Is 3 Too Young to Participate in Giving Toys to Charity?

2 months ago my toddler (3 in February) helped me EAGERLY with this! The way I explained it was...

(In toddler speak) "We're giving the toys to babies that doesn't have enough toys, which ones will they like?"

Her response was ridiculous. It was hard to keep any toys in the bin! She was so happy and excited to give the toys to babies to make them happy. She knew which ones she really wasn't gonna let go and which ones she was ready to give away.

They are the sweetest little souls, we don't give them enough credit to do the things that they can do if we let them. Good luck, it will go great!

It's always good to get the reward of a couple new toys at the end of the process too if you are planning to go that route.

The hard part really was ME! I just couldn't let go of the baby chew toys that I thought were so special... I just made the deal with myself to set aside 5 small toys that were her ABSOLUTE FAVORITE, and that would trigger the MOST memories when reflected on and I'm gonna put them in a shadow box with photos of her with them. But I'm a softy so I'm not sure how hard that is to do for other mommies.

We are in the same boat with our 3.5 year old.

We've told him that we need to give some of his toys to kids who don't have any. He doesn't quite understand, but we think it's important to involve him now and make it customary.

I will say that he goes in cycles and gets toys out that he hasn't played with in months and will play with them again for weeks at a time. So, I usually try to make it things like McDonald's Happy Meal toys instead of those with real meaning.

Even if it's infant toys you may still have, I think it's important to have her see you give them to people who have the need. We've been taking a lot of things to our day care lately to have them available for the kids/families there.

I know parents who ask and don't. Whatever you do I'm sure it's the right choice. Your child will learn from the experience either way, although tough for some children at first. I don't think three is too young. Children get loads these days, why not spread the wealth.
I started asking my son around 3 years or so to think of something he'd like to give away. He found a few things, but also started making piles with my stuff, like just one of my shoes from the pair. We agreed he would choose his things an I would choose mine. However, I do help him decide and I did, I believe, sneak a few unloved items away. He gave up very little then, but is much more generous now at 5.

Yes, I would include her. My daughter is almost 4 and recently we went through some of her toys together. Not sure if she understands exactly, but I would hold up a toy and ask her if she wanted to keep it or give it away. I explained that there are kids who don't have as many toys as she does, so we need to give them away. I think she did pretty good for her first time doing this! I had 3 or 4 small boxes filled with stuff to give away. I haven't given anything away yet though. I am waiting for a bit so that she has a chance to make sure she made the right choice. She has already played with a couple things from the "give away" piles, but has also come up to me with another toy saying she wanted to give it away! haha