Visit from my colleague and spoiled granddaughter wanted to play with my ponys!

[Baby Mischief]

Wow, that kind of behavior would never work over at my place!
I have a big collection that I share with both my girls, age 4 and 7, and the whole collection is in my oldest daughters room! They share the three bottom shelf and I have the three upper shelfs. They get to play with everything except for my really HTF ones And it is never any problems, tehy know not to ask for them
When they want to play with "my" ponies, they always ask first and my little one loves the Dream Castle, so I let her play with it, even though it took me 3 years to get a complete one without broken hinges
I find that it is really helping them to learn patience (waiting for me to get all the stuff down from shelfes) and respect for other peoples things. They are so gentle with the ponies and I just love that we can collect together!

[nessa16]

Other people's children! That kid probably would have been stopped at looking with me. I have never had patience for that kind of crap with kids, even my own nieces. We used to have foster kids when I was in high school and I had no problem disciplining them. I try to let my nieces down nicely I guess but if they continue they're action or asking I quickly turn stern. My brothers are like that too. We were never allowed to act like that as children and it won't happen with our kids, my fiancé is in agreement.

As for my collection, I have already devised that I will have a lock on the door of my collection room when we get a big enough house to put them in one. I never liked kids playing with my toys when I was little except my cousin because I was very careful with my toys. I cried if I lost or broke anything. Even now it makes me cringe a little when I let my nieces or cousins kids play with my old toys like my dollhouse. It almost feels lie they don't play with it right lol because it's not how I would've done it lol. Talk about anal, huh? Anyone else have that problem?

[Leave a Whisper]

My daughter does get to play with my toys, ponies included, except for two of my more delicate customs. She also has her own ponies.

[Koudoawaia]

Wow what a brat. Can't believe her grandmother basically encouraged the bad behavior the positive way she reacted to being sprayed by the hose. o.o

Years ago, when I was still a kid myself and my family still lived in our apartment, my younger sister had a friend in the apartment directly across from ours who was a brat. I have a black marble mastadon that I proudly bought with my own money from Big Bone Lick State Park when I was 7. One time when she was at our apartment, my sister's bratty friend had a brat fit and threw that mastadon against the wall, breaking its face off. Fortunately my mom was able to save it with superglue and you can only see a thin line where the break was and its trunk proudly sports my and my husband's wedding rings when we're at home and not wearing them.^^

In much more recent years when my husband was fixing peoples' computers, this man came to our house with his and brought his son with him (don't even like letting kids in the house to begin with). The boy started poking at things on our bookshelf. x.x It was our stuff and our house and I should've told the boy to stop touching it but I was afraid of making my husband's customer mad so I just sat in tense silence watching the stupid kid do it while his dad also said nothing.

[Littlesparklepony]

Thankyou All wonderful pony people for your storys and comments!

It made me feel less alone with this problem. 

My collegue is a nice person other ways and weré planning a trip to Italy together in October (without the brat offcourse)!
I hope she will show better character there.

I really love the most other Children around me but this one took the price! 

Koudoawaia, I can really see the Little brat touching things in the shelves. I can recognize that you don´t want to say something not making trouble for others escpecially with a customer and all!

[Jorgito93]

I'm kinda different than most of you on this point.I let any girl i really trust play with my ponies.It's mostly girls i really know and that i'm sure they won't hurt them.I didn't had any problems with any of them.Now i understand you want to protect your collections, but for me they at first they are toys, so i let children be happy with them if i'm sure i won't have any kind of problems.
But i know someone who had problems with a child like that.My childhood friend has a big Furreal pony(like almost real pony size) that she loves since she was 5.Not to long ago, a boy she knows was at her home.She told him to not touch the pony and... he didn't listened,mounted the pony and pulled him by an ear.Result? a broken ear, and i think my friend still want to kill him.And her mother didn't said anything to him about that.

[FantasticFirefly]

Have "house rules" and be gracious but FIRM in ensuring they are followed. Not touching things that were not expressly given to you for play/handling is one of those rules in my home (we own some antique stuff, fragile things, sharp/dangerous things, and of course the pony room).

I have had plenty of people over with children with no issue. and no issue with "my ponyroom is for looking" (I actually make that clear with everyone. they're behind glass so it's clearly a "looking" room like a museum)

Now. even though I have no kids, I do have a little basket of playthings and simple (non messy) craft stuff. and for the ponyroom I stole an idea from restaurants as a kid (the ones who'd let you pick little toy out of a "treasure chest" after a meal). Visit the "pony museum" and if they love the ponies (and the parent allows) they get to select one out of the "treasure box" as they leave the pony room- they love that. I keep a cute looking box filled with tag along loose ponies I've cleaned, groomed, bagged and prettied up the hair with ribbons. (G3's, G4's, retro re-release G1's (the anniversary collector/rainbow).)

