My son is ten years old, and one of the many things I have learned about him is that — much like me — he’s easily swayed by shiny objects. Even if he doesn’t have a personal interest in something, it doesn’t take much for him to become obsessed with it. One surefire way for him to take notice of something is for me to show an interest in it first.
When he was much younger, I played the Yokai-Watch games back-to-back. Despite struggling to play the games himself because he was too young to read, that didn’t stop him from sharing in my enthusiasm and wanting all the Yokai medals, figures, and plushies that we found. He walked around with that hunking chunk of plastic watch on his wrist for weeks.
My son is already a Disney fan — what kid isn’t? — and he’s also quickly sold on anything collectible. Years of having to get every single Sainsbury’s card every time it does an album has taught me that he’ll strive to complete any collection. Knowing full well Disney Lorcana is going to be costly enough just buying one lot of stuff, never mind two, I suggested to my son that we share our card collection.
It seemed like a no-brainer. It would save money when I pre-ordered (still far too much) Lorcana stuff, but I’m already beginning to realise I will regret this decision. My son is seemingly incapable of keeping anything tidy. He’s always adamant his room is clean, but then I have to ask why there is a bunch of stuff living on his floor, from sweet wrappers to Lego men and everything in between. It’s a hard no from me that the Lorcana cards will be his responsibility, as they’d just end up travelling the floor.
Even if I save the Lorcana cards from the perils of his untidy bedroom, we’ll still be sharing them. My son is a kid, after all, so he’s not the most careful with things. He’s a controller dropper, his Nintendo Switch buttons are all terrible because he has got god-knows-what jammed around them, and no matter how much we nag, he will stay that way until he’s old enough to know better.
I was just as bad when I was his age. I still lament the many PlayStation discs I scratched to hell because I didn’t take care of them properly or put them away when I was done with them. If only I had looked after my Pokemon cards better, they’d be worth a fortune now. That’s the gift of hindsight. Perhaps that’s what Lorcana will be for him.
I’m quite nit-picky about things, so I’ll want to keep the cards nice and pristine, whereas he’s more likely to make them look like some dog-eared, well-used playing cards in a short amount of time. Even more so if he wants to get them out to play with his friends, which makes me realise that I’ll have to set a ‘don’t take Lorcana cards to school’ rule. That’s if the school doesn’t put it in place first.
I’m very particular about things being well looked after and everything having its place, something I’m well aware is not the easiest of things to deal with for my family. I also know that signs of wear are just a sign of love and enjoyment, but it still makes my eye twitch when the thing in question is also a collectible.
My son is quite conscientious, and I know he will try particularly hard to be careful with the Lorcana cards because we’re sharing them, but he is also just a kid. I’m going to have to suck it up that our collection won’t be what it was if it was just mine alone. While I’m sure I’ll regret every crease, tear, and muddied card, at least we’ll be creating memories of us playing together and sharing the excitement of hunting down cards.