My 8yr. old wants to save every wrapper he gets. Why?

Question

I certainly can't label my son as a pack rat but he wants to save everything! It is driving me crazy but is funny to. You can't throw anything away in front of him. He gets mad & will take it back out of the garbage. Examples are: wanted to keep McDonald hashbrown wrapper, Taco Bell paper place mats, Chinese container, wrappers from new toys. Today I told him I have to hem some of his pants. He begged me to cut the pants so he can hang the excess material on his bedroom wall! LOL! I cleaned his room some & threw away a talking toy (parts missing) we carried the garbage out together while walking to the car & the toy went off.....Oh my gosh did I get in trouble. Wants to save ornaments from cupcakes, couldn't throw out an old pajama shirt of his or give it to the dog as a toy. But he does have the idea of giving things away to needy :). He'll tell me to save a paper plate even. How do I get him to stop wanting to save EVERYTHING? He is such a funny little boy :)

Answer 1

My 6 year old is the same way. He's a "collector".

We bought plastic bins with lids and labeled them.
He'll buy a Pez dispenser. Eat the candy, but save the plastic wrapper, pez dispenser, silver wrapper on the candy and the piece of paper inside, and put it in the bin.

If he gets a fast food toy, he'll save the plastic baggie it came in, and the instruction paper forever.

He's started to grow out of it, slowly.

It's just a phase.

Answer 2

What a funny phase! He certainly loves the world around him, which is cause for celebration. Can you turn the wrappers into a collage of some sort? Encourage his creativity and ability to see something worthwhile in what others might consider trash. Someday he'll look back on his art made out of wrappers and laugh.

Answer 3

I laughed when I saw this question, because my daughter saves the funniest things too. Straws, popscicle sticks, toothpicks. the tags from her new clothing. wrappers from any candy she ate. at first i wanted to just through it all away. i asked her about it and she said it was her collections. Maybe you collect something and he is imitating you. my daughter looked so genuine when she said it that i left it there. i went to a store and purchased a 5 drawer plastic dresser, the little one, and told her that she can collect but only if it fits in that dresser. my only hope is that our children grow up to collect and collect and one day go to the antiques roadshow and make a million. then we can laugh at the people who think it is too weird, because i know people have mentioned to me that she is for doing it

Answer 4

If a girl has reached puberty (gotten her period) then yes she can get pregnant. Brunettebabe411--here's the "411" for you-girls reach puberty at many different ages. Yes it is usually closer to 12 or so, but it can happen at any time. I didn't get mine until I was 16, but my sister got hers when she was 9. There is a much larger range of "normal" in these matters.

Answer 5

Sounds like he doesn't want anything to go to waste, he may just need one of those things someday in his mind. My daughter has always been this way and she loves to recycle. He sounds like a sweetheart who is concerned about other people and the planet,your doing a good job.

Answer 6

We have 6 children, they all go through it, though some worse then others.
My way is to give them a big plastic box, let them decorate it with stickers and texta's. (now it's theirs ).
they can keep anything they want in it. but when its full they have to choose what to get rid of to make more room.
Works in our house. All the best..

Answer 7

its just a little boy thing he feels important and feels like hes doing a good job.

Answer 8

boys will be boys!!