Pokemon cards. Uh. Where do I begin. If you have little kids (boys in particular), I bet you find pokemon cards in your house like you find Christmas tree needles in July. They are everywhere and I swear they spawn. It is no wonder we can’t catch them all, we can’t even keep the cards in one single place.
Just like a house of cards, when dealing with pokemon cards, they can make other parts of your daily lives come crashing down in not careful.
Those little cards will brainwash and distract your kids from doing the simplest of things. They also will take their powers of annoyance outside of your house and infiltrate school, after school, friends houses and anywhere they sneak them in like contraband.
I personally never understood it. Pokemon has been around forever. They were around when I was a kid. Sorry, let me clarify, I do understand it because I was the same way with hockey cards and stickers. But I don’t remember it taking over my entire life like we are seeing in our house.
The pokemon obsession has rubbed off on our younger kid as well since he wants everything big brother has. It that sense, it’s kind of cute the way they will quietly trade and play a game that is clearly made up. All good. I like that.
But the cards seem to be the source of so many pains.
Basically if there are cards in hand, they become kid versions of the walking dead zombies. I swear I have seen them almost fall down the stairs because they are looking at the cards.
We have tried to centralize the cards with binders, plastic sleeves, tins and show boxes but they are still everywhere.
They are under the couch, in random books, under the bed, in the bed, hiding in backpacks and on the floor of the car.
They drive me nuts. I kind of wish they just put them in plastic sleeves, put them in binders and put them on a shelf for occasional viewing sessions with guests.
Recently the pokemon problem has spilled into the school. We have been asking on more than one occasion to not let our son bring them to school. Fine, we stopped it. We frisk him and grill him like he is trying to smuggle a piece of fruit into the country. He gets it. No more.
But not all parents are doing that. Still, kids bring them and they spread like a disease. Our son will come home with more, even though he left empty-handed.
Then we have to explain that we are following the rules while he looks at us like we are lame because his friends still have them.
If I were a teacher, I would have the greatest collection of cards in the history of pokemon. I would take them away and send them to Siberia.
They are distracting, cause arguments, encourage “borrowing” and overall, take a kid’s focus away from whatever they are supposed to be doing.
Even at home, I lose my patients because every request these days starts with, please put the cards down and go do _______.
But what can we do other than what we are doing?
I can’t gather them all up, throw them in the Big Green Egg and light them up. That’s not nice although the video would be a joy for parents everywhere to watch.
Like I said, the boys love the cards and the love collecting them. Pokemon has had great influence in learning to read, understanding the fun of collecting and it provides a common language among kids. I get all that.
I still don’t like the cards. They are not cheap either. Do we really think our kids are going to catch them all? Never. They can keep making up new ones as long as silly words can be created online.
I just looked around the room and came up with one. Chairbagwindow. Special powers are holding onto stuff and keeping warm.
I have not even mentioned the cartoons on Netflix or the games on the iPad.
I have not mentioned the other merchandise you can get from toys, clothes and high-end models.
Nope, it all starts with those damn cards. They are the ultimate gateway drug.
And who was our son’s first dealer? Well it was me. So I guess I can’t get too mad about these cards literally paving our floors.
So what is next before everything falls to the ground. How do we learn from our first kid and how he experiences the pokemon cards? Well I think all we can do is keep an open dialogue and continue to point out the right and wrong time for cards.
Our second kid will have a harder time pulling fast one on us. He won’t come to us in the evening with a big grin and show us the cards he snuck to school. Nope. Not a chance. Our photos are already up a the schools to show each teacher the parents who let cards leave the house.
Also, this period of cards will pass. It’s how the world works. They will both move onto something else.
When they want rides to the mall to go check out girls, I will wishing for the pokemon cards to come back.
Yep it won’t be long.
But at least I can rediscover this time in our lives over and over again because I know I will continue to find those damn cards in our house.
Gotta catch them all? No thanks.