Geek Parenting #1: Toy Story

Every parent of a toddler knows that most pre-school toys are rubbish; they're noisy and annoying, and you can never find the off button when you accidentally set them off! We will stand on AWOL toy shrapnel with our bare feet when going for a midnight zombie-walk to the toilet on a weekly basis...it can be a war zone!

Anyway, my little girl recently got two MASSIVE tubs of Duplo bricks from her grandparents (for anyone that doesn't know what Duplo is, it's basically big Lego), she literally got enough to make Duplo world! Finally, cool kiddie toys! So, like any respectable father I decided to test exactly how much Duplo we had and I built a tower in the living-room. I made it wide enough to fit several of her dolls inside, and it touched the ceiling in height. I was ready to take it outside and keep going, we had a lot of Duplo...my wife made me take it down before it fell over and killed the cat.

Lydia's idea of playing with her tubs of Duplo is to simply tip them all over the floor, both tubs, everywhere! I needed to guide my young padawan, teach her the art of the Duplo. But how? Well, she always points at my G1 Optimus Prime and goes 'Chooo chooo!', she thinks it's a train (awww), and she wants to play with him (not happening!). She's managed to pick it up just once, before I freaked out and quickly saved him from this mini Terminator. Knowing she loved my Autobot so much I decided we would make a giant Transformer with the Duplo bricks!



We used almost all of the red and blue Duplo to construct Optimus, and he took two attempts to build. The first attempt was smashed into several parts by Lydia playing Godzilla with a cushion, laughing her evil laugh as she watched me in slow motion; "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"...WHACK!

Lydia still pours the bricks everywhere. She started pointing at my R2D2 plush and saying; 'TOO DEE TOO!", did we make him with the duplo? No, I just give him to her;

Being a Geek (Is There Life After 30?)

I turn 30 in a few weeks, I'm married and I have a little girl. And it got me thinking about how much of a kid I am in some ways.

I have a massive collection of Toys (most of them are still in the packages, I don't play with them! I'm not a total freak), comics and videogames. Most of my tshirts have superheroes or cult films on them, and I hold my jeans up with a belt adorned by a Super Mario World 'Mushroom'. I don't have much in the way of 'grown-up' clothing. And I can not physically walk passed a comic/toy shop without getting excited and going in, and most visits end with me leaving with something new.

Growing up



It might have been my up-bringing that made me into a bit of a man-child, looking back I don't think it was the most stable. In a way, maybe I went into my own world populated by the Thundercats and the X-Men to escape. That might be thinking too deeply and I was probably just a little nerd, but the thing that made that little nerd stick around was definitely the following...

My mum and dad split up when I was a kid (I'm not gonna get all emo in your face, don't worry), and I lost all of my childhood possessions. I was getting to an age where I told myself they didn't matter anymore, I was in the top year of primary school, with my teens just around the corner, so they didn't matter (they did). And be honest, you might have all those childhood things in a box up in the attic, but you've still got them. And when you have a look through them you get a warm feeling, right? Anyway, I thought I was too old for toys and games and I moved on, I thought being 'grown-up' meant; I didn't play with toys anymore, I started shaving, and I wore cheap deodorant. Later (late teens) I became nostalgic about my childhood, and all the things that I'd lost from that time. So, I started 'collecting' stuff, then ebay came into my life and nostalgia was in full-force, I could actually buy back my childhood!

Now my missus and partner in crime is also a bit of a nerd, most women would have probably made me get rid of such childish ways (and failed), but she kinda embraced the geek, she buys things for the nerd dungeon, our geek-central (bedroom). And we had Mr and Mrs Pacman on our wedding cake, which she made! We also smashed the Locust Horde together (three times)! Videogame fans will understand. And despite all this, turning 30 somehow feels like...like it's embarrassing to be 30 and do these things! Should I sell all my toys and pretend to be a mature adult?



I can't help being excited about the next Mass Effect game, or Batman movie! That will never change, but should I start dressing like a 'grown-up'? How much longer can I rock the Star Wars tees and Mario belt? I guess things like this cross the minds of everyone turning 30; "Am I too old to continue this band that's not going anywhere?", "Am I too old to eat Coco pops?", "Should I really care if the new Avengers film is good or not?" or "Am I too old to pretend to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex?" (never!). I guess I'm just gonna have to grow old disgracefully and get mocked by all of you 'grown-ups'...

Hey you, out there! Yeah you! You are never too old to pretend to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex! Live the dream.