The Wiggles were replaced by Ben 10. Ben 10 was sideswiped by Star Wars. Star Wars was blindsided by Zac Power and Captain Underpants. And now we have reached the zenith of his affections. If he was stuck on those other loves, he is glued to Harry Potter.
When he was into Ben 10, he wore a big watch. When he was into Star Wars, he tied a baby wrap around his neck and became Luke Skywalker. With Zac Power he made spy cards. As Harry, he draws a zigzag scar on his forehead. With texta. He walks the walk, does our Mr7.
He also talks the talk. Nothing but the talk. Today, the Fibro is full of shouts of "Expelliamus!" "Wingardium Leviosa!" "Accio Nimbus2000!" Etcetera. He ambushes me with questions about whether Harry's wand would be longer than his arm or shorter. He wants to know about the Tri-Wizards tournament and will tell me, in exquisite detail, about how he'd go about getting past a Hungarian Hornback (or whatever type of dragon it was that Harry defeated). He is stymied by the fact that I will not let him read past book three. The themes get too dark. Harry gets too damn grumpy.
Last night, as he was leaping about the back deck trying to levitate his brother with a coathanger, I turned to The Builder.
"Do you reckon he's like this at school? Talking about nothing but Harry Potter."
No pause. "Yep," he answered.
"He does tend to get stuck on one thing. Would you call him obsessive?"
He paused. "Nope. I'd call him male."
Do you have boys? Are they serial stickers as well? Are girls the same?
Farmboy is 6 and we have been through all those phases. It tends to be a full on love affair for about 2 months and then he moves on (sometimes brutally quickly)!!
ReplyDeleteMy son's room is testament to a hundred crazes - all the ones you mention are there (apart from The Wiggles - no way). Ben 10, Star Wars, Harry Potter (read the entire series and seen all the films). Do more men than women collect things obsessively? I'd say yes. Do more men than women turn up at Sci Fi conventions dressed as Dr Spock or a Wookie? I'd say yes. My daughter is too young yet to really be into anything obsessively - I was a bit (had to have the whole series of a book or all the colours and flavours of a scented rubber) but not anything like my son is.
ReplyDeleteI have two boys and they pretty much like to obsess on a theme. The older one is usually one theme at a time, at the moment it's Beyblades and Pokemon on the DS, and readingwise - well, I'm not sure, he can't make up his mind, but he did go through a Zac Power stage and a Beast Quest stage. Oh and he was into Lego for years.
ReplyDeleteMy 4yo has several passions. He's into Transformers, Ben 10, Beyblades and Bakugan. Occasionally we also have to watch Pocoyo. And, most of the time, he likes to play with everything at once, while watching either Transformers or Ben 10 cartoons.
Perhaps they have too many toys, I wonder....
I only have boys so cant really compare the sexes but our oldest - who's six - is just like that. He went through an intense bakugun stage, Ben Ten as well. Thing is it seemed all his peers in prep and grade one were going through the same obsessions at the same time so I wonder if it's about exposure and fitting in more than anything. Can't say our four year old is the same. He just loves running jumping and driving me crazy. Our two year old loves hi 5 so much that we have to hide the DVD cover. So to sum it up - I have no idea really. But I enjoyed this. You write well.
ReplyDeleteYes! Both big boys are total obsessives, they're blokes. The wee boy is a bit more varied, perhaps influenced by his twin sister who shows early signs of flightiness.
ReplyDeleteAwe, so cute; I hope my boys get into HP when their a little older - that's an obsession I can relate to! Right now, they're all about Thomas. If he doesn't have his Thomas in his hand at any given time, all hell breaks lose... and yes, bedtime is AWESOME. :)
ReplyDelete3 girls at my house!! They have pretty varied interests though. Yes, they are still playing the same dressup games they were playing 3 years ago, although we seem to have finally lost the fairy dressups to my old formal dresses, but the themes are still the same.
ReplyDeleteBut then they also have the fortune of being able to play famous five, narnia, wizards, princesses, musketeers, olympic athletes, chefs...really anything they put their little imaginations to.
I'm in awe of their imaginations!! It's priceless :-)
xxxCate
I have two boys - one is 5; one is 15. Both are completely obsessive. And what's worse is that Mr 5 has fast-forwarded through the obsessions you have listed as he has had access to Mr 15 previous obsessions - and accompanying merchandise. Star Wars. Tick. Harry Potter. Tick. Transformers!!! Tick. Scott Pilgrim!!! Tick. Thankfully all these obsessions are also held by Mr 5's father and they can obsess together ... leaving me to my own obsession ... tweeting.
ReplyDeleteMy girls are the same! Except it was an obsession with being Hermoine...
