Life is a deck of Pokemon cards

By Suzanne

My oldest son had the most perfect Pokemon card collection you've ever seen. He kept the cards in a two-tier container similar to a toolbox, with partitioned slots to organize the cards in some mysterious way I never quite understood. Birthdays, Christmases, allowance money -- there was always something put toward the Pokemon collection.

His younger brother has his own collection. His collection can be found under his bed, strewn across the floor, and in corners of the hallway, but he does have a notebook in which he keeps the most precious cards. He might be messy, but he can recite Pokemon facts and make it sound like rocket science. Phone conversations with friends sound something like this: "First go to the guy in Saffron City on the fifth corridor down from the MoonStone. He can tell you where to find the Zapados. Then you fly over to Cinnabar Island and surf up and down until you find the sixth mark." WHAT?

One day when my oldest son was 12 he suddenly carried his precious, uber-organized box of cards to his sister's room and said, "Here, you can have it." The same box he would have knocked her to the ground and throttled her if she'd dared touch a day before was all hers. His voice was changing and he was getting hair on his legs, too. My little boy was gone, poof, with that deck of Pokemon cards.

The other day, my 9-year-old daughter, who is incapable of managing her money enough to buy her own cards, came downstairs with not just her older brother's uber-organized container but a big, fat Pokemon notebook.

"At first he gave me two sheets," she said. "Then he gave me all of them, including the trainers!"

Another one bites the dust of childhood. My second son is now too old for Pokemon cards, too. He is too mature, too sophisticated, too cool for the obsession that once ruled his boyhood world. I sighed in sadness, then my daughter leaned over and confided, eyes shining: "I stole his Charizard card once, then I gave it back. I just wanted the glory of having it for one weekend."

I've still got one baby!!!

Suzanne has been married for over 20 years and lives in small-town North Carolina with her three children.

Comments

[Air Jordan]

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But it is better to be good than to be ugly. Do you agree?

[Jo]

I hear you. My oldest went from Pokemon cards to YuGiOh cards and I thought that was hard enough on me. Now he's a freshman in High School and is slowly giving his sister and littlest brother his cards. I silently scream "Noooooo" everytime he does that because I'm hating watching my baby grow.

Can't we just keep them in the closet? Maybe if we don't let them in the sun they will quit growing. :) No? Well I tried.

[Tori]

Great article, Suzanne! :)

[kacey]

ah, the milestones in life. Giving up your childhood toys (or Pokemon cards), shaving, driving a car, leaving for college. It all happens too quickly!

Great article!