If that little dude is as stoked about Pikachu as my dude was about Ninja Turtles then I feel his frustration. My dude one time spent an entire 5-hour car ride talking about Master Splinter. If I could have left him on the side of the road in New Mexico without his mother killing me, I would have lol.
It doesn’t matter what the topic is. Kids will always fixate on things. Depends on what they were exposed to and interested in, but that’s just kids being kids.
It’s never appropriate to talk to a kid like Vance did, even if we can understand how truly annoying kids fixated on a thing is.
Also, what kind of shitty parent exposes their kids to known pedos?
It can be annoying, but I listen to my kid ramble about Minecraft for hours, and honestly I remember when I was a kid, I was never that comfortable with my parents. I’d rather sit through it and him really enjoy the time than him not feel comfortable sharing it with me.
Notably, I really didn’t develop this opinion until my wife and I separated. Now I really just enjoy listening to him talk about whatever he wants. I just enjoy time with him.
In a way, doesn’t that prove your parents were right? Because they raised a boy, maybe even a man, who feels empathy for their own children’s emotional attachments?
No. My empathy development was independent. My parents made changes in how they were raised to raising me. They taught me about being in someone else’s shoes, recognizing how things I did impacted others, the difference between privilege and right. They also denonstrated that empathy came from a place of courage rather than fear, and I knew at a very young age that courage was very valuable.
This was entirely unrelated to empathy. It was based on anxiety I developed very young for reasons that are still undiscovered. Probably just that I was a sensitive kid, and didnt want my parents angry or annoyed with me.
That’s just little boys though, you can kindly redirect. My boy is 9 and he can talk forever about Pokémon, Minecraft or whatever he is fixated on today. Sometimes I just have to tell him I’m done now, sometimes I have to say it a few times but that’s ya know, parenting.
You didn’t drop him on the side of the road, but it was an idea to help you get through it.
God I know, the only thing worse than your kid talking to you for hours about what they love is them not.