ReplyDeleteKids are so much fun. I love their obsessive, passionate, imaginative world.
We did the same thing with banning the last Harry books/movies until Ella was old enough. Ditto for the Star Wars movies too.
x
My eldest boy..now nearly 33..lol..loved Cookie Monster...then Monkey..Monkey Magic!..then Masters of the Universe when he was about 7 or 8. He is self motivated, independant and still obsesses about his current project. Just his personality type I think!
ReplyDelete3boys here and all of them without exception had phases of super heroes football cards, fishing and anything with balls
ReplyDeleteOH yes. Serial sticker. Thomas The Tank Engine, Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh, and now Mario. Preparing himself for a life of serial monogamy..... I hope..... I think... oh GOD!!!
ReplyDeleteWe have successfully completed the Wiggles and Thomas obsession phases and are now wedged firmly in the Ben10 phase with Mr-almost-5. It makes for very interesting imaginary games when Ben10 meets up with the princess ballerina (Miss 3) and the wrecker-of-all-games (Miss 1). And even more interesting when it appears that Miss 1 is developing an obsession with Thomas and Miss 3 is retaining her obsession with the Wiggles far longer than I expected!! At least none of them knows about Bratz dolls yet. THAT I could not handle.
ReplyDeleteSam, well, yeah he has obsessions. But Maddie, being a girl, they seemed to have petered out. Thank Bob her Justin Bieber obsession was only fleeting. ;)
ReplyDeleteHellyes! Remember tripping over the Poltergiest-like lines and lines of animals everywhere you went at my place? Except Maxi-Taxi's attention span is now even worse than a two year old's so we zip from one obsession to the next at lightening pace! I can't wait for him to be able to read so I can palm him off with a book. At the moment we have Dragons, Star Wars, Beyblades and Ninjago all obsessively on the go. And I know way more than I ever need to know about all of them. Exhausting. No, the girls are nothing like this. x
ReplyDeleteHell yeah. Pokemon, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Thomas have all had their turn in my son's obsessions over the years. Most recently it was Little Big Planet (PS3 game) 24 hours a day for a year. Although I set limits on playing video games, when he wasn't playing it, he was designing worlds on paper and drawing character costume ideas. Luckily it's not the most merchandised game out there, so it has only set us back a t-shirt in addition to the cost of the game itself.
ReplyDeleteNo boys here, but this is a very cute post.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah. The obsession runs deep with my boy.
ReplyDeleteMy boys jump backwards and forwards with their obsessions. As my oldest boy "grows out" of something, no. 2 starts on it so no. 1 has another love affair and then they move on together.
ReplyDeleteThe main theme for us is Lego at present, which means Toy Story, Star Wars and Ninjago are all covered nicely and together.
My third boy is just starting to get into the Wiggles. He loves it. The music. The singing. The other boys tease, but I think they are secretly happy to be having another opportunity to show the Wigs some love :)
My boys?
ReplyDeleteNot too much yet. At least Bluey isn't. He does get fixated on people though.
Greenie, well he's still young and finding his footing, but i have a feeling he will be similar to this.
I have 3 daughters and they go through obsessive phases.
ReplyDeleteRight now I have enough My Little Pony stuff to sink a ship and it's all the two oldest ones talk about!
Well what a relief to know its not just my son who has these fickle obsession phases. Right now its Ben10 but at 2 and a half I think he's far too young for it. Unfortunately its the favourite thing of his older (and adored) cousin so therefore he wants to love it too. Discouraging this phase and hope he reverts back to Diego and dinosaurs soon!
ReplyDeleteOh my. I have 3. Boys, that is. They are total obsessives. My oldest (now 5) was stuck on Thomas til about 3 months ago. And I mean stuck. He lived and breathed it. He's spend hours watching weird-assed Thomas clips on youtube and then try and recreate them. My second son is less so but follows his brother a lot. He just tries to keep up. Despite never having seen it, his current thing is Ben 10. He even puts his arm up when he says to suggest the special watch he's wearing. How the hell would he know?
ReplyDeleteah boys. You gotta love them. I have to say Thomas has given me a lot of reading time over the last few years so I'm not complaining.
my son is walking, talking and sound-effecting like SuperMario for a few months solid now. hell, even I will beep and hum the game's melody at times. even at bedtime he tells me made up Mario stories and sometimes my brain feels like it's close to spontaneous liquidification.
ReplyDeletei also know that this obsession will last a while as we are in the pre-DS and pre-wii/xbox/ps stage (and my 19yo stepson plays the games still..)
but with obsessions coming and going, i have thought of making a wall gallery (or a little book, something) documenting his heroes..