Twaddle questions

[MamaPajama]

We have WAY too many books in our house. They are coming out of our ears! Some of them are really wonderful things like Beatrix Potter and A. A. Milne, but many are just twaddle. I have been having this inner battle of not knowing what to give away. Some things are very obvious, but some not so much. My youngest is absolutely in love with Sesame Street and the Mickey Mouse (et al.) characters. For my older daughter they are things like Disney princesses and Barbie books. While I feel like they are really "dumbed down", I just hate to get rid of them because I think they will miss them. (Maybe not if I don't show them that I'm taking them.) Plus many of these books were given as gifts from my mother-in-law and I'm not sure if my husband will appreciate me giving them away or selling them.

How do you wean your children from such things? And do you ask family members not to buy them for your children, or do you just remove them after some time?

[Shawna]

I try to keep them separated...the classics or really good ones stay on shelves in the school room, or on the Book shelves of our built-in next to the tv in the living room. The chapter books, or 'fun readers' are usually in their room on the small bookcase there....these are the ones tho that end up going to library donation because they are tired of it. Some are great to keep..board books from toddler days are sentimental and we hang onto these...but just random Barbie or whatever, they are library donations after a while.

[John'smom]

We've gotten a few twaddle books, but not much. My kids aren't into a lot of the normal characters, but when we receive something I may read it a few times, then it goes out of the house. We live in a small 2 bedroom house and there's just not room for such books. We've got too many good books we need room for. Also maybe you can give a list of suggested books to your mil that you just know your dc will love.

[MamaPajama]

We've gotten a few twaddle books, but not much. My kids aren't into a lot of the normal characters, but when we receive something I may read it a few times, then it goes out of the house. We live in a small 2 bedroom house and there's just not room for such books. We've got too many good books we need room for. Also maybe you can give a list of suggested books to your mil that you just know your dc will love.

That's a good idea. We live in a small house too, and since HOD is literature based, we are just going to accumulate more and more. I ended up going through all of the shelves and just packing up everything that isn't quality, but also not sentimental. I noticed that we had a few different versions of the same stories, so those were easy to toss. I'm giving my best friend first dibs on them as she is pregnant with her first, and everything else will either go to a garage sale or Goodwill.

[GinainMD]

I have a very hard time getting rid of almost any book , but it is sometimes necessary. Here is what I do. For books that my girls do not want to give away that I do want to give away, I box them up for a certain amount of time say a week. If anyone asks for a particular book within that week or whatever, I will retrieve it for them. Most of the time they do not ask for any specific book. For the books that we all agree to give away I like to donate to the library or church nursery or doctor's office etc. I think it makes giving books away easier if we can all see that someone else is going to benefit from them. I'm not sure about books that were gifts that's a little harder. I would say that the books could possibly go when the child is past the intended age for reading. Kindof like toys. One of the best things we did for our children and family members is to have them create a wishlist online. It helps with the gifts coming in and also helps the giver who may not know what to purchase for a particular child. HTH

[momofgreatones]

I just quietly take the Sesame Street, Barbie books and the like, to Goodwill or whatever a few at a time, (not all at once) and my kids never even notice they're gone. There is a lot of stuff around here that "mysteriously" disappears that my kids never even know is gone if they don't see me hauling it off. Maybe if there were some books they were particularly attached to I might leave those for a while and slowly phase those out, or just leave a few for nostalgia's sake. My mother- in-law has given us many of these books also, but my husband doesn't notice if they're still around or not, and frankly, neither does my mother-in-law. I have made sure I've kept the nice ones she's given us, like the fairy tale treasury, but the "twaddle" goes right back out. I can't stand the stuff. I've never said anything to anyone about not giving us books like that, I wouldn't know howto say it without being offensive. If someone asks what my kids would like specifically as a gift, I do suggest specific books they WOULD like.

I just love the feeling of getting rid of the junk and stocking our shelves with quality books!