Month: February 2013
The Most Dangerous Children’s Book Ever
Earlier tonight, Hope asked me to read her a book, a request I always grant. She had the book in the picture to the right, saying “Daddy, that’s Darth Vader.” I wanted to continue the conversation so I pointed to the other figure on the cover, asking her if she knew who it was.
When she answered in the negative, I said “that’s Darth Vader’s little b….”
And then I realized there is no way I can read “Darth Vader and Son” to my children. I would be a horrible father and person if I let my children even look at this book before watching any of the Star Wars saga.
So I finished my sentence.
“…buddy. Hey, let’s read something else.”
I immediately hid the book, vowing to myself to get it out of the house as soon as possible.
I’m glad that Hope and Luke have some exposure to Star Wars (something I think The Civee probably disagrees with me on). And I’m looking forward to watching the movies with them when they can understand and sit through something longer than an episode of Sesame Street. A few years ago I read an article online (which I can’t find) where the author suggested watching in a different order (4, 1, 2, 5, 3, 6 (even possibly cutting out Episode I)). So this is something I have put some thought into.
Star Wars and its characters are ubiquitous. I’m glad my children will have it around (again, The Civee may disagree here). There are a lot of great Star Wars-related toys and educational materials. And the book does have its moments. But what was the Lucasfilm licensing department thinking with this book?
I’d rather Luke and Hope play with Jar Jar and Ewok rock ’em sock ’em robots than be spoiled in this way.
So this book will disappear for a long, long time. And hopefully, by the time Hope and Luke get around to watching Star Wars, there will be some surprises left.
When Imaginary Friends Turn Into Imaginary Enemies
Over the past year, Hope has had a number of imaginary friends. But her imaginary friends are all real people. Not members of our immediate family, but friends or people from school who happen to tag along with us everywhere we go.
Hope has been fixating on one of her friends lately, a teacher from school she sees once a week. She will constantly tell us what the teacher is doing. The other day, however Hope shared something new. She came to dinner and said “I don’t like [imaginary friend] anymore. She hurt my feelings.”
At that point, I didn’t know what to think. Had the teacher done something to hurt Hope’s feelings? Was Hope just making this up? Am I ready to start dealing with my daughter’s hurt feelings?
If I had to guess, I would say the teacher did something as a teacher that Hope took the wrong way. To a point, to her, her feelings were hurt. We’ve been talking about feelings with her for a while. But I didn’t know she was aware feelings could be hurt.
I asked Hope about why her feelings were hurt, or what her friend did, but she wouldn’t elaborate. Still, I was ready to console and help her. I’m sure in the future, her feelings will be hurt for concrete reasons by real people. And it won’t get easier to hear or to deal with but it will be okay.
It’s a few days later and things are back to normal for Hope and her imaginary friend, which I guess is good. Hope hasn’t talked about her feelings being hurt. But then again, her imaginary friend is back to doing everything with us.