By Joy A. Mead 
If there is one toy I would love to pass along, it is my children’s play kitchen. At 10 and 7 years old, it is no longer a priority toy for my daughter and son. Instead, the play kitchen has become a sort of dumping ground for any current toys that need a temporary storage space. As I glance at it now, it houses my son’s constructed LEGO helicopter, Nerf guns, and a robot as well as my daughter’s collection of library books, a random water bottle in her favorite color orange, and her jumping rope. Remnants of pans, utensils, a teapot, pretend cakes, and play foods are also scattered behind its cupboard doors.
Not once or twice have I tried to persuade both of my children and husband, but multiple times have I suggested we pass this bulky toy on to a family with younger kids. However, so far, I keep being outvoted 3-1, so the play kitchen remains. Deep down, I and the rest of my family know that the beloved play kitchen will have to go in the near future . . . it just won’t be today.
Although it currently just looks like a cluttered furniture item that resides next to our TV, I know in my heart that the dusty and worn-out play kitchen holds some lovely memories. I remember my husband purchasing it from IKEA years ago and then setting it up with my dad. We had the music on and danced around the dining room as our then 2-year-old daughter enjoyed her brand-new play kitchen.
The contents of that play kitchen were definitely worth the money paid and then some. From tea parties to grand feasts and picnics in the garden, our daughter and son have come up with so many creative ways to use that toy. Even fairly recently, a reenactment of children being evacuated from London during the Battle of Britain happened, and sure enough, the play kitchen food was used as packed meals for the children on their journey to safety.
And I could never forget my son as a baby just learning how to crawl when he managed to scoot himself backward underneath the play kitchen, his smiling giggles revealing his delight in getting stuck. Just like his big sister, my son loved utilizing the play kitchen and created a café for his stuffed animals. His favorite stuffies, a fluffy penguin and a huggable lion both kept ordering way too much food and having a tummy ache from overeating—more memories made!
I guess that’s why I haven’t had the heart to push my way into replacing the play kitchen with a lovely bookshelf or a storage unit with a greenhouse plant on it. For my husband, kids, and even me, that play kitchen is symbolic of their young childhood years. Already, those years are starting to slip by through my fingers more quickly than I would like.
There is something really precious about being able to appreciate the season we are in now. Somehow, even slightly annoying toys, like the play kitchen that doesn’t readily get used, remind me I definitely don’t have a showcase home to flaunt, but still cause me to smile because I know our kids have been allowed to truly soak up and make the most of their childhood. It’s okay for them to linger in their imaginative games just a while longer and even have toys around like the play kitchen just to act as a reminder to them of all the fun they have built upon and all the fun yet to come. So if we have the play kitchen for a little while longer? That will be just fine!
by Amy Keyes 
by Angela Hampton 
