I was in Walmart the other day, lost. I don’t usually shop at Super-Sized Walmart, but I was on that side of town and, being all about efficiency, it made sense. But I’m so used to my dinky Walmart, that I was getting a little overwhelmed with all my aisle choices. I decided to step out in the “middle” and survey my surroundings.

That’s when my ears pricked up as I overheard a mom say to her 6-year old-ish daughter who was pointing to a stack of packaged toys, “You already have that toy.”

I was a little surprised that a 6-year old would not know her toy collection and, in a fraction of a second went through the possibilities:

-she has so many, she can’t keep track of them all
-it’s broken and at the bottom of the toy chest
-she played with it for a while, discarded it to the back of her closet and has now forgotten about it

But when the conversation continued with mom and daughter, I was actually pleasantly surprised.

“You know,” continued the mom, “I need to get a hold of your aunt. I think it’s time we traded a new set of toys. I’ll ask for that one back.”

The daughter seemed pacified and off they went down another aisle.

But in the car ride home an hour later (wow, does Super-duper Walmart have A LOT of stuff), I thought about that brief conversation. How cool was that?? And what a great idea! Sharing toys…by rotating them through different families. Totally a money saver. Sure, we may do the hand-me-down thing, but this was a twist on that. This family actually rotates bunches of toys at, I’m guessing, regular intervals, so that it almost seems like the toys are new. And the kids probably appreciate them more because they’re “missed”.

I know we tend to get attached to our own things. And handing off personal toys to someone else to take care of, well, that can be a trust issue. Will they take care of them the way I know we do? But if you have a good relationship with the other person and can come up with some rules, then I think this idea has merit. And what a great way for kids to learn about sharing. Life skills in practice. That’s a good thing!