[Littlesparklepony]

I'm kinda different than most of you on this point.I let any girl i really trust play with my ponies.It's mostly girls i really know and that i'm sure they won't hurt them.I didn't had any problems with any of them.Now i understand you want to protect your collections, but for me they at first they are toys, so i let children be happy with them if i'm sure i won't have any kind of problems.
But i know someone who had problems with a child like that.My childhood friend has a big Furreal pony(like almost real pony size) that she loves since she was 5.Not to long ago, a boy she knows was at her home.She told him to not touch the pony and... he didn't listened,mounted the pony and pulled him by an ear.Result? a broken ear, and i think my friend still want to kill him.And her mother didn't said anything to him about that.

This was the first time I ever met the Kid. I had a lot of other Children coming over with no problem. That´s because their parents have rules for them.

After this situation I decided that no Child will touch my stuff again especially not taking them out from the cabinet.
I just don´t feel comfortable about it.

[Purpleglasses]

I'm kinda different than most of you on this point.I let any girl i really trust play with my ponies.It's mostly girls i really know and that i'm sure they won't hurt them.I didn't had any problems with any of them.Now i understand you want to protect your collections, but for me they at first they are toys, so i let children be happy with them if i'm sure i won't have any kind of problems.

I'm kind of on board with this. After all ponies are toys and meant to be played with! I understand some people have very nice condition ponies they don't want kids to mess up, that makes sense. And respecting boundaries is very important.
But there's something about a community of people who collect kid's toys calling kids brats and disdaining them for wanting to play with toys that rubs me the wrong way. Aren't we all here because we remember the joy these things brought us as kids? Ponies are made of vinyl and aside from ones with lovely mint hair or flutter pony wings, they are pretty durable. Ponies are clearly toys, the kid wouldn't understand that after years the Dream Castle might be fragile. She just sees a pink castle and plastic unicorns.

Granted I wasn't there, but the kid in this story is only five and has lots of room to grow and learn. I'm sorry you felt like your friend wasn't respecting your collection by not telling the kid to do so. It would have been a good time for her to point out that you have to respect other people's boundaries. 

[Noxxbunny]

Aren't we all here because we remember the joy these things brought us as kids?

Gonna raise my hand here as someone in the minority and say...nope.

I didn't start liking ponies until I was in high school already lol.

But I recognize that that's not the case for most people here.

[QueenGusty]

I had ponies as a kid but I don't like children and children should not be allowed to run riot with other people's possessions. Whether or not they're toys or not, they're not THEIR toys. I had this argument with my dad, I'd got some free tiny Daleks with a magazine and left them on the coffee table (because you know, I LIVE here and should be able to do that). Anyway two brats came to the house and one broke one of my dalek's arms. I was fuming and all my Dad said "What do you expect, they're kids and they see toys" He simply couldn't understand my point that whether they're toys or not, you don't just go into someone else's house and start messing with their stuff that they bought with their money. I'm a stationary addict but I wouldn't go into someone's house and rifle through their pens. So why is it deemed acceptable for children to do that? Boundaries, people!

Carrie

[Purpleglasses]

It's deemed "acceptable" because children are still learning. They do not have experience nor a fully developed brain. Of course responsible parents teach their kids to respect boundaries, but the above still applies. Do I think kids should get a free pass for behaving badly? Well, no, but when they do I still place the responsibility on the adults they are with. Kids need guidance to understand that they should know better.

To people who say they hate kids, all kids? Don't you remember how it felt to be a kid when people said this? There are badly behaved kids and wonderful kids. A whole group never deserves to be written off.

In the end we are collecting toys made for children. Not even high end art toys, but actual toys made for kids. I've had actual kids play with my childhood ponies and they came back fine.

I am not saying it's not ok to say kids can't play with your ponies. Your stuff, your rules. Heck, I have a Cutesaurus and probably wouldn't just hand it to a five year old. It's really just the writing off of children in this thread that bugs me.

[Taxel]

I'm kinda different than most of you on this point.I let any girl i really trust play with my ponies.It's mostly girls i really know and that i'm sure they won't hurt them.I didn't had any problems with any of them.Now i understand you want to protect your collections, but for me they at first they are toys, so i let children be happy with them if i'm sure i won't have any kind of problems.

