Most people who have small children will understand the dreaded “Curse of the Cardboard Box”.  It’s cute when babies are more interested in the box and wrapping paper than the actual present.  Expected even.

Everyone who has had a toddler or preschooler has lived with a massive cardboard castle / rocket ship / house in their house.  Kind of hard to ignore that fridge-sized box taking up half your living space.  Oh, how I longed for a playroom with actual doors during this time.  Who am I kidding?  I’d still kill for one.

Then there’s the next stage of cardboard boxes – where they are decorated with copious amounts of glue and sticky tape and assorted rubbish recycled goods to create a robot / superhero character.  A manky cereal box with a milk bottle lid taped to the side is not for the bin – it is an essential part of the hero equipment.  Woe betide the person who likes a tidy house has no imagination and discards such items.

Now that Boyo is in Year 3 and eight years old, I’d fondly imagined the end of the cardboard box.  But no.  We have cardboard boxes full of cardboard boxes – all very important and special.  Egg cartons are especially prized – for rock collections, Trashpack storage, and so on.

At the moment, there are approximately five boxes stacked inside each other taking up space in our house.  They resemble recycling.  So much so that they’ve had to be rescued several times.  I was soon quickly informed that they were in fact essential equipment for Pokemon and therefore under no circumstances to be thrown out.

I watched the Welshman watch an ad last night for an enormous Pokemon toy – essentially like a dollhouse for Pokemon toys.  I’d previously watched Boyo watch this ad, and noted his shining eyes and beaming smile.  The Welshman immediately turned to me and said that we have to make sure Boyo does not see this ad.  Too late, buddy!  It’s already written down on his Xmas list – and it’s June!

However, there was a small part of me, quickly suppressed by the larger part which recoiled at spending the no doubt huge sum of money on a ridiculous lump of plastic, that thought “Yes! I could throw out those cardboard boxes!”

Do you live the curse of the cardboard box too?  It’s a conspiracy!

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