My 6 year old boy has an obsession. Not a hobby. Not an interest. An obsession.

Yes, the boy has an obsession. It’s all he talks about; all he thinks about. And often all he seems able to hear.

And he’s always been like this.

Don’t believe me?

Take a look and see his obsessions: year by year.

Year 1: Obsession 1 – Lamps

When he was around 9 months old, he got into lamps. Really into lamps. Floor lamps, side lamps, pendant lamps. Lamps of all shapes, sizes and types.

It all started when I was trying to read an article in an interiors magazine and he was trying to paw the pages.

I pointed out a pretty lamp. He pointed out another. And thus, an obsession was born.

He spent 6 months going through the Ikea catalogue. I’d turn the pages. He’d point out every light and shout ‘amp’ excitedly. He even pointed out shafts of light coming from lamps hidden behind items of furniture.

That prized Ikea catalogue was so well-thumbed that the spine fell to pieces. And had to be sellotaped over and over again. And eventually, when it was more sellotape than paper, it made its way to the recycling bag.

For fun on my day off, we used to hang out in the interiors shop, Dwell. I’d pretend to look for sofas and cushions. He’d get over-excited by their great lamp selection. ‘Amp! Amp! Amp!’

Year 2: Obsession 2 – Digging machinery

But eventually the glow of lamps faded.

And in came the Big Machines.

Specifically, Big Digging Machines.

From age 1 to age 2, he craned his head out of the buggy at every piece of digging machinery that we passed.

We spent hours peering into holes in the ground and peeking through hoarding into building sites. We hung out at Travis Perkins, standing in all weathers in the carpark, watching the forklifts. Sometimes we even had our picnic lunch there.

We were ‘lucky’ enough to find an enormous book about digging machinery in the library. Probably nobody else in the area ever saw it. We had that book on constant renewal for nearly a year.

This library book gave my son, and me, a whole new vocabulary. Diggers were no longer diggers, but front-loaders, diggers with back-hoes, or forklifts with telehandler attachments. I was regularly told off for getting my digger and my backhoe arse about face.

He had a big boy crush on his Uncle, because he’s a builder. And because he drives diggers.

Probably the highlight of the Digging Machinery obsession for me was my 40th birthday.

I was lucky enough to spend my 40th birthday at Diggerland. Yep, at Diggerland. Yep, lucky old me.

(When I was 30, I imagined my 40th birthday would involve New York, rooftop bars, cocktails. Nope. Diggers. Mud. Wellies.)

….and then he moved on

Year 3: Obsession 3 – Fire Engines

What’s not to love about fire engines? They’re red, they’re loud and they have flashing lights.

As ever, Big Boy wasn’t just keen on fire engines, but obsessed by them.

Everywhere we went, we played fire engines.

When we went to Italy, I taught him the word ‘fuoco’ (fire). So he ran up to some Italian boys, shouted ‘fuoco! fuoco!’ and they all ran around putting out imaginary Italian fires.

We played Fireman Sam; we played The Great Fire of London; we played The Fire at Battersea Arts Centre.

He even had his birthday party at The Battersea Arts Centre because it had been on fire!

We learnt everything about fire engines. We knew the different kinds of vehicles, be they fire engines or command units. We knew our standard fire engine from our turntable ladder fire engine. We knew every fire station in London that had a turntable ladder fire engine.

There were, of course, some great benefits of the Fire Engine obsession.

One was all the times we hung out at the local fire station. Sometimes we were just outside peeking in, or having our picnic on the forecourt. Other times, we were invited in and shown around. Big Boy would pretend to drive the engine, Mummy would ogle the hunky firefighters. A classic Win/Win situation.

And I used the Fire Engines Obsession to make him get dressed by himself really quickly for nursery. Every morning, I’d time him to see if he could get dressed in under 1 minute like a fireman. Another classic Win/Win situation.

Year 4: Obsession 4 – Volcanoes

But, times moves on, and so did The Big Boy. He moved on to the next grand obsession: Volcanoes.

We found out all about volcanoes. We got books from the library. We watched youtube videos on volcanoes. We drew and painted volcanoes.

He had a volcano birthday cake.

He knew how and why volcanoes erupted. He could tell a composite volcano from a shield volcano. He knew which volcanoes were active, dormant and extinct.

He could spot The Ring of Fire on a World Atlas.

…..which brings us neatly to……

Year 5: Obsession 5 – Johnny Cash

…And then Grandpa mentioned that he knew a song about The Ring of Fire one day.

….and we youtubed it.

….and a new obsession was born.

And it was the biggest yet.

Big Boy had discovered Johnny Cash.

Over the next 11 months, Johnny Cash was alive in our house. Or so it felt.

We had a guitar shaped birthday cake and a pretend would-be birthday party for Johnny Cash.

Every day was concert day. I’d introduce “the world famous Johnny Cash” and he’d burst into the room, all 100 centimetres of him, guitar in hand. And proceed to sing all of the Johnny Cash songs he’d learnt.

He even, with limited success, roped his 2 year old sister in on the action to be “my beautiful wife June Carter Cash”. Sadly, as is often the case with bands, they had artistic differences as she flounced off stage in the middle of their ‘Jackson’ duet.

We drove to Italy, singing Johnny Cash songs all the way.

Every day after school, he wrote ‘Top Ten Johnny Cash Songs’ lists and play lists. He was the only kid in reception class who knew how to spell ‘cocaine’. It was a very proud moment for me.

And then, one day, Johnny Cash died for us.

And all we were left with was some Johnny Cash memorabilia.

And, sorry JC, if you’re looking down, you were replaced by an air-filled spherical object.

Year 6: Obsession 6 – Football

Yes, we have moved on. We’ve gone mainstream.

We’ve moved on to Football.

Big Boy is now obsessed with football.

He pores over every Match of the Day magazine. He writes letters to Jurgen Klopp, the Manager of Liverpool Football Club, with suggested team line-ups.

He lays his Match Attax cards out in team formations. He even uses them to play football matches, using a tiny little ball, or a screwed up ball of paper.

When he’s not playing football, he’s talking about football.

About the best ever Liverpool midfielder.

About what stats you would give every Liverpool player for pass, attack, defend, skill.

About what formation you’d play against different teams.

 

He writes lists of his favourite current football players. He writes lists of his favourite football players of all time.

It’s an obsession. A big obsession. The biggest yet.

It’s even bigger than Johnny Cash.

Year 7: Obsession 7 – ????

Big Boy will be 7 in May. And I am looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Is football the obsession to end all obsessions?

Or is something even bigger and better yet to come?

What do you think?

Let me know your predictions for Obsession 7 in the Comments.

 

 

 

(Want to know more about my obsessed boy? Or my odd little family? Then take a look at our Inappropriate Bottom-Squishing.