Middle Child Syndrome

Apparently I was 3 when I informed my mum that "I'm a middle child, I don't get anything". Yeah for those that know me they are thinking "but..." and that is what I inform my mum... I had to be at least 5 1/2 because the little usurper brother didn't turn up until then.

So anyway... I really was a middle child. I really did get nothing. Although a lot of the nothing that I got my brother and sister also got. You know what... I don't even remember most of it. I think I am probably a better person for not having a lot of it... fashionable clothes, well, I always had clothes, hand me downs and some new but nothing with a brand plastered across the front, it's saving me money now because I know that I don't NEED them to survive... "trendy" lunches with chips and pre-packaged junk, I know my kids will survive without them and I am probably a lot healthier for not having had them when I was young... Pocket money, we went through stages with this but for the most part there was none, there were also no chores charts, we were expected to help out when asked and were given the guarantee that all that we needed would be provided to us... The "it" toy, well that's a different story, a sad, sad story, one I will share with you now...

She was the dorkiest in the class, the rest of the girls had their tiny little ball gowns and wedding gowns and fashion bags slung over their slender wrists... she had clothes made by mum, no purse, shoes that didn't quite match the outfit... she was my barbie. That's right, lower case "b", she wasn't real. She was the generic version. My friends had all decided to bring their Barbie dolls to some event, perhaps it was a sleep-over or a birthday party or just our mums getting us all together to wear us out, but she was the only generic. She had undies... that set her apart too... I am not sure why but my mum sewed undies for all our dolls at one stage... I guess I can see the sense in that now, there was a boy in the house! We had a few "barbies" and at one stage I even got a real Barbie. Just one but it was mine and it was real and it came in it's box, not from life-line or the dump. Yes, you read that right... the dump. That was how we got our Barbie car or something-or-other. Dad went to the dump shortly after Christmas, keep in mind, this was the "olden days", about 1988 BL (before litigation), when kids were allowed out of the car and anyone could climb all over the piles of goodness knows what in search of treasures to take home with them. Anyway, this particular time we didn't go with him but he took the big ol' Hiace van with the trailer hooked up full of rubbish and went about his business of unloading it. As he was leaving a truck pulled up near him... from Toyworld. Full of all the post Christmas returns. Things that were not quite right. Board games with bits missing, toys that were broken before they were even unwrapped, those sort of things... so like any good dad would he started loading up the trailer. He figured sort it out at home and just go back to the dump with anything that wasn't worth keeping. In amongst all that was a for-real Barbie car. It was fine. Some of the stuff really had nothing wrong with it, others were almost deffinately broken by their new owner, other things were manufacturing problems. It was a real mixed bag and some of it did go in the bin.

So back to my sad story... barbie wasn't the only dark cloud on my toy horizon... I didn't get a glow worm either. You know the ones... their little soft wormy bodies, some even had wings, their little hard plastic head that would glow when you cuddled them at night... yep, none in my bed, I slept with tartan teddy, his little orange teddy head didn't glow, he just wore his red tartan overalls day in and day out. My friends ALL had glow worms, I know they did, I may not have inspected each and every bed but I know that they had them and I was the only one that missed out... after all, I had the worst childhood ever.

But the clincher... Did you ever want a doll that looked just like you? was a kid like you? A Cabbage Patch Kid? Yep, I sure did! Oh how I desperately wanted one... the one with freckles on it's nose just like me, with non-descript mousey brown hair and freckles... JUST LIKE ME! I don't know if they actually made that particular model but the ads said I could get one just like me and that was me so there must be one out there! Anyway, I hoped and hoped and hoped for one... I knew that if I wanted it enough I would find one in the cabbage patch just like they did on the ads... okay, that's not the truth, I wasn't that stupid, I realised that my parents needed to buy it and we didn't even have a cabbage patch anyway. Unfortunately no Cabbage Patch Kid ever turned up for me. I know, it's a sad, sad story today... but it gets worse... remember how I'm the middle child? Yeah, SHE got one. Chimera was given a Cabbage Patch Kid. I think our aunt bought it for her... at least it hurts less if I think that it was anyone but our parents. She came with a birth certificate and her very own brush, she was special! But she wasn't mine.

I had special toys... I just didn't have her. The Cabbage Patch Kid with the freckles on her nose and the non-descript mousey brown hair... "Just Like Me".

*choking back tears* this post has been brought to you today by Boondock Ramblings for Lisa's Chime In posts... *sniff* This weeks theme was our childhood toys... *weeps* stop on by her blog to read about the special toys in other peoples lives... *now braks into heart wrenching sobs* probably the ones that they really actually had because they weren't a middle child... *has to leave the room*



Disclaimers:
Mum- I am not scarred for life, this is a literary work, not a heartfelt response to your parenting... That will come later;)

Tartan Teddy- I do love you, I just didn't know how much at the time, you were so much better than any possessed worm! I just wont bring you home with me because I know that you are safer at mum's house.

