Obsessions

Somewhere in all the how-to-raise-a-child literature I’ve read was the fact that some kids develop “intense passions” for things.  Their interests eventually shift, so parents need not be alarmed.  Good thing I had that warning.

When Kaleb was two he was all about Thomas the Tank Engine.  He knew the name of every character and wanted them all.  He had Thomas sheets and pajamas.  He traveled with a Thomas backpack and Thomas was one of his first computer games.  That interest lasted about two years, and then, overnight, the switch got flipped and he could have cared less about that silly little train and his talking buddies, he became obsessed with parrots.

Parrots made his heart skip a beat for about three years. Kaleb memorized the names of all the varieties and studied their habitats in the rainforest.  He even designed his own rainforest game and made beaded toys to take to a parrot shelter. 

When he heard that pop cans were made from aluminum that used bauxite harvested from the rainforests, he sat down and wrote a letter to the governor, asking her to start requiring deposits on pop cans to help preserve the rainforest.  We drove the letter down to Olympia and my sweet six-year-old boy hand delivered it to the Governor and told her of his concerns.  At that moment, I felt like these obsessions of his might actually be a good thing, so I supported them wholeheartedly.

Kaleb’s passion for parrots dropped the instant a friend gave him a robotic dog.  Next thing I know, he’s all about dogs – learning every breed, stopping to pet every one he sees and not leaving the house without a dog treat in his pocket.  His room changed from a jungle theme to a doghouse one and at eight-years-old he decided to start writing a weekly dog newspaper “for dog lovers and their dogs.”  He sold subscriptions and was very dedicated to his work.  He kept it up for over two years and raised nearly two thousand dollars in the process, all of which he donated to dog shelters.  This, too, made me proud.  I only wished he’d do something like that now that he’s in high school as it could help with scholarship and college admissions, but he’s knee deep in homework and has little time for such pursuits.

Sadly, his love of dogs waned when someone introduced him to Pokemon cards.  Really?  Learning the names of hundreds of characters and at what level they morph into something else hardly seemed like a good use of brainpower, so my support for that particular passion failed him. 

Thankfully, that obsession has now phased out, but sadly, it’s not been replaced by anything of value. He’s now discovered the BBC series, “Doctor Who.”  We can’t have a single conversation without a quote from one of those episodes being interjected.  Kaleb even refuses to eat an apple a day, for fear it will keep “The Doctor” away.  Someone please, flip this switch.