I found that the age recommendations on the boxes are very good.

I bought a lot of Duplo when my kids were little. Lego was putting out some nice sets back then: castles and pirates and trains.

In particular, my daughter really loved the Thomas the Train sets. We had hours of fun running those trains around the track, but, like you, I was counting down the days until we could graduate to Lego.

My daughter’s first Lego set was a fire station. Lego won toy of the year for the fire station they put out that year. It was awesome, but it was simple, so I bought three copies of it, so it would be a little more interesting for me and we would have lots of trucks and minifigs. My daughter’s first Lego loved it, but she was disappointed that all the firemen were men, so I ordered some ponytails from Bricklink, and we had an all-female fire station.

Only you know your kid and your BS toddler antics tolerance. My kid was under 4 (but over 3.5 years old) when we introduced regular Lego blocks because she has never been a kid to test out things in her mouth (also not interested in putting things in her ears or nose.) Not as an infant, not as a toddler, she is a unicorn in that regard.

If your kid is interested in how things feel in their mouth, no Lego. If your kid might put it up their nostril, if you got Urgent Care time and money, maybe Lego?

You just have to figure out how much trust you have in your kid not choking on Lego.

I started at 18 months. I did most of the building at that stage, but he picked up and investigated the pieces. We did a lot of counting of parts too. Clearly, you don't take your eye off them at that age so that nothing gets swallowed. I have a lovely photo of mine investigating his first set which was a fire plane - at 18 months he would spend ages putting the water blocks into the top and releasing them out of the bottom.

Grab a box of 4+ Lego and rebuild many times. They will be ready when they are ready. It is awesome building with the little ones.

We have boys (just over 3 & 5). The older started at 3.5, struggled and then came back strong at 4. Most recently built the 3-1 tiger (9+ maybe) and he can tell which bits he might need help with from a browse through the instructions.

The youngest has some nice 4+ Disney Lego. He can follow instructions, build well, but then gets frustration by what he has built and pulls it all apart. It all goes back in the box until he asks for it again. I think we are on our fourth building now. When he’s ready, he will be ready. It’s just that he sees his brother building Lego and wants a go. He enjoys duplo for a short time but it doesn’t hold his imagination. Not sure why.

Hope that helps. Have fun once you work it out.

My daughter was one, she could not let it be ok that my son who was four at the time could play with the Lego and she couldn’t. So I sat with her at the table and let her play with the pieces keeping a close eye on her. Occasionally she would take a piece, look me in the eye and slowly move it to her mouth. I would put her back on the floor. She only did that a few times and in a week stopped doing it altogether, she had figured out it meant no Lego for her for a short time. I also have to add that both my kids were not the type to try putting most things in their mouths whereas I know some kids that it is nearly impossible to keep things out of their mouths

For newborns, have nothing in the crib (toys, pillows, bumper pads, etc) when the baby is sleeping. Soft things like that are suffocation hazards.

During crawling stage (and later) watch out for small items on floors. Babies put everything into their mouths, so be extra careful for choking hazards.

Edit: Heavy furniture or anything that can be climbed on (bottom drawer opens and child uses it as a step stool to reach something above his head) get that piece of furniture firmly bracketed to the wall.

Make sure the car seats are installed correctly and teach them that unless everybody is wearing a seatbelt, the vehicle does not move.

Don't worry too much. Children are very resilient and much tougher than you think. Be sensible not paranoid. Think how human children survive around the world compared to the west.

Don't put cleaners or other dangerous thing in bottom cabinets. I don't care how many child locks people can buy, it's dumb to put anything dangerous down at a child's level anywhere. Yes, teach them to stay out of cabinets but don't make it a life-or-death lesson for them.

Also, unplug stuff you're not using if the cord is out in an open area. It's easier to do that and teach your kid to not play with them without making it "a good zap'll teach them." Or, having them pull an appliance off a counter onto their heads. Just unplug and move the cords.

Plus, don't let them play with things that you won't want them playing with when they get older. Example, letting your kids bang on pots 'n pans will encourage them to reach for them when they get bigger and can reach onto stoves and countertops. Don't make rattles or toys out of old pill bottles or other empty containers that you wouldn't want them getting into if they were full.

Sounds easy, right? Good luck.

Would be nice if LEGO would still follow its own advice from the 90s.

Thinking about this in light of the current trans panic in the media, I can’t help but wonder if all the small steps we've taken toward gender equality are being quietly undone by the fear and hatred directed at trans people.

A parent today might see their boy playing making a Lego dollhouse and think "I can’t allow that, what if he turns out trans?"

It’s like the point of this whole moral panic isn’t actually about trans people. It’s about reimposing rigid gender roles across the board, rolling back decades of progress toward equality, opportunity, and real freedom for everyone.

I am gonna show this to my mum. I keep getting scolded for buying legos nowadays. She's 80 now.

I am currently studying how teaching boys to be ‘rough and rough’ rather than nice can actually lead to delinquent behaviour later in life. This is a good message that needs to be heard more.

