Okay so here's the thing: kids sometimes get obsessed with things. Not only commercial products like Dora and Thomas the Tank Engine toys and that huge purple suspiciously bubbly dinosaur, but everyday things: ratty blankies, ugly stuffed owls. And when kids get obsessed with something, they show a love unlike any other. They become enraged and perplexed when they can't have it, or it's out of their reach, or they've left it behind. They look so adoringly and lustily at their love-objects it's frightening (except, of course, when they look at us like that. Then it's just plain adorable).
For me, as a child, I was very attached to a little koala bear. It was furry and had a music box inside. My mother still has it in her home, only now it looks like a cross between a bald baby owl and a dead rat, it's once-shiny black nose is all grey and stratched within an inch of it's life. When you shake what used to be my owl, it kind of rattles oddly.
Well, my four year old Boy has had a number of passing obsessions, which I'll no doubt embarrass him by filling you in on at some point: including nakedness, (much) older girls, cheese and buddha statues. But the latest one takes the cake - icing and all. I was in JB Hi-Fi getting the latest Microsoft Windows gear for my laptop last week when, to divert his attention from the racks upon racks of kids DVD's, I handed him a paper JB Hi-Fi catalogue to look at. It was love at first sight. Boy gazed amazed at the thin, bright pages filled with pictures of televisions, computer hardware and DVD box sets. In the last week, this catalogue has been on a picnic with us, has substituted for a bedroom story, has been taken to childcare, and he has slept with it under his pillow. I catch him, lovingly flicking through and stroking the pages.
Well, my four year old Boy has had a number of passing obsessions, which I'll no doubt embarrass him by filling you in on at some point: including nakedness, (much) older girls, cheese and buddha statues. But the latest one takes the cake - icing and all. I was in JB Hi-Fi getting the latest Microsoft Windows gear for my laptop last week when, to divert his attention from the racks upon racks of kids DVD's, I handed him a paper JB Hi-Fi catalogue to look at. It was love at first sight. Boy gazed amazed at the thin, bright pages filled with pictures of televisions, computer hardware and DVD box sets. In the last week, this catalogue has been on a picnic with us, has substituted for a bedroom story, has been taken to childcare, and he has slept with it under his pillow. I catch him, lovingly flicking through and stroking the pages.
Yesterday, the unfathomable happened. The catalogue ripped. Despite my assurance that we could probably 'walk outside right now and get another one out of someone's letterbox', Boy wanted that catalogue: his catalogue, to be mended right now please. Out came the sticky-tape and Boy's new blankie is as good as new junk mail. I dare say though, if it ever hits the bath or the washing machine, there might be devastation.
What about yours? What kinds of odd things do they get attached to?
My 6yo daughter is insanely addicted to My Little Pony. She's got sooo many maybe she can start her own Ebay shop.=)
ReplyDeleteHi, Maxine! So nice to meet you! I'd be happy to be on your blogroll.
ReplyDeleteBrenda: I remember I had one My Little Pony...orange with red apples across it's umm...hind. I begged and begged for it and then never played with it. Maybe your daughter will be a horse whisperer?
ReplyDeleteNowheymama: Thanks - gonna get the blogroll happening in the next week.