FOTM

Flavor Of The Month…that is an accurate description of how my children change their current preferences for the latest in marketing/children’s shows/toys/friends.   They’re young and things change quickly.    As a parent it’s sometimes hard to keep up.

It was the anything ball-like for my son when he was very young.   You would have thought he would grow up being a professional, yet short, basketball player from the sheer force of will he put into loving what was, at that time, a massive ball he could barely hold in his little arms.

Next he moved into heavy construction machines, fascinated at every single vehicle he saw—snd there were a lot considering our entire neighborhood was under construction.  Then it was trains followed next by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.    At that point his sister was old enough to jump into the preference game and they moved into other shows like Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba—the latter being a phase I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive Uncle Jonathan for introducing.

By then my children were old enough to express preferences for what they wanted to watch/have as toys as Paw Patrol came around.   Paw Patrol is still one of my daughter’s favorites with her loving all her “pups” and playing with them frequently.   My son moved on to more typically male interests after Uncle Jonathan (yet again) said, “hey, there’s this new young children’s version of Transformers.

It was a good show—it had good moral lessons and the transformers were all “good guys”—and my son still loves anything that transforms.    But wait, what are those Legos over there?   Those look fun.   And mom, do you mean to tell me there are television shows, video games and even a MOVIE about Legos?   Say it isn’t so—sign me up for my next obsession.

Then it was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and My Little Pony.   I know, you’re thinking those shows were decades ago, right?   Never let it be said a good reboot couldn’t revitalize a franchise and rake in hoards of money through merchandising.

My son is still fascinated by Legos, Transformers, Ninja Turtles and, on occasion, My Little Pony, but the newest FOTM is Power Rangers for both children.   My daughter mostly goes along with his preferences because when he likes something, he really likes it.

There are multiple new Power Ranger shows, each with their own theme and toys—toys which are used, as you would buy them yourself, in the show so you as the child have the “real thing”.    My son knows he has a ‘wish list’ and has been asking me to look up specific things, browsing costumes and toys on the internet and then asking me if I can add them to his list for his birthday (in December) which I am glad to do.

By December, I wonder what the FOTM will be then?

The Big Boy Update:  My son went with his class yesterday to visit the camp site he’ll be staying at for the camp out his class is doing at the end of the school year in June.   He told me this morning it was the first time he’d ever ridden on a bus.    He didn’t even have to sit in a car seat either because the bus was safe, he said.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My son and daughter were having a conversation in the car this morning.   It was one of those times I couldn’t get to a stop light fast enough to write down what they said.    This was my daughter’s response at one point as they discussed how boys and girls were different: " My butt’s in the back, my vagina’s in the front. Boys have tentacles that we can’t hit...cause it hurts."