Shelby Cain
Contributor
My kids are obsessed with Lego. It’s new. It’s exciting. Four will actually zone out for an hour and work on it. This is priceless. Three’s attention span is a little shorter, but they will both sit down at the table and give it a go, while I can fold something or clean something. This makes me happy. Funny, it used to be a great day of skiing or a trip to Moab, now happiness comes in the form of a stack of folded laundry or an empty dishwasher. Ahhh…the simple things.
But there is one person who is happier than anyone about this recent development. My husband. With two daughters, he has been submerged into the world of pink, princesses, sparkles, and ponies. When I hear him speaking in his best Cinderella impression I can’t help but flash back to when I met him, still muddy and full of testosterone from an adventure race. But times have changed, and until recently I think he’d let his dreams of playing policeman and fighter jets fade. But they have been rejuvenated. All because of Lego. And if you haven’t seen Lego since you pulled the shoebox of your own out from under your bed, let me tell you, it’s different.
Lego 2.0, no longer is it a random collection of blocks with the odd window, if you were lucky. It is now a precise and intricate endeavor where every piece placed is a direct order from the ‘constructions’, as my kids call them. You do not deviate from the constructions. If you do, you will end up with an assortment of strange looking pieces the likes of which you have never seen, and will have no use for. If you do follow the thick, foreboding booklet, step-by-step, you will create Lego magic. The Death Star, The Titanic, The Taj Mahal. It’s amazing.
So when my husband witnessed the girls playing with their cousin’s Lego, a light went off. Shared ground. A mutual interest. He brought them both to his computer and logged on to the Lego website. Soon, we started getting knocks on the door. From delivery men. The Lego has arrived. Airplanes and windmills and hovercrafts and Four’s favorite, a trapper cabin complete with two canoes. Not a pink piece in sight. The joy is evident. And I think the kids are having fun, too.
I am aware that they now make Lego for girls, complete with princesses and castles, all in pink. Please don’t tell my girls, it’ll break my husband’s heart. Oh, there is one thing about Lego that is exactly the same thirty years later. When you step on it, it friggin hurts.