Pokemon Cards and The Spirit of Christmas

Pokemon cards have been a source of great consternation for us for quite a while now, ever since Luke started Kindergarten. The older kids at his after school care play the game after they finish their homework. Luke adores those kids, one in particular, and he wants to fit in with them so badly. They are generally very sweet with him and often let him borrow a few cards to participate. He has been asking us for his own cards for a while now, so we made him a deal: as soon as he can read the cards, he may have some.

Part of that is as simple as "we want you to read, we know this is something you want, and we know that getting you to do something is all about motivation, so we're willing to leverage that." But that isn't the only reason. We know the older kids do generally look after him, however I feel that this spirit of protection only extends so far, and I don't think all the kids will have his best interests at heart. I want him to be able to read the cards and understand what they do/say so that when an older kid wants to trade cards, he will know whether or not that is a good trade. I also don't want them "making" him lose all the time by telling him that their cards are stronger than his if that's not really true. Having to be able to read and understand is part of the game, and it is as much about his own protection as anything.

So, you can imagine that my feathers were a bit ruffled today when we picked up Luke from daycare and were greeted with some surprising news: "Look at my new Pokemon cards! These are mine!" Oh really? And how is that? "My friends gave them to me." I wasn't quite sure what to do. Apparently they felt so bad for him because his parents couldn't/wouldn't buy him any cards that they all got together and agreed to gave him a few of theirs as a gift. Just a few cards from each child, and he has nearly a whole deck. Most of them are low scorers, and some of them are well worn, but some seem to be really great cards (from my extremely limited knowledge). I was unhappy that he had acquired the cards without having to earn them in the fashion that we had established, but I also didn't want to stomp on the spirit of Christmas and generosity being displayed by his friends. In the end, we let him accept the gift. Perhaps we can get word to Santa in time to add a starter pack to the sleigh for Christmas morning so we can start working on learning the game and reading the cards.

Currently feeling: genuinely touched, and trying not to be annoyed