kids and their furniture?

dragonlady ) writes:
In article ,
Banty wrote:

Do folks truly not see any middle ground between smash-and-crash and up on a
shelf pristine in boxes like Madam Alexander dolls?? This is the fallacy of
false dichotomy. It's some of why I object to this idea that 'precious'
stuff
should be hidden away (so that even the owner can't enjoy them!), else it's
fair game for whatever use strikes someone else. There's a huge and livable
middle ground of using things decently, such that they're not ruined can can
continue to be used. Indeed, it's necessary to recognize that to ever be
able
to have nice things happen - to enjoy things, and enjoy them for a length of
time. Hide-and-hoard or smash-and-trash doesn't allow for that.

Banty


I agree with this entirely.

My question is how to know when something that *I* put
play-with-in-a-normal way is in someone else's
"play-with-very-carefully" category.

I agree too, but my question is different. Obviously,
I can find out whether something is in a handle-carefully
category by asking about how it should be handled.
My question is: how can I realize when there's
something like that that needs to be asked about?

Or to put it another way: I don't think it's reasonable
to expect all people at all times to make this
realization when they should.

Sitting on a couch changes its state. Walking on
the floor changes its state. I think people would
think it was silly to ask about these things.

I have, at times, assumed that metal is very
durable and that it doesn't change when thrown.
I now realize that that isn't true, especially
when one considers the paint. However, some
people might well believe that throwing a metal
car into a toybox doesn't change the car in
any detectable way. They would be wrong about that;
but lots of people believe lots of things that
aren't true.