Old Broken Toys

"Nobody wants a Charlie in the Box..............."

Funny thing, kids are.
There can be a broken unwanted not-even-said-hi-to-in-a-month toy sitting in the corner, but the minute that another kid picks up that unwanted toy, all hell breaks loose.
You'd think that the unwanted toy was just repainted, dunked in a vat of cholocate syrup and wrapped in 50 dollar bills, the way its now fought over.
2 minutes ago when it was ignored and unwanted, the toy's owner couldn't care less about it.
The minute the toy is wanted by someone else, the kid is all kinds of concerned.

Better still is that the second the owner is sure the other kid isnt interested, the toy goes back to the island of misfits. Back on the shelf to resume being ignored.

Why IS that?
Human nature?
Just general selfishness?

I don't care WHAT kind of junky, beat up, worthless feeling toy it is, if some other kid wants it, its MINE!!! (and nobody else can not play with it, either)
Yes, I phrased that correctly.

My two boys were instructed to clean up their room by their mother recently (like every day), and in case you're interested, the room looks like a SWAT team just did a room clearing exercise in it. Complete with flash bangs, lots of small arms rounds, and a couple of hand grenades thrown in just for good measure.
In short, its a disaster.
So mom finds a BROKEN IN HALF motorcycle toy, about 3 inches long, among the other hundred or so unwanted uncared for items in there.
The very definition of worthless.
Little casey acts like his favorite-est childhood memory inducing toy was just flung in the garbage when mom made it go "clunk" in the can.
End of the world, on a 7 year old scale.
Something lying under his bed, broken inhalf, for God knows how long, yet STILL he is traumatized by it being thrown out. Better yet, hes all kinds of surprised that its getting flung out.
Go figure.
They CLEARLY dont want these things, these toys.
Clearly.
They leave them uncared for, unattended to, just cast aside.
Why the trauma and the grief?

I can't figure this out, and it really has me perplexed.

Yeah I know the old saying, but someone should expand on it, and say "if you DON'T want something, throw it the hell out already".

Kids.


I used to think "if I have a couple more, I'll surely figure them out".
Now I know better.
Theres NO figuring them out.

Surviving them is the current goal.