In our core we’re all limitless, but I feel we never learnt to not let outside factors limit us. Lego is a great reminder of that

A letter that all parents should read before buying a toy.

Are those the thrower inserters from Renai Transportation?

It looks like a chest with an inserter and a furnace

That is adorable, thank you for sharing it.

Definitely tell them what they can do. My tot loves to pick up little pebbles, and of course I’m afraid she will put them in her mouth. I’ll direct her, “what a pretty pebble you found! That’s just for looking!” I have her carry a little reusable shopping bag, so the pebble goes in the bag and the bag stays outside when we get home. For staying on the sidewalk I just tell her, “we walk on the sidewalk!” Sometimes I tell her over and over. Sometimes I sing it. And yes, sometimes I have to physically direct her on to the sidewalk.

As for the other stuff, I let her jump in mud. If she’s in a running mood, we go to a big field and I let her run (I run with her).

Scale back a bit. Let them eat the sticks and jump in the mud, keep them away from the road. They will tire of the taste of sticks but they will never tire of the mud!

Can you take them somewhere else on a walk, like the woods? Or bring a ball and let them rampage around a park? I find walking by the road with my toddler frustrating for the exact reasons you've mentioned- we try to go places where there's just less danger so I don't have to pull back on the reins as much.

As for puddles: buy them each a rain-suit, pull the legs over their boots, and let them go in the puddles! My daughter hated her rain suit until she discovered how much freedom it afforded her.

The grocery store I go to douses shopping carts in disinfectant, so for my toddler, licking them falls under potential permanent harm category :/

That’s a tough question about the shopping carts. Pre-Covid I’d have said go for it. They need to get their immune system from somewhere. With Covid now and kids too young to get vaxxed, probably a no on that.

My kid was chewing on the shopping cart handle as I turned away for 3 seconds to get something off the shelf and got hfm shortly after. Cart handles are a hard no for me bc hfm is a nightmare.

If they learn to expect no to be the response to most things, they’ll learn how to be sneaky about stuff n not tell you. Source: a child raised by anxiety guided mom.

Anxiety works at bringing up ideas of anything and everything that can go wrong, so it’s a natural instinct to then protect kiddos against perceived dangers. But, the world will have risky things and as they grow older you won’t be able to always be with them. So, they need to learn how to make smart safe choices.

Confident Parents, Confident Kids by Jennifer Miller, really helped me with this. I listened to it on audible.

Edit: typo

Figure out what your bar for “no” is so that you can come up with a quick assessment. Mine is “is this likely to cause permanent harm?” Running in the road, yes. Chewing a stick, probably not. Climbing a kid height table, actually surprisingly probably not. Chewing a toilet brush, probably not but still disgusting so still a no lol.

I’m not trying to prevent them from getting hurt. Everybody gets hurt and it’s a better teacher than me losing my mind trying to convince them of no.

I'm in my 50s, and deliberately got some pullback motors just so I could zoom my cars along the kitchen floor.

Not to mention building whole scenes with my models and creating stories about them with my wife. Complete with moving the minifigs around and making them interact.

Never too old!

Uh, yeah, if posing and moving figures around, driving cars around the floor and swooshing space ships counts as play. Also, trick shots with a Stuntz motorcycle. I'm no spring chicken but one is never too old to play.

Sometimes I pick up a set and fly it into the bathroom when I need to sit there for a while, then I look at it and see if there's anything I can change on it.

I wouldn't consider it "playing", but I'm continuously thinking of ways to improve or modify my sets, especially ships. Color swaps, accuracies, greebling, etc..

I don’t play with them anymore. That’s why I mainly buy models that are meant to display and sets with awesome minifigs.

But if you feel like playing with it go for it bro! You are not hurting anyone with that and it’s your hobby and your fun. Go for it!

I still play with them cuz im not spending 400$ to have a set collect dust on a shelf

Don't worry about me. I huff the bag for a solid minute before starting any building project.

just fused my balls to a LEPIN brick with this stuff someone please call my mom

I just use super glue, way faster

"Do not ingest" Don't tell me what to do.

/uj Gluing lego is a crime.

this pisses me off, we had a whole movie about why not to

I am the original ‎ ‎  ‎ ‎ ‎  ‎ ‎  ‎ ‎ ‎  ‎ ‎  ‎ ‎ ‎  Starwalker

Actually, many community event in this hobby are taking place in public places like parks or campus. Nerf isn't a hobby that could lead to dangerous thing: velocities aren't really high compared to airsoft or paintball. It is still important to wear eye protection though. Personally, I wouldn't worry for them if I were you. Maybe that you could take this occasion to show them safety about firearms, like safety finger, always keep the barrel down, and so on, even if Nerf blasters are toys.

Public perception is certainly one challenge of this hobby. That's one of the reasons we promote using words like "blaster" over "gun", "dart" over "bullet", "tag/hit" over "shot", etc (hopefully automod chimes in with the more complete list at this point).

