Hoarding 101 – The Child Version
January 5th, 2013 | 
Author: I’d like to take a moment to talk about kids meal toys. Those crappy bits of plastic or fluff that make every child NEED a hamburger or chicken nuggets RIGHT NOW. For the most part, Aidan has been immune to the commercials promoting the toys that match up with whatever current children’s movie happens to be coming soon to a theater near you. However, he does have one set of toys that are his own personal kryptonite. The Sonic Drive-In Tots.
What’s a Sonic Tot? A little cylinder of felt, stuffed with fiberfill and given a themed face. They have all sorts of themes for these little tater tots with faces – zoo animals, sea creatures, dino-tots, and more. Aidan wants all of them. ALL OF THEM. So far, he’s well on his way…
Like most meal prizes, you don’t get to select which tot you get with your Sonic Wacky Pack. (What an appropriate name.) Please take note of the color coded arrows and circles above. Aidan has collected an entire herd of dino-tots. He has enough pro-tot-dactyls to carry away a small dog and don’t get me started on his T-Rex herd. Just to be clear, this collection has been growing for the last three years. We do not eat at Sonic every day, although given the opportunity to pop in for a diet grape limeade I will take a large with extra ice any old time thankyouverymuch.
When we drive past Sonic and Aidan sees a new set of tots advertised on the billboard, I cringe. “MOM! O.M.G! Did you see what Sonic has now???? Swamp creature tots! I need a nutria for my collection!” (Not really, though if Sonic suddenly comes out with a swamp set of tots and a nutria makes an appearance, I expect royalties. *AHEM*)
Scattered around Aidan’s room are 2359087341780652345 million of these little creatures (give or take one or two.) Im afraid if Sonic continues to come up with new collections, eventually I won’t be able to find Aidan among the little guys. His room will be like a giant ball pit, but instead of nasty hard, plastic balls, his pit will be full of fluff.
Now that I think about it, jumping off the top bunk into two feet of farm tots might be kind of fun. Bring it on, Sonic, we’re ready to play. I’m about ready for another diet grape limeade anyway….
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When I was a kid, my Mom saved all those toys and decorated a Christmas tree with them.
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Twitter: themommymess
says:
Oh! You are not alone! My son keeps everything and wants everything. My house is overtaken by stuffed animals! Stopping by from #SITSSharefest
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Twitter: thesistershood
says:
I am about to try and make right with the room belonging to the hoarder in my house – if you don’t hear back from me – come and find me
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Twitter: Momaical
says:
Oh my goodness. I think my 5 year old has hoarding tendencies as well. Except she keeps all kinds of random stuff in bags in her room. The worst: foraging through her backpack at the end of the day. I swear if something bites me while I try to take out her lunch box I’m going to send her with a Ziploc!
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Yes, the kids meals toys very quickly go in the garbage at our house…. much like the contents of a goodie bag at your average kids party!
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Seems to me that you are looking at his future college fund when you sell those babies on ebay!
And how impressed am I with you that you go for the diet limeade…mmmm, Sonic! 
Stopping by from SITS Sharefest on Twitter.
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Since my oldest is three I don’t have to worry about these happy meal toys (yet!) but I can relate as far as the child hoarding, when I saw how many toys the boys got for Christmas, I was freaking out (in my head) because i simply don’t know where to PUT them!! I feel your pain. Visiting from SITS!
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Twitter: Tara_R
says:
Been there, still doing that. For my son, it’s die cast cars. He’s pretty much exhausted the Hot Wheels offerings, and has graduated to ones he gets from Japan. I feel your pain too.
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Twitter: parymoppins1
says:
My 11 year old daughter has these same tendencies with stuffed animals, various notebooks, and what we call “tiny things”…Playmobil, Littlest Pet Shops, Sylvanian Families, etc. She will sprawl out the bazillions of minuscule plastic toys covering every surface and inch of floor space in her room to create a “village.” Have you ever stepped barefoot on a plastic crumpet half the size of a lentil? The blasted thing hurts! To combat this issue, we have a massive clear out twice a year and yet, we still mange to amass more of these things. I feel your pain and raise my cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper to you. Cheers! Found you through Bloggy Moms.
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Twitter: iJanbalaya
says:
Nutria aren’t that cute. Trust me on this as I was born on a bayou.
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