New blog about My kids’ obsessions take up way too much space in my brain
My son used to be obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. Now he doesn’t recognize any character from that show except for Thomas himself. Unfortunately, I know all the things he’s forgotten. Unlike him, I can’t get them out of my head that easily.
Forgotten Obsessions
That’s what I get for trying to take an interest in one of my kids’ obsessions before their memories fully develop. Now information about Sir Topham Hatt’s gulag on the island of Sodor fills my brain. Meanwhile, my son wouldn’t know Percy if the green engine bit him on the butt.
My wife is in the same boat. She knows all the songs from Little Einsteins by heart because the music has worked its way into her skull through sheer repetition. Even when our daughter’s adoration of the show abruptly ends, the earworms will live on.
This is the cost of doing business as a parent. You can either ignore your kids’ obsessions, or you can become an active participant. Then you’re sucked into the marketing blitz that surrounds children’s merchandise. And once you get those commercial jingles in your head, they won’t leave. They will haunt your waking hours.
As a fan of sports, comic books, and tabletop games, I know quite well that a little useless knowledge isn’t a bad thing. My worry is that I have a finite amount of storage space in my head. If I memorize the names of each Disney Princess, I might forget how to drive a car.
The New Obsession in Town
Right now, my kids’ obsessions include Super Mario Brothers, which makes things easier on my brain, since I already know a ton about that franchise. I don’t need to learn anything new, so nothing gets pushed out of my brain. I just need to make sure they never find out about the movie.
But if I’m honest, it’s a little disappointing that my kids’ current obsessions run in step with my own. I’m glad I’ll never have to watch another episode of Thomas and Friends, but I actually enjoyed learning about it. It was like learning a new language that I could speak with my kids.
Moreover, kids’ entertainment has come a very long way since the early 1990s. My kids’ obsession with Super Mario Brothers means we’ve watched a lot of The Super Mario Brothers Super Show, which reminds me of how awful kids’ programming used to be.
The good thing about kids’ obsessions is that they pass fairly quickly. I’ll only have to deal with the comic stylings of Lou Albano for a few more months. Then we can explore something new and interesting…and maybe even high-quality.
Much to my wife’s chagrin, adult obsessions don’t go away so quickly. She’ll hear me babbling about comics and football long after Mario has joined Thomas in the metaphorical scrapyard.
Images: Justin Sewell, theNerdPatrol, and iStock
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