Perhaps one option is to use blasters with a less real steel profile. A lot of the Rival blasters spring to mind due to extra bulk to accommodate their various hoppers, especially blasters like the Prometheus. The new Hyper line work similarly.

There are also a number of gimmicky blasters from Hasbro/Nerf as well as BuzzBee and Adventure Force with less realistic profiles, and the gimmick often is a draw for kids. Belt fed blasters, hopper fed blasters (Dart Zone has done this particularly well lately), and animal shaped blasters (like Hasbro's Dino Squad) all spring to mind.

​

Also, it might help if you've got Nerf groups near you; it's hopefully a little bit easier to tell that a bunch of people are playing with toys together, especially if the organizer has placed a courtesy call to the local non-emergency number to give the police a heads up that people with be playing with "toy guns" at {insert name here} park/school, and scattered strategic "Nerf party" signs to prep passerby's.

This is from the perspective of an American, my own opinion and a bit brutally honest so fair warning ahead of time.

Kids have been shot playing with toy blasters but they've also been shot walking down the street at night. It's a really big problem that goes far beyond nerf or really any toy blaster and it's very unfortunately not something you can solve by your own. As much as you should instruct your kids on how to be safe and courteous with blasters there's only so much you can do.

That said you should NOT live your life in fear it shouldn't not prevent you from having a good time. And it's also pretty uncommon you're probably much more like to get into a car accident but it doesn't stop us from driving cars. But unfortunately at the end of the day there is no easy answer to make sure nothing bad happens we just have to be as safe as we can and make our voices heard when it comes to politics and such.

Well we have a bot that actually displays the correct guidelines to follow just some common sense advice here:

-have bright colours -Have a safety orange tip (mandatory in the US) -Don't paint blasters black or realistic not only is it highly discouraged and outright banned in some clubs, also its ugly.

For players: -If police do come stop all play and calmly follow instructions -Dont point or shoot blasters at non-players -Avoid mil-sim attire in public areas -wear eye protection

To add another visible sign that they are toys (like the brightly colored blasters), many of the Bunkr inflatable obstacles are not realistic at all. Having some of those around would be another clue to observers that it was just foam flinging fun.

My daughter is the snatcher. While I understand it's developmentally normal, I warn the other parent and let them know it's okay to take the toy back, even if it results in a tantrum.

If I'm at another person's home, I make sure she only plays with toys and doesn't bang on furniture or walls. And I ask where it's okay to feed and change my daughter.

But at my own home, I'm much more relaxed. I make a point of warning about any hazards that our child has learned to navigate. But that's it. I don't mind if another child makes a mess. I'd prefer that to my daughter making a mess in someone else's home.

Mama of a toddler here, one thing i notice parents do at play dates is down play my childs unwanted behaviour. Im like no! Same rules apply anywhere we go! Addie doesn't understand the difference. She's great at play with others but for example, i don't let her walk around and eat. We're at the table, or depending on the snack, her baby couch. I don't want her smearing food all over the house. When we go over somewhere else and I'm like 'LO sit down to eat, if you want to play/walk give the food back to mummy' and parents will be like 'oh its fine, mine gets crumbs all over the place anyway, she's ok' and i say "nah, i don't let her do it at home and i don't want to confuse her' which everyone is then like oooohh ok yeah fair enough. That's just one example, but yeah i feel like out if politeness people down play things at their place and I'm oh no, you're in for a shock at my house... lol So one of my rules for play dates, if it's a rule at home, its a rule wherever we are too

Whenever possible, we meet at a park, so there are no toys. If meeting in a house, it’s ok, I try not to get super involved in refereeing but I do tell my daughter you have to take turns. I feel like it’s important that kids work things out themselves a bit, which they will do if given time. Some kids just aren’t very compatible, I’ve learned. It’s a lot of trial and error.

My general rule is that I'll correct my kid's behavior (ie if she is the toy snatcher) but leave it to other parents to correct theirs. The exception is if the other kid is also someone we're close to, like family or a close friend's child. I tend towards explaining to them how they can work it out rather than stepping in myself (unless it's a situation where one of them could hurt the other). Like I've told my friend's children that if mine takes something they were playing with, they can tell her that they weren't done with it yet and would like it back. I remind my daughter that it's nice to share and take turns with toys, and to use her manners if she wants a turn with something another kid is using. A lot of reminders to "use your words". Mine is older, though...

For around 9mo, I just redirected my daughter to something else if she got upset, or reminded the older kids that she was still a baby and made it a sort of "game" for them to help her do stuff or make her smile or whatever. Like "oooh she doesn't know how to do that with that toy yet, can you teach her?" "Aw she's sad because she liked playing with that toy! Do you think you can share it with her, or bring her another one?"

I’m very interested to hear what people have to say about this! Especially how people set boundaries for your home that perhaps do not exist in other homes. For example, children eating at the kitchen table and not smashing alllll their food into carpets and couches. I’m a little nervous about hosting play dates because I seem to have expectations that others in my friend group do not have.