Do your children collect anything? When I was little I used to have a sticker, stamp and eraser collection. Bella collects badges and James, well James has been collecting Star Wars toys since he was four.
At first it started with just wanting to play with the toys, then later came an addiction to watching the movies over and over and over again, followed by reading/learning every single Star Wars fact out there, knowing the characters in the movies pretty much down to all the minor characters that I didn't even know existed and then came the serious collecting - e.g dreaming of the day that he has his own Star Wars room - filled to the brim with Star Wars paraphernalia of course.
It's getting quite tricky to store all of his collection in our teeny house. At last count he owned (please block your ears and eyes Mum) 196 individual Star Wars men/characters (plus several special ones still in their boxes) and then there is the endless stream of space ships, creatures, vintage play sets - you name it he has it or else it's on his high priority *want* list. Oh yes, nearly every ounce of pocket money and birthday funds go towards his collection.
Every piece in his collection has been looked after so well and loved. We did lose a Princess Leia in our garden (a few houses back) when James buried her somewhere - those were pre-collection days ofcourse!
We also have a garage full of empty Star Wars boxes - nearly every single box over the last ten years that the pieces have come in. Figures now get cut out of the boxes with a very sharp knife around the plastic rim and some figures haven't made it out of their boxes yet - they're special ones apparently.
I'm wondering what this collection is going to be like in another ten years? If he's still living at home by then, we might just need to build on another level to accommodate it all.
May the force be with you James!