Kanga- I was going to blog about you but it would have been short... "This is Kanga, she has no tail, she has a pouch with a disembodied head in it." I protect you from my boys, you know I love you still.

Just Teasing...

A coulple of shots of the birthdays...

Just enough to tease you...

Not enough to tell you anything...

Mean aren't I???

We had two great birthdays and 1 Super-Great party...

More photos and stories to come...

It's a clean out!!!!

I have cleaned out the playroom. I have 2 crates of bits and pieces that are most likely going to lifeline but just need to be sorted and have the broken stuff thrown out and the few things that we are keeping that I just didnt feel like dealing with then and there dealt with. I also have a bag of toys to go back to grandma's house and some toys to pass on to Little Bear. I have also remembered where I have one more toybox hidden away but it has very little left in it after the kids discovered it a while back so I am going to continue to forget about it for a while...


So what brought on this burst of tidyness... not nesting, for those who have been asking. Our new shelves. Well, not so much the shelves as the baskets to go in them and hold everything. Long story made short....


Since we decided we wanted that to be the playroom (as it certainly isnt big enough to be a dining room like the house plan reckons) we were looking for shelves. we found exactly what we (I) wanted at Ikea, then found out Ikea wont ship wtuff out anymore and with our nearest Ikea 139.5km away (it is, I looked it up on whereis, 15hrs and 8 mins aprox) that was no longer an option we could entertain. So looking looking looking we found these low bench type things at target and put them on lay-by. Started looking for the baskets to go in them... not so easy, got the shelves off layby, still no baskets, turns out they are a really weird size shelf. FINALLY found baskets at Howards and bought out their entire stock! So today I bit the bullet and sorted toys. Pulled all the confiscated toys back out, tried to get the boys to help with sorting as a way of earning their toys back (they havent managed any other time I have tried to encourage them to earn them back). "All the Mr Potato Head stuff in here, all the train tracks in here, all the... no, a machine gun isn't a train track... all the puppets in here, all... yes, I know your wombat likes to build but wouldnt he prefer to be with all the other animals instead of with the building tools? Okay, how about you take those two machine guns into the lounge and play..." (I never thought I would say that, I am not a fan of gun play, not to do with the whole "pretend violence now leads to real violence later in life" idea but more that the real violence usually starts when they realise that the guns arent doing much and start hitting each other with them... but I have drifted away as I so often do....

All the toys are sorted, we have far too many cars and trains and lions and reptiles. At one stage I had to get as many stuffed animals on one shelf as possible and I had to make the hard decision that if it's not a reptile or in the big cat family it cant go on that shelf, there isnt enough room. "I'll probably only have to take off half a dozen things" I thought to myself, I had to remove a doll, a reindeer and a dancing bear, that's it. I did find other stuffed animals elsewhere but not many.


These are my profound thoughts I had as I was sorting...


Does a Borg Cube belong in with the cars? or perhaps the trains?


It just doesnt seem right putting a Sonic Screwdriver in with the building tools.



Tigger is a Tigger, not a tiger, does he belong to the big cat family?????


I wonder if I got all the boys hot wheels and matchbox cars together how many they would have? Last time I cleaned the car I removed 30 so it's more than that... we are still buying 2 each big grocery trip so that is...okay, best not to think about it... (that's their reward... it works if I do it right)

Can I cancel birthdays and Christmas so we dont get any more toys? Would anyone listen if I did anyway???

So here is the finished product...

500,000 Big Cats and Reptiles and the big blue crate is the Duplo. The majority of these baskets hold trains, cars and building tools.

This one is lower because it will eventually get a cushion along it to make it a comfy seat for them. You can also see that Howards was 3 short on what we needed for these baskets but it makes great truck parking. And there are also the non-namesake stuffed toys here.

Lion often does something weird then asks me "does this make you happy?" well, THIS MAKES ME HAPPY!!! This is a rare sight folks, the floor of the playroom!!!!

A good day's work I would say. As a reward for being so wonderful we are going to go and see some baby chickens this afternoon! There is a new wholesale fruit and veg place here and I want some more fruit it gets eaten so fast around here, I have to find some cheap stuff. It just happens to be at the place that sells chickens and ducks and animal feed and stuff. I also want to price some hay-type mulch for growing potatoes in. So I can combine the things I need to do today with the boys reward and we are all happy!!!

And yes I realise that long story didnt really get made short...

UPDATE: yes I know I only just posted it but I finished the playroom while the boys were having their nap and Lion just woke up and I took him in to look at it and he was delighted! he wandered around looking at where all the boxes of his favourites were located then he looked at me and said "thank you mum" H just made me really happy!!!! I grabbed him for a great big hug and told him that was the most wonderful thing I had heard today!!!