Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Origins

Maxfield's fascination with superheroes has resulted in a change of our typical bedtime stories. He no longer wants me to read him Where the Wild Things Are or The Caboose Who Got Loose but instead wants me to tell him stories about how superheroes got their powers.

Over the past month I have covered every villian's and good guy's secret origin, with many repeats. When I tell the stories I try to keep away from any violence and I stress the positive aspects of the story. For some reason every character acquired their power because they worked hard, ate all their dinner, listened to their parents, did well in school, cleaned up all their toys and of course were caught in a Cosmic Rays/came from Krypton/bathed in lightning and chemicals etc. etc. His two favorite stories are The Flash and Spider-Man.

When telling him the Spider-Man origin I explain that since Peter Parker was such a good student he went on a field trip for school when he was bitten by the radio active spider that gave him his powers.

Last week Maxfield's preschool went on a field trip, down the block, to the local library. While walking back to the school one of the moms, who chaperoned, asked Max what he thought of the trip.

He replied, "It was fun but I did not get bit by any radio active spiders."

The other day, when Lauren took Max to school, a different mom told Lauren that Max asked the Librarian if there were any radio active spiders.

I was hoping Max would pick up on the "ate all their dinner and cleaned up all their toys " part of my stories.

Apparently not.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Must be that selective hearing thing... ;)

Appropos to nothing: The other night in the van, the clowns asked what we were having for dinner. I rattled off the usual "frog's legs, chicken livers, and gizzard" to which they kept replying "No, Mom. REALLY. What are we having for dinner REALLY?" I said "poop and boogies" and that pretty much stumped them "What? What did she just say? Poop and boogers? Poop and boogies? What? Ewwww...."

OhTheJoys said...

I'm all distracted now about serving poop and boogies for dinner. I"m telling my kids that tonight.

Amber said...

At least he isn't hoping to be bit by any barking spiders. I don't even know how that would happen, but if it did, I'd have him transfer schools.

Bogart said...

Certainly not as much fun as the spiders part...

Have I mentioned that I am jealous of the kid thing? Man it has to be great to have them!

eclectic said...

Hey, will you send me a radioactive spider please? I could use some super powers around here.

Anonymous said...

Tell me more about the caboose that got loose.

bew said...

OMG...my son did the exact same thing! He would constantly ask what Radio Active spiders looked like. At that time the first movie was about to come out and thank goodness they made the spider look so different. My son was going everywhere looking for it. He even asked at the Museum of Natural History if they had one so he could see what they looked like. Instead they let him hold the hissing roach. Ugh!

Anonymous said...

Aren't they great? My eldest went to school telling everyone that he had seen a real dinosaur on a trip to Florida. He saw 'Sara' the robotic Triceratops at Islands of Adventure.

For a year or so he would not accept that there were no dinosaurs alive anymore!

Suzy-Q said...

It's called Man-Syndrome or Testosterone Induced Selective Hearing. :o)

It is soooooo cute though!

Crumbs said...

I'm so dumb! I haven't been infusing my stories with manipulative morals! (i know that sounds sarcastic, but, believe me, it's not!)
You inspired me to at least TRY for the "ate all his dinner" and stuff.

Anonymous said...

Ha! Great story.

carmilevy said...

Radiation is so much cooler than dirty dishes :)

Because I'm a journalist, Peter Parker and Clark Kent have always been particularly close to my heart. I like how you've woven their reality into your parenting toolkit. Neat.

Jamie said...

boys will be boys...we're still on "Goodnight Moon".