Prized Possessions
As my kids have grown up, I’ve noticed how their relationship with their stuff has changed.
In the earliest days, this relationship was defined by a mostly blissful unawareness of the infrastructure of things, mostly bought by their parents for their own convenience, to keep the babies fed, dry, distracted, and rested. Of course, babies don’t really care about any of this stuff - their changing table, lamp, mobile of dancing woodland creatures - and probably notice very little of it.
But then, some of these items - and I could never have predicted which ones - become elevated to favored items. Strong emotional attachments are formed to a particular fuzzy bunny, or dirty shred of blanket, or chewable rattle, but the baby still has no regard for the welfare of the item itself. Its presence serves a tactile, emotional, or physical purpose. God forbid it should be lost, but should that item become sullied (for example, by the saliva of its owner) or mishandled, or even structurally compromised … this seems to have no bearing on the child, or how it feels about the thing.
Then, later on … and this is about where we are now … kids start to care about the safety of their things. A special, newly acquired, book, separated from the other, older books, because of its novelty. A Lego set, placed carefully on a top shelf to give it prominence. A camera - a birthday present - organized neatly into a drawer with its accessories and spare film.
This change has been both endearing - it’s a pleasure to see my kids finally taking responsibility for their possessions - as well as troubling, as I fear that this might be a harbinger of a future, possibly unhealthy relationship with and reliance on things for happiness and fulfillment. (I’m guilty of that, too).
But in any event, I’ll write my kids about their revolving door of prized possessions, and their evolving relation to them, and you should too. What are they infatuated with currently? And which prior obsession did this replace? What are the ways they treat their special things?
