, if not thousands of dollars of toys in all kinds of forms – small toys, big toys. Some of the toys are broken, but some still work. But you undoubtedly have more toys than your child needs. This is the same for clothes. By now your child has a closet full of clothes, much like perhaps your own closet.

In other words, what I’m suggesting is that each time you buy your child another toy for Christmas or some more clothes, ask them to take a toy that they haven’t played with in a long time or clothes they have not worn and package them up in a box and give it to the Goodwill. Or even better, the next time you see toys on the floor or notice toys that your child doesn’t play with very much, get a box and put the old toys in a box. Put the box where only you know where it is, maybe in a closet somewhere. After a couple of months, there’s a good chance your child doesn’t even know these toys are gone because he never played with them much anyway. Show them to your child and with his permission, have him/her go with you down to a Goodwill place and give the toys/clothes away to a needy child.

The whole concept of recycling, helping others, being conscientious are all tied up in that one little activity. You can do it, and you can do it easily.