A monster has been created.

Jack is pretty smart, at least I think so. He's been into reading these Bionicle books for quite some time now. I don't know how to say half the words in them but Jack loves them. He loves them so much that I think all his thoughts focus on these Bionicles. When he gets computer time all he does is look up Bionicle stuff. When he plays he only wants to play with Bionicles (we have tons of them as I got a great deal on a huge bucket of them at a yard sale for his birthday). When he reads he rereads all 7 or 8 of his Bionicle books. When he talks with you he'll tell you random Bionicle facts that I really have no clue about, which Toa has what power etc. I'm not listening with my "Real" ears when he speaks of his beloved Bionicles. I wish I cared about them. GI JOE's were more fun for me. I like reading the comic books and on occassion still do. Shhh don't tell. I did grow up in a comic book family though. :)

So lately Jack has been mentioning this "Club" at school. At recess Jack and a couple of his friends play Bionicles. One day he told me that one of his friends was kicked out of the club. Jack isn't the most friendly kid in the world so I was a bit surprised as he seems to struggle making friends at times. I asked him about it. He said that this friend only wants to play Star Wars so he was kicked out. I thought it sounded a bit harsh and asked him why he didn't play Star Wars with his friend sometimes. Answer "Duh, mom it's the Bionicle club that's why". So now were exclusive.

Tonight I babysat for another one of his friends that is apparently in this exclusive club. I heard them playing and his friend didn't want to play Bionicles with Jack, probably because Jack tried to dictate everything he did and told him that his Bionicle had no cool powers. I mean really who wants to play with a guy that has no cool powers and is just going to get defeated. Get real! So his friend quit playing with him (exactly what I would have done). Then I hear Jack say "that's it, if you're not going to play with me then your on the bottom of the list and that means you're almost kicked out of the club" Wow, who's ruthless child is this? It's my way or the highway. Gee whiz.

I tried to be a good mother and pulled him aside and mentioned to him that his friends may want to play more with him if he didn't try to tell them everything they should do but let them make up their own stuff. He got mad and said "Mom, I'm not trying to tell them what to do but they don't know how to play" Oh it's so hard when one thing consumes your life and no one else can quite understand.

Then as I tucked him into bed I decided to try and talk about this issue again. He doesn't seem to get how unfriendly he comes across and he doesn't seem to be too forgiving of others ignorance about Bionicles. I told him that because he's read so many of the books, so many times that he probably knows a lot more about Bionicles then his friends do and that it's okay if they don't understand all about them. Jack got very intense when he said "Mom, I have read every book that Greg Farsee has written and I'm his biggest fan, of course I know this stuff!" Still doesn't get it.

My wonderful husband has spent countless hours building the bucket of parts we got with him. It took an entire week of all of his free time and he was even off work. They looked up all the instructions and built more then I thought possible. Mike also has started reading the books so he can talk to Jack about them. Mike is a great Dad. I just can't make myself do it but I'm glad Mike can, he'll probably be in "the Club". I'm out that's for sure.