By Glenn A. Hascall
I am convinced I have a packrat for a son. When we go through his belongings for items that might find a new home with Goodwill, he laments every broken toy that is beyond the meager ministrations of a Daddy with only so much superglue. He wails about the stuffed bear that he got from somebody he can't remember. A scrap of paper that bears a likeness of a sea anemone is folded at odd angles and houses a chunk of blue gum, but to my son it's a Picasso with sculpting potential.
Lately when my wife determines that there is a need for change I am commissioned to take my son for an outing while she participates in a Herculean purge from all plastic bins and random pockets of displaced toys. She can remove the items without his oversight and generally manages to choose items that he will not remember.
Of course, she also runs the risk of removing a beloved piece of molded plastic that was his pride and joy and he bemoans the fact that it is no more.
We have, on occasion provided the opportunity for our son to assist in managing the affairs of an overcrowded room, and he may relinquish control on a variety of items, however, the majority of those toys came from fast food places which are simply duplicates of preexisting possessions. Any child's magazine that was sent to him is considered a 'collectable' while customized cereal boxes become the means of cataloging these ragged bits of tree pulp.
He's even gotten to the place of six-year-old creativity where he develops games using little bits of paper that he's cut from the newspaper and contain rules that only he understands. When Mom innocently discards the game thinking it is simply pieces of ripped newspaper, our son dejectedly gives up his most recent dream to work for Parker Brothers.
I think my son might even go so far as to save petrified French fries if he thought he could find a safe place for storage.
Yet lately I have seen my boy willingly part with items he once held as important. After all, he will be seven in a few weeks and maybe it's OK to let go of some of those things you have held onto for so long. Maybe some of those things are for babies.
Maybe my Christopher Robin is leaving Pooh Corner - I think I'll miss my packrat.
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My son is the exact same way! I have to send him away to clean his room or I can't get rid of anything and he is going to be 12 in a few days.
mom of a pack rat
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