I'm kind of on board with this. After all ponies are toys and meant to be played with! I understand some people have very nice condition ponies they don't want kids to mess up, that makes sense. And respecting boundaries is very important.
But there's something about a community of people who collect kid's toys calling kids brats and disdaining them for wanting to play with toys that rubs me the wrong way. Aren't we all here because we remember the joy these things brought us as kids? Ponies are made of vinyl and aside from ones with lovely mint hair or flutter pony wings, they are pretty durable. Ponies are clearly toys, the kid wouldn't understand that after years the Dream Castle might be fragile. She just sees a pink castle and plastic unicorns.

Granted I wasn't there, but the kid in this story is only five and has lots of room to grow and learn. I'm sorry you felt like your friend wasn't respecting your collection by not telling the kid to do so. It would have been a good time for her to point out that you have to respect other people's boundaries. 

I'm just gonna chime in and say that toys are not as durable as you may think if kids are rough. I once brought a few dolls with me to visit family in California. I had the Very Special Dolls my little niece could only look at and maybe touch lightly and I had the Play dolls, hand picked candidates suitable for play. I think she was 8 or 9 at the time so the dolls were pretty okay with her, although she was a bit rough (I knew she was so that's why I brought a bald doll). Within minutes of her 4-5 year old brother entering the room the bald doll was scuffed in multiple places. I was stunned. That never happened to my toys when I was a child, because I played differently, so I didn't anticipate that happening. She's durable and thankfully the scraps came off with Magic Eraser but seriously, do not underestimate children. G1s are VERY easy to stain, even in collectors' hands, and scrapes/scuffs/marks are also super easy to pick up.

I once brought some very rough (instant bait to anyone else) G1s down on another visit so I could play ponies with my boyfriend's little sister. She was about 4 at the time. We could only play with my ponies together so she was always supervised, 100% of the time. I would gently encourage gentler play and would downright tell her (nicely but firmly) when she got too rough. Their hair still got massively messed up within minutes. That never happened to my toys as a kid, even when I was the same age as her. Not all kids play the same.

G1s are nearly antiques at this point. They cost quite a bit of money once you factor in pony, shipping, cleaning, restoration, and display/storage. We aren't collecting for toyboxes. And truthfully, children absolutely should not be playing with G1s anyways. Safety standards were different back then and plastic breaks down. Ponies, and many other old toys, can leech plasticizer, have paint flake off, or literally fall apart/crumble in your hands. I would never feel comfortable allowing a young child to own and play with really old toys like that. Preteens and teens collecting is a different matter, of course.

[Ponyfan]

Some kids do not follow rules even when told that certain things are not meant to be played with. I don't see anyone in this thread saying it was wrong for the child to want to play with toys but the way I read it was the child was not respecting the rules that Littlesparklepony had set in place. She didn't want to play with the ponies  Littlesparklepony offered her and told her it was okay to play with. The colleague should have realized that Dream Castle was up high for a reason and should have probably told the child that she should only look at Dream Castle unless told it was okay to play with it.

Ponyfan

[Leave a Whisper]

I'm kinda different than most of you on this point.I let any girl i really trust play with my ponies.It's mostly girls i really know and that i'm sure they won't hurt them.I didn't had any problems with any of them.Now i understand you want to protect your collections, but for me they at first they are toys, so i let children be happy with them if i'm sure i won't have any kind of problems.

I'm kind of on board with this. After all ponies are toys and meant to be played with! I understand some people have very nice condition ponies they don't want kids to mess up, that makes sense. And respecting boundaries is very important.
But there's something about a community of people who collect kid's toys calling kids brats and disdaining them for wanting to play with toys that rubs me the wrong way. Aren't we all here because we remember the joy these things brought us as kids? Ponies are made of vinyl and aside from ones with lovely mint hair or flutter pony wings, they are pretty durable. Ponies are clearly toys, the kid wouldn't understand that after years the Dream Castle might be fragile. She just sees a pink castle and plastic unicorns.

Granted I wasn't there, but the kid in this story is only five and has lots of room to grow and learn. I'm sorry you felt like your friend wasn't respecting your collection by not telling the kid to do so. It would have been a good time for her to point out that you have to respect other people's boundaries.

Agreed. It is kinda odd. :p Ponies are toys first and very durable.

But I also agree boundaries must be set. My cousins  came over and I promised they could play with my model horses and ponies as long as they asked me first, put them back and DID NOT touch my more breakable horses.

Three little kids played with them no problemo, one little kid grabbed two of my off limit horses without permission and when he realized I'd seen him, threw them on the floor.

He was not allowed in my room or to play with my toys anymore.

Plus Little SparklePony was gracious enough to allow her to play and even gave her some to take home and the little girl seemed ungrateful and demanding about it.