Cardboard Boxes and children

Jay-Jay_4 · 4 October 2005 at 1:21PM

How many times have you heard the old saying that the kids prefer the boxes to the toys? Well I know that I used to play with boxes when I was little but I underestimated just how much fun an empty box can provide. I've just discovered that my 21 month old is a chip off the old block.

After watching her play with/in a cardboard box for the past week I urge all the Mums out there with young children to get a BIG, old fashioned, cardboard box from somewhere and marvel at hours of free entertainment that it brings. You can't get more old style than that can you?

Christmas is gonna be cheap this year

lol!

apprentice_tycoon · 4 October 2005 at 1:40PM

Same with cats...give'em a cardboard box and they love it, i've never met a cat who could walk past a box without getting in for a snooze

Nile · 4 October 2005 at 2:10PM

Good suggestion Jay-Jay.

Be cheeky and ask for more than one large cardboard box. You can fold them down flat and keep a couple in reserve for when the original box is all played out.;)

As most supermarkets are reluctant to pass boxes on to customers, you could ask at a firm with a goods inwards department.

In my building (a warehouse with a goods inwards function) we get lots of people asking for cardboard boxes and packing materials for when they're moving house.

MATH · 4 October 2005 at 2:24PM

What other toy can you get that is free. A police car in the morning, a market stall in the afternoon, a place where the scary dragon lives by tea time and a rowing boat to sit in for your bedtime milk? Cardboard boxes are blinking good value and feed your kidz imagination.:j

benji173 · 4 October 2005 at 8:19PM

I used to love my cardboard boxes. We'd go to Kwik Save, get the food, then go and get tons of boxes. Smaller ones were good too when i was slightly older, you put them on your head so you can't see, great fun, you need to remember to draw a face on though, it isnt the same without one.

DaisyNelson · 4 October 2005 at 8:23PM

We once gave my nephew an empty cardboard box for christmas (nicely wrapped) and told him it was an Action Man Deserter.

Gingham_Ribbon · 4 October 2005 at 8:26PM

I have a 21 month old too. Last Christmas, he spent hours playing with a cardboard box that he'd managed to make into a slide.

The other day, I suggested to my DH that he would maybe like a wendy house to play in but they are expensive. I came upstairs for a play on the computer and when I came back down 15 minutes later, he'd made our son a wendy house out of 4 cardboard boxes stuck together with parcel tape. It had a door, window and sky light. It was a total hit. And free!

Jay-Jay_4 · 4 October 2005 at 8:59PM

lol

When I was little my Dad brought home some really big, thick boxes. I cut a door out and made a door handle out of a duffel coat toggle. I cut out windows, made some tissue curtains and created a cardboard table too. Then I put the cat inside the box and held the door shut :rolleyes: I was gutted when she escaped through the window.... anybody would think she didn't like the house I had created for her?

:rolleyes:

Savvy_Sue · 4 October 2005 at 9:00PM

We bought a new lawnmower this summer and my 13 year old - yes that's right 13 YEAR old - climbed into the empty box ...

skylight · 4 October 2005 at 9:12PM

My youngest 2 had great fun last week - a house, a ship (pirates and sharks!), a car, a tent.

It fell apart after a week and we put it into strips, cellotaped them to their arms and legs and they were robots!
Lara is asking when is she getting a new box.

Sod the whole toybox of stuff they have!!

Alleycat · 4 October 2005 at 9:54PM

I'm going to wrap a cardboard box in shiny paper for my 8 month old (will be nearly 1, eek!) for christmas. At the moment she has a smallish box that she loves playing with filled with loads of random stuff, a potato masher, old mobile phone, old pair of glasses, ribbon etc. She can spend hours sat there emptying out the box, examining all the stuff and then putting it all back in again!

Jayjay, I love your story of your cardboard box! We had such great imagination when we were little didn't we? One thing I can't wait to do with Jessica is to make a miniature garden out of an old plant tray, moss, bits of gravel etc. We used to make one every year with my dad. I used to get blades of grass to make fern type plants (sorry can't remember the name) and surround them in gravel to make a rock garden.

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Cardboard Boxes and children

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