I Surrendered to Pokémon
The jump from thinking Pokémon is lame to throwing my 11 year old a Pokémon party was wild. I remember rolling my eyes and completely judging my 4th and 5th grade classmates that were into Pokémon. I was too busy trying to be “cool”. Jokes on me, I married a Pokémon lover, yes he would consider himself a nerd. All that time trying to get in with the cool kids was a waste of time.
When my partner and our son started to bond over Pokémon, I initially wanted to shut it down. I was not happy about a hobby that in many ways, feels like gambling. You buy a packet of trading cards and hope there is a rare one of value in your deck. Every once in a while you get a decent card, sparking the dopamine cycle over and over again. I read Scarcity Brain last year and Pokémon sounded a lot like what Micheal Easter said makes slot machines addictive.
Really babe? This is what you decided to bond over? Couldnt it be something physical like basketball? Or something creative like music or drawing? I don't know, anything that was less expensive? Less wasteful? What do you do with all the cards you don't want? Releasing control on this one was hard. Seeing how excited my son got talking about Pokemon eventually led me to just surrender.
In my surrender, I have joined my son in his organizing and do my best to be an active listener when he is telling me about characters. I have been pleasantly surprised at how Pokémon has helped improve Elis reading fluency and grown his vocabulary. Pokémon often have unique names that reflect the pokemon's abilities, type, and/or appearance. Their names often take inspiration from nature and science, making them educational in a not so obvious way.
I still do my part to limit his Pokémon usage and ensure he has well rounded interest. I also do lean into his Pokémon obsession a little bit. I bought him the t-shirts I saw at Target and Old Navy. I took him to McDonalds too many times when the Pokémon Happy Meal collaboration was going on. I also hosted his Pokémon themed birthday party that was the best day ever, for him, I was tired haha.
Find many of the items used to make this party come to life on my amazon store from
