Thumping head aside the packing of the house has stalled till tomorrow. We move in 8 days.
Last night the buyers of our house came to look round. I only remembered 10 minutes before they were due to arrive and managed to; Hoover up the carpet of dog hair, remove my bra from the landing, make the beds, put the children in the bath, fill the dishwasher and wash the children’s hair.
I have been enjoying the packing so far, mainly because I have managed to rid our house of some of the junk that hides in the cupboards.
I have also filled two huge boxes for the charity shop. As I was getting into the car this morning for the school run the charity shop van was kerb crawling up our street. I almost flung myself on his bonnet to stop him and told him I had two boxes in the house.
I told the children to strap themselves into their seats whilst I ran into the house. When I returned the charity van man told me he was delighted with my wares, he’d had a slow week.
As I got into the car I noticed the 6 year old’s puppy dog eyes in the mirror … “Mummy, was that my hippo?”
In my head I was thinking ‘Shiiiiiiiiit’. The hippo in question had been sticking out of the charity shop box with it’s arms in the air. She probably thought it was calling to her ‘Don’t take me, heeeeeeelp’.
The first rule of charity shopping your children’s goods is to do it under cover of darkness. I had failed. I was busted.
She was sad, her brother didn’t help and sat next to her saying ‘Yes, we love that hippo Mummy, it’s our favourite’ … although I doubt, out of the sea of soft toys our house has, he knew exactly which hippo it was. I told her it was her hippo, and in blind panic told her I’d buy her another one.
Double shiiiiiiiiiiit.
If this were Toy Story then Simba the Lion and Daisy the Build a Bear would be in the 6 year old’s bedroom rallying the Polly Pockets into action and working out how they can save the Silentnight Hippo from the St Gemma’s Hospice Charity shop.
But this is not Toy Story. Does anyone know where I can get another ‘free with a bed’ Silentnight hippo wearing striped pyjamas?
16 Comments on "The Kerb Crawling Charity Van Man"
when i was a kid, i remember coming home to find toys missing cos mum had sent them to charity while i was at school.. now its quite possible there were some i never missed(!) but several i did and one in particular,a stuffed seal, i was really very upset about and obviously still remember now! I know it’s harder but perhaps kinder to let the kids to choose which ones to let go of- maybe in the run up to christmas and birthdays, to make space for the new toys but without being too forceful.. Its hard to let go of those we love..and stuffed toys in particular are ‘real’ beings to kids
Ooooh rookie mistake! With any luck they’ll forget it all in the excitement of the move though.
Oops. Yep these things can only be done under the cover of darkness. And even then they suddenly ask where it is three months later, that’s a difficult one to answer.
OMG….basic schoolgirl error….gah, the stress of the move has clearly got to you (soothes brow). Well, you’re stuff. buzz ‘n’ woody ain’t gonna come to your rescue.
What IS it with children and toys? Every now and again I make a pile of ‘to be junked’ toys, ready for the charity chop. And right then is when they become obsessed with those toys again and they become ‘my best favourite’.
Grrr. xx
Oh no. Disaster. At least you gave your things to charity. I sold two of my daughter’s toys on ebay, then had to cope with her searching round the house looking for them. The guilt was pretty bad. And I made no profit after all because I had underestimated the postage costs. Lesson learned!
I bet you could buy onw on e-bay if you were desperate to replace it.
We are drowning under toys but ever time I have a clear out they are suddenly his favourite toys!
Darnit. I was going to tell you I’d just purchased a very nice hippo from a charity shop, but Scope nicked my line
You’re going to have to go to to the charity and shop and buy it back – but just think of the good karma!
Had a similar experience recently. Small Boy kindly packed away some of his old toys into boxes for other children, but it took me so long to get them out of the hall and off to the charity shop (about 4 months), that a good half of the stuff had been unloaded and mixed back in with the rest. We do not need this many toys. Our living room looks like a nursery.
Laura – call yourself my sister? Pah! Where was your on-the-spot -lying-with-confidence trait. The hippo has clearly escorted other said items to their new home and will come back when he feel they have settled in. Failing that you could always add…And the other things wanted to leave because they are sick of being spud gun fodder.
See you tomorrow armed with zero cardboard boxes but a lot of newspaper
I think I saw one at St Gemma’s Hospice Charity shop.
(You knew that some smartypants would say that, right?)
Tried ebay and tada – http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SILENTNIGHT-HIPPO-AND-DUCK-SOFT-TOY_W0QQitemZ290447337171QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=&rvr_id=&cguid=c6c2c0df1290a0e202346114fd0cfbaa
Bargain for £5.99.
I always try and chuck things out when girls are asleep or in school – bad mummy!!
BNM
Eeeeek! You’re in trouble now lady!
x
It’s amazing how anything the kids see get put into the ‘donate to charity’ box suddenly becomes their favourite. Donating to charity is a stealth operation around here too!
hehehe! no sadly i dont, but you did make me giggle, again! thanku X
LOL:-) great post!
If they hadn’t seen the hippo sticking out they probably never asked any questions about it.
x