Force Fields & Jedi Blood

You have to be quick witted and creative to be a mom.  You need to have a PhD in Fiction.  You need to be able to explain what holding up the middle finger means to your 5  year old, without adding to his vocabulary.  You have to always, always translate the real world into the present obsession that your child is in the midst of.  I don't know if my boys are simply OCD, but everything becomes an obsession.  We can't just like Thomas the Train we become obsessed with Thomas and we have to own every single one and play with it every hour of every day until one day we wake up and,  (I obviously missed the memo) but it is over.  After an obsession has run its course and it could be a couple of weeks, months or even years, there is usually a very unsettled unhappy period where there is mostly TV watching. This is basically filling the time, awaiting the next obsession to take hold.  

At the present time we are at the height of an all out STAR WARS obsession.  When Patrick is obsessed he needs to collect.  He just needs to gather everything that is part of that obsession and own it.  He doesn't spend much time with each item, it is just the quest for him of collecting it and being done with it.  Tristan, however, his obsessions are intense and strong.  Once it takes hold he is all in.  He enjoys adding to his collection, but becomes enthralled with each item and has to experience it over and over again.  He gets down on the floor with his toys and has to look at the train, or spaceship at its level.  It is a pleasure to watch him play.  He becomes entrenched in his play and it is hard to pull him out.  

I don't really have a problem with obsessions or the form in which they take hold.  I'd say, for the most part I can get an obsession to work to my advantage.  Kids respond best when you can put things in terms that they can relate to and if you know where their heads are presently at, then you have already won half the battle.  Right now, everything is put into Jedi terms and Star Wars examples.  Everyone has their own force field in which no one can bug them.  Patrick was tested for Jedi Blood before his surgery.  It turns out he has a lot of Jedi in his blood and we now expect model Jedi behavior from him.  Tristan is a Padawan and he is training diligently in hopes of moving up.  

Some obsessions are easier to deal with then others but regardless of my own interest in it I always find myself a little sad when one is over.   I know the boys' changing interests correspond with their growing up.   I know with each obsession abandoned, a little of their childhood remains behind with it, so I will usual keep a token from each and with these items I can retrace and remember their growing selves.