Nat Locke: Bins, the Titanic and brushes — is there anything cuter than a child obsessed with random things?

One of my favourite things — don’t worry, I’m not going to burst into song a la Sound Of Music — is when tiny, tiny children get absolutely obsessed about something quite random.

I mean, it’s quite de rigueur if they go through a dinosaur-loving phase, or a want to be a pirate for a bit, but I’m talking about the slightly left of centre, quirky examples.

Like the kid I met years ago who was completely obsessed with rubbish bins. He carried a tiny wheelie bin around like it was a teddy bear, and who am I to question his need for an emotional support Itty Bitty Bin? It was a cheaper option than a stuffed Bluey, that’s for sure.

Bin day was a pretty big occasion in this little kid’s life. His dad would load him into the car and they would just follow the bin truck as it did its rounds through the suburb, which is also an incredibly cheap form of entertainment. Oh to be so easily pleased.

I once met another adorable toddler who had a deep and abiding love for brushes. Any brush would do: a hairbrush, a paintbrush, or a toothbrush, but the piece de resistance was his very own dustpan and brush. He took it with him everywhere and loved nothing more than sweeping up a tiny bit of litter if you happened to drop anything on the floor. Obviously, I am very in favour of training very young children to clean up after me and making them think that it’s a treat, so I saw no negatives in this.

The beauty of having a kid inordinately happy with a dustpan and brush is that it’s very easy to replace. I’ve seen enough desperate Facebook posts from parents whose kid is absolutely distraught because Lambie fell out of the pram somewhere in Fremantle, to know that a kid with a predisposition for brushes is a very low maintenance kid indeed. Bring it on.

What amuses me greatly about these two kids is that I encountered them a long time ago and now both of them would be fully functioning adults. Presumably, they’re not still driving around after the rubbish truck or falling asleep with a hairbrush in their hand, but maybe it has translated to their adulthood in some way. Maybe the bin kid became a garbo and is living his best bin dreams. Maybe the brush guy is a painter or a make-up artist or just keeps his house spick and span.

I have a friend whose pre-primary kid has been absolutely obsessed with the Titanic for good few years now. His dedication is admirable and, once again, makes life easy. Need a birthday cake idea? The Titanic. Need a costume for a dress-up day? The Titanic. Need a costume idea for his little brother? An iceberg, obviously.

This is the sort of obsession that makes a mother’s mental load much lighter. Once she’s mastered how to make a Titanic cake, of course.

How a two-year-old gets obsessed with one of the world’s greatest maritime disasters is perhaps a bigger question, but sometimes kids just glimpse something on TV or hear it in passing and it piques their interest. And as this happened during his peak question-asking era, his curiosity further fed his passion.

He mustn’t be the only one, by the way, because a quick Google search revealed that there is an impressive array of books about the Titanic written especially for children. What fun. And to think we had to make do with The Cat In The Hat. Dr Seuss could have written The Goat On The (Sinking) Boat and really cashed in on a niche market.

Having a kid who is obsessed with something delightfully quirky is a great comfort, obviously. Gift shopping is a cinch, for example. When grandma asks “What should I get him for Christmas?” it’s adorably easy to point her to the cleaning aisle of the supermarket to buy a shiny new dustpan and brush, rather than sending her to a toy shop for an overly specific Lego set that complements the 14 he already owns.

The only danger is that these obsessions can also just disappear overnight. There is nothing more deflating than ordering a bunch of Titanic-themed paraphernalia in October, only to discover that by December he’s become fascinated by trailers or pugs or World War II aircraft. Anything is possible.

In the meantime, if your kid has one of these obsessions, nurture it. At the very least it will be a great story to tell at their (Titanic themed) 21st.