Never thought I'd have to say this...

....but since summer has started, I've had to tell Reed "You need to READ!"

You read that right. It's crazy, I am totally shocked that it's come to this.

And I blame podcasts. He's strung out on them.

I have to admit that I gave him his first podcast...

"The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd" is a podcast in the style of old-time radio, each segment 5 minutes long, telling the "wacky tales of the World’s Most Brilliant Scientist, Dr. Floyd, as he races through history, hot on the heels of his arch nemesis, Dr. Steve." And he was instantly hooked. He very quickly burned through all 800+ episodes of the show.

Tod and I both listen to podcasts - I tend toward comedy and news, he tends toward tech-related and sometimes news. I think we both listen to podcasts pretty much every day during our commutes. So we can't argue their entertainment value - there are so many and they are so specific, you can really find something that perfectly suits your interests.

So Tod introduced Reed to the "It's Super Effective" Pokemon podcast. And now we find ourselves in this position of having to tell Reed to read.

The big difference between Dr. Floyd and this podcast is time. Some of these Pokemon podcasts are apparently hours (with an 's'!) long. Reed is enjoying them so much that he's listening to them almost to the exclusion of everything else in his free time.

Yes, he does go outside, yes, he sleeps, yes, he eats...and then he pretty much listens to this podcast. He's been getting up early (we're talking 5:15 a.m., as opposed to his usual early hour of 6 a.m.) to listen to it, he falls asleep listening to it (except when he can't fall asleep because "it's too exciting!").

So I've resorted to this. Having to tell Reed to read. It's like we have to tell him to breathe. It's very foreign and hard to understand.

I'm just hoping the obsession will pass before too long. It feels like a piece of his personality is missing if he's not reading a ton every single day. I guess maybe it's a part of growing up, but this is not something I wanted to change about him.

Gotta think of ways to distract him...